New AWS chips take on foundation model training
Amazon Web Services has announced the next generation of two AWS-designed chip families - AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium2 - delivering advancements in price performance and energy efficiency for a broad range of customer workloads, including machine learning (ML)...
What COP28 could mean for Africa
The 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, more commonly referred to as COP28, brings together global leaders, experts, impacted communities, and decision-makers to continue efforts aimed at solving the world’s...
GoMetro secures £9m funding
Fleet management company GoMetro has announced the successful completion of a £9-million Series A funding round. The round was led by new investor Zenobē, with significant participation by FutureGrowth Asset Managers. Following-on in the Series A round were existing...
SA consumers hit hard by fraudsters
The scams deluge that flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic and proliferates yet today has heightened the public's fraud anxiety, according to a new consumer fraud study by SAS, and rampant fraud is also reshaping individuals' expectations about organisations'...
Deepfake incidents on the rise
Deepfake cyberattacks are on the rise, with South Africa seeing a massive 1 200% increase in deepfake fraud this year. This is among the findings from Sumsub's third annual Identity Fraud Report, which analyses identity fraud across industries and regions based on...
Software engineering set to embrace AI practices
Transformational technologies, including AI-augmented software engineering (AIASE), AI coding assistants and platform engineering, will reach mainstream adoption in two to five years, according to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Software Engineering, 2023. “AI-augmented...
Take-home pay, private pensions slowed in October
After three consecutive months of increases, the BankservAfrica Take-home Pay Index (BTPI), which measures the average nominal take-home pay among about 4-million salary earners in South Africa, showed a slight downturn. “The nominal average take-home pay was R15 535...
Enterprise IT budgets are on the increase
Omdia's 10th annual IT Enterprise Insights study has revealed that IT has become one of the main drivers of value to an enterprise, with almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents confirming increases to their overall budget allocated to enterprise IT in 2023 compared...
SA corporate social investment grows to R11,8bn
South African companies spent an estimated R11,8-billion on corporate social investment (CSI) in the 2023 financial year, according to corporate responsibility consultancy Trialogue's latest research findings. The spend reflects an 8% nominal and 1% real increase from...
Intel Granulate in Databricks partnership
Intel Granulate, Intel's flagship software performance offering, has announced a new collaboration with Databricks to merge Intel Granulate's autonomous, continuous optimisation solutions with Databricks' robust Data Intelligence Platform under the Databricks Partner...
Smart streetlights market beaming
The installed base of smart streetlights amounted to 23-million globally at the end of 2022, according to a new research report from IoT analysts, Berg Insight. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22,7%, the installed base will reach 63,8-million by the...
Manufacturing sentiment improved in a tough Q4
Confidence in the manufacturing sector has improved slightly to 26 points – the highest level seen in 2023, as shown by the Q4 Absa Manufacturing Survey. Although trading conditions remained tough, manufacturers noted an overall improvement in business conditions (up...