The Current State of AI Adoption

Date: 10-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Irving Wladawsky-Berger

Artificial Intelligence is seemingly everywhere. In the past few years, the necessary ingredients have finally come together to propel AI beyond early adopters to a broader marketplace: powerful, inexpensive computer technologies; advanced algorithms; and huge amounts of data on almost any subject. Newspapers and magazines are full of articles about the latest advances in machine learning and related AI technologies.

Two recent reports concluded that, over the next few decades, AI will be the biggest commercial opportunity for companies and nations. AI advances have the potential to increase global GDP by up to 14% between now and 2030, the equivalent of an additional $14 to 15 trillion contribution to the world’s economy, and an annual average contribution to productivity growth of about 1.2 percent.

Over time, AI could become a transformative, general purpose technology like the steam engine, electricity, and the internet. AI marketplace adoption will likely follow a typical S curve pattern with a relatively slow start in the early years, followed by a steep acceleration as the technology matures and firms learn how to best leverage AI for business value.

Where Robots Will Soon Rule

Date: 09-02-2019
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Christopher Mims

Automation might not mean lower employment overall, but it can still take away jobs as it notches gains in productivity

Right in the center of Florida is a metro area that’s home to more than 600,000 people, along with some of the most technologically sophisticated distribution centers in the country.

In and around the city of Lakeland, you’ll find operations from Amazon, DHL (for Ikea), Walmart , Rooms to Go, Medline and Publix, along with a huge Geico call center, the world’s largest wine-and-spirits distribution warehouse and local factories that produce natural and artificial flavors and, of all things, glitter.

No-deal plans become ever sillier—and the public can’t wait

Date: 09-02-2019
Source: The Economist

The government’s frantic preparations are both farcical and frightening

A refrigerated plane flying round-the-clock sallies to bring medicine to a besieged population, emergency waste centres established to deal with overflowing rubbish and martial law imposed on a restive population as the queen is whisked from the capital by helicopter to escape rioters. Leaks from the government’s preparations for a no-deal Brexit sometimes sound as if they have come from the imagination of a pulp-fiction novelist. Many Brexiteers blame the alternately frightening and farcical stories on dastardly “Remoaner” officials, working to undermine the case for leaving without a deal.

They can at least be reassured by the fact that no-deal preparations are no longer theoretical. Pinning down precise details of the government’s work is difficult, partly because of official secrecy and partly because big decisions—like what tariff regime will be implemented if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal—have yet to be taken by ministers. But the bureaucratic engine has kicked up a gear, with cross-government preparations being organised under the code name Operation Yellowhammer.

Italy’s populist government is dreaming of economic growth

Date: 07-02-2019
Source: The Economist

In fact the country is in recession, and the coalition is cracking

For italy, 2019 will be bellissimo, its prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, said this month. The economy, he declared, could grow by up to 1.5%. With much of Europe at risk of slipping into recession, that sounds pretty good.

In fact, Italy is already in recession. Its gdp fell in both the third and fourth quarters of 2018, and few forecasters are as sanguine as Mr Conte. The Bank of Italy expects the economy to grow by just 0.6% this year. The prime minister is banking on an expansionary budget. If this fails to revive the economy, the two parties in his populist coalition, the Five Star Movement (m5s) and the nationalist Northern League, will be in trouble. Many question whether their fractious marriage can survive beyond summer.

Intel’s new boss leads a firm that is both thriving and troubled

Date: 07-02-2019
Source: The Economist

It dominates PC and server chips. But its core business has misfired of late

After a seven-month search, Intel on January 31st announced that its new chief executive would be its chief financial officer. Robert Swan had been filling in as the boss since last year, when Brian Krzanich, his predecessor, left after violating company rules about relationships with subordinates. Mr Swan inherits a company with dominant products and an enviable market position—but also one whose core business has stumbled.

The good news is that an increasingly electronic world has an insatiable appetite for the computer chips that Intel makes. A week before Mr Swan’s appointment Intel announced results that reflected strong growth. Its annual revenue, of $70.8bn, set a record, and its operating income of $23.3bn was up by 29% from the same period in 2017 (though the numbers were slightly below the market’s expectations).

Intel’s chips power 84% of desktop computers, leaving scraps for Advanced Micro Devices, its only competitor. It has a near 100% market share in the more profitable market for the beefier chips used in data-centres and cloud-computing farms.

Bevorstehender Brexit 42 Unternehmen siedeln in die Niederlande über – und das ist erst der Anfang

Die Niederlande buhlen wegen des Brexits um Firmen aus Großbritannien: 42 Unternehmen haben sich bereits zum Umzug entschieden – deutlich mehr sollen folgen. Die Investitionen gehen in die Hunderte Millionen.

Samstag, 09.02.2019 16:20 Uhr, spiegel.online

Die Niederlande haben wegen des bevorstehenden Brexits bereits mehr als 40 Unternehmen aus Großbritannien abwerben können. Die Investitionen für die Neuansiedlung in den Niederlanden beliefen sich auf rund 290 Millionen Euro. Zudem brächten die Firmen knapp 2000 Arbeitsplätze aus Großbritannien mit, teilte die Niederländische Agentur für Auslandsinvestitionen mit.

Angesichts der „wachsenden Ungewissheit über den Brexit“ könnten sich die Unternehmen auf das „gute wirtschaftliche Klima“ in den Niederlanden verlassen, erklärte der niederländische Wirtschaftsminister Eric Wiebes.

In the future, Eurasia will rule the world

Date: 07-02-2019
Source: The Economist

But China won’t have everything its own way, say three stimulating new books

The New Silk Roads. By Peter Frankopan. Knopf; 336 pages; $26.95. Bloomsbury; £14.99.

The Future is Asian. By Parag Khanna. Simon & Schuster; 448 pages; $29.95. Weidenfeld & Nicolson; £20.

Belt and Road: A Chinese World Order. By Bruno Maçães. Hurst; 224 pages; $29.95 and £20.

Asked how he came to write “The Lord of the Rings”, J.R.R. Tolkien replied: “I wisely started with a map and made the story fit.” And so, says Bruno Maçães, when imagining new realities it is natural to begin the same way. These days a revised map of the world might have a radically different focus from previous ones—because a vast, integrated Eurasian supercontinent is proving to be the salient feature of an emerging global order.