Edge Computing in Local Government: Balancing Speed and Practicality

by  Oscar De Leon

Cities are made smarter by edge computing, but they're made smarter in other ways too. It's important to be strategic at the network's edge.

Picture this scenario: A pedestrian ignores a don't-walk signal and steps into a city crosswalk late at night. The typically busy intersection is empty, except for one car that's less than a block away. It's hurtling toward the crosswalk.

A camera attached to the traffic light pole detects the pedestrian, and another camera detects the oncoming car. That information is relayed to a server mounted 50 feet away and then back to the traffic control unit to change the light to yellow, all in a split second. Seeing the yellow light ahead, the driver brakes with plenty of time to spare.

This is the type of public safety situation that warrants edge computing. There are dozens more like it that demand low latency, and there are just as many that don't.

 Read full story at StateTech…

European Leadership Change Means New Adversaries for Big Tech

by  Morgan Meaker

“Legislation has been adopted and now needs to be enforced.”

If the past five years of EU tech rules could take human form, they would embody Thierry Breton. The bombastic commissioner, with his swoop of white hair, became the public face of Brussels' irritation with American tech giants, touring Silicon Valley last summer to personally remind the industry of looming regulatory deadlines.

Combative and outspoken, Breton warned that Apple had spent too long “squeezing” other companies out of the market. In a case against TikTok, he emphasized, ”our children are not guinea pigs for social media.“

His confrontational attitude to the CEOs themselves was visible in his posts on X. In the lead-up to Musk's interview with Donald Trump, Breton posted a vague but threatening letter on his account reminding Musk there would be consequences if he used his platform to amplify ”harmful content.“

 Read full story at arsTechnica…

Former Commerce Department's Economist on AI's “Great Potential” to Boost Labor

by  Salesforce Staff

A top economist shared how AI is changing the labor market - and what workers can do today to succeed.

We chatted [with Jed Kolko, former Under Secretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce] about AI anxiety, the state of the labor market and his first job in high school as a "human Google News alert."

How do you see generative AI changing the labor market?

Jed Kolko: One thing that may be different about gen AI versus previous waves of automation or technological change is that it's a wider set of people whose jobs or tasks might be directly affected, including more people at higher levels of education and technical skill. And that changes the public perception, the types of concerns, and how it's portrayed.

Gen AI has more of a potential to affect creative jobs — jobs that 10 years ago were outside the automation discussion, but now are very much part of the gen AI discussion. And of course, when you have jobs like“journalist” and “screenwriter” potentially affected by gen AI — these are the people who help explain and imagine the economy and society to the rest of us and who influence how people talk and think about technology.

 Read full story at Salesforce Blog…

EU Warns Apple It Must Open Its iPhone Operating System to Rival Developers

by  Louis Goss

The EU said Apple must make sure devices made by rivals work with its iPhones and iOS operating systems in accordance with the Digital Markets Act

Apple has received a warning from the European Union that it must ensure devices made by rival companies work with its own iPhone devices and closely guarded iOS operating system, in accordance with the Digital Markets Act.

In a statement, the EU called on Apple to ensure devices including smartwatches, headphones and virtual reality devices are interoperable with its own smartphones and their operating systems, including iOS.

The EU also called on Apple to ensure the process it uses to assess interoperability requests from third-party developers is "transparent, timely and fair," in line with the DMA which requires that tech companies offer free and effective access to software and hardware features to rivals.

 Read full story at MarketWatch…

Salesforce Unveils Agentforce–What AI Was Meant to Be

by  Salesforce Press Release

Agentforce is how humans with AI drive customer success together, equips organizations with autonomous agents that boost scale, efficiency, and satisfaction across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and more

Salesforce, the world's #1 AI CRM, ... unveiled Agentforce, a groundbreaking suite of autonomous AI agents that augment employees and handle tasks in service, sales, marketing, and commerce, driving unprecedented efficiency and customer satisfaction. Agentforce enables companies to scale their workforces on demand with a few clicks. Agentforce's limitless digital workforce of AI agents can analyze data, make decisions, and take action on tasks like answering customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns. With Agentforce, any organization can easily build, customize, and deploy their own agents for any use case across any industry. The future of AI is agents, and it's here.

“Agentforce represents the Third Wave of AI—advancing beyond copilots to a new era of highly accurate, low-hallucination intelligent agents that actively drive customer success. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce is a revolutionary and trusted solution that seamlessly integrates AI across every workflow, embedding itself deeply into the heart of the customer journey. This means anticipating needs, strengthening relationships, driving growth, and taking proactive action at every touchpoint,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. With advanced security features, compliance with industry standards, and unmatched flexibility. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.”

 Read full story at Salesforce…

Why Apple Intelligence Sets A New Gold Standard For AI Privacy

by  Bernard Marr

Delve into Apple's privacy-by-design approach, emphasizing on-device processing and private cloud compute to ensure that personal data remains secure.

In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, privacy concerns have become a hot-button issue. As AI systems become more integrated into our daily lives, they also gain access to more of our personal data. This has left many wondering: can we have powerful AI without sacrificing our privacy? Apple's answer, with its new Apple Intelligence system, is a resounding "yes." Let's dive into how Apple is setting a new gold standard for AI privacy and how it stacks up against the competition.

The Apple Approach: Privacy By Design

Apple has long been a champion of user privacy, often positioning it as a fundamental human right. With Apple Intelligence, they're doubling down on this commitment, baking privacy into the very foundation of their AI system. But what does this actually mean in practice?

 Read full story at Forbes…

Is the Energy Supply Chain Safe? FERC Moves to Address Cybersecurity Gaps

by  Sean Wolfe & John Engel

FERC proposed to require new or modified critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards to address the growing risks posed by malicious actors seeking to compromise the reliable operation of the bulk-power system.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed to require new or modified critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards to address the growing risks posed by malicious actors seeking to compromise the reliable operation of the bulk-power system.

The proposal would direct the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to require entities to identify their current supply chain risks to their grid-related cybersecurity systems at specified intervals; assess and take steps to validate the accuracy of the information received from vendors during the procurement process; and document, track and respond to these risks to their systems. FERC also would direct NERC to extend the applicability of the supply chain standards to include a category of products known as protected cyber assets, or PCAs.

NERC shared one "significant" example of a company, presumably a utility, failing to monitor physical access points to substations. The company implemented alarms and alerts to monitor unauthorized access, which could have created a false sense of security from the onset, but ultimately didn't realize the substation's configuration during construction effectively eliminated the warnings.

 Read full story at Power Grid International…

National Grid Installs New Smart Meters Across Eastern New York

by  Rick Karlin

National Grid is replacing old utility meters with new smart meters; you can keep your old ones by it will cost you

New meters are coming to a neighborhood near you. Since spring, National Grid has been swapping out the 20-year-old mechanical utility meters for new digital smart meters across eastern New York. The utility calls or notifies homeowners when they are coming to switch out the meters, which monitor gas and electric usage.

So far, the utility has installed more than 88,000 in eastern New York and more than 334,000 statewide.

 Read full story at Times Union…

Orlando's Energy Future: Millions of Solar Panels, 75-Ton Batteries—and Anxious Residents

by  Kevin Spear

The electricity provider for Orlando, Florida, and its customers could use relationship therapy as they venture together into an era of sunshine powering homes, cars and most everything else.

What the municipally owned Orlando Utilities Commission aims to do is swift, consequential and risk-taking in a region of the nation only now going full throttle to green energy. Within 16 years, OUC plans to jettison more than 90% of its tried-and-true ability to make electricity with generation plants that burn fossil fuels, mainly coal and natural gas, and will have erected solar panels on more than 10,000 acres, an expanse larger than Winter Park.

In that time, the utility's batteries for providing nighttime power will grow in capacity to as much as that in 35,000 electric cars.

 Read full story at TechXplore…