7 NEWSFEED Updates & Upgrades
Russian telecom providers plan to temporarily disconnect from the internet to test the country’s cyber- defence capabilities before 1 April – the final date for amendments to a draft law mandating a ‘sovereign’ internet. The draft law requires all internet traffic to be carried within the country’s own networks and any traffic leaving Russia would need to go through routing points, subject to control by Roskomnadzor (the body responsible for censorship in media and telecommunications). The goal is to provide a digital shield over Runet in the event of foreign cyberattack. The Russian news site, RBC, has said a domestic internet, if not impossible, would be very expensive and could lead to major disruptions to digital traffic. Russian IT expert Filipp Kulin openly opposes the idea. He said: “The disconnection of Russia from the web would mean we’re already at war with everyone. In this situation, we should be thinking how to grow potatoes in nuclear winter, not the internet.” Navalny’s aide and IT specialist, Leonid Volkov, said: “Unplugging from the internet would be a challenge. Russia tried and failed to do this in 2014. Technology has not advanced since then. It would take at least another five years before Russia had even a hypothetical chance of isolating its segment of the internet from the rest of the world. Roskomnadzor has so far attempted, to no avail, to block the popular encrypted messaging service, Telegram. It has also tried to force Facebook and Twitter to relocate servers to Russia, where Russian intelligence agencies would have access to them. RUSSIA TESTS WEB EXIT
OPENAI’S NOT- SO-OPEN AI
Brightcove, specialists in managing, delivering and monetising video in the cloud, has announced it is entering into an agreement to acquire Ooyala’s online video platform (OVP). This will include the company’s Backlot, Analytics and Live platforms, alongside its underlying IP and associated patents. The acquisition brings together two big players in the online video industry. Brightcove hopes it will offer its clients a more comprehensive video management and technology platform, while growing its customer base and market reach. In addition, Brightcove will also take ownership of its engineering, support and sales staff, as well as its customer, reseller and partner relationships. OpenAI, an AI research company backed by Silicon Valley bigwig Elon Musk, has developed an AI capable of generating realistic text (GPT-2) in response to prompts – everything from fantasy prose to fake celebrity news stories, and even homework (yay!). In response to the below prompt from The Lord of the Rings , “Legolas and Gimli advanced on the orcs, raising their weapons with a harrowing war cry,” the AI spat back: “The orcs' response was a deafening onslaught of claws, claws and claws; even Elrond was forced to retreat. ‘You are in good hands, dwarf,’ said Gimli, who had been among the first to charge at the orcs; it took only two words before their opponents were
reduced to a blood-soaked quagmire, and the dwarf took his first kill of the night.” On the AI, Forbes wrote: “It manages to develop a coherent dialogue over multiple paragraphs without making repetitive mistakes or going off-topic. It is the closest to making conversational AI possible and could help doctors scale advice over chats and improve translation systems.” Despite these potential benefits, OpenAI is not releasing the AI to the public for fear of misuse, as it could be used to mass-produce fake news, create spam/phishing content or impersonate others online. Instead, the company is releasing a technical paper and smaller version of the AI model.
BRIGHTCOVE ACQUIRES OOYALA’S OVP The transaction will give Ooyala more time to concentrate its efforts on its Flex Media Platform. CEO Jonathan Huberman said: “We’re ushering in a new chapter, as we continue to focus and expand on Ooyala’s flourishing workflow and media asset
management solutions, centred around our successful Ooyala Flex Media Platform.” The acquisition will reportedly cost £11.5 million. The announcement comes on the heels of a 6% year-over-year increase in the company’s revenue.
feedzine feed.zine feedmagazine.tv
Powered by FlippingBook