Marco Addino, Managing Director, AccentureNovember 15, 20244 Min ReadPanther Media GmbH via Alamy StockWithout doubt, todays society relies on the semiconductor industry. After all, can you imagine a world without smartphones, cars, power stations, and televisions? We, as people, and the global economy more broadly, rely on continued innovation from the chips the industry produces. But there are challenges facing these companies across the board -- design, manufacturing and demand. Talent is in increasingly short supply, and on top of that geopolitical tensions and onshore manufacturing add another layer of complexity. The industry keeps having hurdles to cross, one after another it seems. Only recently, another problem for the industry made the headlines when Hurricane Helene hit Spruce Pine, one of the worlds most important locations for semiconductor, raising questions about the impact it would have.It's already tough enough for semiconductor companies to deal with and resolve these issues, but they are appearing while generative AI has made the need for innovation a must do now, not a must do at some point. The question is whether the semiconductor industry can reinvent itself quickly enough for this new generative AI moment. Accenture analysis found reinventors (those companies that have already built the capability for continuous reinvention) increased revenues by 15 percentage points over other companies between 2019 and 2022. We expect that gap in revenue growth between reinventors and the rest to increase by 2.4 times to 37 percentage points by 2026, so theres a clear opportunity for them. Yet our survey of global semiconductor executives found that 71% believe it will take at least three years for the semiconductor industry to deploy generative AI at scale. The industry could do with that timeframe accelerating somewhat.Related:The Challenges AheadIts not going to be easy, however, of course it wont. But semiconductor companies need to use generative AI across the entire spectrum -- spanning design and manufacturing, through sales and marketing, to customer service --to seize opportunities for innovation in both the short- and long-term. Adapting that broad view across the value chain is a must to reinvent the value chain, however daunting that may initially seem.There are other concerns too, such as IP. In fact, 73% of executives cite IP concerns as the biggest barrier to generative AI deployments. Then theres of course the cost issue and the need to balance technical debt with investments for the future, both of which, are necessary.Once leaders grapple with how those challenges can be overcome, theres another pressing challenge and thats having the right talent in place to deploy these applications successfully.Related:Most semiconductor companies are already fully aware of that and are doing everything they can to accelerate gaining new talent and reskilling their existing workforce. However, the speed with which generative AI is changing the way businesses work means they must also get support from across their ecosystem to ensure they have all critical skills in place.It's Time for Leaders to Place Their BetsThe industry needs to move forward with two workstreams running in parallel. First, CEOs and other business leaders must make no regrets moves; those use cases with the lowest risk, shortest time to show results and therefore, value. For example, Generative AI-enabled field service assistants would allow field service engineers to perform root cause analyses faster and recommend repair methods based on machine data, therefore reducing downtime and accelerating production. It also provides immediate access to information that helps technicians increase their knowledge, therefore helping with the skills gap. Generative AI can also be used in other areas, such as sales and marketing where it can improve the quality and level of personalization of the content to drive more personalized campaigns.Related:At the same time, strategic bets need to be decided upon to support the long-term goals of the business. An example of this is in process engineering. Generative AI-enabled applications that incorporate historical process parameter data to create more efficient designs for semiconductor equipment and wafer development. These tools can use drawings, text, images and more to create customized outputs that engineers can use to augment experiments, allowing for a more objective approach to experimental design. These strategic bets will be the things that will offer the highest value. They may well take some time to roll out, but they could pave the way for total reinvention and therefore, competitive advantage.Whether the no regret moves or strategic bets, the guiding principle is choosing the right use cases, at the right point and at the right time. Every semiconductor companys generative AI journey is different, but the approaches will be similar. All companies must establish a solid data foundation, have the necessary skills in place, and importantly, have the right ecosystem in position. Those that come out on top wont just be the best player, but the businesses that put the right connections in place.About the AuthorMarco AddinoManaging Director, AccentureMarco Addino is a managing director in Accentures high tech industry practice leading the companys semiconductor business in EMEA, and is the client account lead for Italy, Central Europe and Greece, responsible for building and growing strategic relationships in the region. He is experienced in high complexity products engineering, supply chain and operations, large scale digital and technology transformations, organizational design, post-merger integration, and the design and implementation of platform business models.See more from Marco AddinoNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Yet anotherStar Wars movie has been pulled from yet another planned release date.Disney and Lucasfilm had penciled in thea newStar Wars film for release in theaters on December 18, 2026, a little over two years from now. But now, according to multiple media reports, that is not happening. Instead, Disney will be releasing a newIce Age animated feature on that date. (Disney acquiredIce Age in their purchase of 20th Century Fox.)PerVariety, while it was never confirmed exactly what this project would be, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoywas previously announcedas the director of an upcoming Star Wars film followingDaisy Ridleys Rey after the events of 2019s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Back in October, it was reported that this project had lost its screenwriter,with the departure of Steven Knight.LucasfilmLucasfilmloading...READ MORE: 12 Actors Wasted inStar WarsRolesAlthough Lucasfilm has released a steady stream of TV projects to Disney+ since 2019, it is now five years and counting since the lastStar Wars feature film came to theaters. In that time a whole slew of projects have been announced or rumored and come to nothing, including aRogue Squadron movie directed by Patty Jenkins, a mystery project from Marvels Kevin Feige, and entire trilogies of movies from Rian Johnson andGame of Thrones Benioff and Weiss.https://screencrush.com/new-star-wars-trilogy/Withyet another Star Warsfilmat least delayed (if not permanently postponed) that means the earliest well see a newStar Wars film in theaters is May of 2026 when the movie version ofThe Mandalorianis supposed to debut. And Disney has anotherStar Wars movie of some sort scheduled for Christmas of 2027 at least tentatively. You are forgiven if at this point you are skeptical aboutanyof theseStar Wars projects ever seeing the light of day.Get our free mobile appEvery Star Wars Movie, Ranked From Worst to BestHere is every theatrical Star Wars movie, ranked from the worst to the best.

Time zones: EST (UTC -5), CST (UTC -6), MST (UTC -7), PST (UTC -8), AKST (UTC -9), HST (UTC -10), GMT (UTC +0), CET (UTC +1), EET (UTC +2), AST (UTC -4), FKST (UTC -3), NST (UTC -3:30)QUALIFICATIONSThis is a technology job that accommodates humanities people and relies more fully on your competencies than your formal experiencemaking it a rare opportunity thats perfect for at least sophomores, new grads, career transitioners, and those seeking an exciting remote careerYoure the sort of person who is exceptional at generating copy intuitivelyYouve also got the metacognitive awareness to show your work. In addition, youre the sort of person with a deep interest in linguisticsRESPONSIBILITIES:As a Remote AI Content Evaluator, you will be working closely with a team of other trainers, within protocols developed by the worlds leading AI researchers training the AI to read, write, summarize knowledge, and interpret meaningYour job is to train, evaluate, and test the AIs conversation skills, continuously equipping it to fulfill that purposeYoull spend the bulk of your time generating examples of ideal conversations, acting as both the User and the AI for the AI to learn from, collecting sources helping it read large swaths of humanitys documented knowledge and distinguish between what is presented as fact vs. context vs. patterns of behaviorFor example, you will be discerning the accuracy of the facts that the AI is outputting, but also the accuracy with which they interpret themAs the project grows over time, youll spend time actively trying to break the AI by forcing mistakes and improving the way these AI models recoverThis is absolutely critical to its safety, accuracy, and useYoull document breaks and have the opportunity to recommend improvements to the training methods themselves to both our team and our clientBenefits:Compensation & CareerPay begins between $22.50 / hour and its made on Mondays. Related Jobs See more All Other Remote jobs

Thousands of people across the world come to EDUopinions to research schools every day. Its where they get advice, inspiration, and plan for what matters most. Our mission is to help those prospective students find their ideal schools and create their dream futures. In your role, youll be challenged to take on work that upholds this mission and pushes EDUopinions forward.EDUopinions is looking for Student Ambassadors who want to gain invaluable social media marketing and content creation experience. Being an EDUopinions Ambassador means representing EDUopinions and creating an authentic experience for our audience prospective students looking for university rankings and reviews.The Ambassador Program is responsible for bringing honest student reviews to the EDUopinions platform by creating social networking and student outreach campaigns to achieve database objectives. Our goal is to build an inclusive and diverse online student community that provides advice and feedback regarding the university experience at different higher education institutions around the world.An EDUopinions Ambassador will work alongside the Reviews Manager and other student ambassadors, getting exposure in social media campaign strategy and user-generated content creation and gaining firsthand experience in a remote start-up environment. This is a contract role.ResponsibilitiesThink creatively about new ways to engage students through online and offline channelsEncourage students and alumni to share their honest opinions regarding their studies.Provide feedback on challenges and opportunities.QualificationsEnjoys talking to students and grads about higher educationExperience in and understanding of social media platformsMotivated self-starter who takes initiativeBenefitsPartners set their own schedules and are paid based on performance.Fully remote team.Hands-on experience with social media marketing, online networking, and campaign performance dashboard. Related Jobs See more All Other Remote jobs

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We are on the cusp of a voice AI boom, with tech companies such as Apple and OpenAI rolling out the next generation of artificial-intelligence-powered assistants. But the default voices for these assistants are often white AmericanBritish, if youre luckyand most definitely speak English. They represent only a tiny proportion of the many dialects and accents in the English language, which spans many regions and cultures. And if youre one of the billions of people who dont speak English, bad luck: These tools dont sound nearly as good in other languages. This is because the data that has gone into training these models is limited. In AI research, most data used to train models is extracted from the English-language internet, which reflects Anglo-American culture. But there is a massive grassroots effort underway to change this status quo and bring more transparency and diversity to what AI sounds like: Mozillas Common Voice initiative. The data set Common Voice has created over the past seven years is one of the most useful resources for people wanting to build voice AI. It has seen a massive spike in downloads, partly thanks to the current AI boom; it recently hit the 5 million mark, up from 38,500 in 2020. Creating this data set has not been easy, mainly because the data collection relies on an army of volunteers. Their numbers have also jumped, from just under 500,000 in 2020 to over 900,000 in 2024. But by giving its data away, some members of this community argue, Mozilla is encouraging volunteers to effectively do free labor for Big Tech. Since 2017, volunteers for the Common Voice project have collected a total of 31,000 hours of voice data in around 180 languages as diverse as Russian, Catalan, and Marathi. If youve used a service that uses audio AI, its likely been trained at least partly on Common Voice. Mozillas cause is a noble one. As AI is integrated increasingly into our lives and the ways we communicate, it becomes more important that the tools we interact with sound like us. The technology could break down communication barriers and help convey information in a compelling way to, for example, people who cant read. But instead, an intense focus on English risks entrenching a new colonial world order and wiping out languages entirely. It would be such an own goal if, rather than finally creating truly multimodal, multilingual, high-performance translation models and making a more multilingual world, we actually ended up forcing everybody to operate in, like, English or French, says EM Lewis-Jong, a director for Common Voice. Common Voice is open source, which means anyone can see what has gone into the data set, and users can do whatever they want with it for free. This kind of transparency is unusual in AI data governance. Most large audio data sets simply arent publicly available, and many consist of data that has been scraped from sites like YouTube, according to research conducted by a team from the University of Washington, and Carnegie Mellon andNorthwestern universities. The vast majority of language data is collected by volunteers such as Blent zden, a researcher from Turkey. Since 2020, he has been not only donating his voice but also raising awareness around the project to get more people to donate. He recently spent two full-time months correcting data and checking for typos in Turkish. For him, improving AI models is not the only motivation to do this work. Im doing it to preserve cultures, especially low-resource [languages], zden says. He tells me he has recently started collecting samples of Turkeys smaller languages, such as Circassian and Zaza. However, as I dug into the data set, I noticed that the coverage of languages and accents is very uneven. There are only 22 hours of Finnish voices from 231 people. In comparison, the data set contains 3,554 hours of English from 94,665 speakers. Some languages, such as Korean and Punjabi, are even less well represented. Even though they have tens of millions of speakers, they account for only a couple of hours of recorded data. This imbalance has emerged because data collection efforts are started from the bottom up by language communities themselves, says Lewis-Jong. Were trying to give communities what they need to create their own AI training data sets. We have a particular focus on doing this for language communities where there isnt any data, or where maybe larger tech organizations might not be that interested in creating those data sets, Lewis-Jong says. They hope that with the help of volunteers and various bits of grant funding, the Common Voice data set will have close to 200 languages by the end of the year. Common Voices permissive license means that many companies rely on itfor example, the Swedish startup Mabel AI, which builds translation tools for health-care providers. One of the first languages the company used was Ukrainian; it built a translation tool to help Ukrainian refugees interact with Swedish social services, says Karolina Sjberg, Mabel AIs founder and CEO. The team has since expanded to other languages, such as Arabic and Russian. The problem with a lot of other audio data is that it consists of people reading from books or texts. The result is very different from how people really speak, especially when they are distressed or in pain, Sjberg says. Because anyone can submit sentences to Common Voice for others to read aloud, Mozillas data set also includes sentences that are more colloquial and feel more natural, she says. Not that it is perfectly representative. The Mabel AI team soon found out that most voice data in the languages it needed was donated by younger men, which is fairly typical for the data set. The refugees that we intended to use the app with were really anything but younger men, Sjberg says. So that meant that the voice data that we needed did not quite match the voice data that we had. The team started collecting its own voice data from Ukrainian women, as well as from elderly people. Unlike other data sets, Common Voice asks participants to share their gender and details about their accent. Making sure different genders are represented is important to fight bias in AI models, says Rebecca Ryakitimbo, a Common Voice fellow who created the project's gender action plan. More diversity leads not only to better representation but also to better models. Systems that are trained on narrow and homogenous data tend to spew stereotyped and harmful results. We dont want a case where we have a chatbot that is named after a woman but does not give the same response to a woman as it would a man, she says. Ryakitimbo has collected voice data in Kiswahili in Tanzania, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She tells me she wanted to collect voices from a socioeconomically diverse set of Kiswahili speakers and has reached out to women young and old living in rural areas, who might not always be literate or even have access to devices. This kind of data collection is challenging. The importance of collecting AI voice data can feel abstract to many people, especially if they arent familiar with the technologies. Ryakitimbo and volunteers would approach women in settings where they felt safe to begin with, such as presentations on menstrual hygiene, and explain how the technology could, for example, help disseminate information about menstruation. For women who did not know how to read, the team read out sentences that they would repeat for the recording. The Common Voice project is bolstered by the belief that languages form a really important part of identity. We think its not just about language, but about transmitting culture and heritage and treasuring peoples particular cultural context, says Lewis-Jong. There are all kinds of idioms and cultural catchphrases that just dont translate, they add. Common Voice is the only audio data set where English doesnt dominate, says Willie Agnew, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied audio data sets. Im very impressed with how well they've done that and how well they've made this data set that is actually pretty diverse, Agnew says. It feels like theyre way far ahead of almost all the other projects we looked at. I spent some time verifying the recordings of other Finnish speakers on the Common Voice platform. As their voices echoed in my study, I felt surprisingly touched. We had all gathered around the same cause: making AI data more inclusive, and making sure our culture and language was properly represented in the next generation of AI tools. But I had some big questions about what would happen to my voice if I donated it. Once it was in the data set, I would have no control about how it might be used afterwards. The tech sector isnt exactly known for giving people proper credit, and the data is available for anyones use. As much as we want it to benefit the local communities, theres a possibility that also Big Tech could make use of the same data and build something that then comes out as the commercial product, says Ryakitimbo. Though Mozilla does not share who has downloaded Common Voice, Lewis-Jong tells me Meta and Nvidia have said that they have used it. Open access to this hard-won and rare language data is not something all minority groups want, says Harry H. Jiang, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, who was part of the team doing audit research. For example, Indigenous groups have raised concerns. Extractivism is something that Mozilla has been thinking about a lot over the past 18 months, says Lewis-Jong. Later this year the project will work with communities to pilot alternative licenses including Nwulite Obodo Open Data License, which was created by researchers at the University of Pretoria for sharing African data sets more equitably. For example, people who want to download the data might be asked to write a request with details on how they plan to use it, and they might be allowed to license it only for certain products or for a limited time. Users might also be asked to contribute to community projects that support poverty reduction, says Lewis-Jong. Lewis-Jong says the pilot is a learning exercise to explore whether people will want data with alternative licenses, and whether they are sustainable for communities managing them. The hope is that it could lead to something resembling open source 2.0. In the end, I decided to donate my voice. I received a list of phrases to say, sat in front of my computer, and hit Record. One day, I hope, my effort will help a company or researcher build voice AI that sounds less generic, and more like me. This story has been updated.

But 155 sites added in updated 2024 list, including a 15th century school house which survived an arson attack by suffragettesSaltdean Lido has been removed from the Heritage At Risk Register following a restoration by Conran & PartnersHistoric England has removed Saltdean Lido from its Heritage At Risk Register following a restoration programme but named an additional 155 sites in need of attention.The heritage advisor has published its annual roundup of historic sites deemed to be at risk due to neglect, structural deterioration or the risk of redevelopment.Richard Jones streamline moderne lido in east Sussex, completed in 1938, is among 124 sites removed from the list due to being considered no longer at risk.Added to the register in 2011, the grade II*-listed building has been restored by Conran & Partners, working for a local community action group, with the project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England.It is now home to a caf, restaurant, gym, public library, and multiple work and exercise spaces, and hosts a wide variety of events in its art deco ballroom.The painted hall at Sherborne HouseOther buildings removed from the list include the grade I-listed Sherborne House in Dorset, which has been transformed into an arts venue by local architect Spase.Built around 1720 for Henry Seymour Portman, it features a grand hall with murals by James Thornhill, the Dorset-born artist whose other works include the Painted Hall at the Royal Hospital in Greenwich and the inside of the dome of St Pauls Cathedral.The Sherborne House Trust acquired the building in 2018 and plans for its transformation into an arts venue were approved in 2021.The grade II-listed Abney Park chapel and graveyard in Stoke Newington, London, has also been crossed off the list following a 5m restoration funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the National Lottery Community Fund, Hackney Council and Historic England.The grade II-listed Abney Park chapel and graveyard has been removed from the listThe early 19th century site had been on the list since its creation in 1998, with Historic England describing its removal as a major achievement.The graveyard boasts a new cafe, community room and workshop spaces, while the chapel now hosts events and has held its first ever wedding.A total of 4,891 sites are on this years register, 20 more than last year. They include 1,442 buildings and structures, 969 places of worship, 103 parks and gardens, three battlefields and four shipwrecks.Recently added sites include a rare Victorian windmill which, while still in working order and producing flour, has been found to be in need of urgent repairs due to water seepage and rotting timbers.Volunteers from the Waltham Windmill Preservation Society are repairing the Victorian windmill, which is still in operationThe mill is run by dedicated volunteers from the Waltham Windmill Preservation Society who regularly hold fundraising events to help pay for ongoing maintenance. Repair work is already underway, helped by a 63,000 grant from Historic England.The early 15th century Kings Norton Old Grammar School in Birmingham has been added to the list despite winning a restoration award just 20 years ago.Kings Norton Old Grammar School survived an attack by two suffragettes in 1913Believed to have been originally built as a priests house, it was remodelled in the 17th century before surviving an intended arson attack by two suffragettes in 1913.The campaigners had left a note on a blackboard explaining that they had been so charmed by the building that they had decided to refrain from their design of destruction.However, the building is now deteriorating as external panels are detaching from the frame, allowing in damp and rainwater.The grade I-listed Tamworth Castle is also in need of further repairs after initial restoration work was completed last year.> Also read:Save Britains Heritage adds 86 new entries to Buildings at Risk registerOne of the best preserved motte and bailey castles in the UK, it has a history going back well over a thousand years, the site having been occupied by a palace for the Kings of Mercia before the 9th century Viking invasions.It was rebuilt as a castle after the 1066 Norman Conquest, captured by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War and has been a museum since 1899.Historic England said the site had seen its fair share of battles and needs some attention before it is fighting fit once more.Tamworth Castle is in need of a further round of repairs following an initial restoration completed last year