Samsung Electronics делает всё возможное, чтобы привлечь опытных исследователей и экспертов в области искусственного интеллекта (AI) для противостояния в гонке с другими глобальными игроками, такими как Google, Facebook и Apple. Одним из новых мест, где будут сосредоточены кадры, работающие в этом направлении, должен стать Париж. В столице Франции Samsung планирует открыть лабораторию искусственного интеллекта, о чём было заявлено ещё в прошлом году. Согласно отраслевым источникам, Samsung недавно направил в свой парижский офис около 30 экспертов по искусственному интеллекту для продолжения исследований и разработок. Ожидается, что лаборатория, которая не будет столь же масштабной, как, например, другие глобальные AI-центры Samsung в Лондоне, Торонто или Монреале, - скоро начнёт работу, и корпорация ищет партнёров для совместной разработки новых технологий. Генеральный директор Samsung по стратегическому развитию Сон Янг-Квон, отвечающий за поиск будущих двигателей роста техногиганта, планирует посетить парижский офис в мае этого года, чтобы лично ознакомиться с запланированными проектами в рамках новой AI-лаборатории и встретиться с представителями местных стартапов, занятых в этом сегменте, чтобы обсудить возможность покупки некоторых из наиболее перспективных. «Сейчас определяются компании, которые могут создать синергию с лабораторией искусственного интеллекта Samsung, для возможных слияний и поглощений», - сообщило местное новостное издание Maeil Business News со ссылкой на анонимный источник в отрасли. В прошлом году Samsung инвестировал более 200 миллионов долларов в 75 стартапов в различных сегментах через свои венчурные инвестиционные подразделения, включая Центр стратегии и инноваций Samsung, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung NEXT, Samsung Ventures и Samsung Research, согласно отчётам корпорации. К настоящему времени Samsung инвестировал в 13 AI-стартапов, в том числе ViV Labs, основанную создателями Siri, интеллектуального помощника в iPhone корпорации Apple. В 2016-м году ViV Labs стала собственностью Samsung. Кроме того, в 2018-м была приобретена поисковая система Kngine, использующая AI-алгоритмы. На встрече с президентом Франции Эммануэлем Макроном в марте прошлого года, том-менеджмент Samsung объявил о плане запуска лаборатории искусственного интеллекта в Париже. В последние годы Парииж стал точкой притяжения для глобальных технологических гигантов, включая Microsoft и IBM, которые имеют там свои центры искусственного интеллекта. Сон Янг-Квон примет участие в конференции в связи с запуском Viva Technology в качесве докладчика. Мероприятие состоится 16-18 мая в Париже. К 2020 году Samsung планирует оснастить все свои электронные и мобильные продукты технологией искусственного интеллекта. Samsung scouts AI startups in Paris Tech giant Samsung Electronics is moving at full throttle to attract seasoned researchers and experts in artificial intelligence in order to run ahead in the ongoing race with other global tech firms, such as Google, Facebook and Apple. The latest destination for the firm’s quest to find talents is Paris where it has planned to open an AI lab since last year. According to sources on March 25, Samsung recently allocated some 30 AI experts at its Paris office to proceed with research and development projects. The lab, which will be run on a relatively smaller scale compared to its other global AI centers -- in London, Toronto, and Montreal -- is expected to start work soon, and the firm is looking for partners to jointly develop new technologies. Samsung Chief Strategy Officer Sohn Young-kwon, who is in charge of seeking the firm’s future growth engines, is scheduled to visit the Paris office in May this year to review planned projects under the new AI lab, and meet local startups in the segment for potential mergers and acquisitions. “Companies that could create synergies with Samsung’s AI lab are being identified for possible M&As,” local news outlet Maeil Business News reported, citing an anonymous industry source. Last year, Samsung invested more than $200 million in 75 startups in different segments through its venture investment units including Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung NEXT, Samsung Ventures and Samsung Research, according to the tech firm. The company has so far invested in 13 AI startups, including Viv Labs, founded by the creators of Siri, the AI assistant for Apple’s iPhones, in 2016, and AI search engine startup Kngine in 2018. At a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in March last year, the CSO announced a plan to launch the AI lab in Paris. In recent years, the European city has become a hot spot with global tech giants, including Microsoft, and IBM, running their AI centers there. Sohn will participate in the Viva Technology startup conference, to be held on May 16-18 in Paris, to deliver a speech. Samsung aims to have all its electronic and mobile products fitted with AI technology by 2020.
По сообщениям южнокорейских СМИ, из-за слабого интереса к новому флагманскому смартфону LG G8 ThinQ вряд ли стоит ждать улучшений в мобильном бизнесе LG, который несет убытки уже на протяжении 15 кварталов подряд. LG Electronics анонсировал новинку на февральской выставке MWC 2019 в Барселоне, а сбор предварительных заказов на гаджет был открыт 15 марта. Продажи G8 ThinQ в Южной Корее стартовали с 22 марта. Смартфон, оснащённый 6,1-дюймовым OLED-дисплеем QHD+, процессором Snapdragon 855, 6Гб ОЗУ, хранилищем на 128 Гб, аккумулятором на 3500 мАч и тройной основной камерой, предлагается на родине производителя за 897.600 вон (792 доллара США). Газета The Korea Times пишет, что несмотря на улучшенные спецификации и более привлекательную цену, чем у предыдущих моделей G7 ThinQ и G7 ThinQ Plus, а также основного конкурента Samsung Galaxy S10, отраслевые источники характеризуют реакцию рынка на новинку от LG как прохладную, ссылаясь на данные о предварительных заявках на G8 ThinQ. По мнению обозревателей, вялый спрос на флагман LG связан с популярностью смартфона Galaxy S10, который дебютировал в Южной Корее 8 марта. Ещё одна возможная причина - отказ LG от бонусной программы, которая была запущена на старте продаж предшествующих моделей G7 ThinQ и V40 ThinQ. Тогда южнокорейский вендор поощрял пользователей, покупающих новый смартфон LG в обмен на аппараты, прослужившие более 2-х лет. Хотя программа распространялась на все устройства, независимо от брэнда, владельцы смартфонов LG получали большее вознаграждение. Представители LG пояснили, что в случае в G8 ThinQ корпорация не стала использовать такую схему, а установила более низкую розничную цену на устройство, чтобы у всех покупателей, приобретающих новый аппарат LG, была возможность воспользоваться преимуществами. Между тем, обозреватели опасаются, что LG может отстать от Samsung в сегменте 5G-смартфонов. С 5 апреля 2019 года Samsung, лидер отрасли, начинает продажи модификации Galaxy S10 с поддержкой мобильных сетей 5-го поколения. Это будет первый в мире смартфон, который способен работать в ультраскоростных сетях. LG тоже анонсировала 5G-смартфон V50 ThinQ 5G на выставке MWC 2019, но не назвала конкретных сроков выхода этой модели. Стоит отметить, что в заключительном квартале 2018 года LG Electronics зарегистрировала чистые убытки на сумму 80,7 млрд вон (около 72,7 миллиона долларов), основной причиной которых стали потери в мобильном подразделении. Продажи смартфонов LG в деньгах сократились на 42% в октябре-декабре 2018 года относительно аналогичного периода 2017-го - до 1,7 трлн вон (1,5 млрд долларов). The demand for Samsung’s flagship smartphones far exceeds South Korean customers ’interest in a new flagship from LG LG Electronics' new LG G8 ThinQ smartphone has apparently failed to receive the attention from consumers despite its upgraded features and low price. This is expected to bring more challenges to the Korean tech company's smartphone unit that has lost money for 15 consecutive quarters. LG G8 ThinQ was released officially in the domestic market on Friday at 897,600 won ($792). The price is 1,100 won cheaper than the previous G7 ThinQ, and about 80,000 won cheaper than G7 ThinQ Plus. Compared to Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S10 featuring 128 gigabyte of memory, LG's new smartphone is about 160,000 won cheaper. "G8 ThinQ's hardware such as battery and display was considerably upgraded compared to the previous version. Plus, the new smartphone has more cameras," said an official from LG Electronics. But the new product has been receiving a lukewarm response from users, industry sources said, noting that the modest number of users participated in the pre-order program, which was carried out until Thursday. LG G8 ThinQ's failure to attract users was partially attributed to growing popularly of Samsung Galaxy S10, released here on March 8. In addition, Samsung's recent announcement that it will release the Galaxy S10 5G model April 5 appeared to absorb smartphone users' interest further as the product is set to be the world's first mobile device with the next-generation network capability. Some users expressed complaints that LG Electronics abolished a reward program when releasing G8 ThinQ. When launching the previous G7 ThinQ and V40 ThinQ, the company ran the program, in which it offered financial rewards to users who returned their mobile phones used for more than two years. Users were allowed to utilize the program regardless of the brand of their used mobile phones. In particular, users of LG smartphones could enjoy more benefits, considering used LG phones are not that popular in the second-hand market. Sources said LG's decision to abolish the reward program resulted in them missing the chance to entice over users of LG smartphones. Regarding the issue, the LG Electronics official said, "It was assessed that the reward program was beneficial to users of LG phones, not to all. So we abolished the program this time, and instead, focused on reducing the price of the new product so all users can enjoy the benefits." LG Electronics is expected to face another difficulty to secure users of 5G smartphones, with Samsung Galaxy S10's 5G model going on sale on April 5. LG unveiled V50 ThinQ 5G supporting 5G network technology on the eve of the Mobile World Congress Barcelona in February. But the company official said the date of the release has not been decided.
В Samsung с некоторых пор гордятся "тесным сотрудничеством с Google" в плане развития операционной системы Android, хотя вряд ли таким союзом можно гордиться по-настоящему, учитывая многочисленные проблемы, то и дело вылезающие из-под полы этой престарелой дамы в мире IT. Вместо того, чтобы усиленно заниматься разработкой собственной мобильной ОС, основные силы софтверного подразделения южнокорейского техногиганта направлены на поддержание штанов у Google. В течение последней недели появилось, как минимум, 3 сообщения об очередных уязвимостях в Android и в Android-приложениях, хотя эти темы не получили должного резонанса в СМИ. Но, по крайней мере, читателей нашего блога мы постараемся держать в курсе происходящего. Сегодня речь пойдёт об очередном провале разработчиков столь почитаемой в народных массах операционки, связанном с безопасностью. Порой случается, что Android-смартфон начинает подозрительно быстро разряжаться, хотя не было никаких обновлений ПО или свежеустановленных приложений. Как выяснила компания Protected Media, причиной этому могут быть мошенники. Из-за них на устройствах ничего не подозревающих пользователей в фоновом режиме чрезмерно расходуются не только заряд аккумулятора, но и трафик. Специалисты из Protected Media обнаружили в коде израильской компании Aniview, занимающейся разработкой рекламных технологий, следы Ad Stacking — опции, при которой несколько баннеров наслаиваются друг на друга. Это позволяет мошенникам покупать достаточно дешёвое пространство под размещение баннеров и под статичным изображением воспроизводить сразу несколько видеороликов. Это приводит к повышенной нагрузке на процессор мобильного устройства, увеличенному расходу заряда аккумулятора и дополнительному потреблению интернет-трафика. От этого вида мошенничества страдают не только обычные пользователи и их гаджеты, но и компании, которые платят за показы и просмотры, а также приложения и платформы, которые покупают и продают место под объявления. Рекламодателям говорят, что люди просматривают их ролики, но отдачи с этого недостаточно, поэтому компаниям приходится платить ещё больше. Крейг Сильверман, репортёр BuzzFeed News, связался с представителями Aniview, чтобы расспросить компанию о её причастности к этой мошеннической схеме. Генеральный директор Алон Кармель отрицает какую-либо связь со злоумышленниками и утверждает, что код для них написали сторонние компании, а эксплойт якобы произошёл по вине третьих лиц. На опубликованном видео показано, как под одним статическим баннером может скрываться сразу несколько рекламных роликов, которые автоматически воспроизводятся в фоне. Таким образом, если какое-то из приложений потребляет слишком много трафика или быстро расходует заряд, то одной из вероятных причин может быть мошенническая схема показа рекламы. Кое-кто может сказать, что Google здесь ни при чём, а виноваты во всём разработчики приложений, допустивших возможность запуска в фоновом режиме нелегального рекламного контента. Однако Google несёт полную ответственность за то, что пропускает в свой магазин Play Store, при этом его операционная система Android никак не защищена от подобного рода манипуляций. Это, можно сказать, одна из самых безобидных "забавных шалостей", отравляющих жизнь владельцам Android-девайсов. Но в ближайшие дни мы расскажем вам о куда более серьёзных проблемах. Так что следите за обновлениями. This Giant Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users' Batteries And Data By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android Apps A scheme to stealthily run video ads behind banner images drained users' batteries and data while they used popular Android Apps. Julien is an independent developer who built and maintains one of the most popular audio apps in the Google Play store. With millions of downloads and hundreds of thousands of positive reviews, he’s obsessive about responding to user complaints and concerns. He often receives emails from users complaining that his app is draining their battery and using more data than expected. Usually, it’s because they set the app to download files when they’re not on Wi-Fi. But sometimes it’s due to ad fraudsters taking advantage of his app to run hidden, data-hungry video ads behind the legitimate banners he sells to earn his living. Julien's app is one of several, including many using Twitter's MoPub ad platform, that saw its in-app ads hijacked in an ad fraud scheme uncovered by fraud detection firm Protected Media. The company’s findings, along with additional reporting and interviews by BuzzFeed News, and independent verification from an outside ad fraud lab, show that one of the players implicated in this scheme is Aniview, an Israeli company with offices in New York that runs a video ad technology platform. Aniview denies any involvement and instead says the platform and banner ads and code, which were created by one of its subsidiaries, were exploited by a malicious, unnamed third party. “BuzzFeed brought to our attention that there is an abuse activity, as an immediate action, we stopped this activity and started and continue an internal incident review,” said Aniview CEO Alon Carmel in an emailed statement. “We notified and emphasized our clients that the use of our platform must be according to our policy and the IAB and TAG guidelines.” It’s just one of the many ways ad fraudsters siphon money out of the global digital advertising industry, which will see more than $20 billion stolen this year. This scheme in particular highlights once again how ad tech companies exploit insider access and technical knowledge to participate in ad fraud. “I don’t even think about me being ripped off,” Julien told BuzzFeed News. “All I think about is them damaging the app’s reputation. It can cost money to [a user] and drain his battery. This is the thing that makes me really mad.” (BuzzFeed News agreed to withhold his full name and the name of his app due to concerns about people wrongly thinking it was knowingly part of the scheme.) Here’s how the scheme works. Julien sells a banner ad, which appears in the app and is visible to his users. Then, hidden from view behind that banner, fraudsters conceal autoplaying video ads that no human being actually sees, but which register as having been served and viewed. In this scenario, Julien gets paid for the small banner ad in his app that users see, but the fraudsters earn many times that amount by stuffing far more lucrative video ads behind the banner. Ultimately, it’s the brands whose ads were shown in hidden video players that lose money to those running the scheme. “Fraudsters are purchasing cheap in-app display inventory and are filling it with multiple video players behind innocuous fake branded display ads,” said Asaf Greiner, the CEO of Protected Media. This type of ad fraud is known in the industry as in-banner video ads, and has been documented in the past. Greiner’s team identified a new version of it last fall and said in total they’ve seen tens of millions of dollars' worth of fraudulent video ads running per month as a result. The ad fraud lab run by DoubleVerify, a digital measurement company, identified the same in-banner video ad fraud scheme at the end of last year, according to Roy Rosenfeld, the company’s VP of product management. He told BuzzFeed News the fraudsters “did a very good job at hiding and obfuscating what they were doing” and were “quite sophisticated in the thinking behind how they can monetize that [video] inventory.” DoubleVerify saw at least 60 million ad calls being made for fraudulent video ads per month, though Rosenfeld noted that not all of those ad slots were filled. Aniview and its subsidiary, OutStream Media, were identified by Protected Media as being part of the scheme after the fraud detection firm gathered and analyzed video evidence, code, and other information during an investigation. Rosenfeld said DoubleVerify’s investigation identified that “the Aniview player was heavily driving” the fraudulent video ad activity. He said his team identified the same code and other materials as Protected Media had. Carmel, of Aniview, told BuzzFeed News that his company “does not knowingly engage in any fraudulent activity” and said his team has been trying to stop this activity on their platform since they were first contact by Protected Media last month. He acknowledged that OutStream Media, the company identified by Protected Media, is a subsidiary of Aniview. But he said it had ceased operations last summer and that Aniview is in the process of legally shutting it down. He said the ad fraud documented by Protected Media and DoubleVerify was done by bad actors using the Aniview video ad platform, as well as images and code created by OutStream Media, in an unauthorized way. “To be crystal clear, another customer on Aniview’s [self-serve] platform used this [video ad] player and is responsible for this activity and we took actions immediately to stop this activity,” he said. “We are fighting against bad activities, pushing and focus on clean and legit activities and should not be blamed or framed for bad use of our platform." Carmel could not say who this bad actor was or how they managed to gain access to content that was uploaded to an OutStream Media account on Aniview’s platform. He declined to identify the malicious actors, or to share any details about them. He also acknowledged removing the photos and names of people, including his cofounder, Tal Melenboim, from Aniview’s website after being contacted by BuzzFeed News. Two of the removed employees had leadership roles with OutStream Media in addition to their work at Aniview. Carmel, who previously cofounded the popular Jewish dating site Jdate, said they left the company to pursue other interests at the end of last year, and he neglected to remove them from the Aniview team page. Carmel was provided with a copy of the malicious code used to place the banner ads and hidden video players. In addition to using the Aniview platform and banner ads from OutStream Media’s account on it, this code included the URL shoval.tv as a tracking pixel to gather data on ad performance. Shoval.tv is a domain name owned by Aniview cofounder Tal Melenboim. In an email to BuzzFeed News, Melenboim denied any involvement. Carmel said the fraudsters must have copied the part of the code that included Shoval.tv from an earlier OutStream demo, and said Shoval.tv is commonly used as a tracking URL by Aniview. The inclusion of this code means that only a person with access to shoval.tv would be able to track the performance of the fraudulent ads carrying this pixel. Protected Media also found that a significant portion of the banner ads purchased for this scheme were bought using MoPub, the mobile ad network owned by Twitter. This does not mean MoPub was engaged in the scheme. But it does mean Twitter’s ad platform was exploited for months by fraudsters, and it earned commission on the ads bought using its tools. (Julien uses MoPub to help place ads in his app and says the company is responsive when he reports bad ads.) “At this time, we can confirm that the suspicious activity in question is not being initiated by MoPub,” a company spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “The activity observed by Protected Media stems from an ad that is initiating other non-viewable video ads to run in the background. We are currently investigating what the potential sources of the issue could be.” This scheme illustrates one of the central challenges in reducing the massive, multibillion-dollar fraud problem in digital advertising: Nearly every player in the supply chain, except for the brands who spend money on ads, profits from fraudulent ad delivery. Even if they’re not involved in ad fraud, platforms such as ad networks and other intermediaries earn a share of the money spent on invalid ads. This creates a disincentive to stop fraud from taking place, according to Greiner. “It’s an unfair kind of situation because anybody who behaves well and doesn’t allow this on their platform is being left out of the profit,” he said, adding that “there’s very little penalty and there’s a lot to gain — the numbers are just enormous.” Investigating the scheme Protected Media first detected the use of hidden video ads in October. Though not a new ad fraud technique, the company saw this iteration grow large enough that it warranted a closer look. After seeing which video players were being used to run the hidden ads, and which ad networks the fraudsters were buying the display ad from, Protected Media reached out to the relevant parties, including Aniview, last month. (Rosenfeld of DoubleVerify said it also identified the scheme late last year and began blocking it.) Protected Media provided BuzzFeed News with video documentation of invalid video ads running behind banners that were created by OutStream Media, Aniview’s subsidiary. These video ads were served using Aniview’s platform and the banner ads were hosted on Aniview’s website with an account in OutStream Media’s name. This demonstrates a direct link between OutStream Media and the banners that were placed in apps such as Julien’s. Protected Media also identified that the shoval.tv domain name owned by Aniview cofounder Tal Melenboim was used to track the performance of the fraudulent ads, adding yet another link to Aniview. Given that information, Greiner believes “Aniview is the group who left no room for deniability — the others can claim ignorance.” After BuzzFeed News first contacted Aniview, the company removed the LinkedIn page for OutStream Media, and deleted people from the Aniview team page on its website. Two of the removed people were Melenboim, who had previously listed himself as the founder and CEO of OutStream Media on his LinkedIn, and his wife Mazal Melenboim, whose LinkedIn lists her as the head of media operations for Aniview and the head of operations for OutStream Media. Carmel said the couple left Aniview at the end of last year and praised Tal Melenboim as a “reputable professional” who was “an asset to Aniview during his many years of employment.” Tal Melenboim told BuzzFeed News in an email that he and his wife are not involved in any illegal activity. “It is important for me to point out to you, that if you got the impression that Aniview/Outstream Media or someone from our team, including me or my wife, is involved in an act of not legit activity, it is simply far away from the true.” (Melenboim said that Carmel’s English is better than his, and that as a result specific questions should be directed to him.) Carmel said the Melenboims were removed from the company website at his direction after being contacted by BuzzFeed News, and said it was an oversight that they were still on the site. He offered to provide a letter from the company’s legal counsel to testify to the fact that the Melenboims had not worked at Aniview since the end of last year. He also said other employees were removed from the company’s team page at the same time. After BuzzFeed News emailed Carmel two links that showed the scheme was still active on his platform, the activity was quickly shut off. He said that was a result of his company being given the information necessary to shut it down. One of the links BuzzFeed News provided to Carmel went to a page at play.aniview.com/outstreammedia/ that hosted the banner ads used in the scheme. These banners were generic images for companies and products such as Coca-Cola, M&M's, McDonald’s, and Disney. If a user clicked on them they were taken to the homepage of the Google Play Store, showing that they were not real ads. Carmel said these images belonged to OutStream Media and were created as test images when the company was operational last year. He said someone used these images without permission to execute the fraud. “The banners were ONLY used for reach media demos of outstream units,” he said in an email. “After seeing in your email that someone used our banner without our permission we removed it from our server. Thank you for pointing it out.” Ultimately what Carmel claims is that an unknown bad actor created an account on his platform, and then used banner ad images created by his subsidiary to execute the fraud scheme. He declined to share information about the bad actor’s account, citing legal concerns. He also couldn’t say exactly how this actor knew about banner ads uploaded to the account of OutStream Media — a company Carmel says was only briefly operational last year. He suggested one of the organizations OutStream had previously tried to pitch its services to was involved. “The demo page of Outstream units was public and as well have been sent to many potential customers (BTW, one of them was Buzzfeed),” he said in an email. Carmel did not provide contact information for the person at BuzzFeed he says received the OutStream pitch. He did provide screenshots of email templates that were sent to prospective clients in May of last year that included a link to a demo. Carmel says the same bad actor must have copied the OutStream tracking code that included shoval.tv, the domain owned by Melenboim. This means the fraudsters were sophisticated enough to set up and manage the scheme, but would have left in a tracking pixel that prevents them from receiving performance data on their ads. Greiner of Protected Media said several ad tech companies engaged in or facilitated this form of fraud. Aniview was the one they gathered the most convincing evidence about. Others continue to run the scheme after being contacted by Protected Media, and in at least one case an executive from an involved company even complained about being called out. “One of them spoke to my VP of sales and said everybody does it, why are we picking on them,” Greiner said. “It’s something we hear too often, unfortunately.” ●
