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Insurtech start-up Honcho has funding plans derailed by Brexit
 Netherlands enables contactless payments on entire public transport network All modes of public transport now accept payments using contactless technology after the completion of major project in the Netherlands

Government and industry figures meet to discuss AI regulation Tech industry figures are broadly supportive of the need for artificial intelligence (AI) to be regulated, but despite growing consensus there is still disagreement over what effective AI regulation looks like

Bishop Fox’s Vinnie Liu talks offensive security skills There is growing demand for offensive security testing, but it needs a multi-layered skillset that can be hard to quantify. Bishop Fox’s CEO and co-founder explains why and some potential mitigation strategies

UKtech50 2023 winner: Michelle Donelan/Chloe Smith, secretary of state, DSIT Computer Weekly looks at the achievements and successes of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, as its secretary of state is recognised as the most influential person in UK technology for 2023

UKtech50 2023: The most influential people in UK technology Computer Weekly has announced the 13th annual UKtech50 – our definitive list of the movers and shakers in the UK tech sector

NatWest and University of Edinburgh form partnership to research data use in banking sector Scottish university and banking group set up research centre that will aim to improve the use of banking data

Welsh ambulance service upgrades life-saving communications Welsh ambulances going through major communications upgrade as part of wider NHS programme

Researchers in Belgium move towards industrial production of qubits Using existing equipment and know-how, researchers at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Imec) in Belgium are finding ways of mass-producing qubits

Open banking regulator sets out next steps Plans for ongoing evolution of the UK open banking sector have been set out by regulator in bid to grow the open banking sector in a ‘safe, scalable and economically sustainable way’

Clop cyber gang claims MOVEit attack and starts harassing victims The Clop cyber extortion and ransomware operation is demanding organisations pay a ransom to avoid data stolen via an exploited vulnerability in a file transfer product being leaked

Payments regulator makes APP fraud reimbursement mandatory UK payments regulator confirms changes to rules around repaying customers who lose money to authorised push payment fraudsters

Government to test rural broadband options with £7m fund Government to fund tests of technologies that could be issued to improve internet connectivity for rural communities

Google launches hacker-backed SME security training scheme Citing research that shows almost half of SMEs are struggling to recruit cyber security specialists, Google is launching a programme designed to upskill more people to fill thousands of vacant roles

Indian IT services giant takes UK teachers’ pensions contract from Capita Tata Consultancy Services bolsters its growing UK public sector customer base with key contract win

Apple's $3,500 headset offers VR at a premium Apple devices have always commanded a premium, but will consumers and business splash out $3,499 on its new Vision Pro headset?

Mercedes Pay turns vehicles into payment devices German car manufacturer add contactless payment feature to enable drivers to find and book parking spaces and pay automatically when they arrive

Victims of MOVEit SQL injection zero-day mount up The BBC, Boots, and British Airways are among the victims of cyber incidents arising from a recently disclosed vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer, exploitation of which is spreading fast

Netherlands makes case for harmonisation of cloud security standards Harmonisation of cyber security standards is necessary to reduce the regulatory burden on Dutch SMEs – and regulators need to cooperate better

ESA uses NetApp as-a-service for space data ‘hot’ archive The European Space Agency collects data from millions of miles away. It must get storage right when there’s no chance of a u-turn to take more photos or re-record data

TechUK publishes ‘UK tech plan’ for next government Technology businesses are calling on UK politicians to devise a ‘comprehensive, forward-thinking strategy’ to realise the benefits of technology ahead of the next general election

Cyber spotlight falls on boardroom ‘privilege’ as incidents soar Three quarters of data breaches now involve a significant human element, and the higher up they get in an organisation, the more risks people seem to take, according to Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report

Workers ‘deeply uncomfortable’ with digital surveillance at work Employees express discomfort towards employers’ use of various digital surveillance and monitoring techniques, which are often powered by artificial intelligence

Bank of International Settlement sets up channel secure from quantum breach The Bank of International Settlement has worked with two of Europe's central banks to explore preventing the security risks posed by quantum computers

UK has time limit on ensuring cryptocurrency regulatory leadership, says Parliamentary report Parliamentary report makes 53 recommendations to the government's plans to regulate cryptocurrency

Medical regulator drops probe into NHS whistleblower Peter Duffy amid dispute over email evidence The General Medical Council has dropped an investigation into an NHS whistleblower who exposed widespread clinical harm at Morecambe Bay Trust amid questions over disputed email evidence

Sweden is developing its own big language model Artificial Intelligence Sweden is leading an initiative to build a large language model not only for Swedish, but for all the major languages in the Nordic region: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese

NBN unveils uncapped data plan for remote Australia Following a successful trial to examine delivery of an improved satellite service, including the capability to achieve faster burst speeds of up to 100Mbps, an uncapped usage plan has been launched to address data needs of rural Australia

Qualcomm beefs up Snapdragon Space XR Developer Platform for immersive future Mobile platform technology giant launches immersive technology designed to create a cross-device, extended and augmented reality ecosystem that will enable head-worn experiences from existing smartphone applications

AI interview: Dan McQuillan, critical computing expert Critical computing expert Dan McQuillan speaks to Computer Weekly about the top-down imposition of artificial intelligence on society, and how AI is a fundamentally political technology shaped by humanity’s most reactionary tendencies

Met Police director of intelligence defends facial recognition The Met Police’s director of intelligence has appeared before MPs to make the case for its continuing use of facial-recognition technology, following announcements from the force and the Home Office that they intend to press on with its adoption

CIO interview: Adam Warne, CIO, River Island The privately owned fashion retailer places a premium on its high street presence, but sees digital innovation as key to improving customer service in stores

HSBC explores quantum computing for finance sector UK banking giant works with quantum computing specialist to explore the technology’s potential in the finance sector

How India’s DICV is tapping smart manufacturing Daimler India Commercial Vehicles has deployed augmented and virtual reality, advanced sensors, data analytics and other technologies to improve manufacturing processes and customer fleet management

DE-CIX switches on Internet Exchange in Finland Comms tech provider celebrates 10 years of partnership with Internet Exchange operator and home to leading carrier and datacentre neutral interconnection ecosystem

Europe’s cellular networks viable alternatives to broadband, LEO satellites Research finds that 5G download speeds of nearly 1Gbps were found in four out of the top five cities tested, and were equal to that of satellite and fixed networks

Tech salaries on the rise, says Aspire Tech salaries are still on the rise for many roles as firms continue to battle for talent

Generative AI boosts HPE Q2 earnings The hype around generative AI appears to be working – at least for HPE, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings

BT claims UK first with 5G-enabled, immersive, interactive simulation experience Leading UK telco launches connected spaces that offer fully immersive experiences by combining interactive 360-degree video content with extended reality technology

Lloyds Bank calls on tech companies to control social media ‘wild west’ Lloyds Banking Group is calling on tech giants to step forward in the fight against online fraud, which emanates in the social media ‘wild west’

Output: UK insurtech start-up Honcho will carry out its fundraising via crowdfunding platform CrowdCube after funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), due to assist its launch, were put on an indefinite hold as a result of Brexit. The £650,000 drop in funding will now be made up with investment paid for company shares, with Honcho already raising £300,000 on its CrowdCube page. Honcho provides a free mobile app for comparing car insurance prices, with insurance providers bidding for customers for a £1 fee. The business was due to be launched in Q1 2018, but as the funds from the EIB are on hold until Brexit is finalised, the company moved to crowdsourcing to meet its deadlines.


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Christa Carone leaves WPP to join Group Nine Media as president
 by Larissa Faw , December 1, 2017

Christa Carone is departing WPP to join Group Nine Media in the newly expanded role of president. COO Eric Ashman previously held the president title, but with different responsibilities and scope.

As president, Carone will oversee a variety of disciplines at the digital media company, including sales and marketing teams, as well as its data insights.

She will "allow us to be a better partner for brands and agencies alike," says CEO Ben Lerer.

Most recently, Carone was the COO of WPP’s Group SJR and managing director of Colloquial, the agency's joint venture with J. Walter Thompson. Prior to that, Carone served as the CMO for the Boston 2024 Partnership, the organization tasked with developing Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

She also worked at Fidelity Investments and Xerox Corp.

Carone joins the company at an opportune time. Earlier this week, Group Nine Media announced it has raised $40 million in a new round of funding to help expand video content across its brands and to finance future acquisitions.

Output: Digital firm Group Nine Media will add Christa Carone, formerly the COO of WPP's Group SJR, as president, replacing Eric Ashman. Carone will manage teams across various disciplines, including marketing, sales and data insights. Carone was also formerly the managing director of WPP's venture Colloquial. Group Nine Media recently completed a $40m funding round for the expansion of video content across owned brands and for future acquisition financing.


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Millennials buy holidays as home ownership becomes unrealistic
 M illennials are taking more expensive holidays because they believe saving enough money to buy a house is unrealistic, a travel expert has said.

Holiday firm Contiki reported a 10% increase in the average amount of money people aged 18 to 35 are spending on trips this year compared with 2016.

It found that young travellers are taking more adventurous and so-called bucket list trips, with increased year-on-year demand for destinations such as New Zealand (up 83%), South America (up 71%), Bali (up 56%) and Vietnam (up 50%).

With a typical first-time home buyer in the UK aged 30, Contiki sales and marketing director Donna Jeavons has noticed a trend in young people prioritising experiences including travel over getting on the property ladder.

Six things millennials should be giving up to buy a house

She said: "With housing being so expensive, many young people are opting to live in the moment and pursue other goals first, knowing that buying a house could be a little further down the line than it was for previous generations.

"Saving a bit here and there isn't really scratching the surface for millennials, so many are choosing to have the best holiday they can afford instead."

The average age of Contiki customers is 26 and earlier this year the firm introduced specially themed trips to Canada for "avid Instagrammers".

This was in response to research which showed that a section of the youth market is drawn to destinations from where they can upload popular social media posts.

Several other companies have also started selling products aimed at younger travellers.

U by Uniworld will be Europe's first river cruise brand exclusively for young people when it launches in April 2018 with craft beers, mixology classes, street art tours and vintage motor bike rides.

The firm's chief executive Ellen Bettridge said: "We are targeting an active traveller between the ages of 21 and 45, with everything from the decor, dining and cocktail service to the land activities thoughtfully curated to meet the needs of this audience."

Air France's new subsidiary airline aimed at young people, Joon, began operating from Paris on Friday.

It is "designed for our millennial customers" with features such as the ability to stream movies and television shows using smartphones and tablets, crew uniforms with a "chic sportswear look" and a partnership with travel site Airbnb Experiences.

Dominique Wood, an executive vice president at Air France, said: "With Joon, we have created a young and connected brand that will give the group a new impetus."

Output: Millennials are paying more for holidays and saving less because of the perception that buying a house in the expensive property market is an unattainable goal, according to holiday company Contiki. The firm recorded a 10% increase in the average amount spent on holidays by those aged 18 to 35 in 2017, when compared to last year. Contiki offers holidays designed for social media sharing in order to cater to the millennial market.


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PilotWorks raises $13m for kitchen-sharing start-up plan
 A start-up called Pilotworks wants to make it easier for food entrepreneurs to start a business, whether they seek to open a new restaurant, launch a catering empire, or formulate irresistible packaged snacks.

Acre Venture Partners, a fund backed solely by Campbell Soup , has led a $13 million investment in Pilotworks with Techstars and others, hoping it will become the WeWork of food and hospitality.

As Pilotworks CEO Nick Devane notes: "Food entrepreneurs need a lot more than a few desks and fast internet to start a business. We give them kitchens that are up to code, equipped with everything they need whether its dry storage or blast chillers. And we help them market and distribute what they make."

While co-working spaces for tech entrepreneurs abound thanks to WeWork, and other office leasing platforms, food makers previously had to strike up deals with restaurants, or navigate a fragmented industry to find available commissaries.

Devane considers Pilotworks a tech start-up as much as a food business, because it developed custom scheduling software and an online community for its members. These make it easy to book space and equipment at a Pilotworks kitchen, and to take advantage of industry mentors and workshops on-site.

Food start-ups aren't the only ones using the company's kitchens so far. Culinary schools have offered courses there, counting Pilotworks as a "pop-up" classroom.

The New York-based start-up intends to use its new funding for hiring, marketing and geographic expansion, Devane said. The company is expanding into Chicago and Dallas next.

Output: PilotWorks is aiming to give prospective food-delivery entrepreneurs easier access to fully equipped commercial kitchens. Acre Venture Partners, the investment arm of Campbell Soup, led a $13m fund-raising series to launch PilotWorks as the WeWork of the food and hospitality industry, with plans to open shared kitchens through the US.


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Kespry secures $33m for mining, construction industry drones
 Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.

Industrial drone platform provider Kespry has raised $33 million in a series C round of funding led by G2VP, with participation from Cisco Investments, Shell Technology Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DCM Ventures, Spectrum 28, ABB Ventures, and H. Barton Asset Management.

Founded out of Menlo Park in 2013, Kespry targets industries such as mining and construction with an automated system that uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to capture and process imagery of sites from the skies above. The system includes everything needed to complete the inspection, including the drone and an iPad, and the user can draw out an area for analysis with their finger. The Kespry drone then works out a flight path and does the rest, with on-board lidar sensors helping it avoid any obstacles it encounters. It also taps AI and machine learning to deliver analytics and insights based on its findings.

Up until now, Kespry had raised around $38 million in outside funding, and with its latest cash infusion it plans to invest in sales, marketing, and R&D. The company also said that it plans to expand into more industries, including the energy utility sector.

“With the exponential growth of the Kespry aerial intelligence platform, we’re participating in a generational shift of how industrial work gets done,” said Kespry CEO and chair George Mathew. “We’re incredibly pleased to have leading industrial-tech investors recognize Kespry’s contributions to the future of work. The digital transformation in insurance, mining, construction, and many other industries represents a massive market opportunity.”

Drone companies have been drawing in significant investment in recent times, with an estimated $454 million plowed into UAV startups in 2016 alone. Other companies operating in the space include PrecisionHawk, which has raised around $30 million in funding, and DroneDeploy, Measure, and Prenav, which have all reeled in VC cash recently.

The technology can do things like make it easier for insurance companies to assess roof damage after storms, as drone inspections are significantly quicker (and safer) than manual inspections.

“We’ve been committed to identifying and applying advanced digital technologies to the energy sector for decades, and our investment in Kespry epitomizes our focus,” added Daniel Jeavons, general manager for advanced analytics at Shell. “The use of industrial drones powered by AI and machine learning is a game-changer for the energy sector. It will make industrial work more efficient and safer, while empowering workers with powerful new digital tools and important, future-focused skills.”

Update: Dec 5, 6 a.m.: Amount raised was amended to $33 million.

Output: Kespry has raised $33m in series C funding for its industrial drones. California-based Kespry provides industries such as construction and mining with drones to inspect sites and capture and process images of them. Users can draw out an area for analysis on an iPad using their finger. The drone then works out a flight path, carries out the inspection and delivers results analysed with artificial intelligence and machine learning. Kespry will use the funding, led by G2VP, to invest in sales, marketing and research and development. Kespry has already raised $38m in earlier rounds.


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Half of UK firms unprepared for data protection regulations
 Visit our privacy policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Output: Just half of companies in the UK are prepared for the EU's incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and a similar proportion of IT workers said cybersecurity had been covered in training, according to a report. When GDPR, designed to strengthen data protections, comes into force, non-compliant organisations could face large fines. Meanwhile, 82% of employers said they struggled to fill cybersecurity roles, possibly hinting at a skills gap.


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Warehouses are growing up, average build sizes double from 2001
 NEW YORK—Those boxes piling up on your doorstep over the holidays don’t ship from Santa’s workshop. As Americans spend more money shopping online, real estate developers are sinking record amounts of money into new warehouse space, building bigger, taller structures to meet the needs of e-commerce — and the robots that help it along.

Builders spent $2.6 billion (U.S.) on U.S. warehouse construction in September, more than triple the figure in September 2012, according to the census. The size of the average warehouse completed this year was 188,000 square feet, according to a report published this week by CBRE Group Inc., more than double the size in 2001. Developers are also raising their roofs, with ceiling heights up 21 per cent over that period.

Warehouses are getting bigger for the same reason retailers and logistics firms are building more of them.

“It’s the notion of the endless aisle,” said Joe Dunlap, a managing director at CBRE, where he leads the supply chain advisory practice. A retailer that stocks 30,000 items in its stores might offer 10 times as many items for sale online. More stock requires larger footprints. Higher ceilings accommodate mezzanine levels, letting operators cram more shelves into a building.

Today’s industrial buildings require thicker concrete floors to support heavy machinery used to automate the warehouse process, Dunlap said.

While builders are pouring money into next-generation warehouses, venture capital firms are stoking competition in warehouse automation. Since Amazon.com Inc. acquired bot-maker Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012, a new batch of robot makers has burst on the scene, including Geek+, which has raised $22 million. 6 River Systems Inc., a robotics company founded by former Kiva employees, scored a $15-million round, while RightHand, which makes a robo-arm, added $8 million to its war chest.

Meanwhile, warehouses are likely to keep getting bigger and more expensive.

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Output: Real estate developers spent $2.6bn on warehouse construction in the US in September alone, more than three times the amount spent in the same period in 2012. The average size of a warehouse built in 2017 was 188,000 sq ft, more than twice the size in 2001, and ceiling heights are 21% higher, CBRE data shows. The cause for change is likely due to retailers and logistics companies looking to store products sold online, as e-commerce stock requires a larger footprint than brick-and-mortar counterparts' stock.


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Landlords will pay more CGT on selling properties in an SPV
 What does the UK property market currently look like?

Whilst the new Stamp Duty relief scheme stole the headlines, quietly in the budget small print was the news that those who invest in property using a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will, as of next year, pay an increase in Capital Gains Tax when they sell the property, due to a freeze on indexation allowance. Prior to this latest move, using an SPV as a way of holding investment property meant that a lower amount of tax was payable when such a property was sold. It’s the latest in a line of changes that have increasingly meant that Buy To Let isn’t the straightforward investment that it used to be a few years ago. We’ve already seen changes in the way that rental income is taxed, which although being phased in over the next two years will mean an increased personal tax bill for Landlords in January who still own properties in their own name, rather than under an SPV. Buy To Let lending legislation has also changed, with new rules being introduced by the Prudential Regulation Authority in October, making it more complicated to obtain lending to finance the purchase of an investment property.

GETTY Those who invest in property using a SVP will pay more when they sell it

Now, with this latest change in tax meaning that landlords will not only pay more tax on their rental income, but also any profit that they make from an increase in the value of a property over the time they own it, it’s easy to understand why many investors might start to question the viability of their portfolios. The problem is, the demand for quality, privately rented housing remains strong in most areas of the UK, and therefore if more landlords choose to exit the market as a result of increased taxation, whilst this may assist some First Time Buyers to get on the property ladder – which it would appear is what the Government intended as an outcome when changes were announced in 2016 - it may also cause issues elsewhere in the property ecosystem due to a decrease in available rental properties. If we look at the headline figures, you can see where the issues may lie. According to the latest data available from the Department for Communities and Local Government, there are currently an estimated 23.5million residential dwellings in the UK. 14.7million are owned by their occupiers, either with or without a mortgage. Approximately 4.7million are rented privately from landlords, whilst circa 4million dwellings are provided by social housing.

GETTY Out of the 23.5million residential dwellings in the UK, 4.7million are rented privately

Due to the fact that, over the last few years, it’s become harder to get a residential purchase mortgage due partly to the stricter lending criteria introduced in 2014 as part of the Mortgage Market Review, as well as rising house prices together with fewer homes available on the market to buy all making it harder for would-be purchasers to buy, the demand for quality private rented housing in the UK has grown. For example, predictions from consultants PwC suggest that an additional 1.8million privately rented homes will be required by that in 2025, which would represent a significant increase in the current levels of lettings stock available. Yet with increased taxation and costs of ownership, Buy To Let is looking less and less attractive to some landlords who are now selling up their portfolios. Meaning that, ironically, there is less rental stock available in the market in some areas, which has led to upwards pressure on rents in many parts of the UK. In fact, in their latest Buy To Let index released this week, national letting agents Your Move suggest that rents have increased on average at 2.4% so far this year.

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Cities such as Norwich and Cambridge have seen 6% rises in rents over the past twelve months, with the average monthly rent in the UK now at £887. As Brian Murphy, Head of Lending for Mortgage Advice Bureau, who’s Best Buys for Buy To Let mortgages has been released today explains, “Whilst interest rates remain at historic lows, it’s easy to see the initial attraction of investing in property. Returns on straightforward savings are still very low, and historically, as an asset class property has performed exceptionally well, and rental demand continues in many parts of the UK. That said, Buy To Let has become more complex to navigate over the past few years, not just in terms of taxation but also increased regulation, for example with Right To Rent checks and increased health and safety measures. Whereas previously, investing in property may have been perceived as an easy way to make money, it now takes a lot of preparation and an ongoing commitment by investors to ensure that they stay on top of their paperwork and property management in order to ensure that their asset maintains it’s viability.

Output: The UK budget has included a change to special purpose vehicle (SPV) regulations that will require landlords to pay more capital gains tax when selling a property, as a result of a freeze of their indexation allowance. Formerly, investment properties held in an SPV attracted a lower level of tax when they were sold. The move may dent the buy to let market further after the Prudential Regulation Authority brought out regulations in October that have complicated the financing of investment property purchases.


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How an independent panel could ration Medicare services
 Dec. 7 marks the end of the 2017 Medicare open enrollment period. The goal of open enrollment is for Medicare beneficiaries to be able to choose the best possible plan for their needs. The U.S. Senate has its own opportunity to help promote greater choice for older adults in Medicare by joining the House in voting to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

IPAB was included as a last-minute addition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. It would establish a 15-member commission all appointed by the president and vested with the responsibility to make arbitrary reductions in Medicare. These changes would be mandatory and would automatically become law unless Congress passed legislation by a two-thirds majority to make equivalent cuts.

IPAB’s inherent danger exists in both its composition and its mission. Appointees would not be subject to Senate confirmation and there would be no guarantee of consumer representation. Further, we don’t even know who these people will be — the president isn’t required to name members until Medicare spending reaches a certain threshold, triggering IPAB.

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The Independent Payment Advisory Board would not only make recommendations for cuts — it would also be required to implement these spending cuts rapidly, perhaps within a year. This could lead to payment cuts to providers and could exacerbate the current problem of physicians, particularly specialists, not accepting new Medicare patients.

Half of Medicare beneficiaries earn less than $23,500 a year, or just twice the poverty limit, according to Census figures. Any cuts to Medicare or program coverage limits would have a dire impact on these vulnerable seniors who are dependent on Medicare and other programs for assistance.

The work of IPAB would result in Congress abdicating its more than 50-year responsibility in setting Medicare policy. Passing this responsibility to a small group of unelected and unaccountable individuals is unfair and dangerous to the future of Medicare and those it serves.

The opportunity exists to repeal IPAB before it is ever convened. The Senate could join the House and pass a bipartisan bill, House Resolution 849, to repeal IPAB immediately. Or there is already bipartisan legislation pending in the Senate on IPAB repeal which could be considered. One of these bills is sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; the other bill is sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. Clearly, this issue transcends the partisanship often associated with the ACA.

A vote on IPAB repeal could happen this month in the Senate. A separate bipartisan vote was taken by Congress to prevent any funds to be spent to establish IPAB. It is time to take the ultimate step and repeal IPAB once and for all.

As advocates for older adults both in San Diego and nationally, we work to protect beneficiary access to the essential care and services provided by Medicare.

There are ways to improve the health care system and strengthen Medicare’s solvency at the same time — using more electronic health records, providing more innovations in delivery systems and treatments, and focusing more on outcomes. Some of the reforms in the ACA have already accomplished this. IPAB would set us back and possibly introduce rationing of care and services for the first time in Medicare’s history.

It’s a safe assumption that many older Americans who depend on Medicare have no idea about the cuts Medicare will be facing. It’s an even safer assumption that once IPAB-related cuts impact them, these seniors will be angry. After all, 89 percent of seniors want Congress and President Trump to “keep the promise and integrity of Medicare without cuts to the program,” according to a 2016 Morning Consult poll. The same poll found that only 9 percent of seniors think that “government officials should be able to make changes to Medicare without the approval of Congress.”

We call on California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both dedicated supporters of Medicare and those it serves, to support IPAB repeal and keep the job of Medicare reform where it belongs — in Congress.

Blancato is executive director of the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs based in Washington D.C. and board chair of the American Society on Aging. Downey, past chair of the California Commission on Aging, is the president and CEO of Serving Seniors in San Diego.

Output: There is currently an opportunity in the US Senate to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) which currently holds the power to make arbitrary reductions from Medicare. At present any changes that the IPAB makes are mandatory unless legislation is passed by Congress with a two-thirds majority. IPAB itself is only triggered once Medicare spending reaches a certain spending threshold, at which point the President must appoint a 15-member commission to address the budget costs. This system is neither transparent nor a guarantee of consumer representation, with IPAB obliged to implement any cuts it proposes at a fast pace. Such a move would pose a risk to Medicare beneficiaries, exacerbating current issues with physicians and specialists unable to accept new patients. These cuts would endanger the half of Medicare beneficiaries who earn less than $23,500, and the seniors that depend on Medicare programs for assistance. There is strong bipartisan support for repeal of the IPAB, with one bill already passed in the house calling for immediate repeal and further legislation pending in the Senate. Indeed, one vote has already been passed to deny any funds to establishing the IPAB. Should the IPAB be called into action, it may represent the first time that Medicare has its care and services rationed.


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Germany adds 150 MW of solar in October
 In October, Germany Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) registered new photovoltaic systems with a total capacity of 148.9 MW. Of this amount, 39.4 MW comes from 15 ground-mounted PV plants, of which some were awarded in tenders for large-scale solar and some are for installations of up to 750 kW. The remaining capacity, around 109.4 MW, is represented by 6,141 smaller projects mostly rooftop PV installations.

In the first 10 months of 2017, around 1,460 MW of new PV systems were registered in Germany. If this growth trend continues, the 2.5 GW corridor set as a target by the German government will once again fall short this year. However, the newly installed capacity in 2017 will probably be higher than the two previous years, when it reached around 1,500 MW annually each time. Meanwhile, the country’s cumulative installed PV power base has increased to 42.7 GW, as of the end of October 2017.

In the meantime, the EU Commission has given the green light for Germany’s new regulation for tenant’s solar power supply. Projects selected under this scheme, however, are recorded separately by the Bundesnetzagentur since the law was published at the end of July. In October, five new registrations were added. Since July, 24 PVsystems for the supply of tenants with a total output of 464.9 kilowatts have been registered with the Bonn-based authority.

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Solar subsidies will remain stable in December and will not increase in January. Depending on the size of the roof system, the FIT is 10.61 to 12.20 € cents/kWh. For solar power systems exceeding 100 kW, the FIT will be 8.44 € cent/kWh. For direct marketing, which is mandatory for all PV systems with a capacity of more than 100 KW, tariffs will range between 8.84 and 12.60 € cents/kWh, depending on the size of the plants.

Output: Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) added 148.9 MW of new photovoltaic facilities in October taking 2017's total to 1,460 MW, meaning it's likely to miss this government's 2.5 GW target. The new installations include 39.4 MW generated from 15 ground-mounted PV facilities and 109.4 MW from 6,141 smaller installations, largely being rooftop facilities. By the end of October, the accumulated PV power systems had risen to 42.7 GW.


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Argentina allows residential power sales to the grid
 The Argentinean Senate has approved the law of Distributed Renewable Generation, with 65 votes for and none against, according to a statement provided to pv magazine by Marcelo Álvarez, from local renewable energy industry body, Cámara Argentina de Energías Renovables (CADER). The Senate vote was the final necessary step to the introduction of the law, following preliminary approval by the Chamber of Deputies in September.

Commenting, Álvarez said the government, and relevant authorities, need to rigorously regulate the new law, particularly with regard to how the guaranteed fiscal, financial and tariff incentives will be used.

The new provisions are expected to come into play in the first quarter of 2018, according to Alvarez. The wording of the law, approved by the Chamber of Deputies, resulted from the various bills on distributed generation, which were presented by all Argentinian political forces over the past years. The resulting, unified, text introduces a net metering scheme that that will enable owners of small and middle-sized solar and renewable energy power generators to sell excess electricity to the national grid.

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It further states that all construction projects on public buildings will include the use of distributed generation facilities from renewable sources, and that distribution companies cannot add any additional charges for network maintenance, access fees, electrical backups, or any other type of tax associated with the installation of distributed generation systems.

A special fund, FODIS, worth around 500 million pesos (US$28.7 million) will be created, to help homeowners and small and medium enterprises resolve the issue of financing. The law could also include a series of fiscal benefits for prosumers, which will come from an additional fund of 200 million pesos ($11.5 million).

Output: Argentina's Senate has granted approval of the Distributed Renewable Generation law, with the legislation due to come into effect in Q1 2018. The law allows small and middle-size solar and renewable energy power generator owners to sell spare electricity to the national grid. The legislation also mandates the use of renewable energy distributed generation facilities for all public building construction projects. Distribution companies will also be prevented from imposing charges, such as access fees, network maintenance, electrical backups or taxes, on distributed energy generation projects.


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Prototype can show AR object behind and in front of real objects
 That’s where researchers at the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences think they can help. A prototype augmented-reality display they’ve come up with can show a virtual image that both blocks the real-world objects sitting behind it and can itself be blocked by other real-world objects placed in front of it.

Hong Hua, an optical sciences professor at the University of Arizona and coauthor of a recently published paper on the work, says the display—made initially for just one eye—is kind of like a telescope system. Lenses image a real-world view on a spatial light modulator (these are used to control beams of light in things like projectors), which is used to make a mask that, pixel by pixel, blocks out the portion of the real world that the virtual object will sit in front of. The modulated light and the virtual image then travel through the eyepiece and reach your eye.

Hua, it should be noted, is also a consultant for the mysterious augmented-reality startup Magic Leap and is listed as an inventor on some of the company’s patent applications and patents, including two patents granted in 2017 for a headset with a see-through display featuring mutual occlusion and opaqueness control that looks very similar to this work. She won’t say precisely what she does for Magic Leap, but she does say this academic research is unrelated. Still, given its importance for making AR seem realistic, it would make sense if the company were also pursuing the work (when asked about it, Magic Leap had no comment).

Hua says a big challenge to making this kind of dual occlusion work in AR is dealing with light—specifically, you have to be able to precisely control light from the real world in order to superimpose, say, a digital teapot onto a shelf so it appears to be in front of things like a can of compressed air as well as behind a can of spray paint (as Hua and graduate student Austin Wilson did with their prototype). Head-mounted displays available today can’t do that.

In order to make it eventually work in real time in an AR headset, Hua says, you’d need a depth sensor, which is becoming increasingly common on headsets such as HoloLens.

The hardware needed to make this kind of occlusion possible would also have to get a lot smaller. Right now it’s pretty bulky, she says, because she and Wilson were concentrating on making the system inexpensive rather than compact. They’re working on a new prototype now to make it wearable, Hua says, but it will still be helmet-size.

“To make it into the popular glasses form factor is probably going to take a while,” she says.

Output: Researchers from the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences have created a prototype for an augmented reality (AR) display that can accurately show depth, with AR objects able to be superimposed upon real-world objects and appear simultaneously to be behind and in front of other objects. The display, presently only made for one eye, uses lenses to modulate light to create the appearance that a virtual object is situated physically in reality. The prototype will eventually be made smaller and involve a depth sensor and be incorporated into headsets.


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Alibaba's AI biometrics system coming to Shanghai subway
 A Shanghai Metro train. The system operates more than 4,000 trains on 17 lines and has 367 stations in its network. Photo: Zigor Aldama

Output: Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group is set to deploy its artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the first time in the country's transport sector. In a joint statement, Alibaba and the Shanghai Shentong Metro Group said users of the Shanghai Metro would be able to purchase tickets and access travel information using Alibaba's far-field voice and facial recognition technology. No launch dates were given, but the move forms part of China's ambitious plan to develop an AI industry worth $150bn.


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Inside the Resurgence of Home-Based Primary Care
 Dr. Thomas Cornwell has conducted more than 32,000 house calls over his time in the health care field. He began seeing patients at home more than 20 years ago, even developing x-rays in the driveways of his patients, where he visited them for primary care at home.

And to Cornwell, doing that many visits doesn’t strike him as unusual. It’s the way medicine, particularly primary care services, used to be done in America, he said during a discussion on in-home care at the Alzheimer’s Association Symposium in Illinois in November.

In 1930, 40% of health care was done at home. By 1960, that figure had dropped to 10%, and in 1980, it was less than 1% of care. While home health care reaches millions of patients per year, Cornwell is on a mission to drive savings, work in tangent with home health nurses and bring primary care options back to the home setting.

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Primary care spreading

Cornwell is the CEO of the Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI), a not-for-profit organization that aims to expand house call practices throughout the country, and founder of Northwestern Medicine HomeCare Physicians. A practicing physician for more than 30 years, Cornwell is currently working on home-based primary care training initiatives to develop house call practices at different institutional systems in the U.S.

With a multimillion dollar grant, home-based primary care trainings are taking place this year and in 2018 at eight Centers of Excellence (COEs) by COE faculty.

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The COEs include the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio; Medstar House Call Program in Washington, D.C.; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago; Truman Schnabel House Calls Program/University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; University of Arizona Center on Aging within the College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona; University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Fayetteville, Arkansas; and University of California San Francisco.

“[There is] truly remarkable quality care in the home,” Cornwell said during the presentation, noting that some physicians have questioned how primary care can be conducted in the home.

Some have even told Cornwell he is “begging for a lawsuit” by performing health care in home settings. However, Cornwell notes that addressing the health care needs of just a certain population of Medicare patients, even treating them at home, can have a huge impact.

For example, just 5% of the Medicare population consumes about 50% of the total spending, he said. In addition, 1% of the Medicare population consume 23% of all Medicare costs—and these are patients typically with five or more chronic diseases, who also have some functional impairment. Providing primary care at home can likely reduce the exorbitant spending among this group by reducing hospitalizations and adding chronic care and preventive treatment.

Future benefit

Cornwell has his sights set far beyond training initiatives with institutions. He hopes that home-based primary care will become a Medicare benefit one day, rather than being conducted on a one-off basis through grants and demonstrations.

There is roughly one new Medicare benefit created about every decade—coincidentally, and home-based primary could be next, Cornwell said.

Indeed, there is hope for home-based primary care to become permanent. The Independence at Home Demonstration from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) works with medical practices to test primary care for seniors at home, and to evaluate whether Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions receive better care. So far, the demonstration, which originated in 2012, is a money-saver, according to reports from CMS.

The demonstration was extended beyond in its initial run, and a bill in Congress aims to make it permanent. The bill has yet to be voted on.

Written by Amy Baxter

Output: The rates of health care visits performed in peoples’ homes have declined sharply in the last century but there are signs that it may be undergoing a revival. One such indicator is the Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI), an institute that hopes to revive the practice of home healthcare visits which has fallen from 40 percent of interactions in 1930 to less than 1 percent by 1980. There are significant advantages to performing medical visits at home, particularly amongst Medicare beneficiaries. Half of Medicare spending is taken up by only 5 percent of the Medicare population, whilst 1 percent of beneficiaries account for 23 percent of total costs. These patients often suffer from a range of chronic conditions and performing primary care at home both removes the stress of a hospital visit without shouldering the costs involved as well. In addition, primary care at home also supports preventative treatment plans. The HCCI has received a multimillion-dollar grant to offer home-based primary care training and its CEO, Dr. Thomas Cornwell, hopes the practice will eventually become a Medicare benefit, rather than a one-off treatment. Currently, the Independence at Home Demonstration from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is testing the use of primary care for seniors at home to evaluate the benefits for patients with multiple chronic conditions.


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Uber loses bid to appeal driver case to UK Supreme Court
 Uber’s request to leapfrog the Court of Appeals and go straight to the UK Supreme Court in its bid to appeal a decision on workers’ rights, has been knocked back.

The private taxi app biz had wanted to skip the Court of Appeals and have its case heard in front of the higher court, but its application has been denied.

It’s the latest set-back in the taxi hailing biz’s attempts to appeal a 2016 decision in which the Central London Employment Tribunal ruled that two drivers – James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam – were Uber staff and so entitled to holiday pay, paid rest breaks and the minimum wage.

The firm appealed the decision, but lost that case last month at the Employment Appeal Tribunal, after which it applied to have its appeal heard at the Supreme Court.

"Now that Uber has been denied permission to go straight to the Supreme Court, they should take this opportunity to work with their drivers instead of fighting them at every stage," Aslam said of the decisions.

"We've already beaten Uber twice and are prepared to do so again in the Court of Appeal."

Jason Moyer-Lee, general secretary of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain, which is backing Farrar and Aslam's case, said the latest decision was "another blow to Uber's legal strategy behind denying workers their rights".

He added: "The IWGB would encourage Uber yet again to stop wasting everyone's time and simply focus on providing minimum wage and holiday pay to the thousands of drivers who have been deprived of their rights for years."

Uber’s employment practices have also come under scrutiny from MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, which wrote to the firm (PDF) at the end of last month asking for more information on driver and passenger safety.

Chair Rachel Reeves said that Uber had failed to give specifics on how many drivers were working more than 70 and 80 hours a week - the biz had said just that less than 6 per cent of drivers spend more than 60 hours logged into the app per week.

“It is strange that a data-driven business like Uber appears unable to answer our question on how many of its drivers are working more than 70 and 80 hours a week. We expect them to now respond with the missing figures,” Reeves said.

She also asked for information on when driver hour limits would be introduced in the UK, and what those limits would be, per day and per week, per driver. ®

Output: The UK arm of ride-hailing service Uber has been denied an application to fight a workers' rights case in the Supreme Court, rather than the Court of Appeals. Uber is appealing a 2016 decision by the Central London Employment Tribunal that drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam were considered staff, and entitled to holiday and sick pay. Jason Moyer-Lee, general secretary of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain urged Uber to "stop wasting everyone's time and focus on providing minimum wage and holiday pay to the... drivers who have been deprived of their rights for years".


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Mariah Carey, Motorhead among musicians ready to accept Monero
 Will you be doing your holiday shopping with cryptocurrency? The open-source cryptocurrency Monero is banking on it.

On Tuesday (Dec. 5), Monero announced its new online shopping initiative called Project Coral Reef that allows music fans to purchase holiday gifts and merchandise from over 35 artists, including Mariah Carey, G-Eazy, Kaskade, Motorhead, Toby Keith, Fall Out Boy and more at discounted prices.

“As cryptocurrencies become more popular, it’s important that my fans have choices when it comes to how they buy my songs and merchandise,” said G-Eazy in a statement. “Given Monero is one of the safest, most secure and most private cryptocurrencies, it’s one of the best options for my fans this holiday season.”

As well as offering an alternate payment option, Project Coral Reef is a community-driven effort intended to raise awareness for Monero’s secure and private system that runs with a unique protocol and code-base and possesses with algorithmic differences relating to blockchain obfuscation. Monero points this in contrast to the more widely known BitCoin — which just passed $10,000 per coin — where transaction information is publicly available on the blockchain.

“Cryptocurrencies are fast becoming more popular to make purchases, but not all currencies are created equal and not all are as private and secure as people think. Project Coral Reef is a very important step towards the mainstream adoption of Monero,” said Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni, lead maintainer of Monero, in a statement. “For the first time, consumers around the world can use Monero to securely and privately buy their favorite artists’ music and merchandise.”

The new initiative is launching in partnership with payment processor GloBee, music merchandising companies Global Merchandising Services and Manhead Merchandise, as well as the involved recording artists.

“Our focus is to create the best environment for fans to engage with their favorite artists’ merchandise and licensed products,” said Christopher Drinkwater, head of e-commerce for Global Merchandise, in a statement. “With the emergence of cryptocurrencies as an increasingly popular way for consumers to purchase goods, it makes sense that we partner with a trusted digital currency such as Monero to allow fans to transact with artists in a way in which they have never been able to before.”

“As someone on the front lines of the music merchandise business, I know how passionate fans are in supporting their favorite band or artist,” added Chris Cornell, founder and CEO of Manhead Merchandise. “I also know how much they value keeping their financial information private. Giving fans the option to use their Monero to purchase awesome gear at our artists’ stores this holiday season is a win-win for our artists, and our fans’ right to privacy.”

Find out more about Project Coral Reef here and see a list of all participating artists here.

Output: Dozens of musicians, including Mariah Carey, G-Eazy and Motorhead, are to accept the Monero cryptocurrency for merchandise. Monero's Project Coral Reef retail platform lets music fans buy items from more than 35 artists at discounted prices. In addition to being an alternative payment option, Project Coral Reef also seeks to raise awareness of Monero's secure and private system, which, unlike bitcoin, does not make transactions publicly available on the blockchain.


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Indian bike-sharing company Mobycy raises $500,000 seed funding
 Bicycle sharing startup Mobycy raises seed funding

Credit: Thinkstock

Gurgaon-based Bycyshare Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which owns bicycle sharing startup Mobycy, has raised $500,000 (Rs 3.2 crore) in a seed round from a US-based angel investor, the company said.

The startup, which was launched earlier this year by the former vice president and marketing head of digital wallet firm Mobikwik, Akash Gupta, will use the capital to enhance operations, Mobycy said in a press statement.

“We are starting with 5,000 bikes and the plan is to expand to at least five or six cities within the first six months. We are also developing the technology and building the app. The fund will also be used for team building. We are a team of 10 now,” Gupta told VCCircle over the phone.

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Mobycy’s smart bikes are enabled with internet of things (IoT) locking devices and global positioning system (GPS)-based tracking sensors. They can be operated without docks or stations for parking.

The startup claims that a user will just have to fire up the Mobycy app to find a bike, unlock it with the QR code provided to him or her. Once the trip is completed, the bike has to be pared at a safe place. The only exceptions are gated community and private compounds.

Mobycy currently rents out bikes at Re 1 per hour. The monthly plan requires users to make a security deposit of Rs 999, which is refundable, besides Rs 99 for two-hour rides per day. Users will have to sign up using their Aadhaar details. Students, however, can enrol using their college photo identification card, and will have to pay Rs 499 as security deposit.

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The bicycles will initially be available across Delhi-NCR, including metro stations, markets and popular haunts such as North Campus and Cyber City.

Earlier this month, VCCircle had reported Gupta’s decision to quit Mobikwik to launch his own green-tech venture.

Gupta had started his career with IT major Infosys as a software engineer in September 2005. He also had stints in research firm Frost & Sullivan, Dell Technologies, and Airtel’s DTH division, where he rose through the ranks to become the national acquisition head, besides e-tailer Snapdeal. He joined Mobikwik as general manager, marketing, and got elevated as vice president and head of marketing.

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Output: Indian start-up Mobycy, owned by Bycyshare Technologies, has raised $500,000 in seed funding from a US angel investor. The company, launched by a former marketing chief of Mobikwik, Akash Gupta, offers internet of things-enabled bikes fitted with GPS sensors. The bikes cost INR1 ($0.015) an hour and customers use their Aadhaar identification number details to register for the service. Mobycy does not use docks or parking stations and is starting with 5,000 bikes. Mobycy bikes are available across Delhi's National Capital Region, and the funding will be used to enhance operations, the company said.


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QR code payments coming to Hong Kong's taxi service
 But new method receives lukewarm response from taxi industry insiders, who say more incentives and data protection needed to get drivers on board

Output: Hong Kong's e-payment operator Octopus has launched a QR code service aimed at transitioning the city's 40,000 taxi drivers away from cash. The smartphone service, which is also targeted at small sellers, removes the need for merchants to install card readers. So far the service has not proved widely popular. Taxi industry insiders said more data protection and incentives are needed to boost its uptake amongst drivers.


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Google launches DeepVariant AI to interpret genetic data
 DeepVariant helps turn high-throughput sequencing readouts into a picture of a full genome. It automatically identifies small insertion and deletion mutations and single-base-pair mutations in sequencing data.

High-throughput sequencing became widely available in the 2000s and has made genome sequencing more accessible. But the data produced using such systems has offered only a limited, error-prone snapshot of a full genome. It is typically challenging for scientists to distinguish small mutations from random errors generated during the sequencing process, especially in repetitive portions of a genome. These mutations may be directly relevant to diseases such as cancer.

A number of tools exist for interpreting these readouts, including GATK, VarDict, and FreeBayes. However, these software programs typically use simpler statistical and machine-learning approaches to identifying mutations by attempting to rule out read errors.

“One of the challenges is in difficult parts of the genome, where each of the [tools] has strengths and weaknesses,” says Brad Chapman, a research scientist at Harvard’s School of Public Health who tested an early version of DeepVariant. “These difficult regions are increasingly important for clinical sequencing, and it’s important to have multiple methods.”

DeepVariant was developed by researchers from the Google Brain team, a group that focuses on developing and applying AI techniques, and Verily, another Alphabet subsidiary that is focused on the life sciences.

The team collected millions of high-throughput reads and fully sequenced genomes from the Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) project, a public-private effort to promote genomic sequencing tools and techniques. They fed the data to a deep-learning system and painstakingly tweaked the parameters of the model until it learned to interpret sequenced data with a high level of accuracy.

Last year, DeepVariant won first place in the PrecisionFDA Truth Challenge, a contest run by the FDA to promote more accurate genetic sequencing.

“The success of DeepVariant is important because it demonstrates that in genomics, deep learning can be used to automatically train systems that perform better than complicated hand-engineered systems,” says Brendan Frey, CEO of Deep Genomics.

Output: Google has turned its AI capabilities towards making sense of genetic information, launching its artificial intelligence tool, DeepVariant, to make sense of a person's genomic detail. The AI has been developed by two Google off-shoots, Google Brain and Verily, to process high-throughput sequencing readouts which previously have often only offered a limited view of a full genome. The use of AI in genomics may allow for the identification of genetic causes for diseases and precision drug and treatment plans, overcoming the previously hindrances of data scale and complexity.


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Private rents may rise 5-6% across Ireland by 2019: Savills
 Surge into the rental market means the vacancy rate across Ireland is now just 1.31%, or 1.41% in Dublin. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

One in four people are now renting their home in Dublin, the highest figure since quarterly records began, with a new report predicting that the average rent in the capital will soar by 5-6 per cent a year to surpass €2,000 by 2019.

In a new analysis of Ireland's private rented market, John McCartney, economist with property agents Savills, finds that some 895,600 people are living in rented accommodation – up by 39,500, or 4.6 per cent, in the past 12 months, and by 42 per cent since the second quarter of 2007.

This represents 18.9 per cent of the population across the country, while in Dublin, the proportion of renters is at 24.3 per cent – these figures are the highest since quarterly records began.

They are also likely to be the highest since the home ownership boom began during the 1970s. Back in 2000, census figures show that the proportion of renters in Dublin was less than 10 per cent.

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"Property prices continue to advance faster than average earnings, creating an affordability challenge to home-ownership which is driving people into the rented sector," Mr McCartney said, adding that he expects the proportion of renters to continue to rise.

This surge into the rental market means that the vacancy rate across Ireland is now just 1.31 per cent, or 1.41 per cent in Dublin, and Savills expects rents to keep rising until the market reaches the “equilibrium” rate of 5.6 per cent.

“However this will not happen within the foreseeable future and so the outlook is for further rent inflation,” Mr McCartney says.

‘Chronic shortage’

Savills expects the vacancy rate to improve to 2.04 per cent by December 2019, which means that the “chronic shortage” will persist for the medium-term, as Mr McCartney says that at current new-build rates, “there is more chance of it [vacancy rate] falling than rising” and it “certainly won’t rise appreciably” over the next four-five years.

This tight supply means that rents will continue rising. Mr McCartney expects rents to rise by 5-6 per cent a year in Dublin until the end of 2019, and by 7.2 per cent across the country.

Latest figures from Daft.ie show that the average rent across Ireland is now €1,198 nationally, or €1,819 in Dublin’s city centre, which means that by end 2019, rents could have risen to €1,376 and €2,024, respectively.

However, rental inflation may be higher in certain properties, and a two-tier market is likely to develop with higher rents on properties exempt from rent controls.

The surge in rents means renters are increasingly moving to the commuter belts, just like those who sought to buy before them did.

“It may get to point where you can’t even rent in Dublin,” says Mr McCartney, adding that we are going to see people increasingly “commuting to rent” – but without the benefit of owning their own property.

Mr McCartney also sounds a warning note about the inflationary pressures rising rents will have on the economy, in terms of wage claims, as well as the “human cost”, of people being forced to commute long distances because they cannot afford to rent in big cities.

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Cash investors are also crowding out mortgage-financed landlords. The research shows about 61 per cent of privately-rented properties are owned outright by their landlords, up by almost 20 per cent since 2012. This means that just 39 per cent of rented properties have mortgages on them, down by 23,192 properties since 2012 – and 8,000 properties became mortgage-free in the last year alone.

For Mr McCartney, the flow is due to “small-time ordinary people” buying with cash and looking for a better yield on their money than that offered by deposits.

Output: One in four Dublin residents is renting their home, more than at any other time since quarterly records were instituted. The average rent in the area will rise by between 5% and 6% annually, and is expected to hit €2,000 by 2019, according estate agent Savills. Analysis of the Irish private rental market found that the number of renters has risen 4.6% in the past year, and 42% since Q2 2007. In 2000, just 10% of residents in the area were renting.


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Code.org gets funding from Gates Foundation for teacher training
 Code.org is getting $12 million in philanthropic funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors like auditor PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), as first reported by the Seattle Times. The organization also announced in a Medium post that it has reached ten million girls with student accounts on its platform.

The Code.org nonprofit trains teachers on how to teach computer science lessons to students from kindergarten through 12th grade. It also hosts Hour of Code activities for students to learn coding basics. This year’s Computer Science Education Week starts today and there are over 122,000 Hour of Code global events registered to happen throughout the week.

Output: Code.org, a non-profit that trains teachers on how to offer computer science lessons, has raised $12m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and PwC, among others. Code.org also hosts the Hour of Code programme, which will offer 122,000 events over the second week of December.


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Robots trained to predict future repercussions of their actions
 University of California, Berkeley, researchers have developed a robotic learning technology that enables robots to imagine the future of their actions so they can figure out how to manipulate objects they have never encountered before. In the future, this technology could help self-driving cars anticipate future events on the road and produce more intelligent robotic assistants in homes, but the initial prototype focuses on learning simple manual skills entirely from autonomous play.

Using this technology, called visual foresight, the robots can predict what their cameras will see if they perform a particular sequence of movements. These robotic imaginations are still relatively simple for now - predictions made only several seconds into the future - but they are enough for the robot to figure out how to move objects around on a table without disturbing obstacles. Crucially, the robot can learn to perform these tasks without any help from humans or prior knowledge about physics, its environment or what the objects are. That's because the visual imagination is learned entirely from scratch from unattended and unsupervised exploration, where the robot plays with objects on a table. After this play phase, the robot builds a predictive model of the world, and can use this model to manipulate new objects that it has not seen before.

"In the same way that we can imagine how our actions will move the objects in our environment, this method can enable a robot to visualize how different behaviors will affect the world around it," said Sergey Levine, assistant professor in Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineeing and Computer Sciences, whose lab developed the technology. "This can enable intelligent planning of highly flexible skills in complex real-world situations."

The research team will perform a demonstration of the visual foresight technology at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Long Beach, California, on December 5.

At the core of this system is a deep learning technology based on convolutional recurrent video prediction, or dynamic neural advection (DNA). DNA-based models predict how pixels in an image will move from one frame to the next based on the robot's actions. Recent improvements to this class of models, as well as greatly improved planning capabilities, have enabled robotic control based on video prediction to perform increasingly complex tasks, such as sliding toys around obstacles and repositioning multiple objects. UC Berkeley researchers have developed a robotic learning technology that enables robots to imagine the future of their actions so they can figure out how to manipulate objects they have never encountered before. In the future, this technology could help self-driving cars anticipate future events on the road and produce more intelligent robotic assistants in homes, but the initial prototype focuses on learning simple manual skills entirely from autonomous play. Credit: Roxanne Makasdjian and Stephen McNally, UC Berkeley

"In that past, robots have learned skills with a human supervisor helping and providing feedback. What makes this work exciting is that the robots can learn a range of visual object manipulation skills entirely on their own," said Chelsea Finn, a doctoral student in Levine's lab and inventor of the original DNA model.

With the new technology, a robot pushes objects on a table, then uses the learned prediction model to choose motions that will move an object to a desired location. Robot use the learned model from raw camera observations to teach themselves how to avoid obstacles and push objects around obstructions.

"Humans learn object manipulation skills without any teacher through millions of interactions with a variety of objects during their lifetime. We have shown that it possible to build a robotic system that also leverages large amounts of autonomously collected data to learn widely applicable manipulation skills, specifically object pushing skills," said Frederik Ebert, a graduate student in Levine's lab who worked on the project.

Since control through video prediction relies only on observations that can be collected autonomously by the robot, such as through camera images, the resulting method is general and broadly applicable. In contrast to conventional computer vision methods, which require humans to manually label thousands or even millions of images, building video prediction models only requires unannotated video, which can be collected by the robot entirely autonomously. Indeed, video prediction models have also been applied to datasets that represent everything from human activities to driving, with compelling results.

"Children can learn about their world by playing with toys, moving them around, grasping, and so forth. Our aim with this research is to enable a robot to do the same: to learn about how the world works through autonomous interaction," Levine said. "The capabilities of this robot are still limited, but its skills are learned entirely automatically, and allow it to predict complex physical interactions with objects that it has never seen before by building on previously observed patterns of interaction."

The Berkeley scientists are continuing to research control through video prediction, focusing on further improving video prediction and prediction-based control, as well as developing more sophisticated methods by which robots can collected more focused video data, for complex tasks such as picking and placing objects and manipulating soft and deformable objects such as cloth or rope, and assembly.

Output: A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a learning technology that gives robots the ability to predict the outcomes of their actions and therefore adjust accordingly. The tech, named 'visual foresight' can predict what cameras will see in the following seconds if they carry out a certain action. Sergey Levine, assistant professor for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science likens the ability to how humans interpret their own surroundings, explaining "this method can enable a robot to visualize how different behaviours will affect the world around it".


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Tortuga AgTech raises $2.4m for its indoor farming robotics
 Tortuga AgTech, a Denver-based robotics startup targeting controlled-environment fruit and vegetable growers has raised a $2.4 million Seed round.

Tortuga Agtech is developing robotic systems for harvesting fresh produce in controlled environments, from indoor hydroponics to greenhouses, starting with strawberries.

“Our products will enable advanced growing methods to compete with scale agriculture, which means growers will be able to grow better produce that’s also better for the planet,” says the company’s website.

The round was led by early-stage hardware VC Root Ventures and closed in September. Root Ventures is also an investor in Momentum Machines, San Francisco’s burger-making robot company, which raised $18.4 million in June.

Also participating in this round were Silicon Valley tech VCs Susa Ventures and Haystack, data-focused firm AME Cloud Ventures, AI and robotics VC Grit Labs, the Stanford-StartX Fund and SVG Partners, which runs the Salinas Valley-based Thrive Agtech Accelerator. AME Cloud is also an investor Zume Pizza, a pizza delivery company in the Bay Area with a robot for a chef, which raised $48 million in October.

Harvesting of row crops has been automated for decades, but harvesting of specialty crops, like nuts, fruits, and vegetables, remains an elusive skill for farm robotics startups. Not only do these crops vary greatly in size, height, and color, they can also be more delicate and require not just a light touch in picking, but immediate assessment and packing by size or quality.

Though high-tech indoor agriculture is ripe for robotics interventions because of the easier and more stable working conditions compared to the field, not many robotics startups have emerged servicing this kind of growing.

Spread is a Japanese indoor vertical farming company that will open an automated lettuce farm in early 2018 allowing for a 50% reduction in human labor, according to the company. Transplanting seedlings, managing the growth process, and harvesting will all be automated, according to the company’s website.

South San Francisco-based vertical farm Plenty’s CEO told Business Insider that the company uses tiny robots in its seeding process. Though the company is not yet commercially growing strawberries, CEO Matt Barnard told AgFunderNews this is in the works.

Most operating vertical farms today are growing only leafy greens and microgreens due to the short growing cycles and high yields. There are just a few growing strawberries such as Japan’s Ichigo Company.

Greenhouses, however, are gaining market share of strawberry cultivation worldwide. Though greenhouse-growing of strawberries in the US has not yet taken off, 24% of strawberries grown in the Netherlands, the worlds second-largest exporter of food (by value) grow in a greenhouse according to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics.

Also working on harvesting strawberries, but in outdoor environments, are Agrobot and Harvest Croo.

Output: Denver-based start-up Tortuga AgTech has completed a $2.4m seed round to support the development of its farming robots. The firm is focusing on controlled-environment agriculture, targeting everything from hydroponics to greenhouses. Automated harvesting of row crops has been around for decades but speciality crops, such as nuts and fruits, require more advanced robotics.


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Amazon eliminating human jobs through robotic investments: MIT
 From delivery drones to warehouse robots, Amazon has made no attempt to hide its ambitious goals for automation. Even as the company continues to hire thousands of new employees, increasing its employee numbers by about 40 percent over the last year, many jobs are also being filled by autonomous counterparts. An analysis published Monday by Quartz has found that the e-commerce giant’s large growth and hiring numbers do not mitigate the overall retail job losses that it helped cause. Because of Amazon’s investment in automation and robotic employees, the combined employment at Amazon and related retail companies will still decline by a net 24,000 jobs.

Back in 2012, Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, the warehouse robotics company, to help automate its order fulfillment operations. By 2015, when we paid a visit to an Amazon fulfillment center, human-robot symbiosis was floourishing as 2,000 orange robots worked alongside humans to keep shelves stocked. Then last year Amazon signed a deal with the U.K. to test delivery drones and made its first package delivery via drone.

Now, with 2017 drawing to a close, Amazon has added a dizzying 55,000 robots to its fleet, more than doubling its total number of robo-workers from 2016. Quartz’s estimates suggest that by the end of the year robots could make up 20 percent of the company’s workforce. As Amazon would no doubt point out, the company is indeed hiring at a blistering pace—and automation can have many large-scale benefits. But as we’ve argued before, the tricky part is making sure those benefits are evenly distributed.

Output: By the end of 2017, robots could make up 20% of Amazon's workforce, according to MIT Technology Review. The company has added 55,000 machines to its books amid a period of rapid expansion. Despite human staff increases of 40%, data from Quartz also revealed the number of human employees, both at the company and related retailers, is set to shrink by a net figure of 24,000.


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YouTube CEO addresses brand safety concerns
 Since June we have removed over 150,000 videos for violent extremism.

Machine learning is helping our human reviewers remove nearly five times as many videos than they were previously.

Today, 98 percent of the videos we remove for violent extremism are flagged by our machine-learning algorithms.

Our advances in machine learning let us now take down nearly 70 percent of violent extremist content within eight hours of upload and nearly half of it in two hours and we continue to accelerate that speed.

Since we started using machine learning to flag violent and extremist content in June, the technology has reviewed and flagged content that would have taken 180,000 people working 40 hours a week to assess.

As the CEO of YouTube, I’ve seen how our open platform has been a force for creativity, learning and access to information. I’ve seen how activists have used it to advocate for social change, mobilize protests, and document war crimes. I’ve seen how it serves as both an entertainment destination and a video library for the world. I’ve seen how it has expanded economic opportunity, allowing small businesses to market and sell their goods across borders. And I’ve seen how it has helped enlighten my children, giving them a bigger, broader understanding of our world and the billions who inhabit it.But I’ve also seen up-close that there can be another, more troubling, side of YouTube’s openness. I’ve seen how some bad actors are exploiting our openness to mislead, manipulate, harass or even harm.In the last year, we took actions to protect our community against violent or extremist content, testing new systems to combat emerging and evolving threats. We tightened our policies on what content can appear on our platform, or earn revenue for creators. We increased our enforcement teams. And we invested in powerful new machine learning technology to scale the efforts of our human moderators to take down videos and comments that violate our policies.Now, we are applying the lessons we’ve learned from our work fighting violent extremism content over the last year in order to tackle other problematic content. Our goal is to stay one step ahead of bad actors, making it harder for policy-violating content to surface or remain on YouTube.Human reviewers remain essential to both removing content and training machine learning systems because human judgment is critical to making contextualized decisions on content. Since June, our trust and safety teams have manually reviewed nearly 2 million videos for violent extremist content, helping train our machine-learning technology to identify similar videos in the future. We are also taking aggressive action on comments, launching new comment moderation tools and in some cases shutting down comments altogether. In the last few weeks we’ve used machine learning to help human reviewers find and terminate hundreds of accounts and shut down hundreds of thousands of comments. Our teams also work closely with NCMEC, the IWF, and other child safety organizations around the world to report predatory behavior and accounts to the correct law enforcement agencies.We will continue the significant growth of our teams into next year, with the goal of bringing the total number of people across Google working to address content that might violate our policies to over 10,000 in 2018.At the same time, we are expanding the network of academics, industry groups and subject matter experts who we can learn from and support to help us better understand emerging issues.We will use our cutting-edge machine learning more widely to allow us to quickly and efficiently remove content that violates our guidelines. In June we deployed this technology to flag violent extremist content for human review and we’ve seen tremendous progress.Because we have seen these positive results, we have begun training machine-learning technology across other challenging content areas, including child safety and hate speech.We understand that people want a clearer view of how we’re tackling problematic content. Our Community Guidelines give users notice about what we do not allow on our platforms and we want to share more information about how these are enforced. That’s why in 2018 we will be creating a regular report where we will provide more aggregate data about the flags we receive and the actions we take to remove videos and comments that violate our content policies. We are looking into developing additional tools to help bring even more transparency around flagged content.We’re also taking actions to protect advertisers and creators from inappropriate content. We want advertisers to have peace of mind that their ads are running alongside content that reflects their brand’s values. Equally, we want to give creators confidence that their revenue won’t be hurt by the actions of bad actors.We believe this requires a new approach to advertising on YouTube, carefully considering which channels and videos are eligible for advertising. We are planning to apply stricter criteria, conduct more manual curation, while also significantly ramping up our team of ad reviewers to ensure ads are only running where they should. This will also help vetted creators see more stability around their revenue. It’s important we get this right for both advertisers and creators, and over the next few weeks, we’ll be speaking with both to hone this approach.We are taking these actions because it’s the right thing to do. Creators make incredible content that builds global fan bases. Fans come to YouTube to watch, share, and engage with this content. Advertisers, who want to reach those people, fund this creator economy. Each of these groups is essential to YouTube’s creative ecosystem—none can thrive on YouTube without the other—and all three deserve our best efforts.As challenges to our platform evolve and change, our enforcement methods must and will evolve to respond to them. But no matter what challenges emerge, our commitment to combat them will be sustained and unwavering. We will take the steps necessary to protect our community and ensure that YouTube continues to be a place where creators, advertisers, and viewers can thrive.

Output: Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, has laid out what the company's plans to combat the "bad actors" using the site to post controversial or extremist material. In a blog post, she said the measures already taken had yielded positive results, with 70% of "violent, extremist content" taken down within eight hours of posting, and half removed within two hours, thanks to YouTube's sophisticated machine-learning algorithms. Wojcicki also pledged to "significantly" ramp up numbers of human moderators, apply stricter criteria when authorising channels and videos' eligibility for advertising.


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Amazon Alexa soon to accept payments for skills via human voice
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Developers and businesses making skills for Amazon’s Alexa will soon be able to accept Amazon Pay for purchases directly within voice apps from the Alexa Skills Store. The news was announced today during the Alexa State of the Union at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. Among other Alexa news shared today are plans to bring Alexa to Australia and New Zealand in early 2018 and to add $100 million to the Alexa Fund for international investment.

Initial skills categories to accept Amazon Pay include donations, restaurants, and event ticketing.

Skills with plans to adopt one-time payments for premium content include Teen Jeopardy!, Sports Jeopardy!, Match Game, Heads Up, and History’s Ultimate History Quiz. A developer preview was made available today, while other tools to enable transactions will be made more widely available early next year. Double Jeopardy! was one of the first skills to accept paid subscriptions. Millions have been doled out thus far to developers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, and today the program was extended to developers in Australia, Japan, India, and Canada.

Other changes on the way in early 2018 include a public beta for the recently announced Gadgets API so developers can start making games that interact with the Echo Buttons for multi-person gameplay that go on sale next month.

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Alexa skills developers accepting payments will likely take advantage of the ability to understand unique voices, a feature that started bringing personalization to Alexa users this fall and extended the service to developers Tuesday.

Native payments for Alexa skills follows a series of recent efforts by Amazon to compensate makers of those skills. Starting last spring, Amazon began to pay developers based on the level of engagement a skill is able to produce.

Skills like flash briefings and streaming audio are still able to run advertisements, but ads are otherwise forbidden for Alexa developers.

Output: Owners of Amazon Echo devices will soon be able to pay for restaurants and tickets or make donations by asking virtual assistant Alexa. The announcement was made during the recent Alexa State of the Union at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas, where developers of skills for Alexa planning to adopt one-time vocal payments included Teen Jeopardy! and History’s Ultimate History Quiz. At the same event, Amazon revealed it was bringing Alexa to Australia and New Zealand in early 2018, while a public beta for the Gadgets API aimed at developers of multi-person games would also launch next year.


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Target becomes latest retail giant to launch mobile wallet
 Following in the footsteps of Walmart and CVS, Target has become the latest American retail giant to launch its own mobile payments service.

The firm has added a wallet feature to it Android and iOS apps. Customers with Target-branded REDcard credit and debit cards can add them to the wallet and then pay at the checkout by scanning a QR code.

The app also integrates with Target's Cartwheel offers and Weekly Ad coupons, letting users redeem them with a scan of a barcode.

Mike McNamara, chief information and digital officer, Target, says: "Guests are going to love the convenience of having payment, Cartwheel offers, Weekly Ad coupons and GiftCards all in one place with Wallet."

Target was one of the driving forces behind MCX, a QR code-based mobile wallet joint venture with other retail giants such as Walmart, CVS and 7-Eleven that hoped to bypass credit cards, reducing fees.

MCX mothballed its CurrentC app last year but Walmart, CVS and now Target are still betting on the barcode technology, rather than the NFC favoured by Apple, Google and Samsung.

Output: US retailer Target has added a payment wallet to its app. Customers with Target's REDcard credit and debit cards can add them to the app, available for both Android and iOS, and make payments at the store's checkouts by scanning a QR code. Rival outlets Walmart and CVS also recently launched similar payment wallets. "Guests are going to love the convenience of having payment, Cartwheel offers, Weekly Ad coupons and GiftCards all in one place with Wallet", said Mike McNamara, Target's chief information and digital officer.


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R3 makes its Corda blockchain software available on AWS
 AWS customers can now build and deploy applications for finance and commerce on Corda

December 5, 2017 (New York/London/Singapore) – Enterprise software firm R3’s Corda has become one of the first distributed ledger technology (DLT) solutions available to users of Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling AWS’s network of users to build and deploy applications for finance and commerce on R3’s Corda. Now available on AWS Marketplace, R3’s Corda allows AWS users to develop CorDapps, or deploy example CorDapps from R3 directly from AWS Marketplace. Corda is an enterprise-grade DLT solution that removes costly friction in business transactions by enabling institutions to transact directly using smart contracts, while ensuring high levels of privacy and security. Corda can be built on by third party providers who can then operate and earn revenue from DLT applications using the platform’s common code and protocols to ensure interoperability. The network of companies working with R3 to develop CorDapps has grown to over 60 from a wide variety of industries and regions across the globe. These companies join R3’s wider ecosystem of over 100 banks, financial institutions, regulators, trade associations, professional services firms and technology companies. R3 recently launched version 2.0 of Corda, adding functionality to the stable core application programming interface (API) achieved in version 1.0. This means CorDapp developers on AWS can build on Corda v2.0 safe in the knowledge that any future improvements and enhancements to the platform will not disrupt their work.

David E. Rutter, CEO of R3, comments: “Corda is a leading DLT platform for businesses and this announcement marks a significant milestone for enterprise-grade blockchain technology. Corda’s strength comes from its vibrant ecosystem of interoperable applications, and extending the pool of potential developers to the vast network of Amazon Web Services users will spark further innovation amongst businesses building innovative DLT apps for finance and commerce.”

Download the Corda AMI here and find out more about the AWS blockchain partner programme here.

About R3

R3 is an enterprise software firm working with a network of over 160 banks, financial institutions, regulators, trade associations, professional services firms and technology companies to develop on Corda, its distributed ledger platform designed specifically for businesses. R3’s global team of over 140 professionals in nine countries is supported by over 2,000 technology, financial, and legal experts drawn from its global member base. R3 is backed by investment of USD 107 million from over 40 firms Corda is the outcome of over two years of intense research and development by R3 and its members and meets the highest standards of the banking industry, yet is applicable to any commercial scenario. It records, manages and executes institutions’ financial agreements in perfect synchrony with their peers, creating a world of frictionless commerce. Learn more at r3.com.

Press contact:

R3:

Nick Warren/Nick Murray-Leslie

Chatsworth Communications

+44 (0)207 440 9780

[email protected]

Charley Cooper

R3

+1 929 329 1550

[email protected]

Output: R3 has made it's distributed ledger software Corda available on Amazon Web Services, offering the platform to business and finance firms to use or develop its apps, called CorDapps. Corda is a consortium of 70 banks that make use of distributed ledgers, based on blockchain, for financial services. Corda was previously hosted on Microsoft Azure.


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Korea's online-only bank expands into insurance
 K bank, Kakao Bank strives to expand, stimulate banking industry

By Nam Hyun-woo

K bank, Korea's first online-only bank, started selling bancassurance products Monday, expanding its around-the-clock accessibility to another business.

The bank released 20 savings and protection type policies, called "mobilessurance," through a single mobile application.

Four domestic life insurers and four non-life insurers are selling their policies through K bank.

The life insurers are Hanwha Life, a K bank shareholder, IBK Insurance, BNP Paribas Cardif Life and Kyobo Lifeplanet Life. The non-life insurers are Hanwha General, Hyundai Marine, MG Non-life and KB Insurance. Lotte Insurance will also join them after wrapping up a product review.

According to K bank, it offers consumer 24/7 phone-consultation services, mobile messaging and e-mail. As well as consultations, a subscription is also available around the clock, the bank said.

Bancassurance is the latest expansion of the Korean internet-only banks' business domain and they are making efforts to grow their playing field to meet growing customer demand.

Since their launch this year, K bank and the other online-only bank, Kakao Bank, have enjoyed explosive popularity. At the end of October, Kakao Bank had 4 million accounts, while K bank had half a million.

Their emergence has created a ripple effect in the stagnant banking industry here. As online-only banks made aggressive sales pitches with their accessibility and fresh products, conventional banks hiked their deposit interest rates from between 1 percent and 2 percent to between 2 percent and 3 percent. They also lowered loan rates by an average of 0.05 percentage points.

To meet the growing demand, online-only banks are now preparing new products. Along with deposits and lending, they are preparing for loans for house rental deposits and mortgages.

Kakao Bank plans to roll out rental deposit loans early next year as its customer base is mostly young adults who tend to pay monthly rent or jeonse deposits. Jeonse refers to Korea's unique housing lease system, under which a tenant pays around 60 to 70 percent of the full price of the property to landlords for a certain period, generally two years without paying rent.

The next business online-only banks are eyeing is credit cards

According to sources, Kakao Bank has issued 1.5 million debit cards as of October, while K bank has issued 370,000. As their debit card business hits its stride, both banks are preparing for an entry into the credit card business, setting up special teams to get regulatory approval.

Output: South Korea's first online-only bank, K bank, has expanded into insurance by selling bancassurance products. The bank has released 20 savings and protection policies through a mobile app, including products from four domestic life insurance firms and four non-life insurers. The service offers customers round-the-clock consultations through phone calls, mobile messaging and email. K bank has enjoyed huge success since its launch earlier this year, holding approximately 500,000 accounts at the end of October.