Author: InfoForTech

By rejecting the industry rush toward all-in-one platforms, the Singapore-born global payroll provider doubled down on compliance and cross-border payments- proving depth wins. Most HR software startups follow the same playbook: build a core feature, get popular, and immediately start tacking on dozens of mediocre tools to become an “all-in-one” platform. Multiplier took the opposite path, and it just paid off to the tune of $100 million in annual recurring revenue. The Singapore-born platform focused strictly on two brutal headaches: cross-border hiring compliance and international payroll. Rather than building half-baked employee tools in-house, Multiplier plugs directly into existing systems like…

Analysts have traced the economic impact produced by scores of space ventures in Washington state. (Space Northwest Illustration) The preliminary results of a study commissioned by Space Northwest, an association focused on regional space ventures, suggest that Washington state’s space economy contributes $8.1 billion in direct economic output annually. The newly reported figures show that the space industry’s economic impact in the Evergreen State has nearly doubled since a similar study in 2022. That earlier report also documented a doubling effect over the course of four years, from $1.8 billion in 2018 to $4.6 billion in 2022. Kelly Maloney, Space…

Other Laptop Docking Stations to ConsiderWe test a lot of laptop docking stations and, quite frankly, most of them are … fine. They’re fine! We get into the nitty-gritty for specific use cases to find the best, but that leaves a bunch of devices that are great options even if they don’t make our top picks. Here’s a selection of some of our favorites, past favorites, or just alternatives to our picks above.Photograph: Luke LarsenBaseus Spacemate Air 12-in-1 Mac Docking Station for $200: This is a really great budget option to the Plugable 5-Display USB-C dock above. While that one…

AI tools are increasingly replacing human judgements in some settings. For instance, resume screening algorithms are often used in hiring, where they may improve efficiency and consistency in decision-making.But some scholars have raised concerns that the adoption of automated systems could eventually result in one algorithm being used to make all decisions in a particular industry. They worry so-called algorithmic monoculture could have negative consequences.For example, in hiring, the thinking goes that algorithmic monoculture might result in systematic exclusion — a situation in which a job candidate rejected by one firm’s algorithm would likely also be rejected by every other…

An attacker used stolen passwords of staff at France’s tax administration to take tax data on hundreds of thousands of taxpayers and businesses in June and July. Neither the tax administration nor France’s national cybersecurity agency saw the data leave. The attack was not sophisticated, the agency, ANSSI, says in a report (in French) published on Tuesday: it worked because of weak login protection, poorly separated networks and gaps in monitoring. The tax administration, known as the DGFIP, runs France’s tax website, impots.gouv.fr. The data came from E-Contact, the tool taxpayers use to message the tax administration. The stolen data covers a little…

Low-energy chip startup Efficient Computer Co. said today it has closed on a $97 million round of funding in what is the second major investment it has picked up this year. The round was led by TQ Ventures and saw participation from Eclipse, Union Square Ventures, Giant Ventures, Triatomic Capital, TO Capital, TF Capital, Mana Ventures, ​Toyota Ventures, Overmatch and Borderless, and brings the company’s total amount raised so far to $650 million. Efficient, which closed on a $60 million round in February, is in the process of bringing to market an entirely new kind of energy-efficient computer chip based…

The national conversation about AI in the US is full of fear: fear about AI’s potential to end humanity, fear of data centers moving in, fear that government officials will do absolutely nothing even as the industry pleads for regulation, you name it.But the AI conversation looks remarkably different across the Pacific.In China, driven by public enthusiasm and a state-backed push for AI dominance, the country is in the midst of a large-scale AI integration into all facets of its society, driven by Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s support for the technology.“He’s super AI-pilled,“ said Kyle Chan, an expert on China’s…

Explore healthcare cybersecurity best practices for securing patient data, connected systems, medical devices, and the continuity of care. How far removed is a cyberattack from patient care? Not as far as we might want to believe. A compromised system can delay a diagnosis, restrict access to patient records, interrupt clinical communication, or take connected equipment offline. As much as healthcare organizations may want to treat cybersecurity as an IT responsibility, that boundary is no longer useful. Technology has become too closely embedded in how care is delivered. Patient records are digital. Medical devices are connected. Clinicians depend on networks to…

Whenever a single vendor captures 80 percent of a highly lucrative market, history tells us two things are about to happen. First, the dominant player will begin to act as if their moat is impenetrable, often prioritizing lock-in and margin over customer flexibility. Second, a hyper-focused challenger will quietly chip away at the foundation of that dominance until the market suddenly realizes a viable alternative has arrived. We saw it when AMD’s Opteron blindsided Intel in the data center two decades ago, and we are watching it happen again right now in the artificial intelligence accelerator space. For the last…

The administration wants America.gov to be the main portal for federal services. Screenshot (America.gov) The US government now has its own AI chatbot. America.gov is an interface for people to ask natural language questions about information and services from federal agencies. The chatbot’s web page states that it “uses AI to get simple answers only from official government sources.” While it currently is just a way to sort through openly available information, the platform is intended to offer users more actions next year, such as enrolling in Medicare, applying for a passport or finding employment with the…