Broadcom Faces Backlash Over VMware Price Hike Post-Acquisition
In the wake of its $61 billion acquisition, Broadcom has stirred industry unrest with a significant price increase for VMware’s services. As reported in early 2024 by CEO Hock Tan, the acquisition changes have raised concerns among customers and partners alike. The summer 2024 poll, as mentioned by IT Brew, indicated a negative outlook from customers expecting VMware to hike prices and reduce services, with an overwhelming 95% of respondents claiming the acquisition was disrupting their IT strategies. The company now confronts heated objections as costs have soared between 800% to 1500%, creating tensions with cloud service providers and partners and sparking discussions about market competition and the future of digitization workflows among professionals.
Generation AI: The Imperative of Measuring AI Impact in Business
A staggering 72% of Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) believe their companies risk lagging without proper evaluation of AI impact, but conversely, 68% still proceed with AI initiatives even without the ability to assess their effectiveness properly. This paradox highlights the need for a more comprehensive set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge AI’s full value as it scales across business operations. As AI continues to integrate into the corporate ecosystem, C-suite executives are pressed to recognize and quantify their AI investments’ broader implications, economic and otherwise, ensuring the technology’s strategic alignment with broader business objectives.
The Game of Go: An Enduring Benchmark for AI Progress
Once forming an enigmatic challenge to artificial intelligence, the ancient Chinese game of Go has in recent times become a measure of scientific advancement within AI research. With its relatively straightforward goal—outmaneuver the opponent’s stones on a board of 361 intersections—yet nearly infinite complexity of strategies and scenarios, Go has intrigued and perplexed AI developers for decades. Its intricate nature of decision-making, logic, and strategic planning once deemed it as one of AI’s grand challenges. However, nearly two decades since the early 2000s, AI has made substantial strides in mastering this challenge, upending the classic game in unexpected, profound ways, and marking milestones for scientific breakthroughs.
Stable but Uncertain: The State of Tech Employment in July
The tech sector displayed signs of stagnant growth in employment, a fresh analysis by CompTIA reveals, referencing the Bureau of Labor Statistics findings for July. The tech unemployment rate held almost stable at 2.9%, a negligible fluctuation from June’s 2.8%. However, the sector saw a net dip in jobs by over 10,000 positions, raising caution about future trends. Despite the small-scale reduction in staffing, CompTIA’s Chief Research Officer, Tim Herbert, emphasized the overall strength and promising prospects of the tech labor market, acknowledging the steady yet mixed nature of various indicators within the turbulent job sector.
