Context Is King

We’ve grown comfortable with digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa. But at work we need something more—and that something is context. A more-work-oriented assistant will integrate natural language processing and artificial intelligence with business data and apps.

That combination will let the assistant execute nuanced tasks such as gathering information for a report, setting up meetings, ordering supplies, or planning a trip, says Amit Zavery, Oracle executive vice president, thus saving employees precious time. Knowledge is power, but for digital assistants to thrive on the job, that knowledge needs context.

— Alan Zeichick, Oracle Director of Strategic Communications

Design Blockchains with Data Privacy in Mind

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) puts new rules and restrictions on companies’ collecting and storing of personal information. How can companies comply? Oracle senior researcher Patrick McLaughlin describes software functionality that automatically recognizes and highlights certain data points as “personal” and then generates a key for encrypting the data before it’s stored.

Get Started with Autonomous Database Security

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud is billed as the world’s first self-securing database cloud service. So, what does that mean for you? There are “no steps required from the customer side,” explains Vipin Samar, senior vice president of Oracle Database Security. “We take care of the security of the infrastructure, including the database, and we automate it—leaving nothing to chance or human error.” More from Samar in Oracle Magazine.

Construction Sites Get a Lift from Emerging Tech

If a worker falls at a construction site, a clip on that person’s belt can send an alert: Worker A fell from a height of about 12 feet and is located at this spot on the site. That’s just one example of the technology at the recently opened Oracle Construction and Engineering Innovation Lab in Deerfield, Illinois, outside Chicago. What else is on display?

Six Survival Lessons from French Startups

Fake it till you make it? The French startups we recently talked with disagree. Alcméon, for example, creates chatbots and social messaging for customer service. But it doesn’t think the automated responses that natural language processing can deliver are quite good enough, so it won’t put them out to customers, even if that could accelerate the machine learning process. Here are more hard lessons.