Mediaboss Marketing

The rapid adoption of new artificial intelligence apps and an intensifying bid for dominance among tech giants Amazon, Google and Microsoft are expected to drive investment and double-digit growth for the data center industry in the next five years.

A gold rush of AI these days centers on the brisk development of tools such as ChatGPT, according to a new analysis from real estate services firm JLL. Voice- and text-generating AI apps could transform the speed and accuracy of customer service interactions and accelerate demand for computing power, as well as the systems and networks connecting users that data centers provide, the real estate firm said.

The emergence of AI comes on the heels of increased usage of data centers in the past few years, as people spend more time online for work and entertainment, fueling the need for these digital information hubs, which provide the speed, memory and power to support those connections.

JLL projected that half of all data centers will be used to support AI programs by 2025. The new AI applications need for enormous amounts of data capacity will require more power and expanded space for the data center services, particularly colocation facilities, which are a type of data center that rents capacity to third-party companies and may service dozens of them at one time. It's also a potential growth area for commercial property investors.

We expect AI applications, and the machine learning processes that enable them, will drive significant demand for colocation capabilities like those we provide, Raul Martynek, CEO of Dallas-based DataBank, told CoStar News in an email. Specifically, the demand will be for high-density colocation and data centers that provide significantly greater concentrations of power and cooling.

One kilowatt hour of energy can power a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours, and traditional data server workloads might require 15 kilowatts per typical cabinet, or server rack, Martynek said. But the high-performance computing nodes required to train large language models like ChatGPT can consume 80 kilowatts or more per cabinet.

This requires more spacing between cabinets to maintain cooling, or specialized water-chilled doors to cool the cabinets, Martynek said.

In addition to the added energy and water needs, the growth in data centers faces other challenges. Credit-rating firm S&P Global Ratings noted that long-term industry risks include shifting technology, cloud service providers filling their own data center needs, and weaker pricing. The data center industry, with power-hungry facilities running 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, has also received criticism from environmentalists.

DataBank owns and operates more than 65 data centers in 27 metropolitan markets. This month, it secured $350 million in financing from TD Bank to fund its ongoing expansion.

It was DataBanks second successful financing this year, coming just weeks after completing a $715 million net-lease securitization in March 1. Under net-lease offerings, issuers securitize their rent revenue streams into bonds. The sale of those bonds replenishes the issuers capital to be used to pay down debt and continue investments.

ChatGPT and other apps are bots that use machine learning to mimic human speech and writing. ChatGPT debuted in November and is most arguably the most sophisticated to launch so far. AI software developer Tidio estimated recently that usage of such bots has already grown to 1.5 billion users worldwide.

In January, Microsoft announced a new multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Google has recently improved its AI chatbot, Bard, in an effort to rival its competitors. And Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud computing provider, introduced a service last week called Bedrock aimed at helping other companies develop their own chatbots.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy touted the e-commerce giants AI plans in his annual letter to shareholders.

Most companies want to use these large language models but the really good ones take billions of dollars to train and many years and most companies dont want to go through that, Jassy said last week on CNBC. So what they want to do is they want to work off of a foundational model thats big and great already and then have the ability to customize it for their own purposes. And thats what Bedrock is.

The growth projections of AI have data center owners and operators at the forefront of the securitized bond market. Three data center providers have issued $1.3 billion in net-lease securitized offerings already this year, according to CoStar data. Thats more than all of last year combined. In addition, two more providers have offerings in the wings.

The sector is a bright spot in an otherwise weakened market for other commercial real estate securitized bond offerings, down more than 70% from the same time last year.

The data center space remains extremely attractive to capital sources looking for quality and stability versus other asset classes that have been challenged amidst uncertain economic conditions, Carl Beardsley, managing director and data centers lead at JLL Capital Markets, told CoStar News in an email.

JLL said data center financing comes from a variety of sources including debt funds, life insurance companies, banks and originators of commercial-mortgage backed securities.

Although money center banks and some regional banks have become more conservative during this volatile interest rate period, there is still a large appetite from the lender universe to allocate funds toward data centers, Beardsley said.

JLL is forecasting that the global data center market is expected to grow 11.3% from 2021 through 2026.

Across its six primary data center markets Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, New Jersey, Northern California, Northern Virginia and Phoenix the United States has a strong appetite for data centers property transactions compared to other countries, according to JLL, accounting for 52% of all deals from 2018 to 2022. These markets also have a data center capacity of 1,939 megawatts under construction, JLL said. One megawatt is equal to 1,000 kilowatts.

The growth is expected to continue even heading into a potential recession, according to S&P, which has rated two of the three data center securitized bond offerings completed this year so far.

Overall supply and demand is relatively balanced as new data center development has been constrained in certain markets by site availability, lingering supply chain issues and more recently, power capacity constraints, S&P noted in its reviews. Although we expect data centers to see some growth deceleration in a recessionary environment, we believe it will be mitigated by the critical nature of data centers.

S&P added that market data suggests 2022 vacancy rates were low for key data center markets and rental rates increased year over year.

New net-lease securitized fundraisings this year have come from DataBank, Stack Infrastructure, and Vantage Data Centers.

Denver-based Vantage, a global provider of hyperscale data center campuses, saw unprecedented growth in 2022, outperforming its previous record set in 2021. The company began developing four new campuses internationally and opened 13 data centers. The company raised more than $3 billion last year to support that effort.

Last month, Vantage completed an additional securitized notes offering raising $370 million. The offering was backed by tenant lease payments on 13 completed and operating wholesale data centers located in California, Washington state and Canada.

Stack, a Denver-based developer and operator of data centers, issued $250 million in securitized notes last month.

Stacks growth is outpacing the industry with a portfolio of more than 1 gigawatt, or 1,000 megawatts, of built and under-development capacity, and more than 2 gigawatts of future development capacity planned across the globe. The company has more than 4 million square feet currently under development.

Stack most recently announced the expansion of a Northern Virginia campus to 250 megawatts, the groundbreaking for another 100 megawatt campus in Northern Virginias Prince William County and the expansion of its 200 megawatt flagship Portland, Oregon, campus.

In addition, Dallas firm CyrusOne and Seattle-based Sabey Data Centers have filed preliminary notices of offerings in the works with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

See the original post:
'Gold Rush' in Artificial Intelligence Expected To Drive Data Center ... - CoStar Group

A nationwide scam involving extortion phone calls using AI-generated voices of peoples loved ones has made it to McMinnville.

Scammers are using artificial intelligence technology to send frightened, desperate messages that sound like the voice of loved ones. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning about the scams. It could be a child or grandchild saying they had a wreck or got arrested and need bail money. Other calls involve phony kidnappers spoofing the voices of their supposed victims. Warren County locals Olivia Hylton and her husband were targeted recently.

Last Friday, Hylton reported on social media how her husband received a terrifying call from a woman screaming about being in an accident. Suddenly a man's voice comes on the phone line saying It wasnt an accident, it was an incident. The voice on the line went on to say that he was a drug dealer and that if the husband tried to call his wife or didnt come up with $10,000 she would be dead.

Im very happy I was with my friend and my husband was able to get hold of her. Until the sheriff said it was a scam, we were scared for the girl on the phone, Olivia Hylton explained. Hylton and her husband reported the call to law enforcement and the Warren County Sheriffs Department informed them that these types of scam calls are actually very frequent.

A similar story, the case of Jennifer DeStefano, made national headlines earlier this month. DeStefano received a frightening call from what sounded like her daughter. The scammer on the line asked for a million dollars. When DeStefano explained there was no way she could raise that the amount was lowered to $50,000.

Dan Mayo, assistant special agent in charge of the Phoenix office, pointed out how scammers can sometimes get details regarding victims from public social media accounts and to keep an eye out for unfamiliar area codes or country codes. Databases of repeated previous commercial hacks are also a source of personal information which can include family members, employment and more. Many of these scammers had not only the number and name associated with it but information about family members or friends.

The FTC advises people to attempt to contact the person who supposedly contacted them to verify the story before ever sending any money. Always use a phone number you know is theirs. If you cant get in touch with them then reach out to other family members or friends. You may also prepare a code word to confirm identity in such a case.

Regardless of the nature or pretext of the scam, there are certain telltale signs that something may be awry. Scammers will almost always require payment through channels that make it difficult, or impossible, to get the money returned. Wire transfers, cryptocurrency and gift cards being required for payment may be a sign that the person requesting money is not above board.

The AI scam call is not the only one that has affected Warren County citizens recently. The McMinnville Police Department also warned locals of a series of scam calls affecting people in Warren County involving a person claiming to be with law enforcement and asking for money to take care of a warrant for failure to appear before the Grand Jury. The police department warns that they will never call and ask for money to clear up a warrant and if in doubt about such, call local law enforcement.

Read the original:
Artificial intelligence scam calls received locally - Southern Standard

Elon Musk is very worried and he isn't the only one!

As Artificial Intelligence or AI, gains a bigger and stronger foothold in our society, many are concerned that no one has an eye to the future.

Google's AI is particularly worrying as one of their engineers made it very clear. Google's AI is sentient! Google fired him!

Just last week we had an AI CEO on the show who was telling us all about how wonderful AI is. My final question to him was "have you ever seen a Terminator movie?". He said no.

I have long predicted that the people involved in creating AI have indeed never seen a Terminator movie. Turns out I was right.

AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production, in the sense that it is, it has the potential however small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial it has the potential of civilization destruction, Musk said in his interview with Tucker Carlson this week.

Are you worried that Artificial Intelligence will take over the world?

Our polls are not scientific and are for entertainment

Read the original post:
Are you worried that Artificial Intelligence will take over the world? - iHeart

As businesses and governments alike strive towards improved sustainability in 2023, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being touted as a tool that can manage environmental impacts and climate change while also improving business efficiency. But is AI as green as it seems, or is it just another instance of greenwashing?

AI has huge potential to make businesses more sustainable. Already being deployed by companies like Google to efficiently cool their data centres, in hospitality to track and reduce food waste, and by governments including Indonesia and Peru using AI and satellite data to show near-real-time vessel movements in the ocean to combat illegal and unsustainable fishing.

From a legislative stance, businesses will soon have to comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which obligates financial market participants to disclose their non-financial and diversity information. Businesses are, therefore, actively looking for green solutions that can improve their marketability and ultimately their bottom line. AI is being touted as something that can manage environmental impacts and climate change while also improving business efficiency a win-win.

However, when implementing AI solutions, there is often little detail given at the micro-level on how AI will save the planet any more effectively or efficiently than traditional computer-human operations. Greenwashing occurs when environmental claims are unproven, over-inflated, or just incorrect. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been cracking down on greenwashing in advertising, recently issuing reprimands to HSBC, Alpro, and Innocent, among others.

When implementing AI and measuring the energy savings it can produce, this needs to be offset against the electricity consumption of AI systems themselves, as this is potentially substantial. It has been calculated that AI's global carbon footprint might foreseeably be equal to that of the aviation industry. Until all AI is powered by renewable electricity, including using sustainable data sources, AI's energy consumption must be considered when making claims about the energy-saving capabilities of AI.

The UK Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumer Bill (Bill) is expected to grant new powers for regulators against companies that make misleading environmental claims. Companies could face fines of up to 10% of their global turnover for breaches of consumer law. This Bill, combined with the new EU AI Act and divergent 'sector by sector' approach to regulation in the UK, is going to increase the regulatory considerations for businesses when looking to utilise and deploy AI technologies in their business.

While predictions and claims have been made about the green benefits of AI, there is little published information about how AI use in these fields will be deployed, how AI software will differ from non-AI software, and whether that difference will be beneficial in reducing the rate of climate change or meeting biodiversity and ESG goals. Developers and users risk being challenged on such green claims in 2023.

AI is already being used as a tool to combat greenwashing. AI is being deployed to analyse a company's publicly available information on the web to detect early signs of greenwashing or identify related risks. The hope is that this increased scrutiny will force higher ESG standards. There is an irony to being caught out by an AI system for making false statements about the energy efficiency and ESG benefits of the AI system your business has deployed.

Three things you must consider about your organisations AI sustainability:

Download our guide the latest AI regulation for businesses in the UK and EU in 2023.

Continued here:
Is artificial intelligence sustainable? - Womble Bond Dickinson

It used to cost an arm and a leg not to mention the hassle of moving furniture in and out of homes all the time to stage a house being prepared for sale.

These days, Alec Miles pays about $40 a picture and the staging is done virtually, showing buyers what a living room or den could look like without all the actual heavy lifting.

"I pay a professional photographer to take the pictures and then outsource the digital staging to another company," said Miles, a salesperson with EXP Realty in London, Ont.

"Actual staging is so expensive that it's almost cost prohibitive, whereas the turnaround for virtual staging is 12 hours and I know it'll look great."

That's just one typeof artificial intelligence (AI) that is changing how real estate is done in London and beyond.

Osman Omar has been a Realtor in the city for five years. ChatGPT, an AIchatbot developed by OpenAIthat was released in November, has started helping him come up with ideas about how to describe listings and acts as a "sounding board" for ideas.

"It helps put together a skeleton of information," Omar said. "If a client wants a write-up that is more professional, or something more upbeat and funny, I can ask it to do that and I get ideas. From a social media perspective, you can take your public remarks [from a listing]and then help condense that for different social media platforms."

Realtors wear a lot of hats, so taking work off their plates so they can focus on marketing a property can bebeneficial, Omar said.

"If you're savvy, it can really help give the property the exposure it deserves. AI can help you with [search engine optimization], social it's a good sounding board."

Some buyers looking for homes have alsobeen using AI, Miles said.

"You can ask OpenAI or ChatGPT about the best neighbourhoods in London, or the worst neighbourhoods, or neighbourhoods close to schools or parks. It gives you a starting point."

"The more in-depth understanding of the real estate marketthat comes from someone like me," said Miles. "I'm the one who will tell you if that house caught fire because of a meth lab that's not going to come up on ChatGPT."

Some Realtors use AI to write listings for them, though that takes away from the personal touch, Miles said.

"It's not personal if you have an AI doing that," he said. "But asking for the Top 10 or Top 5 neighbourhoods in London is a great learning tool for someone who is a new agent or anyone trying to provide extra value in the industry."

But AI won't replace actual human beings in the industry anytime soon, Omar said.

"Talking to an agent that knows what is happening in the market is the best way to get the best sale."

The next evolution will be virtual reality tours of properties, Omar added.

"I think we'll get to a place where people will view homes virtually. You put on your VR headset, get a feel for the place before driving down to see it. Nothing replaces in person, but it would be a preliminary screening."

In the United States, appraisers use AI to value properties based on data and images. Mortgage lenders can make decisions based on an AI-generated calculation of risk, and developers can select construction sites based on platforms that specialize in zoning regulations.

AI-powered platforms can generate property recommendations tailored to a homebuyer's desires, and botswill alert you if the house of your dreams comes up for sale.

CBC News asked ChatGPT about the most affordable neighbourhoods in London. It listed White Oaks, Argyle, East London, Pond Mills and Southcrest.

We also asked ChatGPTabout the best neighbourhoods for families in the city. Here's what the bot came up with:

Read the original post:
How artificial intelligence is changing the real estate game - CBC.ca