The government aims to create the big data set, comprised of anonymized information on more than 50 million people, to develop new medicines and improve inspection technologies using artificial intelligence (AI), among other purposes, according to sources.

At present, because respective medical institutions anonymize the data they collect, data from patients with multiple diseases are analyzed separately. However, with the envisaged database, all the medical data of a single patient would be integrated, making it possible to analyze conditions that are believed to have strong correlations, such as periodontal disease and diabetes, in an integrated manner and make use of the analyses for treatment.

The database could be useful not only for new drug development but also for investigating the side effects of medicines. Early detection of diseases could become possible by retrieving masses of endoscopic images related to a specific disease from the database and using AI to analyze the images.

The database will be created, as early as the end of this year, by an entity to be designated by the government based on the medical care big data law (see below), which will go into effect in May.

In the beginning, the database will contain information on about 3 million people and the volume of data will increase to cover 50 million people by 2023, the sources said.

The government plans to designate, as early as this autumn, an incorporated body consisting of researchers at universities and others to create the database.

The designated organization is expected to anonymize information collected from medical institutions, schools, health insurance associations and others, offering the information to pharmaceutical companies and research institutions for a fee.

According to the government, while there are overseas databases collecting information such as medical examination results, they only cover information of several million people. Japan is said to have an edge over other countries in the field because its medical institutions have abundant information thanks to the Japanese universal health insurance coverage system.

The government aims to use the database to facilitate the development of advanced technologies and create new industries in the medical field.

However, many people will oppose providing third parties with information directly related to the privacy of individuals. Therefore, the government intends to decide at a Cabinet meeting, as early as the end of this month, a basic policy for the medical care big data law to provide safety measures for the database and other issues.

In the basic policy, the government will ask medical institutions to have first-visit patients confirm whether they agree to provide their information to third parties. It also plans to require medical institutions to alert patients to the fact that they can refuse the provision of their information even after giving consent.

■ Medical care big data law

The law regarding anonymized medical data to contribute to research and development in the medical field was established for the purpose of anonymizing medical care information such as medical histories, medication histories and examination results of individuals to allow third parties to utilize the data.

The 2014 breach blamed on Russian hackers affected hundreds of millions of Yahoo accounts, with stolen ‘crown jewel’ data including usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, encrypted passwords, and security questions, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While Yahoo discovered the data breach quickly, it remained mum about it until more than two years later when it was being acquired by telecom giant Verizon Communications, the SEC case maintained.

“Yahoo’s failure to have controls and procedures in place to assess its cyber-disclosure obligations ended up leaving its investors totally in the dark about a massive data breach,” SEC San Francisco regional office director Jina Choi said in a release.

“Public companies should have controls and procedures in place to properly evaluate cyber incidents and disclose material information to investors.”

Although Yahoo is no longer an independent company — its financial holdings are in a separate company now called Altaba — Verizon has continued to operate the Yahoo brand, including its email service and a variety of news and entertainment websites.

Oath includes the Yahoo internet operations along with those of another former internet star, AOL.

In addition to the 2014 breach, a hack the previous year affected all three billion Yahoo user accounts, according to findings disclosed by Verizon after the acquisition.

The US Justice Department charged two Russian intelligence operatives and a pair of hackers over one of the attacks, which had apparent twin goals of espionage and financial gain.

Yahoo, which was once one of the leading internet firms, sold its main online operations to Verizon last year in a deal valued at $4.48 billion.

The purchase price was cut following revelations of the two major data breaches at Yahoo.

Customers will be able to purchase the special edition at dtac stores or http://www.dtac.co.th.

The government tasked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission earlier this year with assessing whether platforms such as Facebook and Google were using their market power in commercial dealings to the detriment of users, news media and advertisers.

Australian media groups, like their peers worldwide, are losing circulation and advertising revenues to digital competitors.

Australian media tycoon Kerry Stokes, the head of major commercial broadcaster Seven, on Monday urged Canberra to take “serious action” against the two online titans.

“The government must act decisively to curtail the frightening power and influence these companies have,” Stokes told The Australian newspaper.

“The duopoly of Facebook and Google now control over 80 percent of the global digital ad market, taking away advertising dollars from local media without any of the controls and rules we must adhere to, creating an uneven playing field.”

The industry body representing commercial free-to-air television networks, Free TV Australia, echoed such views in its submission Friday, saying the two companies were virtual monopolies but had “very little regulatory oversight”.

The inquiry comes at a sensitive time for Facebook, which has come under fire globally after it admitted that the personal data of up to 87 million people worldwide — including more than 300,000 Australians — were improperly shared with a British political consultancy.

Facebook said in its submission to the inquiry on Wednesday, sent to AFP Monday, that rapid technological changes such as media digitalisation “makes them a challenging subject for regulatory intervention”.

The American firm added that “consumers often have the most to gain from market disruptions caused by technological change and the most to lose from interventions that are designed to protect particular business models from the effects of those changes”.

Google, which released its submission to the inquiry Monday, said it was consumers who would determine the future of news and added that it partnered with publishers such Australia’s Fairfax Media to support access to information.

“Changes in consumer and marketing behaviour have profound implications for traditional news business models. But they do not mean the death of journalism,” Google Australia managing director Jason Pellegrino said in a statement.

The competition commission is expected to publish its preliminary report in December, with the final report due in mid-2019.

Facebook says Aleksandr Kogan’s app, This Is Your Digital Life, was downloaded by 270,000 people and also gave Kogan access to their friends.

The data was passed to British communications firm Cambridge Analytica and was used to help elect US President Donald Trump. But the company has blamed Kogan for misusing it, while he claims they and Facebook have used him as a scapegoat.

The University of Cambridge lecturer told CBS’s 60 Minutes he was “sincerely sorry” for the data mining, but insisted there was a widespread belief that users knew their data was being sold and shared.

“Back then we thought it was fine… I think that core idea that we had — that everybody knows and nobody cares — was fundamentally flawed. And for that, I’m sincerely sorry,” he said.

The psychologist also accused Facebook of framing him as a “rogue app” — and insisted that while he was not sure that he read Facebook’s developer policy banning the transfer or sale of users’ data, the social network failed to enforce it in any case.

“I had a terms of service that was up there for a year and a half that said I could transfer and sell the data. Never heard a word,” he said, referencing his app’s user agreement.

“Facebook clearly has never cared,” he added.

“The belief in Silicon Valley and certainly our belief at that point was that the general public must be aware that their data is being sold and shared and used to advertise to them.”

On the issue of harvesting the information of friends of app users without explicit permission, Kogan said that capability was “a core feature” of Facebook for years — and he estimated “tens of thousands” of apps had engaged in similar practices.

“This was not a special permission you had to get. This was just something that was available to anybody who wanted it who was a developer,” he said.

On Tuesday Kogan is set to appear before a British parliamentary committee probing the scandal, where he will discuss his ties with Cambridge Analytica.

Alibaba’s big move in Thailand brings with it benefits and positive impacts. However, it will also disrupt local business and industry, and lead to the China-headquartered company dominating the market not only in Thailand but also the entirety of CLMV.

Business leaders are drawing attention to both sides of the Alibaba equation.

Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, founder and CEO of tarad.com, trumpeted the benefits for Thailand of Alibaba’s investment, particularly in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). On the other hand, there are many likely impacts that should concern us, he said.

Once Alibaba’s e-commerce park is fully established in the EEC and connects markets in Thailand and China – and other CLMV markets – it would directly impact and disrupt the merchants and traders who have imported products from China by bypassing them.

More Chinese products will rapidly flow directly to Thai markets, and that also would affect local manufacturers and local importers, eventually leading to employment impacts and long-term changes to the country’s economy. The impact would be less in some areas of the economy, such as the manufacturing and distribution of products already popularly purchased online, including fashion and gadgets.

Next, retail businesses and department stores would be impacted from Alibaba’s arrival, as an increasing number of people would switch to online shopping. That could lead to market domination by the largest and first online retailer – Alibaba.

“That’s especially true, as Alibaba plans to invest in infrastructure and that gives it a large competitive advantage. Of key importance to e-commerce business is warehousing and fulfilment – which Alibaba is hastily developing,” said Pawoot.

Disruption will reach beyond e-commerce and retail to other interlocking businesses, including banking, logistics and other local industries. Since Alibaba has a lot of products and services that go beyond the e-commerce that most people are aware of, it is able to offer financial and insurance services through “big data” monetisation.

However, Pawoot said, Thailand could also expect many good impacts from Alibaba’s investment starting with the direct impacts of the investment itself such as construction. Other positive impacts include encouraging the Thai e-commerce industry, helping Thailand become a hub of product distribution through CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) markets, a potential increase in Thai products exported to China, and improving the skills and performance of some local entrepreneurs.

On the issue of whether goods are “Made on the Internet” or “Made in China”, Pawoot noted that Jack Ma leans toward “Made on the Internet”. The reality, however, is that products are made in China and then flow through Internet transactions and to the Thai market.

“There are differences between Chinese and Japanese investments,” said Pawoot. “Japanese investors come to invest in building production plants and create jobs and employment in Thailand, and Thailand becomes a manufacturing base to produce products to sell to the global market.

“Meanwhile, Chinese investors come to invest in building infrastructure including logistics, warehouses, and fulfilment with the aim to easily and rapidly bring Chinese products to Thailand and CLVM markets. Thailand gets different impacts based on the difference in investment styles between Japanese and Chinese investors,” said Pawoot.

Therefore, the Thai government should carefully consider all aspects of the impacts from Alibaba’s investments and should give more support to Thai e-commerce, he said. He hopes the government does not favour a Chinese business over local businesses, given that Alibaba aims to help Chinese business to easily tap into Thai and CLMV markets.

Given the sheer number of products manufactured in China, government needs to be concerned about the balance of trade between China and Thailand, said Pawoot.

Alibaba’s investment in the EEC should be seen as both an opportunity and a threat to local business and industry, said Krating Poonpol, the founder of Disrupt University and co-fund manager of 500 TukTuk.

The opportunity is limited to SMEs that export to China’s market, he said, but the threat is for almost all local business. Instantly, the middleman and importers of products from China will be bypassed.

“More Chinese products will fly to the Thai market than Thai products will be exported to the Chinese market. It probably will lead to a trade deficit,” said Krating.

E-commerce, logistics, and payment sectors would be impacted. Once Alibaba has established its logistics infrastructure in Thailand, it would have a lot of data about Thai people through their online shopping activities. It could then monetise that data to give it a competitive advantage over Thai players across all businesses, not only e-commerce and logistics but also payments and ride-sharing, and then financial, banking and insurance.

The Thai government should consider supporting and promoting local e-commerce. They could do that with policies that stimulate creation of Thai e-commerce players as well as the key players in other business areas.

“There is opportunity but a large threat, so we need to understand the game of Alibaba. And use Alibaba to attract other giant players such as Tencent, Amazon, and JD to invest in Thailand to balance out the power of each other,” said Krating.

When asked about the Thai start-up ecosystem, Krating said that only a few start-ups have the opportunity to be acquired into Alibaba’s ecosystem, while the rest who compete with Alibaba would disappear.

Meanwhile, Natavudh Pungcharoen-pong, founder and CEO of Ookbee, noted that Alibaba brought Lazada to Thailand a while back, and this latest investment is their next step as well as their future expansion.

“It’s the right move for them. For Thai businesses, I think if you are SMEs, you probably want to use their infrastructure to help expand your business. If you are in retail, or if your business is threatened by them, I think you probably have to start looking into how to adapt to coexist with their business,” said Natavudh.

He added that though Alibaba is the biggest in Thailand now, they are not alone in the e-commerce ecosystem. The adaptability of local businesses will tell who will survive and thrive in the long run.

Siwat Luangsomboon, assistant managing director, Kasikorn Research Centre, said that those Thai SMEs that are able to create more value-addition to their products and tap the China or global market, will benefit from Alibaba’s platform. On the other hand, SMEs that produce simple products will be impacted since they will be unable to compete with Chinese products.

“The middle-man will be immediately and directly impacted, since Chinese products will go directly to Thai consumers,” said Siwat.

It is not only middle-men and e-commerce businesses that will be affected. Financial services will also be impacted given that it is another core business of Alibaba. Once its business is licensed in Thailand, Alibaba’s financial services will affect local non-bank providers. On the other hand, SMEs would benefit.

Thana Thienachariya, senior executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Siam Commercial Bank, said that the impact is that settling for being average “is over”. Alibaba’s presence creates more opportunity for SMEs to sell into China’s market.

Conversely, if they do not make changes, the middle-men will disappear. But overall, the country is likely to end up more competitive and Thailand will be on the world map in an outstanding era, he said.

Under this partnership, agencies of the Thai government and business units of Alibaba will work closely in a number of areas, including e-commerce, digital logistics, tourism and training.

The partnership represents the strengthening of collaboration between the Alibaba Group and the Thai government following the signing of a letter of intent in 2016, a move that kick-started a series of joint efforts to bolster the capacity of Thai entrepreneurs in gaining access to new markets and taking advantage of digital innovations.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said that the strategic cooperation with Alibaba would bring benefits to Thai small and medium enterprises and farmers as well as to the tourism industry, while pushing forward digital economic development in Thailand.

Jack Ma, executive chairman and co-founder of Alibaba Group, said that China is on its way to becoming the world’s largest consumer market, driven by rising income and a growing middle class that now numbers 300 million.

There is no better time than now for trade-oriented countries to seize the opportunity to export to China, as the country continues to open its doors wider to global trade, Ma said. Quality Thai agricultural products such as fragrant rice, durian and other tropical fruit are particularly sought after by the Chinese consumer.

Key initiatives:

First, establishment of a Smart Digital Hub in the Easter Economic Corridor (EEC) to support cross-border trade with China and other markets.

Alibaba’s smart digital logistics business, Cainiao Network, will establish a Smart Digital Hub in the EEC. The hub will utilise Alibaba and Cainiao’s data and logistics technologies and processes to optimise the cross-border flow of goods between Thailand and China, as well as with other markets. Cainiao will also work closely with the EEC Office and Thailand Customs to promote the digitisation of customs processes through technologies such as “big data” and artificial intelligence, as well as sharing global best practices. The Smart Digital Hub will be an open platform enabled to provide services to all players in Thailand’s digital economy.

The Smart Digital Hub is expected to be built starting this year, with operations expected to commence in 2019.

Second, equipping SMEs with e-commerce skills.

Alibaba Group said it would continue its efforts to connect Thai SMEs to Alibaba’s 500 million active users in the Chinese e-commerce market. Other global e-commerce opportunities will roll out through a partnership between the Thai Ministry of Industry’s Department of Industrial Promotion (DIP), the Thai Commerce Ministry’s Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) and the Alibaba Business School – an accredited university founded by Alibaba Group and Hangzhou Normal University.

Under this training collaboration, SMEs across Thailand, including SMEs in rural areas and individual entrepreneurs, would have the opportunity to gain e-commerce knowledge and skills to start e-businesses and leverage the Internet to develop their business online.

Third, training Thai digital talent.

Under the collaboration with DIP and DITP, the Alibaba Group also plans to develop Thai talent for the digital-economy era.

The Alibaba Business School would work with both government departments to develop and update effective strategies for talent development in Thailand, while also providing students and academics from this country with opportunities to take part in various academic exchanges and courses offered by the business school in Hangzhou, China. Resources and expertise from the Alibaba Business School would also be made available to the DIP and DITP for localisation and further use in Thailand.

Fourth, cooperating in developing “smart” and digital tourism.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand will expand cooperation with Alibaba’s online travel business, Fliggy, which is one of China’s leading online travel service providers.

The cooperation will focus on support for smart and digital tourism in Thailand.

As an official strategic partner of TAT, Fliggy will work with the body to offer smart technological experiences at multiple facilities and tourist attractions across Thailand for the convenience of visitors – ranging from online tour guides to electronic ticketing systems.

Fliggy and Ant Financial, Alibaba Group’s affiliate and operator of Alipay, are also in active discussions with various related government agencies to drive a digital transformation of Thai tourism. The holistic change would start from applications for pre-departure visas and “visas on arrival”, through to payment of post-travel digital services and the tourist tax refund via the Alipay system. It is expected that the strong collaboration between Alibaba Group and Thai government will help attract more Chinese travellers to Thailand and increase the nation’s tourism income.

Fifth, creating an official Thai rice flagship store on Tmall.

Alibaba and the Thai Commerce Ministry have together launched the first official Thai rice flagship store on Tmall, the world’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers.

Alibaba will also help drive the sale of popular Thai fruit, such as durian, into China. Alibaba and the ministry will work together to drive the growth of Thai rice and other agricultural product exports to build an area of strength in the Thai economy and position Thailand globally. Alibaba will also assist Thai agricultural businesses to harness the power of Alibaba’s unique insights into the Chinese consumer market.

We all suspect that robots are taking people’s jobs. They are precise, efficient and they don’t get tired or emotional. Many research studies have found that robots are already replacing human workers at an alarming rate and the labour market is at risk of being mechanised out of existence. Even a high-profile job like financial adviser is at very high risk due to “the rise of robo-advisers”.

In recent years, “robo-advisors” have been getting a lot of media attention and received tremendous interest from investors everywhere, especially from those in the western hemisphere. The business of automated, algorithm-based investment planning and advice is the latest disruption in the wealth management industry – and it has caused a stir in the US as it is deemed to be about to change the face of the industry forever.

The first disruption in the wealth management industry began in 1975 when the US Security and Exchange Commission decided to abolish fixed commission fees on stock trading. Thereafter, retail investment began to flourish with the arrival of discount brokers (eg, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade) offering low-cost trading at the expense of reduced support. Since then, various value-added services (eg, research papers, tools, personalised advice) were offered only to high-net-worth clients of traditional full-service firms (eg, Merrill Lynch), while the remainder of investors were usually left out.

The industry was primed for a second disruption in 2008 with the arrival of robo-advisers, which leverage the efficiency of automation and the convenience of the Internet.

At their core, robo-advisers rely on algorithms – a set of rules that lead to creation of a portfolio or investment strategy with the aim of maximising expected return based on each investor’s financial goal and risk tolerance.

Fees collected on robo-advisory service are significantly lower than from human advisers and even lower than fees on some traditional mutual funds since the service requires very minimal human involvement. The emergence of robo-advisers makes accessible to most investors the high-quality personalised advice that had previously been uneconomical for them using human advisers.

Wealthfront and Betterment were among the early companies paving the way for the growth of robo-advisers in the US. They were built based on Modern Portfolio Theory, which posits that “individual security selection is not as important as proper asset allocation”. Both platforms constructed what they saw as the most suitable investment portfolio based on an initial questionnaire filled in by each customer. It would then allocate the money among different asset classes and rebalance each portfolio periodically. The return from each client’s portfolio would vary depending on each investor’s risk profile and requirements. Inputting a risk-averse investor’s investment, and a risk-savvy investor’s investment, into the same robo-adviser would ultimately yield totally different returns due to a different mix of asset classes.

Upon witnessing the huge financial success of Wealthfront, Betterment and other independent robos, major banks, asset managers and brokerage firms began to follow suit and offering robo-advisers to their clients. They first developed in-house programmes, then turned to mergers and acquisitions, and partnerships to reduce the time to market. Robo-advisers in the US have experienced amazing growth of 500 per cent from 2014 to 2017.

The robos are now managing over $100 billion (Bt3.13 trillion) worth of assets and it is expected that they will soon be managing as much as 10 per cent of assets by 2025.

In Thailand, the robo-adviser movement has only just begun. There are only a handful of players in the market, with investors only recently becoming aware of the option and trying out some of the products. As it grows in popularity, it will soon enough be a threat to traditional financial advisers. As people’s financial literacy grows, along with the size of the middle class, it seems almost certain that huge demand will emerge for high-quality and highly customised investment advice at a lower cost.

Thanapong Na Ranong is managing director at Beacon VC. Pitchapa Sukavanich is business incubation manager at Beacon VC.

Without much consideration most of us probably opt for Google Translate but it’s capabilities to translate Thai to English can be patchy at best.

But now Microsoft has just announced a massive update to its Translator app on iOS and Android, which could finally bring competent Thai to English translations to your smartphone.

The new update sees Microsoft Translator support a host of new languages, including Thai, as well as improvements to its machine learning algorithm, which the firm says will help to improve the accuracy of translations by 23 percent.

The update also adds an offline mode, meaning no internet or data connection is needed, and which could come in handy if you travel to foreign country or are even somewhere in Thailand without connectivity.

What’s also significant about the update is that Microsoft says it will bring its sophisticated algorithms that power its Translator app to any smartphone.

Previously, the feature had only been available on high end smartphones that have a dedicated AI chip. But now the new neural translation feature, which the firm says provides more human like translations, is available to anyone who uses the latest version of Microsoft Translator [version 3.2.0], regardless of what smartphone you use.

“Microsoft Translator has added new capabilities that allow users and developers to get artificial intelligence-powered translations whether or not they have access to the Internet, Microsoft said in a blog post.

“The new capabilities allow both end-users and third-party app developers to have the benefit of neural translation technology regardless of whether the device is connected to the cloud or offline.

“When using the Microsoft Translator app, end users can now download free AI-powered offline packs.”

Microsoft Translator allows you to download the language packs for 44 languages that can be used in the offline mode.

However, only 11 of these support the neural machine translation, which Microsoft says is more human like and more accurate.

Fortunately, Thai is one of the 11 languages supported along with Arabic, Chinese Simplified, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. The new update is available on Android now and will be on iOS after April 21. Support for Windows Phone will be added soon, Microsoft said.