The update will be rolled out over the next few days.

Two years ago, Google introduced neural machine translation (NMT) to Google Translate, significantly improving accuracy of online translations. The free multilingual machine translation service will bring NMT technology offline on device.

A comparison between Google Translate’s current phrase-based machine translation, new offline neural machine translation (on-device), and online neural machine translation.

This means that the technology will run in the Google Translate apps directly on your Android or iOS device, so that you can get high-quality translations even when you don’t have access to an Internet connection, it said in a press release on Wednesday.

It said the neural system translates whole sentences at a time, rather than piece by piece that will make translated paragraphs and articles a lot smoother and easier to read.

Offline translations can be useful when traveling to other countries without a local data plan.

Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony remained stars, with rival Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch gaming hardware respectively, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show floor that opened in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

But the premier industry gathering was very much focused on games themselves, and the idea they can be played as a service hosted in the internet cloud using an array of devices from smartphones to personal computers.

The annual E3 event “occurs against a backdrop of disruption in the console market,” according to IHS Markit games technology research director Piers Harding-Rolls.

“As the market becomes more digitally enabled and service based, console companies and publishers are starting to map out their longer-term strategies including the building out of subscription cloud gaming services,” Harding-Rolls told AFP.

Companies interested in cloud gaming see it as a way to reach broader audiences, adding to console businesses instead of taking away from them, according to the analyst.

“I see consoles being around or the foreseeable future,” Harding-Rolls said.

Shifting terrain

But the competitive landscape will tilt away from console-market leading PlayStation to terrain more favorable to Xbox, he reasoned.

Microsoft has built a powerful platform for hosting computing in the internet cloud, making such service a thriving part of its business.

“We commit and harness the full breadth of our resources at Microsoft to deliver on the future of play,” Xbox team leader Phil Spencer said at an E3 briefing.

The Redmond, Washington-based technology veteran has also invested heavily in machine learning, naming its Cortana digital assistant after an artificial intelligence character in blockbuster Xbox video game “Halo.”

Spencer also said that Microsoft is working on a cloud service for streaming console-quality games to internet-linked devices.

“If you agree that the eventual future of games consumption is through cloud gaming services, then those companies with a strong position in cloud are likely to be best placed to benefit from the transition,” Harding-Rolls said.

“In this context, Microsoft’s cloud division gives the company a natural advantage when trying to build a profitable business.”

Sony and Microsoft have each put out word they are working on next-generation consoles, but planned capabilities have yet to be revealed.

PlayStation 4 has dominated the current console generation, briskly outselling Xbox One.

But if the video game world shifts to Microsoft’s strengths, its new competition in play could become cloud and AI titans such as Amazon, Google, Tencent, and Alibaba, according to Harding-Rolls.

Learning from mobile

The video game industry is seeing its biggest investment ever, with the three big consoles “very healthy,” according to Electronic Software Association chief executive Michael Gallagher.

The ESA trade group organizes E3, with 60,000 industry insiders and gamers from some 100 countries expected to attend the three-day gathering.

Video game industry revenue worldwide tallied about $116 billion last year, according to the ESA.

Console makers have been taking lessons from mobile games, building online communities of players who provide feedback; stream play; subscribe to services, and spend money on digital content such as dance moves or funky clothing for characters.

“Mobile has been a fantastic growth point for the industry,” Gallagher said.

Console video game titan Bethesda is unabashedly bridging the divide between console and mobile play with versions of blockbusters “Fallout” and Elder Scrolls” for play on smartphones or tablets.

“I can’t wait to play it,” Gallagher said of “Elder Scrolls: Blades” that will be available free for iPhones or Android-powered mobile devices when it is released later this year.

Another sign of console-quality play making its way to mobile devices came in the form of telecom giant AT&T showing off ultra high-speed 5G wireless data capabilities on the E3 show floor.

Super-fast internet service is seen as key to rich, seamless game play.

“Exponential increases in computing power, storage and speed will lead to the streaming of realistic, systemic, densely populated and persistent game worlds to any screen,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive of French video game powerhouse Ubisoft.

Deadly conflicts played out with stunning arsenals in creative fictional settings remain at the heart of blockbuster action video games, with imagery getting richer and fight mechanics smoother due to improving technology.

There was no shortage of bloody battle in games spotlighted at media events hosted by video game industry titans in the days leading up to E3 showcase.

And a hot video game trend now is “Battle Royale” death-match games such as “Fortnite” and “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” in which players vie against one another to be the sole survivor.

Shooting and swordplay have long been staples in a global video game industry that the Entertainment Software Association said took in a total of $116 billion worldwide last year.

Violence in games has the trade group working to make sure politicians including US President Donald Trump understand that there is no link between that kind of play and what people do in the real world, ESA chief executive Michael Gallagher told AFP on Monday.

Trump and the ESA met earlier this year after a slaughter at a US high school.

Some blamed violence in media such as video games, not access to guns, for such shootings.

“One thing that has sunk in to a great degree is the truth that video game violence has nothing to do with real-world violence,” Gallagher said of meetings with politicians on federal and state levels.

“There are 2.6 billion gamers around the world, yet these outbreaks are uniquely American. It has got to be something else.”

A growing number of policy numbers are “rejecting the notion outright” that video games cause people to commit actual violence, according to Gallagher.

“The tide has turned significantly,” he added.

In the US, 22 states offer video game companies economic incentives to set up shops and create jobs, according to Gallagher.

Some 45,000 industry members are expected to attend E3, along with 15,000 gamers who bought tickets to get access to the show floor and its more than 200 exhibitors, the ESA said.

Ubisoft has long tapped into feedback from players while designing games, but the latest step will allow some to make content woven into scenes.

An invitation to collaborate went live Monday on the website of Gordon-Levitt’s Hit Record, with the first project being to make music that one might hear on a space pirate radio station in Ubisoft’s “Beyond Good and Evil 2,” a science fiction shooter crafted to be a space opera.

“The point of Hit Record is for people to make things together,” he said. “This is the first time we are going to make assets going into a video game; which I think is really cool.”

“This is not just submitting songs,” he added. “We will be making the music together.”

Someone in one country may come up with a baseline, and another elsewhere the drum beat or various instrumentals, according to Gordon-Levitt.

Anyone whose work is feature in the game will get paid, although he didn’t specify how much.

Among other coming games shown off by Ubisoft was psychological thriller “Transference,” a collaboration with another Hollywood star Elijah Wood, which will see players grapple with twists and mysteries in a deranged mind.

Wood who described himself as an avid gamer, promised during the event that the game “will leave you with haunting memories long after you put down the controller.”

Ubisoft also provided glimpses of an eagerly-awaited sequel to its history-based adventure franchise “Assassin’s Creed” set in Greece during the time of Socrates, and roused the crowd with a marching band and colorfully garbed performers introducing a new entry to the hit “Just Dance” dancing game franchise.

The most number of visitors came from the US, Japan and China, while Thais were at No 6.

Computex 2019 will be held from May 28 to June 1.

Leonor Lin, executive vice president of Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), said that the Computex 2018 ICT trade show that concluded on Saturday attracted 42,284 international visitors from 168 countries, up almost 1 per cent over last year.

The most number of visitors came from the US, Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, India and Philippines.

Computex 2018 featured six themes – artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), innovation & start-ups, and gaming and virtual reality (VR). It also offered forums under three themes: AI, future trend and IoT sessions.

As AI technology matures and IoT applications proliferate, two technologies converge and become the rapidly emerging AIoT (AI+IoT), and the trade showed the response to this trend. In addition to servers designed for AI computing and big data storage, Gigoabyte leveraged software of resources of its partners and rolled out a hybrid cloud for AI and data analytics.

Meanwhile, Compal introduced an all-round solution that combines professional advanced designs and cloud computing. Vivotek’s next-generation smart camera with image analysis capabilities and built-in deep learning algorithms can generate added value for the retail sector, as it can accurately calculate the number of people and the length of time they stay in shop.

In addition, InnoVEX, an initiative focused on innovations, which also featured a start-ups exhibition, attracted 17,678 visitors, a sharp 18 per cent increase over last year. The event saw 388 start-up exhibitors from 21 countries demonstrate AI- related technologies or applications. It also teamed up with private companies and the government to raise a prize pool of US$350,000 (Bt11.2 million) for the InooFEX pitch contest. This year’s grand prize was awarded to Bioinspira.

It will increase to scalable areas in order to bring more innovative momentum to Computex as it joins companies around the globe to demonstrate technology to disrupt business and reinvent lifestyle.

The initiative to build an online knowledge community to meet the needs of the country’s digital future is being spearheaded by the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES).

CodingThailand.org is intended to spur the interest of digital-age youth in computer science, an essential skill for the digital age. The Coding Thailand project is a key example of the Digital Economy and Society Ministry’s response to the changing society, said Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj. The goal is to educate Thai people for the digital era, he said.

“CodingThailand.org has been developed as an online learning platform to promote digital technologies and computer science, and also to inculcate systematic thinking in Thais,” said Pichet. “These elements are crucial to the development of a digital workforce, a preparation needed to drive Thailand’s digital economy and society.”

Coding Thailand will become Thailand’s computer-science knowledge centre, the richest source of knowledge that people, including youth, could access anytime, anywhere, he said. Classrooms do not need to exist only in their traditional form, but also be made available via cellphones, laptops, tablets and other smart devices.

Through accessing CodingThailand.org, citizens would be able to keep pace with evolving technologies and even create them. And the website would thus become a key tool to reduce social, educational and economic gaps. Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin, president and CEO of the Depa, said the agency created CodingThailand.org as an online learning platform in collaboration with Code.org and private sector companies.

Code.org is a non-profit organisation and the world’s leading computer-science learning centre. Private sector companies involved in the project include Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Aksorn Education.

Content is being translated into Thai and aims to cater to Thai youth through the inclusion of entertainment and creative design. The idea is for youth to have fun while learning computer science and coding. The site will include content deemed very relevant to the life of younger people “as we efficiently blend knowledge into the content,” said Nuttapon.

“This way, the number of digital citizens in Thailand should increase fast. These citizens can be developed further into specialists, the resources Thailand still lacks.”

“Importantly, the Coding Thailand project makes sure Codingthailand.org covers both formal and informal education. Content is well designed to match each level of youth. On top of this, the platform features fun activities to encourage learning outside classrooms. Various activities are held in support of learning and development of thinking skills, computer skills, digital skills and coding abilities so that learners can develop innovations on their own,” said Nuttapon.

Code.org, a non-profit, offers high quality curriculum and resources for students and teachers at no cost. The worldwide leader in K12 computer science education, it has enrolled over 25 million students and 800,000 teachers from over 180 countries.

The academy is an umbrella with two key facets – the RISE Accelerator and RISE Innovation Week.

The RISE Accelerator has been in place for two years, helping build the success of over 1,000 start-ups with a combined valuation of Bt3 billion and providing experiential learning for up to 500 corporate executives.

This year, the Academy launches RISE Innovation Week in Thailand, with an aim to create a community of corporate innovators in both government agencies and large corporates as it seeks to raise awareness and encourage widespread adoption of the innovation ethic.

Supachai Parchariyanon, founder and CEO of RISE Academy said the organisation positions itself as a corporate innovation accelerator. It aims to be a growth engine, driving Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia forward with corporate innovation. In doing so, it aims to help contribute 1 per cent to the country’s GDP.

More immediately, it will oversee RISE Innovation Week from June 19 to 23.

“Innovation and innovators in the large corporates are fundamental to making change through creating innovation within the corporates,” said Supachai. “Currently, economy of speed is more important than speed of scale.”

“We worked with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, PTT, and Krungsri Ayudhaya Bank to set up the Regional Accelerator in Thailand by bringing innovation from the regions to drive innovation in corporates,” Supachai said.

RISE Accelerator provides experiential learning for executives, teaching them how to create innovation, he said. RISE Academy has now trained over 500 executives of large corporates. Those companies together have valuations equal to 22 per cent of the value of the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

RISE Innovation week will be a five-day innovators meet-up for corporations, start-ups and venture capitalists from across the region to meet and connect. It offers corporate innovation topics including entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, venture capital, accelerators, and so on.

This year’s mission is to help create Bt12 billion of economic value to the country – a 0.1 per cent contribution to GDP. That economic value is calculated based on the company valuation of start-ups associated with this year’s RISE Accelerator and from the increased revenue of corporates through joining hands with start-ups.

Moreover, it also aims to get more than 1,000 corporate innovators into experiential training, double last year’s participation.

RISE Innovation Week also aims to help more 10,000 executives from government agencies and corporates to learn more about corporate innovation throughout the week.

RISE is the only accelerator from Thailand to have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government agencies of 10 countries to work together to drive and encourage innovation. Those countries include Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

“We expect to have 1,500 start-ups, venture capitalists, corporate venture capitals and investors join RISE Innovation Week, while having 200 well-known speakers from around the world,” said Supachai.

He said the number of start-ups in Thailand had grown continuously over the past five years. The top investment value per round has risen in that time from around US$2 million to US$20 million. Moreover, the numbers of venture capitalists and corporate venture capitalists has jumped to almost 50 combined locally, regionally and globally. “However, Thailand is still behind other countries and therefore we cannot stop,” said Supachai.

There’s now a lot more opportunity for start-ups to survive and grow, especially if they work with large corporates, he said. Start-ups know how to innovate and move fast, while corporates have customers. When corporates utilise the innovative drive of start-ups, they together create new revenues – and that is a win-win strategy.

“To get them – both start-ups and large corporates – to a win-win situation is our job. Thailand is a small market, so start-ups and large corporates join hands to go regional and go global, to gain more customers, users and revenue,” said Supachai.

“Open innovation and change-oriented mindset can help change and increase the country’s competitiveness. Thailand has competitive advantages, including tourism tech, travel tech, agri-tech, food tech, and health tech.”

With high competition in the property market, a new business model is emerging among property developers as they transform

seeing themselves as builders of residences for sale to instead

providing a home solution service to meet customer demands. In doing so, they utilise artificial intelligence or AI to increase their business value and create barriers for new entry to beat the competition.

“We have to transform our business to create a barrier for new entry by using AI BIM – artificial intelligence building information modelling – for our design, construction process and even our after-sales service to customers. We set up our application to serve all of our customers’ demands,” said AP (Thailand) Plc’s chief business group officer for condominiums, Vittakarn Chandavimol, in a recent interview with The Nation.

AP (Thailand) set up its design and construction standards by collaborating with its building partners to ensure they know how to meet the company’s AI BIM requirements.. The system reduces paperwork by communicating through an iCloud system.

“We make changes to the design and regarding most of our raw materials through the iCloud, and integrate our information until the design is finalised and we can start construction. Our engineering, architecture, marketing, and management teams can follow all project processes in real time. This helps us to reduce the diversions from the construction process. This will also help us to control business costs,” Vittakarn explained.

The company inaugurated its use of AI BIM last year, applying it to low-rise residential buildings such as single detached houses and townhouses. This year they’ve expanded it to condominium design and building.

“This year, we’re going to full-scale use of AI BIM for all of our business units, to support our construction processes in real time. We’ll use it in our condominium projects that launch this year, with construction completed in the year 2020,” he said.

A universal design approach will allow the company to serve the needs of all generations in a family. The use of AI BIM will help the company create functional designs that serve ageing family members and also kids in the same space, supporting the unique demands of customers. “This help us to customise design for our mass production,” said Vittakarn. “Property firms have to get on-board this trend, because customers now demand that residential spaces reflect their personal needs.”

The use of AI doesn’t stop with customising design and tracking construction materials. AP (Thailand) also tries to apply AI to its after-sales services, using an app to ensure that all the needs of its customers are served. The company subsidiary, Smart Service and Management Co Ltd or SSM, is expected to fully launch the app in 2019.

In time, “we hope to develop one application under the AP umbrella to do everything for the home users”, said Vittkarn. “It takes time to combine all the applications that are in the market, but we hope to have it finalised within three years.”

The company is spending several million baht yearly to develop the AI needed to power their new customer-centred approach in all facets of their business. AP (Thailand) Plc now has a “smart POD”, a smart locker for mail and parcels, an electric plug-in for electric cars, and smart securities.

AP is not the only development company using AI to transform its business model. Sansiri Plc, Ananda Development Plc, SC Asset Corporation Plc, Land and Houses Plc, and others are also transforming their businesses by using AI and big data to change their core business model.

“We now use big data to make decisions about buying land to develop for residential projects, when previously I used my own common sense to select the land,” said Sansiri Plc’s president Srettha Thavisin in an interview with The Nation earlier. He accepted that AI and big data had changed the way it carried out its property business. Those technologies have allowed Sansiri to create additional facilities to serve its customers through mobile apps.

“We saw the power of big data and how it could change our business model,” said Srettha. “Over the past two years we moved our business onto a digital business platform. We set up a new department and appointed a chief technology officer to support and create innovations to serve our new business model.”

For example, Sansiri uses big data derived from its customers to craft residential designs that address the needs of an ageing society, as well as designs that match with people’s lifestyles under a sharing concept that lets condominium customers benefit from facilities such as a smart locker, voice box and a robot service called San Dee.

Ananda Development Plc has also adapted to technology to facilitate its services for customers, said the company’s CEO, Chanond Ruangkritya, recently. The speed of technological advancement will continue to increase in the next five to 10 years, he said, and would play a greater role in revolutionising the property industry in many aspects, from the construction process to the enhancement of urban living. The company will keep adjusting to keep pace with the technological disruption.

Last year, Ananda announced a plan to become an “UrbanTech” company as part of its strategy to deliver urban living solutions to customers. It has also partnered with promising tech start-ups to provide innovative services to its condominium customers.

For its part, SC Asset Corporation Plc has set up SC Able to invest in start-ups working in the residential field.

Its first deal was an investment in Fixzy, which is an application for residential maintenance. SC Asset said such initiatives form part of its response to evolving customer demands.

“This is a new era for how we do business under the concept of SC 4.0,” Nuttaphong Kunakornwong, CEO of SC Asset Corporation Plc said recently, referring to a vision that takes its cue from the government’s Thailand 4.0 technology policy.