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Technology workers in Kenya have held a vigil for a colleague who died in unclear circumstances after she was unable to travel to her home in Nigeria for two years. Ladi Anzaki Olubunmi, a content moderator for TikTok employed by the subcontractor Teleperformance Kenya, died last week and her decomposing body was discovered in her house after three days. It was unclear what caused her death, but colleagues say she had complained of fatigue and was desperate to go back home. Teleperformance Kenya told the Associated Press on Wednesday that they didn’t deny Olubunmi her leave to go home. Her family in Nigeria says she only traveled once since coming to Kenya three years ago. Content moderators working for subcontracted firms based in Kenya have in the past described working conditions that they say include lower than average pay, lack of mental health support, long working hours and intimidation. More than 100 former Facebook content moderators have sued the social media company over what they say is poor pay, horrible working conditions and unfair termination of employment by Facebooks subcontracted Kenya-based firm, Samasource. Dozens of content moderators and data labelers working for various global tech companies met during Tuesdays vigil and said that poor working conditions may have contributed to their colleagues death. There are more than 100 Nigerians working under Teleperformance company who havent had work permits for the last two years and so they have not been able to travel home despite having an annual return ticket benefit, said Kauna Malgwi, a friend of the deceased. Olubunmis family was informed of her death a day after her body was discovered by a neighbor. Teleperformance emailed Olubunmis brother notifying him of her death and gave him contacts of Kenyan investigating officers who he could call for information, autopsy and burial arrangements. The family cannot afford to take her body home, so they are considering asking her church in Nairobi to bury her, Malgwi said. Evelyne Musambi, Associated Press
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D-Wave is about to make waves. The quantum computing firm announced on Wednesday that, for the first time, it was able to successfully simulate the properties of magnetic materials using its Advantage2 annealing quantum computer, which allows us to invent and evaluate new materials without needing to build them in the lab, D-Wave CEO Dr. Alan Baratz tells Fast Company. In effect, this means that D-Wave has achieved quantum supremacy on a useful problem, something it says nobody else has yet been able to accomplish, and which is detailed in a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science. This is a really important moment in time for the entire quantum computing industry, says Dr. Baratz. For the first time ever, weve demonstrated a quantum computer being able to solve a difficult, real-world problem that classical computers cant solve. Its what everybody aspired to achieve, and were quite excited about it.” ’25 years of hardware development’ Quantum computing has largely remained theoretical until recently, but D-Waves achievement is a notable breakthrough as its demonstrated that its quantum computer can, in fact, outperform classical computers in materials simulations. To simulate the property of magnetic materials on a classical computeras the D-Wave team recently did using its quantum computerwould require nearly one million years, and more energy than the entire world utilizes over the course of a year. D-Waves team did it in 20 minutes. But there was a lot of work that went into it. These are results that could not be done in a couple of months or years, says Mohammad Amin, chief scientist at D-Wave. He added, the results “are really the results of 25 years of hardware development,” and this specific achievement also took two years of collaboration among 11 institutions worldwide. What this means going forward Dr. Seth Lloyd, professor of quantum mechanical engineering at MIT, said in a statement with D-Wave’s announcement that large-scale, “fully error corrected” quantum computers are still years away. But quantum annealers, a type of quantum computer designed to efficiently solve optimization problems, are useful in the here and now. “The D-Wave result shows the promise of quantum annealers for exploring exotic quantum effects in a wide variety of systems,” Lloyd said. According to D-Wave, scientists could use quantum computing to test out and simulate new materialsspecifically, those used in all sorts of technologies from pacemakers to cellphones. Many of these materials need to be synthesized in a lab, which takes considerable amounts of time and money. But the ability to simulate the materials before theyre actually created? That can allow for significant resource savings, and potentially speed up technology development and make numerous products more efficient. Theres no shortage of potential applications, says Amin.
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Featuring Danielle Guizio, Owner and Designer, Guizio; Kat Hantas, Cofounder, 21Seeds Infused Tequila and Stacey Tank, CEO, Bespoke Beauty Brands (owner of KimChi Chic Beauty and Jason Wu Beauty). Moderated by Yasmin Gagne, Staff Editor, Fast Company What separates companies that scale from those that stall? These founders and CEOs may have the answer. In this panel, you’ll gain insight into the strategies, decisions, and challenges behind building high-growth businesses, from knowing when an acquisition or retail expansion is the right move to capitalizing on buzzy products.
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