Zoom Partners with Anthropic to Expand Federated Approach to AI

Zoom announces investment in Anthropic to support research roadmaps and build steerable AI systems; Anthropic’s AI model will help strengthen Zoom’s federated approach across its platform, including Zoom Contact Center integrations

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Zoom announced a strategic partnership with and investment in Anthropic, an AI safety and research company working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. The collaboration with Anthropic will further bolster Zoom’s federated approach to AI by allowing Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude, to be integrated with Zoom’s platform (which includes Team Chat, Meetings, Phone, Whiteboard, Zoom IQ), starting with Zoom Contact Center.

“Anthropic’s Constitutional AI model is primed to provide safe and responsible integrations for our next-generation innovations, beginning with the Zoom Contact Center portfolio. With Claude guiding agents toward trustworthy resolutions and powering self-service for end-users, companies will be able to take customer relationships to another level,” said Smita Hashim, chief product officer for Zoom. “Partnering with Anthropic also furthers our commitment to providing customers with our federated approach to AI, optimized to deliver outstanding customer experience outcomes. Additionally, with our investment, we are advancing leading-edge companies like Anthropic and helping to drive innovation in the Zoom ecosystem and beyond.”

“Partnering with a leading collaboration platform like Zoom allows us to put robust, steerable AI into the hands of more people and unlock its potential to help streamline everyday processes,” said Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic. “We look forward to working together to showcase Anthropic’s capabilities and our joint commitment to enhancing productivity through intelligent solutions.”

Zoom’s federated approach to AI leverages its own proprietary AI models, along with those from leading AI companies — such as Anthropic — and select customers’ models. With this flexibility to incorporate multiple types of models, Zoom can provide the most value for its customers’ diverse needs. Zoom will be able to customize these models to perform better for a customer, based on their specific business needs.

As the next step in evolving the Zoom Contact Center portfolio, (Zoom Virtual Agent, Zoom Contact Center, Zoom Workforce Management), Zoom plans to incorporate Anthropic AI throughout its suite, improving end-user outcomes and enabling superior agent experiences. The Zoom Contact Center suite of solutions elevates the quality of customer experiences through better self-service and the ability to accurately understand customer intent. It intelligently guides customers to the best resolution, surfaces actionable insights that managers can use to coach their agents, and improves productivity by providing a unified communications and contact center experience. In the near future, Zoom will also use AI to provide the right resources to agents, so customers receive exceptional service experiences regardless of their reason for calling.

Announced today, Zoom Ventures has made an investment in Anthropic, strengthening the relationship between both companies. Anthropic’s research and development aims to create steerable, trustworthy, and responsible large-scale AI systems. Zoom did not disclose the amount of the investment.

About Zoom
Zoom is an all-in-one intelligent collaboration platform that makes connecting easier, more immersive, and more dynamic for businesses and individuals. Zoom technology puts people at the center, enabling meaningful connections, facilitating modern collaboration, and driving human innovation through solutions like team chat, phone, meetings, omnichannel cloud contact center, smart recordings, whiteboard, and more, in one offering. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Get more info at zoom.com.

Zoom Public Relations
Lacretia Taylor
press@zoom.us

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8840480

Impulse Dynamics Announces 9,000th Patient Milestone Achieved With CCM® Therapy for Heart Failure

Momentum Continues as Depth of Clinical Experience Expands Worldwide

MARLTON, N.J., May 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Impulse Dynamics plc, a global medical device company dedicated to improving the lives of people with heart failure (HF), announced today a worldwide milestone achievement with the 9,000th patient receiving the Optimizer® system for the treatment of moderate HF. The Optimizer system is the only device approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States to deliver CCM therapy. Dr. Steven Gubin, a cardiologist and the President of Stern Cardiovascular, is part of the care team that completed the procedure at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis, offering CCM therapy to a patient living with the debilitating effects of HF. This milestone highlights the momentum building globally for CCM therapy, using the Optimizer platform to improve quality of life in HF patients.

“I am excited to have a new therapy option for heart failure patients,” said Dr. Gubin, who has been practicing for 30 years. “One of my heart failure patients, Aubretta Bean, who is a cancer survivor, continued to have symptoms despite her compliance with guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure. She let me know that she felt better almost immediately after receiving the implant and continues to improve daily. It has been extremely rewarding to see such improvement in her quality of life. Her lab work four weeks later showed her BNP (a common test to diagnose heart failure) decreased by 81%, which is consistent with improvement in her heart failure symptoms.”

“Before my CCM implant, I could not walk from one room to the other without gasping for air. It was like being underwater and trying to breathe through a straw,” said Aubretta Bean. “Heart failure changed my life so quickly. You might think housework is a chore, but when you can’t make your bed or do the dishes, you realize how quickly you would love to do that again. Now after my Optimizer implant, I can do all these things! I look forward to planning my days again and not just trying to get through them. I have eight grandkids and two great-grandkids that I can travel to see!”

Drs. Eric Johnson, David Lan, and Chris Ingelmo are all electrophysiologists at Stern Cardiovascular that have treated ten patients at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis with CCM therapy since March 2023. Dr. Chris Ingelmo completed the milestone procedure for the 9,000th patient treated with CCM therapy. The results have been encouraging, with significant improvement in patient symptoms.

“We are inspired by such stories highlighting the potential for clinicians to use CCM therapy to make a positive impact on HF patients’ lives,” said Simos Kedikoglou, MD, CEO of Impulse Dynamics. “The growing cadence of implants and the emergence of such inspiring stories reinforces our commitment to delivering meaningful advances in CCM technology and clinical data.”

CCM therapy is now available in 44 countries, and the technology has continued to advance based on the needs of patients and physicians. The latest generation of Impulse Dynamic’s proprietary Optimizer platform is the Optimizer Smart Mini, which offers a rechargeable battery with 20-year battery life and a smaller size designed to make the implant procedure faster and easier for patients and physicians.

About the Optimizer® and CCM® Therapy

The Optimizer Smart system delivers CCM therapy — the company’s proprietary technology — to the heart. CCM therapy has been designed by Impulse Dynamics to significantly improve the heart’s contraction, allowing more oxygen-rich blood to be pushed out through the body. CCM therapy is indicated to improve the 6-minute hall walk, quality of life, and functional status of NYHA Class III heart failure patients who remain symptomatic despite guideline-directed medical therapy, are not indicated for CRT, and have a left ventricular ejection fraction ranging from 25 to 45 percent.

CCM is the brand name for cardiac contractility modulation — the non-excitatory electrical pulses delivered by the implantable Optimizer device to improve heart contraction. CCM therapy sends unique electrical pulses to the heart cells during the absolute refractory period. In doing so, CCM helps the heart contract more forcibly. Impulse Dynamics has completed numerous clinical studies, including several randomized controlled trials, and CCM therapy has been published in more than 120 peer-reviewed journal articles.

About Impulse Dynamics

Impulse Dynamics is dedicated to advancing the treatment of heart failure for patients and the healthcare providers who care for them. The company pioneered its proprietary CCM therapy, which uses the Optimizer platform to improve quality of life in heart failure patients. CCM therapy is delivered through the Optimizer system, which includes an IPG implanted in a minimally invasive procedure and approved for commercial use in the United States and 44 countries worldwide. CCM therapy has proven safe and effective for heart failure patients with debilitating symptoms who otherwise have few effective options available to them. To learn more, visit www.ImpulseDynamics.com or follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as ‘‘may,’’ ‘‘will,’’ ‘‘should,’’ ‘‘expect,’’ ‘‘plan,’’ ‘‘anticipate,’’ ‘‘could,’’ ‘‘intend,’’ ‘‘target,’’ ‘‘project,’’ ‘‘contemplate,’’ ‘‘believe,’’ ‘‘estimate,’’ ‘‘predict,’’ ‘‘potential’’ or ‘‘continue’’ or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning potential benefits of CCM therapy, the continued momentum for the adoption of CCM therapy and use of the Optimizer Smart system globally; the ability for CCM therapy and our products and technology to fill a significant unmet medical need for patients with heart failure; and the short-term and long-term benefits of the Optimizer system and CCM therapy in patients with heart failure, as well as to the physicians treating those patients. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Other important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contemplated in this press release include, without limitation: the company’s future research and development costs, capital requirements and the company’s needs for additional financing; company’s ability to expand and grow its business into new geographic markets; commercial success and market acceptance of CCM therapy; the company’s ability to achieve and maintain adequate levels of coverage or reimbursement for its Optimizer systems or any future products the company may seek to commercialize; competitive companies and technologies in the industry; the company’s ability to expand its indications and develop and commercialize additional products and enhancements to its current products; the company’s business model and strategic plans for its products, technologies and business, including its implementation thereof; the company’s ability to expand, manage and maintain its direct sales and marketing organization; the company’s ability to commercialize or obtain regulatory approvals for CCM therapy and its products, or the effect of delays in commercializing or obtaining regulatory approvals; FDA or other U.S. or foreign regulatory actions affecting us or the healthcare industry generally, including healthcare reform measures in the United States and international markets; the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals; and the company’s ability to establish and maintain intellectual property protection for CCM therapy and products or avoid claims of infringement. The company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements and expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Rohan More, Global Vice President of Marketing
Impulse Dynamics
856-642-9933
rmore@impulsedynamics.com

Harriss Currie, Chief Financial Officer
Impulse Dynamics
856-642-9933
hcurrie@impulsedynamics.com

Ian Segal, Public Relations Manager
Impulse Dynamics
856-642-9933
isegal@impulsedynamics.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8839792

Malawi hippo in deadly attack on packed river boat

A one-year-old boy has died and 23 people are missing after a hippo hit their boat, capsizing it in Malawi’s biggest river, police say.

Rescue teams are searching for survivors, but hopes of finding anyone alive are fading as the accident occurred on Monday.

The boat was packed with villagers who were crossing the Shire River to work in their fields, as they normally do.

For reasons that are still unclear, a hippo attacked their boat this time.

BBC Africa Live: Updates from the continent

A total of 14 people managed to swim to safety or were rescued by other villagers who dived into the river to help.

But they failed to rescue the only child in the boat.

His body was recovered by the police maritime unit when it arrived to carry out rescue and search operations.

The accident occurred in the remote Nsanje district in southern Malawi, near the border with Mozambique.

“Officers have been on the scene since yesterday [Monday] when the accident was reported, searching for missing persons,” police spokeswoman for Nsanje district, Agnes Zalakoma, told the BBC.

Local MP Gladys Ganda has repeatedly called for a bridge to be built so that people do not have to risk their lives crossing the river in boats and canoes, but her appeal has so far fallen on deaf ears.

The Shire River is home to many hippos and crocodiles, and boats and canoes are often overcrowded or poorly maintained.

Vessels have capsized before, leading to villagers drowning. But it is rare to hear of a hippo charging at a boat in that part of Malawi.

Such attacks have taken place elsewhere in Malawi, including on fishermen.

Hippos tend to be territorial – and female hippos are known to be extremely aggressive, fiercely defending their young from any perceived threat.

They are the second largest land animal after elephants, and are estimated to kill about 500 people a year in Africa.

Male hippos weigh between 1,600kg (more than 250 stone) and 3,200kg, and females between 650kg and 2,350kg.

Source: BBC

Over 20 missing as hippo hits boat in southern Malawi

At least 20 people are missing in Malawi after a canoe they were sailing in was hit by a hippo and capsized on the Shire River in the southern Nsanje region.

Robert Nayeja, a senior official in Nsanje District, said the canoe was carrying about 37 people going to their fields on the Mozambican side, state-owned MBC TV reported.

A body of an infant, who was among the passengers, has been retrieved.

Agnes Zalakoma, a senior police officer, has told the VOA that the death toll is expected to rise as detectives and rescue teams search for the missing people. So far, 13 people have been rescued.

A lawmaker for the area said the river was infested with crocodiles and hippos and the boats operating there were not motorboats.

The boat mishap is the third deadly accident on the river in three years.

Malawi is recovering from a devastating tropical storm in March that killed 511 people and left 533 others missing.

Source: BBC

Capital Market Game Changer in Ethiopia’s Financial System: Chartered Institute for Securities, Investment

The establishment of capital market in Ethiopia will be a game changer for the improvement of entire financial system in the country, an expert at the UK based Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment said.

It is to be recalled that Ethiopia had approved Capital Markets Establishment Proclamation in 2021 to provide the legal foundation for the development of capital markets in the country and several activities have been carried with a view to create conducive environment for its implementation.

Representing the UK Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI), Sandy Wade told ENA that the chartered institute has signed the interest of intent with Ethiopian Capital Market Authority to work together in the future in providing the necessary exams and qualifications.

This will enable the Ethiopian market open in a way that meets the requirements of consistent, ethical and transparent market which will give confidence to those who engage in and around the capital markets and the Ethiopian stock exchange, he said.

The CISI, which is a global professional body for those in the financial and investment profession, has trained over 500 Ethiopian professionals on the international introduction to securities and investment.

Wade noted that this gives a very solid foundation for those people in working of the capital market and securities, which really build bedrock on which Ethiopians build their additional skills as they move up the level of training through chartered institute.

The expert has commended the efforts being carried out in Ethiopia to commence capital market as it will help the country stand at equal footing with experienced countries in the world.

“The capital market will allow Ethiopia to make use of savings that are already in place in Ethiopia to bring them into the market, allow them to work for Ethiopia, at the same time bring in finance from outside Ethiopia and into the Ethiopian market—it will be a game changer for the Ethiopian financial system,” he said.

I think there is an education to be done for ordinary Ethiopian to understand what it is and how it is valuable to the country, the expert said, adding that this will be the role of the capital market authority to the extent that message to the people of Ethiopia so that they understand this is not about rich man getting richer, this is about making the financial system of Ethiopia work better for everybody.

CISI has been working across Africa for many years; working particularly with African securities exchange association as it is the certification of choice across Africa , so, positioning Ethiopia alongside as an equal of the other capital market in Africa.

Capital market plays critical role to bring foreign investment in Ethiopia vital to the economic development of the country, he indicated.

“To take the banking system as an example, all remain the same level, only the Ethiopian money is available to Ethiopia. If you open the financial market to the outside, you will allow others to bring the money in and you will allow the bank outside from Ethiopia to make an investment in Ethiopian bank which brings foreign capital into Ethiopia and it strengthen your economy.”

We are developing with Ethiopian capital market authority regulatory exams which will meet the Ethiopia’s circumstances and this is something we had done in a number of countries across Africa to create good exams meeting all of the international requirements, he said.

We are very pleased to be working with Ethiopian capital market authority to building this capacity in Ethiopia because what we have seen is fundamental in the improvement of the Ethiopian financial system for the benefit of Ethiopians, sandy said.

Capital market creates opportunity for investors and companies to engage in a new way of investment to raise funds by selling their shares and encourage private investment.

It will also play critical role in paving the way for emerging investors and companies to benefit from distribution of wealth.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Ethiopian Security Exchange Project Team Officially Launched Capital Raises Request

The Ethiopian Security Exchange (ESX) project team has launched the capital raises request today as a first step and a way of inviting different institutions, Ethiopian Capital Market Authority Director-General affirmed.

Briefing the media following the event, Ethiopian Capital Market Authority Director-General Brook Taye said that 25 percent of the share of the capital market of the Ethiopia’s Security Exchange will be held by Ethiopian Investment Holdings and the rest 75 percent will be available for private participants.

“Today, the ESX project team has launched the capital raises request which means in order to have other partners to come and invest on the 75 percent and this is our way of inviting different institutions.”

Citing that Banks and Insurance companies and other investors show their interest and with the hope that more investors will come, he stated today’s event is mainly focused on financial sector investors and participants but going forward it will be open for all pertinent institutions.

Similarly, Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) Abdurehman Eid Tahir said that today’s event is the official announcement of the capital raise to the wider financial sector players and other institutional investors.

Ethiopia’s new ESX, or the stock market, is set to become a reality in 2024-25.

The stock market can help Ethiopia drive consistent economic growth, it was indicated.

According to experts, capital markets can help companies’ development by easing financing and improving the business environment of a country.

Capital markets mobilize additional savings into the economy, making more capital available to companies, which may then in turn create jobs and facilitate real-wage growth.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency