United News of Bangladesh

Huawei has launched 'HUAWEI eKit,' a robust sub-brand that provides an easy supply chain and distribution system for ICT products through local distributors in Bangladesh. The launching ceremony was held on November 20, 2023, at Huawei Bangladesh Academy. Excel Technologies LTD and Inflow Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd will work with HUAWEI eKit in the distribution process. HUAWEI eKit, Excel, and Inflow Jointly organized the launching ceremony. The event was attended by Ms. Kousalya Narayan, Vice President of South Asia Channels Management, Inflow Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd, Mr. Goutam Saha, Managing Director, Excel Technologies, Mr. Allen Liu, Vice President of Huawei South Asia and MD, Huawei South Asia Enterprise Business Group. Other high officials from Huawei, Excel, and Inflow were also present at the event. HUAWEI eKit, a sub-brand dedicated to SME customers and partners. Policies, products, solutions, services, and digital tool platforms are integrated on HUAWEI eKit to build end-to-end enterprise digital solutions. In the SME market, HUAWEI eKit intends to grows together with partners and helps thousands of enterprises go digital with its intelligent products and solutions. Ms. Kousalya Naraya, Vice President, South Asia Channels Management, Inflow Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd, said, "HUAWEI eKit launch has immense strategic significance as it will empower distributors and retailers. Together with HUAWEI eKit, we believe in collaborative growth. HUAWEI eKit aligns with Inflow Technologies' commitment to driving technological advancements and business success in the region." Mr. Goutam Saha, Managing Director of Excel Technologies Limited, said, "I am delighted to begin our partnership with HUAWEI eKit. This sub-brand aligns with our commitment to delivering cutting-edge ICT solutions. It promises to redefine the landscape of technology distribution in our country. Launching the HUAWEI eKit in the Bangladesh market provides a unique opportunity for us." Mr. Allen Liu, Vice President of Huawei South Asia and MD of Huawei South Asia Enterprise Business Group, said, "Huawei is introducing a sub-brand known as ' HUAWEI eKit'. It will bring innovative ICT products through our distribution partners in the retail sector. This sub-brand is ideal for ensuring retail business growth for the retailers. Partners and Consumers will also benefit from this platform as the HUAWEI eKit products will be available in our distributors' inventory. This sub- brand will help make significant contributions to realizing Smart Bangladesh. In the HUAWEI eKit distribution landscape, Excel Technologies will be responsible for product promotion, market availability, and after-sales services. Simultaneously, Inflow is responsible for bringing these products to Bangladesh, taking orders from local distributors and retailers, and acquiring the product from HUAWEI eKit.

The ousted leader of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is returning to the company that fired him late last week, the latest in a saga that has shocked the artificial intelligence industry. San Francisco-based OpenAI said in a statement late Tuesday: “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board" made of former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo. OpenAI’s previous board of directors, which included D'Angelo, had refused to give specific reasons for why it fired Altman on Friday, leading to a weekend of internal conflict at the company and growing outside pressure from the startup's investors. Read: ChatGPT-maker OpenAI fires CEO Sam Altman Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has rights to its technology, quickly moved to hire Altman on Monday, as well as another co-founder and former president, Greg Brockman, who had quit in protest after Altman's removal. That emboldened a threatened exodus of nearly all of the startup's 770 employees who signed a letter calling for the board's resignation and Altman's return. Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott put out a call to the startup’s employees Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter: “Know that if needed, you have a role at Microsoft that matches your compensation and advances our collective mission.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also made clear in a series of interviews Monday that he was still open to the possibility of Altman returning to OpenAI, so long as the startup's governance and board problems are solved. Read: ChatGPT's chief to testify before US Congress as concerns grow about artificial intelligence's risks “We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board,” Nadella posted on X late Tuesday. “We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.” In his own post, Altman said that “with the new board and (with) Satya's support, I'm looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with (Microsoft)." Co-founded by Altman as a nonprofit with a mission to safely build so-called artificial general intelligence that outperforms humans and benefits humanity, OpenAI later became a for-profit business but one still run by its nonprofit board of directors. It's not clear yet if the board's structure will change with its newly appointed members. Nadella said Brockman, who was OpenAI's board chairman until Altman's firing, will also have a key role to play in ensuring OpenAI “continues to thrive and build on its mission.” Hours earlier, Brockman returned to social media as if it were business as usual, touting a feature called ChatGPT Voice that was rolling out for free to everyone who uses the chatbot. Read: What can Bard, Google’s answer to ChatGPT, do?  “Give it a try — totally changes the ChatGPT experience,” Brockman wrote, flagging a post from OpenAI's main X account that featured a demonstration of the technology playfully winking at recent turmoil. “It’s been a long night for the team and we’re hungry. How many 16-inch pizzas should I order for 778 people,” the person asks, using the number of people who work at OpenAI. ChatGPT's synthetic voice responded by recommending around 195 pizzas, ensuring everyone gets three slices. As for OpenAI's short-lived interim CEO Emmett Shear, the second interim CEO in the days since Altman's ouster, he posted on X that he was “deeply pleased by this result, after (tilde)72 very intense hours of work.” “Coming into OpenAI, I wasn't sure what the right path would be,” Shear wrote. “This was the pathway that maximized safety alongside doing right by all stakeholders involved. I'm glad to have been a part of the solution.”

Elon Musk’s social media company X filed a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America on Monday, saying it manufactured a report to show advertisers’ posts alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist posts in order to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.” Media Matters, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, called the lawsuit “frivolous.” Advertisers have been fleeing the site formerly known as Twitter over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content — and hate speech on the site in general — while billionaire owner Musk has inflamed tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. IBM, NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast said last week that they stopped advertising on X after the Media Matters report said their ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis. It was a fresh setback as the platform tries to win back big brands and their ad dollars, X’s main source of revenue. READ: Elon Musk's refusal to have Starlink support Ukraine attack in Crimea raises questions for Pentagon The Media Matters report pointed to ads from Apple and Oracle that also were placed next to antisemitic material on X. On Friday, it said it also found ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal and others next to white nationalist hashtags. But San Francisco-based X says in its complaint filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, that Media Matters “knowingly and maliciously” portrayed ads next to hateful material “as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform.” X's complaint claims that Media Matters manipulated algorithms on the platform to create images of advertisers' paid posts next to racist, incendiary content. The juxtapositions, according to the complaint, were "manufactured, inorganic and extraordinarily rare." It says Media Matters did this by using X accounts that just followed X users known to produce “extreme fringe content” and accounts owned by X’s major advertisers. This, the complaint says, led to a feed aimed at producing side-by-side placements that Media Matters could then screen shot in an effort to alienate X's advertisers. READ: Elon Musk reveals new black and white X logo to replace Twitter's blue bird Media Matters said Monday that it stands by its reporting and expects to prevail in court. “This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence," the non-profit's president, Angelo Carusone, said in a prepared statement. Advertisers have been skittish on X since Musk's takeover more than a year ago. Musk has also sparked outcry this month with his own posts responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a reply last Wednesday. READ: Twitter users run into service issues after Elon Musk imposes daily limits on reading tweets Musk has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year, and the content on X has gained increased scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas began. X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company's “point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” “I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,” she wrote on the platform last week.  

TECNO, a global pioneer in mobile imaging technology, unveiled its latest groundbreaking leap in camera technology, TECNO Universal Tone–the most advanced AI-Powered multi-skin tone imaging technology that integrates the industry's newest spectral database and insights recently. Self-developed by TECNO, the technology was enhanced through joint research and development in cooperation with color science academics from leading global universities, with newly collected and analyzed data from scientific research integrated into the system. The Universal Tone technology made its debut in the captivating 'Portrait For Everyone' short film produced by BBC StoryWorks on October 2, said a media release. Created to deliver precise representations of skin tones, TECNO Universal Tone embodies inclusivity and customization. Jack Guo, General Manager of TECNO, highlighted the brand's commitment to fostering a positive mindset through technological development. The technology employs a rigorous scientific, data-based approach to ensure an accurate reflection of the diverse beauty of users worldwide. TECNO Universal Tone technology incorporates three engines: the Multi-Skin Tone Restoration Engine, the Local-Tuning Engine, and the AI-Powered Computational Portrait Engine. The Multi-Skin Tone Restoration Engine utilises a scientific approach, featuring the industry's largest diversified spectral database. It covers frequently overlooked skin colors, eliminating bias in technology. This engine allows for the creation of an inclusive skin tone scale and precise representation. The Local-Tuning Engine tailors solutions for diverse real-world scenarios, considering local environments, lighting conditions, and color temperatures to achieve a harmonious output, it reads. The AI-Powered Computational Portrait Engine delivers a personalized and localized portrait imaging experience. It considers aesthetic preferences, facial features, and skin tones unique to each region, ensuring enhanced accuracy, texture, and personalized beauty enhancements. In synergy, these engines optimize TECNO Universal Tone. The Multi-Skin Tone Restoration Engine calibrates skin tones, the Local-Tuning Engine restructures facial tones and analyzes the environment, and the AI-Powered Computational Portrait Engine applies a personalized algorithm aligned with regional preferences. Dr. Kaida Xiao, Associate Professor at the University of Leeds, emphasizes the data-based approach in developing accurate color cards for each skin tone. TheUniversal Tone technology ensures accurate identification and optimization of individual skin tones, setting a new standard for diversity and true-to-life portraits. TECNO, guided by its user-centric philosophy and "Stop At Nothing" strategy, continues to pursue innovation. The development of TECNO Universal Tone marks a significant milestone in creating a more inclusive smartphone industry, emphasizing the brand's commitment to enhancing user lifestyles globally.

Microsoft announced Monday that it has hired Sam Altman and another co-founder of ChatGPT maker OpenAI after they unexpectedly departed the company days earlier in a corporate shakeup that shocked the artificial intelligence world. Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella also tweeted that the major investor in OpenAI — behind the chatbot that kicked off the generative AI craze — looked “forward to getting to know” OpenAI's new chief executive, former Twitch leader Emmett Shear, and the rest of the management team. Nadella wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Microsoft was “extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team.” Altman said “the mission continues,” in reply to Nadella on X. OpenAI said Friday that Altman was pushed out after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors, which had lost confidence in his ability to lead OpenAI. Altman catapulted ChatGPT to global fame while serving as company CEO and in the past year has become Silicon Valley’s sought-after voice on the promise and potential dangers of artificial intelligence. OpenAI last week had announced co-founder Brockman would step down as board chairman but remain onas president. Brockman followed with a post on X reprinting a message he sent to OpenAI employees in which he wrote, “based on today’s news, i quit.” In another X post Friday night, Brockman said Altman was asked to join a video meeting with the company’s board members, when co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever informed Altman he was being fired. Brockman added that he was informed of his removal from the board in a separate call with Sutskever a short time later. “Sam and I are shocked and saddened by what the board did today,” Brockman wrote on X.

The OpenAI board is reportedly "in discussion" with Sam Altman regarding his potential return as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after he was suddenly fired on Friday (November 17, 2023), according to The Verge. Quoting sources close to the matter, The Verge reported that Altman is “ambivalent” about coming back and would want significant governance changes. Also read: ChatGPT-maker OpenAI fires CEO Sam Altman Earlier, many staffers of OpenAI, the US-based AI research and deployment company that developed ChatGPT, gave an ultimatum to the OpenAI board to resign and bring back Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, chairman of OpenAI who resigned in protest of firing Altman. As per The Verge, the board has initially reached an agreement to resign, making way for Altman and Brockman to return. However, there seems to have been a change in their stance since then. A source close to Altman told Verge that if he decides to start a new company, those staffers will go with him, which could lead OpenAI towards a state of free-fall. Also read: ChatGPT-4: All you need to know Following Altman’s termination as CEO, a string of senior researchers of the organisation have resigned from their posts at OpenAI. Meanwhile, in a memo sent to OpenAI staffers, one executive member of the company has reportedly said "we remain optimistic" about bringing back Sam Altman, The Verge reports, quoting The Information. The Verge, however, couldn't confirm whom the executive was referring to with the term "we."

Luna Shamsuddoha, a pioneer in Bangladesh’s ICT sector, was posthumously honoured with the ‘Meritorious Achievement Award-2023’ by Portugal for her contributions to ICT. The award ceremony organized by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) and the National Electoral Commission of Portugal was held in Lisbon on November 15. The award was conferred on Luna Shamsuddoha in recognition of her invaluable contributions and lifetime dedication to electoral management including the formulation of fingerprint and photograph-based voter lists in Bangladesh alongside her contribution to electoral management in different countries of the world. Her remarkable legacy in the realm of electoral affairs has left an indelible mark, the organisers said. The ‘Meritorious Achievement Award’ was handed over to Reem Shamsuddoha, daughter of the late Luna Shamsuddoha, at the function which was attended by dignitaries from electoral commissions from around the world. Soreto de Barros, president of the National Electoral Commission of Portugal, officials of election commissions of various countries, and former chief election commissioner of India Nasim Zaidi, were present, among others, on the occasion. Luna Shamsuddoha breathed her last on February 17, 2021. The ICPS mentioned that Luna Shamsuddoha was conferred the prestigious award due to her invaluable contributions to the electoral management of various countries of the world including Bangladesh through the use of ICT. Regarding the award, AKM Shamsuddoha, husband of the late Luna Shamsuddoha, said the ‘Meritorious Achievement Award’ conferred posthumously on Luna is a matter of great pride. He also recalled the tireless efforts of the engineers and officials of Dohatec New Media towards the achievement.

SpaceX launched its mega rocket Starship but lost both the booster and the spacecraft in a pair of explosions minutes into Saturday’s test flight. The rocketship reached space following liftoff from South Texas before communication suddenly was lost. SpaceX officials said it appears the ship’s self-destruct system blew it up over the Gulf of Mexico. Minutes earlier, the separated booster had exploded over the gulf. By then, though, its job was done. Saturday’s demo lasted eight or so minutes, about twice as long as the first test in April, which also ended in an explosion. The latest flight came to an end as the ship’s engines were almost done firing to put it on an around-the-world path. Read: SpaceX sends Saudi astronauts, including nation’s 1st woman in space, to International Space Station At nearly 400 feet (121 meters), Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, with the goal of ferrying people to the moon and Mars. “The real topping on the cake today, that successful liftoff,” said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker, noting that all 33 booster engines fired as designed, unlike last time. The booster also separated seamlessly from the spaceship, which reached an altitude of 92 miles (148 kilometers). Added commentator Kate Tice: "We got so much data, and that will all help us to improve for our next flight.” SpaceX founder Elon Musk watched from behind launch controllers at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border, near Boca Chica Beach. At company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, employees cheered as Starship soared at daybreak. The room grew quiet once it was clear that the spaceship had been destroyed. Read: SpaceX launches 4 astronauts for NASA after private flight SpaceX had been aiming for an altitude of 150 miles (240 kilometers), just high enough to send the bullet-shaped spacecraft around the globe before ditching into the Pacific near Hawaii about 1 1/2 hours after liftoff, short of a full orbit. Following April's flight demo, SpaceX made dozens of improvements to the rocket as well as the launch pad. The Federal Aviation Administration cleared the rocket for flight on Wednesday, after confirming that all safety and environmental concerns had been met. After Saturday's launch, the FAA said no injuries or public damage had been reported and that an investigation was underway to determine what went wrong. SpaceX cannot launch another Starship until the review is complete and corrections made, the FAA added. NASA is counting on Starship to land astronauts on the moon by the end of 2025 or shortly thereafter. The space agency awarded SpaceX a $3 billion contract to make it happen, by transferring astronauts from its Orion capsule to Starship in lunar orbit before heading down to the surface. Read: Four station astronauts catch ride with SpaceX back home “Today’s test is an opportunity to learn — then fly again,” noted NASA Administrator Bill Nelson via X, formerly known as Twitter. Starship is 34 feet (10 meters) taller than NASA’s Saturn V rocket which carried men to the moon more than a half-century ago, and 75 feet (23 meters) taller than NASA’s Space Launch System rocket that flew around the moon and back, without a crew, last year. And it’s got approximately double the liftoff thrust. Like before, nothing of value was aboard Starship for the trial run. Once Starship is proven, Musk plans to use the fully reusable mega rockets to launch satellites into orbit around Earth and equipment and people to the moon, and eventually, to Mars.

ChatGPT-maker Open AI said Friday it has pushed out its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman after a review found he was “not consistently candid in his communications” with the board of directors. “The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the artificial intelligence company said in a statement. In the year since Altman catapulted ChatGPT to global fame, he has become Silicon Valley’s sought-after voice on the promise and potential dangers of artificial intelligence and his sudden and mostly unexplained exit brought uncertainty to the industry’s future. Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, will take over as interim CEO effective immediately, the company said, while it searches for a permanent replacement. The announcement also said another OpenAI co-founder and top executive, Greg Brockman, the board’s chairman, would be stepping down from that role but remain at the company, where he serves as president. But later on X, formerly Twitter, Brockman wrote, “based on today’s news, i quit.” Docs say Zuckerberg 'rejected' proposals to improve teen mental health on Facebook, Instagram OpenAI declined to answer questions on what Altman’s alleged lack of candor was about. The statement said his behavior was hindering the board’s ability to exercise its responsibilities. Altman posted Friday on X: “i loved my time at openai. it was transformative for me personally, and hopefully the world a little bit. most of all i loved working with such talented people. will have more to say about what’s next later.” The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives. Altman helped start OpenAI as a nonprofit research laboratory in 2015. But it was ChatGPT’s explosion into public consciousness that thrust Altman into the spotlight as a face of generative AI — technology that can produce novel imagery, passages of text and other media. On a world tour this year, he was mobbed by a crowd of adoring fans at an event in London. He’s sat with multiple heads of state to discuss AI’s potential and perils. Just Thursday, he took part in a CEO summit at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, where OpenAI is based. He predicted AI will prove to be “the greatest leap forward of any of the big technological revolutions we’ve had so far.” He also acknowledged the need for guardrails, calling attention to the existential dangers future AI could pose. Some computer scientists have criticized that focus on far-off risks as distracting from the real-world limitations and harms of current AI products. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into whether OpenAI violated consumer protection laws by scraping public data and publishing false information through its chatbot. The company said its board consists of OpenAI’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, and three non-employees: Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, tech entrepreneur Tasha McCauley, and Helen Toner of the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology. OpenAI’s key business partner, Microsoft, which has invested billions of dollars into the startup and helped provide the computing power to run its AI systems, said that the transition won’t affect its relationship. “We have a long-term partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft remains committed to Mira and their team as we bring this next era of AI to our customers,” said an emailed Microsoft statement. While not trained as an AI engineer, Altman, now 38, has been seen as a Silicon Valley wunderkind since his early 20s. He was recruited in 2014 to take lead of the startup incubator YCombinator. “Sam is one of the smartest people I know, and understands startups better than perhaps anyone I know, including myself,” read YCombinator co-founder Paul Graham’s 2014 announcement that Altman would become its president. Graham said at the time that Altman was “one of those rare people who manage to be both fearsomely effective and yet fundamentally benevolent.” Industrial robot crushes worker to death OpenAI started out as a nonprofit when it launched with financial backing from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and others. Its stated aims were to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.” That changed in 2018 when it incorporated a for-profit business Open AI LP, and shifted nearly all its staff into the business, not long after releasing its first generation of the GPT large language model for mimicking human writing. Around the same time, Musk, who had co-chaired its board with Altman, resigned from the board in a move that OpenAI said would eliminate a “potential future conflict for Elon” due to Tesla’s work on building self-driving systems. While OpenAI’s board has preserved its nonprofit governance structure, the startup it oversees has increasingly sought to capitalize on its technology by tailoring its popular chatbot to business customers. At its first developer conference last week, Altman was the main speaker showcasing a vision for a future of AI agents that could help people with a variety of tasks. Days later, he announced the company would have to pause new subscriptions to its premium version of ChatGPT because it had exceeded capacity. Altman’s exit “is indeed shocking as he has been the face of” generative AI technology, said Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran. He said OpenAI still has a “deep bench of technical leaders” but its next executives will have to steer it through the challenges of scaling the business and meeting the expectations of regulators and society. Forrester analyst Rowan Curran speculated that Altman’s departure, “while sudden,” did not likely reflect deeper business problems. “This seems to be a case of an executive transition that was about issues with the individual in question, and not with the underlying technology or business,” Curran said. Altman has a number of possible next steps. Even while running OpenAI, he placed large bets on several other ambitious projects. Google brings its AI chatbot Bard into its inner circle, opening door to Gmail, Maps, YouTube Among them are Helion Energy, for developing fusion reactors that could produce prodigious amounts of energy from the hydrogen in seawater, and Retro Biosciences, which aims to add 10 years to the human lifespan using biotechnology. Altman also co-founded Worldcoin, a biometric and cryptocurrency project that’s been scanning people’s eyeballs with the goal of creating a vast digital identity and financial network.

Britain’s cybersecurity agency said Tuesday that artificial intelligence poses a threat to the country’s next national election, and cyberattacks by hostile countries and their proxies are proliferating and getting harder to track. The National Cyber Security Center said “this year has seen the emergence of state-aligned actors as a new cyber threat to critical national infrastructure” such as power, water and internet networks. Read: Surgeons perform world’s first eye transplant The center — part of Britain’s cyberespionage agency, GCHQ — said in its annual review that the past year also has seen “the emergence of a new class of cyber adversary in the form of state-aligned actors, who are often sympathetic to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine and are ideologically, rather than financially, motivated.” It said states and state-aligned groups pose “an enduring and significant threat,” from Russian-language criminals targeting British firms with ransomware attacks, to “China state-affiliated cyber actors” using their skills to pursue “strategic objectives which threaten the security and stability of U.K. interests.” Echoing warnings by Britain’s MI5 and MI6 intelligence agencies, the center called the rise of China as a tech superpower “an epoch-defining challenge for U.K security.” “We risk China becoming the predominant power in cyberspace if our efforts to raise resilience and develop our capabilities do not keep pace,” it said. Read: Docs say Zuckerberg 'rejected' proposals to improve teen mental health on Facebook, Instagram  The report also highlighted the threat posed by fast-evolving AI technology to elections, including a U.K. national election due to be held by January 2025. While Britain’s old-fashioned method of voting, with pencil and paper, makes it hard for hackers to disrupt the vote itself, the center said deepfake videos and “hyper-realistic bots” would make the spread of disinformation during a campaign easier.