TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Octo secures $64.7M contract to support IT ops at the National Cancer Institute

By TechTaffy Desk

Octo, an IBM subsidiary, has received an IT Infrastructure and Operations order, awarded under the NCI IT Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). The contract, with a four-year term, has a total award ceiling of $64,722,790.

In a statement, Octo said the contract is aimed at supporting the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology’s Office of the CIO, at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the U.S. government’s principal agency for cancer research.

Octo will be teaming up with Unissant, Axle Informatics, and TRex. Together, they will offer technical and professional IT services. These services include infrastructure engineering, operations management, and customer support services, which are required by the NCI’s OCIO.

[Image courtesy: National Cancer Institute]

Just in

AI

AI is ‘a new kind of digital species,’ Microsoft AI chief says — Quartz

Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, said during a talk at TED 2024 that AI is the newest wave of creation since the start of life on Earth, and that “we are in the fastest and most consequential wave ever,” writes Britney Nguyen in Quartz.
Around the web

It’s baaack! Microsoft and IBM open source MS-DOS 4.0 — ZDNet

Microsoft and IBM have joined forces to open-source the 1988 operating system MS-DOS 4.0 under the MIT License, writes Steven Vaughan-Nichols. 
AI

Generative AI arrives in the gene editing world of CRISPR — NYT

New AI technology is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA, pointing to a future when scientists can battle illness and diseases with even greater precision and speed than they can today, writes Cade Metz.
AI

Estée Lauder, Microsoft to build AI Innovation Lab

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and Microsoft Corp. announced the creation of an AI Innovation Lab to expand their global strategic relationship.
Around the web

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta will offer its virtual reality OS to hardware companies, creating iPhone versus Android dynamic — CNBC

Meta will partner with external hardware companies, including Lenovo, Microsoft and Asus, to build virtual reality headsets using the company’s Meta Horizon operating system, writes Kif Leswing.