A federal official has confirmed mislabeling of animal feed from an Edmonton, Alberta rendering plant suspected as being the producer of feed that resulted in two cases of mad cow disease.
But the incident was a one-time violation and did not pose any risk of spreading BSE-infected material, said Sergio Tolusso, feed program co-ordinator with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Tolusso said Friday the case involved a cattle-feed product made from chicken feathers that was found to contain hog hair.
Feathers and hog hair are both considered safe as cattle feed, and they can be mixed, but in that case both ingredients are supposed to be marked.
He said the mislabeling was an isolated incident and did not result in any penalty to Northern Alberta Processing which runs the plant and is a subsidiary of West Coast Reductions.
SPEED OF LIGHT: US lawmakers urged the commerce department to examine the national security threats from China’s development of silicon photonics technology US President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday said it is finalizing rules that would limit US investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology sectors in China that could threaten US national security. The rules, which were proposed in June by the US Department of the Treasury, were directed by an executive order signed by Biden in August last year covering three key sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain AI systems. The rules are to take effect on Jan. 2 next year and would be overseen by the Treasury’s newly created Office of Global Transactions. The Treasury said the “narrow
SPECULATION: The central bank cut the loan-to-value ratio for mortgages on second homes by 10 percent and denied grace periods to prevent a real-estate bubble The central bank’s board members in September agreed to tighten lending terms to induce a soft landing in the housing market, although some raised doubts that they would achieve the intended effect, the meeting’s minutes released yesterday showed. The central bank on Sept. 18 introduced harsher loan restrictions for mortgages across Taiwan in the hope of curbing housing speculation and hoarding that could create a bubble and threaten the financial system’s stability. Toward the aim, it cut the loan-to-value ratio by 10 percent for second and subsequent home mortgages and denied grace periods for first mortgages if applicants already owned other residential
SPECIALIZIATION: OpenAI is designing a new type of semiconductor with Broadcom that would run artificial intelligence software and respond to user requests OpenAI is working with Broadcom Inc to develop a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip specifically focused on running AI models after they have been trained, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The AI start-up and chipmaker are also consulting with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest chip contract manufacturer, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. OpenAI has been planning a custom chip and working on such uses for the technology for about a year, but the discussions are still at an early stage, the sources said. OpenAI declined
RAPID GROWTH: MediaTek said that it expects revenue from its flagship smartphone chip to grow by 70 percent, driven by demand for artificial intelligence applications Smartphone chip designer Media-Tek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said that it would perform better than the seasonal pattern with revenue forecast to grow 2 percent quarterly, thanks to robust demand for its new flagship smartphone chip that enables PC-like artificial intelligence (AI) features on phones. The strong demand for the new Dimensity 9400 chip this year prompted MediaTek to raise its flagship smartphone chip revenue growth to 70 percent year-on-year, up from of an earlier estimate of 50 percent growth. “For the fourth quarter, the strong ramp of Dimensity 9400 is expected to offset the lower seasonal demand for the mainstream