Latest news with #AndrewDavidson
Channel Post MEA
2 days ago
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
MongoDB Announces New Product Innovations & Expanded Partner Ecosystem
At the Ai4 conference, MongoDB announced a series of product innovations and expansions to its partner ecosystem that make it easier to build reliable and accurate AI applications. By providing industry-leading embedding models and a fully integrated, AI-ready data platform—and by assembling a world-class ecosystem of AI partners—MongoDB is giving organizations everywhere the tools to deliver reliable, performant, cost-effective AI. Organizations recognize the business potential of AI. But according to the 2025 Gartner Generative and Agentic AI in Enterprise Applications Survey, 68% of IT leaders felt that they struggled to keep up with the rapid pace at which gen AI tools are rolled out, and 37% agreed that their application vendors drive their enterprise application gen AI strategy. Too many organizations are stuck in the messy middle with their AI implementation, seeing some benefits but not enough to warrant wider adoption. Businesses express that this gap in AI adoption—a barrier for developers and enterprises alike—is due to the complexity of the AI stack , the importance and challenge of achieving accuracy for mission-critical applications, and price-performance concerns that emerge at scale. To address these issues, MongoDB continues to invest in streamlining the AI stack and introducing more performant, more cost-effective models. Customers can integrate Voyage AI's latest embedding and reranking models with their MongoDB database infrastructure. MongoDB has also increased its interoperability with industry-leading AI frameworks—by launching the MongoDB MCP Server to give agents access to tools and data, and by expanding its comprehensive AI partner ecosystem to give developers more choice. These capabilities are fueling substantial momentum among developers building next-generation AI applications. Enterprise AI adopters like Vonage, LGU+, and The Financial Times—plus approximately 8,000 startups, including the timekeeping startup Laurel, and Mercor, which uses AI to match talent with opportunities—have chosen MongoDB to help build their AI projects in just the past 18 months. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 new developers register for MongoDB Atlas every month. 'Databases are more central than ever to the technology stack in the age of AI. Modern AI applications require a database that combines advanced capabilities—like integrated vector search and best-in-class AI models—to unlock meaningful insights from all forms of data (structure, unstructured), all while streamlining the stack,' said Andrew Davidson , SVP of Products at MongoDB. 'These systems also demand scalability, security, and flexibility to support production applications as they evolve and as usage grows. By consolidating the AI data stack and by building a cutting-edge AI ecosystem, we're giving developers the tools they need to build and deploy trustworthy, innovative AI solutions faster than ever before.' Accelerating AI innovation with enhanced product capabilities Voyage AI by MongoDB recently introduced industry-leading embedding models designed to unleash new levels of AI accuracy at a lower cost: Context-aware embeddings for better retrieval: The new voyage-context-3 model brings a breakthrough in AI accuracy and efficiency. It captures the full document context—no metadata hacks, LLM summaries, or pipeline gymnastics needed—delivering more relevant results and reducing sensitivity to chunk size. It works as a drop-in replacement for standard embeddings in RAG applications. The new voyage-context-3 model brings a breakthrough in AI accuracy and efficiency. It captures the full document context—no metadata hacks, LLM summaries, or pipeline gymnastics needed—delivering more relevant results and reducing sensitivity to chunk size. It works as a drop-in replacement for standard embeddings in RAG applications. New highs in model performance: The latest general-purpose models, voyage-3.5 and voyage-3.5-lite, raise the bar on retrieval quality, delivering industry-topping accuracy and price-performance. The latest general-purpose models, voyage-3.5 and voyage-3.5-lite, raise the bar on retrieval quality, delivering industry-topping accuracy and price-performance. Instruction-following reranking for improved accuracy: With rerank-2.5 and rerank-2.5-lite, developers can now guide the reranking process using instructions, unlocking greater retrieval accuracy. These models outperform competitors across a comprehensive set of benchmarks. MongoDB also recently introduced the MongoDB Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server in public preview. This server standardizes connecting MongoDB deployments directly to popular tools like GitHub CoPilot in Visual Studio Code, Anthropic's Claude, Cursor, and Windsurf—allowing developers to use natural language to interact with data and manage database operations—and streamlines AI-powered application development on MongoDB, accelerating workflows, boosting productivity, and reducing time to market. Since launching in public preview, the MongoDB MCP Server has rapidly grown in popularity, with thousands of users building on MongoDB every week. MongoDB has also seen significant interest from large enterprise customers looking to incorporate MCP as part of their agentic application stack. 'Many organizations struggle to scale AI because the models themselves aren't up to the task. They lack the accuracy needed to delight customers, are often complex to fine-tune and integrate, and become too expensive at scale,' said Fred Roma , SVP of Engineering at MongoDB. 'The quality of your embedding and reranking models is often the difference between a promising prototype and an AI application that delivers meaningful results in production. That's why we've focused on building models that perform better, cost less, and are easier to use—so developers can bring their AI applications into the real world and scale adoption.' 'As more enterprises deploy and scale AI applications and agents, the demand for accurate outputs and reduced latency keeps increasing,' said Jason Andersen , Vice President and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. 'By thoughtfully unifying the AI data stack with integrated advanced vector search and embedding capabilities in their core database platform, MongoDB is taking on these challenges while also reducing complexity for developers.' Expanding the MongoDB AI ecosystem MongoDB has also expanded its AI partner ecosystem to help customers build and deploy AI applications faster: Enhanced evaluation capabilities: Galileo , a leading AI reliability and observability platform, is now a member of the MongoDB partner ecosystem, which is designed to give customers flexibility and choice. Galileo enables reliable deployment of AI applications and agents built on MongoDB, with continuous evaluations and monitoring. , a leading AI reliability and observability platform, is now a member of the MongoDB partner ecosystem, which is designed to give customers flexibility and choice. Galileo enables reliable deployment of AI applications and agents built on MongoDB, with continuous evaluations and monitoring. Resilient, scalable AI applications: Temporal , a leading open-source Durable Execution platform is now also a member of the MongoDB partner ecosystem. Temporal enables developers to orchestrate reliable AI use cases built on MongoDB, including agents, RAG, and context engineering pipelines that manage and serve dynamic, structured context at runtime. With Temporal's Durable Execution, developers don't need to write plumbing code for resilience or scale. AI applications seamlessly recover across failures, reliably run for a long time, easily handle external interactions, and scale horizontally. Developers can also get visibility into every step of AI workflows to rapidly debug live issues. These partner capabilities significantly expand MongoDB's AI ecosystem for developing AI applications. , a leading open-source Durable Execution platform is now also a member of the MongoDB partner ecosystem. Temporal enables developers to orchestrate reliable AI use cases built on MongoDB, including agents, RAG, and context engineering pipelines that manage and serve dynamic, structured context at runtime. With Temporal's Durable Execution, developers don't need to write plumbing code for resilience or scale. AI applications seamlessly recover across failures, reliably run for a long time, easily handle external interactions, and scale horizontally. Developers can also get visibility into every step of AI workflows to rapidly debug live issues. These partner capabilities significantly expand MongoDB's AI ecosystem for developing AI applications. Streamlined AI workflows: MongoDB's partnership with LangChain is redefining how developers build AI applications and agent-based systems by streamlining development and unlocking the value of customers' real-time, proprietary data. Recent advancements include the introduction of GraphRAG with MongoDB Atlas, which enables greater transparency into the retrieval process, fostering trust and providing better explainability of LLMs responses. Another advancement is natural language querying on MongoDB, which allows agentic applications to directly interact with MongoDB data. These integrations empower developers to build reliable, sophisticated AI solutions—from advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems to autonomous agents capable of querying data and performing advanced retrieval. 'As organizations bring AI applications and agents into production, accuracy and reliability are of paramount importance,' said Vikram Chatterji , CEO and co-founder at Galileo. 'By formally joining MongoDB's AI ecosystem, MongoDB and Galileo will now be able to better enable customers to deploy trustworthy AI applications that transform their businesses with less friction.' 'Building production-ready agentic AI means enabling systems to survive real-world reliability and scale challenges, consistently and without fail,' said Maxim Fateev, CTO at Temporal. 'Through our partnership with MongoDB, Temporal empowers developers to orchestrate durable, horizontally scalable AI systems with confidence, ensuring engineering teams build applications their customers can count on.' 'As AI agents take on increasingly complex tasks, access to diverse, relevant data becomes essential,' said Harrison Chase , CEO & Co-founder at LangChain. 'Our integrations with MongoDB, including capabilities like GraphRAG and natural language querying, equip developers with the tools they need to build and deploy complex, future-proofed agentic AI applications grounded in relevant, trustworthy data.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Face of brazen thief jailed after £1,000 shoplifting spree stealing booze and meat
A brazen thief who blitzed shops and parked vehicles across a town is now behind bars. Andrew Davidson's spree began on the morning of Friday April 25 when he stole £150-worth of meat from the Pelaw area of Gateshead. He then targeted retailers in Birtley on May 3 and 4, and twice more on May 14, stealing bars of chocolate and alcohol, totalling around £1,000. Two days later, Davidson broke into a vehicle in Wardley, making off with a pair of AirPods and two plastic bags filled with Davidson. (Image: Northumbria Police) Hours later he attempted to steal from another vehicle and tampered with a third. Davidson was arrested 24 hours later in a property said to be linked to criminal activity in the Wardley area. The 41-year-old, of George Street, Birtley, was charged with five counts of theft, plus one each of theft from a motor vehicle, attempted theft from a motor vehicle and vehicle interference. Appearing before magistrates in Newcastle, he admitted all the charges. He was jailed for ten months when he appeared before Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday (August 12). Read next ... more court stories from The Northern Echo by Ferryhill addict tricked vulnerable OAP out of £14k-plus Drunk banned from Durham after being arrested twice at bus station Serial shoplifter from Newton Aycliffe has been locked up Sergeant Elliott Richardson from Northumbria Police, said: 'This is a superb result, with Davidson now facing the consequences of his persistent offending. "I'd like to take this opportunity to remind people about the small steps they can take to help reduce theft in their area by ensuring doors, windows, cars and garden sheds are kept secure and valuables out of view. 'These simple steps can deter opportunistic thieves who might be trying their luck to gain access to any unlocked buildings or vehicles.'
Techday NZ
12-08-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
MongoDB boosts AI app reliability with new models & partners
MongoDB has announced a series of product enhancements and AI partner ecosystem expansions aimed at enabling customers to build reliable AI applications at scale, following its acquisition of Voyage AI earlier this year. The updates allow customers to integrate Voyage AI's latest embedding and reranking models with MongoDB's database infrastructure. These models are designed to introduce context awareness and set new accuracy benchmarks at what the company says are favourable price-performance ratios. Andrew Davidson, Senior Vice President of Products at MongoDB, said, "Databases are more central than ever to the technology stack in the age of AI. Modern AI applications require a database that combines advanced capabilities - like integrated vector search and best-in-class AI models - to unlock meaningful insights from all forms of data (structure, unstructured), all while streamlining the stack. These systems also demand scalability, security, and flexibility to support production applications as they evolve and as usage grows. By consolidating the AI data stack and by building a cutting-edge AI ecosystem, we're giving developers the tools they need to build and deploy trustworthy, innovative AI solutions faster than ever before." According to the company, approximately 8,000 startups - including Laurel and Mercor - have chosen MongoDB as the foundation for their AI projects in the past 18 months. Additionally, more than 200,000 new developers register for MongoDB Atlas each month, highlighting significant adoption across the developer community. Product highlights The newly released Voyage AI models include the voyage-context-3, which enables context-aware embeddings for improved data retrieval, and general-purpose models such as voyage-3.5 and voyage-3.5-lite, which focus on delivering higher retrieval quality and price-performance. The rerank-2.5 and rerank-2.5-lite models offer instruction-following reranking to enhance results accuracy across benchmarks. Fred Roma, Senior Vice President of Engineering at MongoDB, commented, "Many organisations struggle to scale AI because the models themselves aren't up to the task. They lack the accuracy needed to delight customers, are often complex to fine-tune and integrate, and become too expensive at scale. The quality of your embedding and reranking models is often the difference between a promising prototype and an AI application that delivers meaningful results in production. That's why we've focused on building models that perform better, cost less, and are easier to use - so developers can bring their AI applications into the real world and scale adoption." MongoDB has also introduced the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, now in public preview. This server is designed to standardise the connection between MongoDB deployments and widely used development tools, including GitHub CoPilot, Anthropic's Claude, Cursor, and Windsurf. The aim is to provide developers with the ability to use natural language for managing database operations, thereby accelerating workflow, productivity, and deployment timelines. AI partner ecosystem As part of the expanded ecosystem, Galileo, an AI reliability and observability platform, and Temporal, an open-source Durable Execution platform, have joined MongoDB's partner network. Vikram Chatterji, CEO and co-founder at Galileo, stated, "As organisations bring AI applications and agents into production, accuracy and reliability are of paramount importance. By formally joining MongoDB's AI ecosystem, MongoDB and Galileo will now be able to better enable customers to deploy trustworthy AI applications that transform their businesses with less friction." Maxim Fateev, CTO at Temporal, said, "Building production-ready agentic AI means enabling systems to survive real-world reliability and scale challenges, consistently and without fail. Through our partnership with MongoDB, Temporal empowers developers to orchestrate durable, horizontally scalable AI systems with confidence, ensuring engineering teams build applications their customers can count on." MongoDB's partnership with LangChain is focused on streamlining AI workflows, introducing features like GraphRAG for greater transparency in data retrieval processes and natural language querying to allow agentic applications direct data interaction. These developments are designed to equip developers to build advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and autonomous agents capable of interacting with MongoDB data. Harrison Chase, CEO and Co-founder at LangChain, said, "As AI agents take on increasingly complex tasks, access to diverse, relevant data becomes essential. Our integrations with MongoDB, including capabilities like GraphRAG and natural language querying, equip developers with the tools they need to build and deploy complex, future-proofed agentic AI applications grounded in relevant, trustworthy data." Industry analysts have noted the increasing importance of integrated data solutions in AI development. Jason Andersen, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, commented, "As more enterprises deploy and scale AI applications and agents, the demand for accurate outputs and reduced latency keeps increasing. By thoughtfully unifying the AI data stack with integrated advanced vector search and embedding capabilities in their core database platform, MongoDB is taking on these challenges while also reducing complexity for developers." These new models and expanded partnerships are positioned to address the issues of complexity, accuracy and scalability that many organisations face when implementing AI solutions.
CTV News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Cannibals, cabins, and small-town secrets
Winnipeg Watch Director Cali Sproule and Gargoyle Theatre's Andrew Davidson talk about the eerie new play How They'll Tell It, set in Waska, Manitoba.
Scotsman
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
Scottish golf round up: Rankings rise for in-form Crail ace plus club's £25,000 golf day
All the latest from tournaments involving Scottish golfers from Martin Dempster Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Our golf correspondent Martin Dempster wraps up the latest news from events with Scottish golfers involved: Rankings rise for in-form Andrew Davidson Crail Golfing Society's Andrew Davidson has made a huge leap up the World Amateur Golf Ranking after producing his second eye-catching performance of the domestic season. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hot on the heels of making home advantage count to win the Battle Trophy, Davidson finished joint-third in the 59th Lytham Trophy, one of the top events on the amateur schedule in the UK and Ireland. The Fifer posted rounds of 71-75-70-72 on the testing Royal Lytham links for an eight-over-par total, ending up just three shots off the winning aggregate as Frenchman Hugo Le Goff closed with a best-of-the-week 66 to claim the coveted title. Crail Golfing Society's Andrew Davidson has made a strong start to the domestic season | Contributed Le Goff, who started the final round in joint-14th, pipped England's Tom Osborne with his closing salvo, becoming the first French player to win the event and just the fifth Continental European to do so. Davidson, who was 717th in the WAGR heading into the event but is now up to a career-best 336th, shared third spot with Ireland's Matthew McClean, who played in the 2023 Masters after winning the US Mid-Amateur the previous year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It was good to follow up my win at Crail with a performance like that, especially as Lytham has got to be up there among the hardest courses in the UK,' said Davidson. 'I didn't have a lot of birdies, which was down to the fact I didn't putt very well, but, at the same time, I managed to keep any big numbers off my card, which is always a positive round there. 'It is good to see that you can compete at that level. There were a couple of times last year when I was up there in the Brabazon Trophy and the St Andrews Links Trophy before falling away, so it was good to stay up there right to the end this time.' Elsewhere in Lancashire, brother and sister Jamie and Carly McDonald both recorded top-ten finishes in their respective categories in The Fairhaven Trophies. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Martine Pow, winner of the scratch section at Scotscraig, and Golfbreaks Get Back to Golf Tour founder Alan Tait | Contributed Martine Pow turns back clock on SWAT Former Scottish Women's Amateur champion Martine Pow turned back the clock in the latest event on the Golfbreaks Scottish Women's Amateur Tour at Scotscraig. In breezy conditions at the Fife venue, where 58 players teed it up, the Selkirk member carded a three-over-par 75 to claim the scratch spoils by a shot from both Dunfermline's Megan Scott and Mary Smith from Tain. In the handicap event, Lochend's Linda Robertson carded a net six-under 66 playing off 11 to pip Kerry Lockerbie from Crichton. After four events, Kelso's Leanne Wilson leads the way in the scratch order of merit and Sandra Stanton of Broomieknowe tops the net standings. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The leading six players from both categories will qualify for The Tomatin Whisky Tour Final at Cabot Highlands Castle Stuart in September. The Calvin Cheyne Golf Day at Newmachar raised £25,000 for the club's former assistant | Contributed Newmachar golf day delivers £25,000 boost for Calvin Cheyne A golf day held at Newmachar raised £25,000 for an ex-club champion at the Aberdeenshire club and a North East District player. The Calvin Cheyne Charity Golf Day was organised by a group of friends, including Greg McBain, the head PGA pro at Newmachar, and members to raise money for one of the club's former assistants. Cheyne was forced to give up golf after being diagnosed with a condition called Chiari Malformation and required emergency life-saving surgery last year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'He has been through the wars of late and all funds raised are trying to get him back up on to his feet,' said McBain. 'The support shown for Calvin has been incredible, and we want to thank every single person, business, golf club, friends and family that contributed. 'We managed to raise a whopping £25,000 for him and this will go a long way in helping his rehabilitation!' Craigielaw's Guy Dalziel, Marc Reid and Kenny Glen show off the Lothians Team Tournament Trophy at Harburn | Contributed Craigielaw win Lothians Team Tournament Craigielaw won the Lothians Team Tournament for the second year in a row after coming out on top in a keenly-fought contest at Harburn. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Kenny Glen led the way for the East Lothian club with a 67, which was bettered only by a 66 from Longniddry's Craig Davidson. With Guy Dalziel signing for a 69 and Marc Reid posting 75, it was job done once again for Craigielaw by only just on this occasion as they pipped both Longniddry and Bathgate by a shot. The win meant that Craigielaw were the last name on the old trophy for the Lothians Golf Association and the first name on a new one as well. The Bank of Scotland, represented by John Nisbet, Andy Stevenson and Graeme Stevenson, won the trophy for the affiliate clubs. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Two of the competitors in the Scottish Senior Women's Golf Association Midland Division Spring Meeting at Crail | Contributed Sweet success for Alison Davidson on Crail return Twenty-seven years after being there for its grand opening, Alison Davidson made a winning return to Crail Golfing Society's Craighead Links. It came in the first event marking the 75th anniversary of the Scottish Senior Women's Golf Association - the Midland Division's Spring Meeting. Davidson, who was the Women's British Amateur champion when she joined men's equivalent Craig Watson and club champion Ross Forgan at the opening of the second course at the historic Fife venue in 1998, carded a 79 to win the scratch section. 'It was lovely to be back and play the Craighead after all that time,' she said. 'It was great to see how well the course is playing and Crail Golfing Society were so welcoming with great hospitality.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Scotscraig's Alison Anderson picked up the overall prize, the Allan Trophy, with a net 74 playing off 14. Gullane's Jill McNicoll shows off the East Lothian Ladies' County Championship Trophy | Contributed Gullane glory for Jill McNicoll Gullane's Jill McNicoll made home advantage count to win the East Lothian Ladies' County Championship for the third time. McNicoll beat Carys Irvine in the title decider on Gullane No 1 to deny the Kilspindie player in her bid to claim the prize after finishing as the top qualifier in the Spring Meeting. Irvine, who was the low-handicap player in the field off +0.8, carded a 74 to finish four shots clear of both The Renaissance Club's Alyssa Henderson and Kirsten Ireland of Dunbar. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Henderson, the defending champion, suffered a first-round exit in the championship to her clubmate, Una Cooper. Then, in the business end, McNicoll beat Longniddry's Janette Murdie in her semi-final while Irvine progressed to the final at the expense of former Scottish Women's champion Shirley Lawson (Winterfield). The Glen's Lesley McClelland won the handicap trophy, beating Lee Ann Mullholland of Haddington in the final. Inverness member Summer Elliott secured her second success of the new Junior Tour Scotland season | Contributed Summer Elliott strikes again on Junior Tour The latest events on the 2025 Junior Tour Scotland illustrated the fact it gets around the country, with a trip to Portpatrick in the south-west being followed by one north to Elgin. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The boys' section at Portpatrick resulted in a tie after 36 holes between Gourock's Scott Newman and Jamie Henshaw of Bruntsfield Links after matching rounds of 71-67. Played over 54 holes, Greenock's Jayla Kepler won the girls' event with a 223 total, having posted scores of 75-76-72. At Elgin, Summer Elliott backed up her win in the season-opener at Tain and Royal Dornoch by sharing top spot on this occasion with Nairn Dunbar's Kaci Robertson on 231, the pair finishing nine shots clear of the player in third place. Deeside's Oli Roberston, meanwhile, claimed the boys' scratch spoils by posting rounds of 74-73-75 to win by a shot from Thurso's Tyler Gordon, with Scott Riddoch (Duff House Royal) one further back. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Shot of the weekend in that event came from West Links Junior Harris Munro, who had a hole-in-one at the 15th in the opening round. Defending champions Renfrewshire made a winning start in this season's Scottish Area Team Championship | Contributed Title holders Renfrewshire off to winning Area Team start Defending champions Renfrewshire and record winners Lothians suffered contrasting fortunes in the opening round of matches in this year's Scottish Area Team Championship. Renfrewshire, who bridged a ten-year gap to land the title for a sixth time last year, made home advantage count as they beat North East 5.5-3.5. But it was a disappointing start for Lothians as the 15-time winners went down by the same margin, albeit away, to Glasgow.
