Latest news with #Magli
Int'l Business Times
26-06-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
The DSP-Agnostic Approach That Gives AI Digital an Edge in Fragmented Media Buying
The digital advertising ecosystem has become fragmented. Major platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon have built what industry insiders call "walled gardens", closed ecosystems where advertisers must play by the platform's rules, often with limited transparency into how their campaigns perform. AI Digital 's response was to develop an "Open Garden" philosophy, a DSP-agnostic approach (demand-side platform) that allows advertisers to work across multiple platforms while maintaining central coordination. This neutrality is rare in an industry where many service providers are incentivized to push specific platforms. "We designed our model to be agile and partnership-friendly," says Magli, CEO. "There are no rigid commitments, no minimum spend or lock-in periods, so teams can scale with us at their own pace." This flexibility has proven particularly valuable for small and medium-sized agencies that previously could not access premium programmatic inventory due to budget constraints. Human Intelligence, Enhanced by AI As artificial intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword across industries, AI Digital's approach is unique for its emphasis on human expertise. With over 300 digital media professionals, including planners, optimizers, and strategists, the company iterates that technology should complement rather than replace human judgment. Its slogan, "Built on human intelligence, enhanced by AI," Is the outlook. It is a stand that distinguishes it in a market where many competitors promote full automation as the ultimate goal. The company's newest offering, the Elevate platform, launched in April 2025, symbolizes this balanced approach. Elevate provides AI-powered media planning that can generate complete campaign blueprints in as little as 30 seconds based on inputs like budget, target audience, geography, and campaign goals. Beyond Traditional Metrics One of AI Digital 's most significant deviations from industry norms is its focus on business outcomes rather than traditional advertising metrics. "Besides the traditional metrics like CPMs, impressions, CPCs, we provide business outcomes. For example, how the campaign affected your revenue," explains Stephen. This switch from measuring impressions and clicks to tracking actual business impact represents a maturation in how digital advertising effectiveness is evaluated. By connecting advertising spend directly to revenue generation, AI Digital helps clients justify their marketing investments to finance departments and C-suite executives who care more about bottom-line results than awareness metrics. The Smart Supply Advantage For enterprise clients with in-house marketing teams, AI Digital offers a service called Smart Supply, a highly optimized premium traffic for targeted campaigns. "We provide these audiences to you in an ID format, in a code format. If you insert it within your campaign manager, it shows to them," Stephen explains. "We do not have any access to their campaign managers. We do not change anything, but we optimize the traffic on an ongoing basis." This approach allows large agencies to maintain control of their campaigns while benefiting from AI Digital's expertise in audience targeting—a crucial capability as third-party cookies phase out and targeting becomes more challenging. Growing Against the Odds AI Digital has established a niche in the industry. The company has expanded from approximately 100 employees in 2024 to over 300 today, with offices worldwide, though it remains primarily remote-first with headquarters in Miami. April 2025 marked two significant milestones: the launch of the Elevate platform and the opening of the company's first Canadian office in Montréal, focusing particularly on the unique Québec market. This growth comes despite, or perhaps because of, increasing challenges in the digital advertising landscape. As privacy regulations tighten and third-party cookies disappear, advertisers need partners who can navigate these changes while still delivering results. The Transparency Imperative Perhaps the most consistent theme across AI Digital's offerings is transparency, which shows clients exactly how their advertising dollars are spent and what results they generate. This transparency extends to the company's use of artificial intelligence. While many AI systems operate as "black boxes," making decisions that even their creators cannot fully explain, AI Digital has prioritized explainability in its Elevate platform. The system provides clear rationales for its recommendations, projecting how changes might improve campaign performance. For example, rather than simply suggesting a budget reallocation, Elevate might explain that shifting 20 percent of spend from one channel to another could increase conversion rates by an estimated 15 percent. This approach addresses what AI Digital calls "the biggest blind spot in advertising today", the fact that advertisers increasingly depend on AI-driven systems they don't understand.
Business Upturn
17-06-2025
- Science
- Business Upturn
Politecnico di Torino has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant
Artificial intelligence for Space: Politecnico di Torino's 'IntelliSwarm' project has received € 3 million in funding from the European Union to increase the quality, availability and timeliness of images processed on board satellites TURIN, Italy, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Politecnico di Torino's research project 'IntelliSwarm' has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant, an initiative of the European Research Council aimed at supporting the practical application and exploitation of the results of frontier research projects. This represents a significant opportunity for researchers from across Europe who, in order to participate in the selection process, must be recognised as leaders in their field of research, with a proven track record of excellence that ensures the delivery of original results and a positive impact on the future of society. A total of 281 projects received funding across Europe, including 25 in Italy. The scientific coordinator of the project is Enrico Magli, Professor at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications-DET, who will receive €3 million to invest in research over the next five years. By assembling a team of experts and investing in state-of-the-art computing infrastructure, the project aims to increase the quality, availability and timeliness of images processed on board satellites, thereby optimising the use of inter-satellite and satellite-to-ground communication links. In a world that increasingly needs accurate data to interpret and predict phenomena and events of collective interest – with particular attention to environmental disasters that affect our regions with growing frequency, such as floods and wildfires – the studies conducted by Professor Magli have the ambition of collecting images of the Earth's surface with significantly higher spatial and spectral resolution and 3D reconstruction capabilities. This is achieved through the use of advanced artificial intelligence techniques and processing carried out by a swarm of satellites. The swarm enables cooperation between different satellites, providing a distributed acquisition and calculation paradigm. This has the advantage of overcoming the limitations of a single large satellite and ensuring robustness, as the failure of one satellite does not compromise the functionality of the system as a whole. Beyond space applications: The methods developed within the project will also be relevant for other types of 'embedded' systems, thereby extending the impact of the research to different fields of investigation, such as sensor networks and the Internet of Things. 'Earth observation from space is a rapidly expanding field with a variety of applications in sustainability, environmental disaster management, and spatial analysis – explains Professor Magli – the 'IntelliSwarm' aims to develop highly sophisticated instruments and modes of observation, distributing their complexity across a large number of small satellites, overcoming the limitations of optics with AI, and running advanced AI models directly on board the satellites. I find the project extremely stimulating because of the scientific problems it will lead us to address, which will also have implications for the use of AI in systems based on low-power computing nodes. Looking ahead, a possible continuation of the project involves training models directly on board the satellites, enabling them to learn continuously from all observed images.' ' This recognition reflects the growing importance of excellence in research within Politecnico,' says Rector Stefano Corgnati. ' Being internationally competitive requires full synergy between experiential learning and increasingly essential research and innovation activities. The opportunities offered by the ERC Advanced Grant will also strengthen our appeal within the international research landscape, laying the groundwork to attract top young talent and enabling them to engage with cutting-edge projects. ' For further information, please visit the official ERC website: For more information: Press Office LaPresse – [email protected] A photo accompanying this announcement is available at Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Politecnico di Torino has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant
Artificial intelligence for Space: Politecnico di Torino's 'IntelliSwarm' project has received €3 million in funding from the European Union to increase the quality, availability and timeliness of images processed on board satellites TURIN, Italy, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Politecnico di Torino's research project 'IntelliSwarm' has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant, an initiative of the European Research Council aimed at supporting the practical application and exploitation of the results of frontier research projects. This represents a significant opportunity for researchers from across Europe who, in order to participate in the selection process, must be recognised as leaders in their field of research, with a proven track record of excellence that ensures the delivery of original results and a positive impact on the future of society. A total of 281 projects received funding across Europe, including 25 in Italy. The scientific coordinator of the project is Enrico Magli, Professor at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications-DET, who will receive €3 million to invest in research over the next five years. By assembling a team of experts and investing in state-of-the-art computing infrastructure, the project aims to increase the quality, availability and timeliness of images processed on board satellites, thereby optimising the use of inter-satellite and satellite-to-ground communication links. In a world that increasingly needs accurate data to interpret and predict phenomena and events of collective interest – with particular attention to environmental disasters that affect our regions with growing frequency, such as floods and wildfires – the studies conducted by Professor Magli have the ambition of collecting images of the Earth's surface with significantly higher spatial and spectral resolution and 3D reconstruction capabilities. This is achieved through the use of advanced artificial intelligence techniques and processing carried out by a swarm of satellites. The swarm enables cooperation between different satellites, providing a distributed acquisition and calculation paradigm. This has the advantage of overcoming the limitations of a single large satellite and ensuring robustness, as the failure of one satellite does not compromise the functionality of the system as a whole. Beyond space applications: The methods developed within the project will also be relevant for other types of 'embedded' systems, thereby extending the impact of the research to different fields of investigation, such as sensor networks and the Internet of Things. 'Earth observation from space is a rapidly expanding field with a variety of applications in sustainability, environmental disaster management, and spatial analysis – explains Professor Magli – the 'IntelliSwarm' aims to develop highly sophisticated instruments and modes of observation, distributing their complexity across a large number of small satellites, overcoming the limitations of optics with AI, and running advanced AI models directly on board the satellites. I find the project extremely stimulating because of the scientific problems it will lead us to address, which will also have implications for the use of AI in systems based on low-power computing nodes. Looking ahead, a possible continuation of the project involves training models directly on board the satellites, enabling them to learn continuously from all observed images.' 'This recognition reflects the growing importance of excellence in research within Politecnico,' says Rector Stefano Corgnati. 'Being internationally competitive requires full synergy between experiential learning and increasingly essential research and innovation activities. The opportunities offered by the ERC Advanced Grant will also strengthen our appeal within the international research landscape, laying the groundwork to attract top young talent and enabling them to engage with cutting-edge projects.' For further information, please visit the official ERC website: For more information:- A photo accompanying this announcement is available at in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Politecnico di Torino has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant
Artificial intelligence for Space: Politecnico di Torino's 'IntelliSwarm' project has received €3 million in funding from the European Union to increase the quality, availability and timeliness of images processed on board satellites TURIN, Italy, June 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Politecnico di Torino's research project 'IntelliSwarm' has been awarded the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant, an initiative of the European Research Council aimed at supporting the practical application and exploitation of the results of frontier research projects. This represents a significant opportunity for researchers from across Europe who, in order to participate in the selection process, must be recognised as leaders in their field of research, with a proven track record of excellence that ensures the delivery of original results and a positive impact on the future of society. A total of 281 projects received funding across Europe, including 25 in Italy. The scientific coordinator of the project is Enrico Magli, Professor at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications-DET, who will receive €3 million to invest in research over the next five years. By assembling a team of experts and investing in state-of-the-art computing infrastructure, the project aims to increase the quality, availability and timeliness of images processed on board satellites, thereby optimising the use of inter-satellite and satellite-to-ground communication links. In a world that increasingly needs accurate data to interpret and predict phenomena and events of collective interest – with particular attention to environmental disasters that affect our regions with growing frequency, such as floods and wildfires – the studies conducted by Professor Magli have the ambition of collecting images of the Earth's surface with significantly higher spatial and spectral resolution and 3D reconstruction capabilities. This is achieved through the use of advanced artificial intelligence techniques and processing carried out by a swarm of satellites. The swarm enables cooperation between different satellites, providing a distributed acquisition and calculation paradigm. This has the advantage of overcoming the limitations of a single large satellite and ensuring robustness, as the failure of one satellite does not compromise the functionality of the system as a whole. Beyond space applications: The methods developed within the project will also be relevant for other types of 'embedded' systems, thereby extending the impact of the research to different fields of investigation, such as sensor networks and the Internet of Things. 'Earth observation from space is a rapidly expanding field with a variety of applications in sustainability, environmental disaster management, and spatial analysis – explains Professor Magli – the 'IntelliSwarm' aims to develop highly sophisticated instruments and modes of observation, distributing their complexity across a large number of small satellites, overcoming the limitations of optics with AI, and running advanced AI models directly on board the satellites. I find the project extremely stimulating because of the scientific problems it will lead us to address, which will also have implications for the use of AI in systems based on low-power computing nodes. Looking ahead, a possible continuation of the project involves training models directly on board the satellites, enabling them to learn continuously from all observed images.' 'This recognition reflects the growing importance of excellence in research within Politecnico,' says Rector Stefano Corgnati. 'Being internationally competitive requires full synergy between experiential learning and increasingly essential research and innovation activities. The opportunities offered by the ERC Advanced Grant will also strengthen our appeal within the international research landscape, laying the groundwork to attract top young talent and enabling them to engage with cutting-edge projects.' For further information, please visit the official ERC website: For more information:- A photo accompanying this announcement is available at in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A total solar eclipse from 2471 B.C. may have shaken Egypt's cult of the sun
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The date is April 1, 2471 B.C., and a total solar eclipse has forced night to fall during the day in Egypt. The sun has morphed into a lifeless black circle surrounded by a milky halo, a consequence of the moon passing perfectly between the Earth and its radiant star. Darkness has swept across the Nile Delta. The sacred city of Buto's usual luster has been blanketed in shadow. Pharaoh Shepsekaf, the reigning ruler of the fourth Egyptian dynasty, is shaken. Could this be an ominous message from the heavens? Such is the picture painted by a new study from archaeoastronomer Giulio Magli, who calculated that this ancient solar eclipse's path of totality coincides with a major shift in Egyptian tradition that occurred in tandem with Shepsekaf's tenure: a shift away from solar worship. "This king precisely corresponds to the eclipse," Magli, a professor of Archaeoastronomy at the Department of Mathematics of the Politecnico di Milano, told "I say precisely because I'm adopting here one of the possible chronologies of the Old Kingdom. There are others, because it is not easy to fix the dates of the beginning of the regnal years — but also in the other chronologies, it is compatible." It has been known for a long time that ancient Egyptians venerated the sun; for instance, the god who took the form of a falcon, Horus, was typically depicted with a right eye representing the sun as a source of power. (The god's left eye represented the moon as a source of healing). Then, by the time of the fourth Egyptian dynasty, the well-known sun god Ra became the primary symbol of the Egyptian solar cult. Fourth dynasty rulers even typically adopted a suffix to their names that paid tribute to Ra. "Khufu was a sort of solarized king," Magli explained of the second ruler of the fourth Egyptian dynasty. And some of the pharaohs after Khufu include Khafre, Djedefra and Menkaure — the latter of whom was likely Shepsekaf's father. But something clearly changed when it came down to Shepsekaf. His name, first off, doesn't adopt the suffix that relates to the sun god — and that's not all. The Pharaoh Shepsekaf, as Magli explains, was buried in a tomb that surprisingly did not face Heliopolis, a city and major religious center associated with Ra. Shepsekaf's tomb also isn't christened with a pyramid as was the case with other pharaohs. The three famous pyramids of Giza, for context, were each built during the fourth dynasty of Egypt. The first of the trio was constructed as a royal tomb for Khufu. The next was built for Khafre, the fourth ruler, and the third was built for Menkaure, the fifth ruler. "They are solar kings, and they are in plain view of Heliopolis, which was the main place of the solar cult," Magli explained. Shepsekaf, on the other hand, was buried in a monument Magli says resembles structures in Buto, a sacred site in the delta of the Nile. Importantly, if you recall, this is the site that sat right in the center of the 2471 B.C. solar eclipse path of totality. "No one has been able to explain it, and my idea is that it resembles a building which was in the most sacred place inside the part of totality," Magli said. It is also worth considering that these huge shifts away from the solar cult that coincide with Shepsekaf's reign were widely known already. However, Magli says it wasn't previously possible to pinpoint a specific reason for them, mostly because mathematical calculations concerning ancient paths of totality needed to be improved before a connection could be made. "In the last years, colleagues working specifically on the reconstruction of dates and paths of totality of ancient eclipses made great progress," Magli said. "It's easy to know the days and the times of ancient eclipses. This is just the mechanics of the three bodies — this is easy. What you do not know is where on the Earth the umbra of the moon is projected, because this depends on the rotation of the Earth if it is not constant — and in fact it is not constant." Though unnoticeable by us on a regular basis, our planet does experience microscopic fluctuations in its rotation; for instance, adjustments to the mass distribution across our planet can affect the positioning of Earth's axis, and indeed how quickly it rotates. Furthermore on the topic of ancient solar eclipses, experts have previously found some references to these events in Egyptian literature. For example, as Magli's study states, in the dedication to 18th dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamen upon a limestone record known as the "Stela of Huy," it says 'I see the darkness during the daylight (that) you have made, illumine me so that I may see you.'" Still, he explains, there aren't concrete pieces of information about solar eclipses in any Egyptian text found thus far. Though eventually, the solar cult gets a comeback. It looks slightly different than it did with the fourth dynasty, but solar worship seems to resume with the fifth Egyptian dynasty — the pharaohs of which built their tombs in association with pyramids too, though none were quite as outstanding as the pyramids of Giza. This solar worship was connected with the construction of a new building, Magli says, which is called "The Sun Temple." Each pharaoh of the fifth dynasty built one of these structures in addition to a pyramid, he says. It's disputed whether each physically "built" a new sun temple or renewed a previous temple, but the pharaohs made their sun temple marks nonetheless. With improved calculations about paths of totality in hand, Magli was also able to decode something fascinating about another total solar eclipse that impacted ancient Egyptian civilizations. This other eclipse appeared to have occurred a stunning 1,000 years later. And the general reaction to it has been considered quite surprising. On May 14, 1338 B.C., once again, night fell during the day in Egypt. This time, the reigning ruler was Akhenaten of the 18th Egyptian dynasty — but what's interesting is that Akhenaten didn't seem to fear the cold, dark sun shining above his land. "This king was the establisher of a new solar monotheistic god," Magli explained. "And this eclipse occurred exactly where he founded this new capital in the middle region, which is a place which is lost in nowhere — it's lost in the desert." Why would that be? On one hand, Magli says it's possible Akhenetan was aware of the total solar eclipse that happened during Shepsekaf's time because of how "impressive" the cultural continuity of Egypt is. Perhaps the 18th-dynasty Pharaoh was somehow told that the solar cult needn't be abandoned in light of a total solar eclipse. Yet we can't know for sure, mostly because of the lack of direct scriptures relating to solar eclipses from ancient Egyptian archives. "It is always difficult to establish if the eclipses were seen in the ancient past as bad omens or good omens," Magli said, mentioning that it's a similar situation for confirming whether comets from the past were considered blessings or not. "Comets were usually considered as bad omens, but we have in Italy the most glaring example of a comet considered as a good omen," he said. "Augustus founded the imperial power of Rome on the passage of a comet during the days of the death of Caesar." Yet what we do know is that ancient Egyptians were quite attuned to both astronomy — following cyclic phases of the moon and paying attention to stellar patterns — as well as omens in general — the worst of which is thought to be the Nile not reaching expected heights after regular periods of heavy rains. Related Stories: — What's left of the 2024 solar eclipse lives in our hearts — My formal 2024 solar eclipse apology — Archaeologists find huge, 2,500-year-old Egyptian astronomy observatory Those aspects are known because of evidence, and that's why Magli hopes we'll soon stumble upon some first-hand sources concerning what Shepsekaf really thought about the solar eclipse that shrouded his kingdom. "The architectural settings of the Shepsekaf period have to be studied much more," he said. "It may be that there we find texts … it would be very important to excavate them." "I've been researching the pyramids for many years. To me, it is fundamental to touch it. You cannot speak about the monument without touching it," he added. "We have the instruments to analyze monuments from the air, from satellite images and so on — and I do use them — but I think that this cannot be in substitution of touching the stones."
