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Deconstruction Doesn’t Always Lead to Exiting Christianity: New Research From State of the Church Initiative

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Research reveals myths about deconstructing faith along with other key trends about Christian mindsets and beliefs

BOULDER, Colo., Oct. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Following the announcement of State of the Church, the largest Church-wide initiative in 2025, Gloo and Barna Group have released the first batch of research focused on Christian beliefs. This release will be followed by monthly releases in the State of the Church Initiative and is aimed at helping church leaders better know and understand Christian mindsets.

The release, titled “What Christians Really Believe,” explores key trends that influence how Christians live out their faith in daily life. Topics include:

Drivers of what is morally right and wrongDoes God hear and answer prayers? Christians and non-Christians disagree.How practicing Christians really feel about evangelismAre churches focused on the right priorities?Myths about deconstruction

“Some of the findings from this research are very surprising,” said Brad Hill, chief solutions officer and head of Initiatives at Gloo. “Pastors, be encouraged.  Many of those in our churches may have more stability than we think, in areas like faith sharing, belief in prayer, and a desire to contribute to the Church’s priorities. As leaders engage with this new research and grow in curiosity, Gloo will be serving them with new tools to let them discover the state of their own church and receive practical recommendations on what to do next.”

Highlights from the research:

While 43% of practicing Christians strongly disagree that morality changes with society, a surprising 21% strongly agree with the statement.Practicing Christians differ from non-practicing Christians on whether God hears prayers.Millennial practicing Christians agree strongly (59%) that they have a personal responsibility to share their faith (compared to 55% of Gen X and 46% of Boomers).Ex-Christians aren’t the only ones deconstructing faith — two of five Christians say they have already undergone the process.A majority of Christians (57%)  want to help the Church change its priorities to be what Jesus intended.

“The cultural landscape is changing so quickly, and modern ministry leaders need ways to stay current on what’s happening,” said David Kinnaman, CEO of Barna Group. “This first release — focused on understanding what’s on the hearts and minds of Christians — marks a new approach to making research more accessible.  When leaders can see clearly, they can lead more faithfully and confidently through every season.”

In November, Barna and Gloo will release new research focused on key trends in leadership. The full research release is available on Barna Access Plus, Barna’s subscription-based research library. To learn more, visit stateofthechurch.com.

Gloo is the trusted tech platform that releases the collective might of the faith ecosystem. Gloo connects ministry leaders to resources, people, insights, and funding so their people and communities flourish and their organizations thrive. Gloo does this with the highest standards of trust and scalable economic models. Gloo serves over 75,000 churches and more than 1,000 resource partners. 

Barna Group is a leading research organization focused on the intersection of faith and culture. Since 1984, Barna has conducted more than two million interviews over the course of thousands of studies and become a go-to source for insights about religion, leadership, vocation and generations. Barna is an independent, privately-held, nonpartisan organization based in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deconstruction-doesnt-always-lead-to-exiting-christianity-new-research-from-state-of-the-church-initiative-302272137.html

SOURCE Gloo

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Turing AI Fellow Jeff Dalton Joins Valence as Head of AI and Chief Scientist

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Jeff Dalton has authored 100+ AI research papers and spent 20 years making search and assistants smarter. Now, he is joining Valence to oversee development of their AI-powered leadership coach—building deeper memory and context for hyper-personalized support that democratizes learning and development.

NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Valence, creator of the most widely deployed AI leadership coach for enterprise, today announced the appointment of Dr. Jeff Dalton as Head of AI and Chief Scientist. Jeff will lead ongoing development of Valence’s AI coach Nadia, which is already deployed in dozens of Fortune 500 companies and used by tens of thousands of corporate leaders.

“If we do this right, Nadia will evolve into a personalized AI coach that you can’t work without.”

There are just a handful of people in the world with as much experience as Jeff when it comes to building conversational AI for complex problems. He is the author of more than 100 research papers and holds multiple patents in search, natural language understanding, and question answering. He played a key role on the Knowledge Discovery and Assistant teams at Google, developing language understanding capabilities for the Google Assistant and building next-generation knowledge graphs for Google search. At the University of Glasgow, he led the TREC Conversational Assistance Track (CAsT), which, in partnership with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, created one of the world’s first benchmarks of conversational search quality.

Today, Jeff holds a UKRI Turing AI Acceleration Fellowship on Neural Conversational Assistants and has received research awards from Google, Amazon, and Bloomberg. He is an Associate Professor in AI at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Informatics, where he leads the Generalized Representation and Information Learning Lab (GRILL).

“The conversational agents we have today aren’t really personal and don’t really adapt to us over the long term,” Jeff explained. “LLMs are amazing technology, but still largely used for simple tasks like writing email or Q&A. How do we create next-generation AI agents that know us well enough to proactively help us with all of our tasks?”

Context is critical, and it’s what sets Valence’s Nadia apart as the only high-context AI work coach. Nadia has extensive context about each employee and the company and uses that to tailor expert guidance to individual employees and situations. At Valence, Jeff will lead development with a focus on building even deeper context and stronger memory for Nadia.

“What I love about Jeff’s background is that his experience is very practical. It’s about taking the research and delivering something valuable for users both immediately and for years down the road. Everyone deserves a great coach, and Jeff will help us deliver personalized, AI-powered support and guidance that creates better leaders and better companies,” said Valence CEO Parker Mitchell.

“Where are you in your career? Where do you want to get to next? What career skills have you learned recently? Context like this will allow Valence’s AI coach to learn about you with each interaction, become a seamless part of workflows, and provide world-class guidance that helps leaders grow. If we do this right, Nadia will evolve into a personalized AI coach that you can’t work without,” said Jeff.

ABOUT VALENCE

Valence is on a mission to unlock human potential across the entire workforce of any organization. Founded in 2018, the company began by offering software to support managers to improve team performance and help teams work better together. In 2022, Valence recognized the potential of LLMs to unlock the ultimate goal of personalized support at scale. They began offering an AI-powered leadership coach that provides individuals with guidance and support unique to their needs, and is affordable enough to scale to every single employee.

Two years on, Valence’s AI coach, Nadia, is the most widely deployed AI leadership coach for enterprise. Nadia integrates seamlessly with company values and leadership frameworks and builds context about each individual employee for personalized learning and development at scale for every career stage. It is technology that puts the world’s best executive coach in the pocket of every leader, manager, and employee.

The company raised its Series A in May 2022, led by Insight Partners.

Media Contact

Kira Luscher, Valence, 1 4154072994, kira@valence.co, https://www.valence.co/

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/turing-ai-fellow-jeff-dalton-joins-valence-as-head-of-ai-and-chief-scientist-302271972.html

SOURCE Valence

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Hyundai Motor Celebrates Production Milestone of 100 Million Vehicles with ‘One step further’ Exhibition

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Exhibition showcases driving forces behind achieving global production of 100 million vehicles and thanks customers for their unwavering supportJourney begins with first model ‘Cortina Mark 2’ and the Pony, Hyundai Motor’s first independently developed modelThree iconic models ‒ SONATA, ELANTRA and Scoupe – highlight Hyundai’s drive to go ‘one step further’ in design, production and engineeringModern SUV and EV lineups reinforce Hyundai Motor’s transformation from traditional automaker to smart mobility solutions provider

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 9, 2024 /CNW/ — Hyundai Motor Company is marking its historic achievement of producing 100 million vehicles worldwide with the grand opening of its ‘One step further’ exhibition at Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul. The exhibition showcases the driving forces behind the 100-million-unit production milestone and conveys Hyundai’s gratitude to those customers who have been part of the journey.

This exhibition is a continuation of the 100 million production celebration held at Hyundai Motor’s Ulsan Plant on September 30. At that event, the company delivered the 100 million and first vehicle, an IONIQ 5, to its new owner, representing the brand’s gratitude to its customers for their unwavering support.

“It takes thousands of parts and pieces to build a car, with combined efforts of millions of people involved in R&D, design and manufacturing over many years,” said Sungwon Jee, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Hyundai Motor Company. “We wanted to shed light on these behind-the-scenes efforts that went into producing 100 million vehicles and tell the story of Hyundai Motor’s transformation from a traditional automaker to a leading smart mobility solutions provider.”

Spanning five floors, the exhibition begins on the first floor by introducing the Cortina Mark 2, Hyundai Motor’s first production model; and the Pony, Hyundai Motor’s first independently developed model. The exhibition continues on the second floor where the history of major Hyundai Motor plants is showcased.

The third floor highlights key drivers in achieving the 100 million production milestone, focusing on three iconic models: the first-generation SONATA, the first-generation ELANTRA and Scoupe.

The fourth and fifth floors feature the brand’s modern SUV lineup – SANTA FE, KONA and INSTER; and electric vehicle (EV) lineup – IONIQ 5, IONIQ 5 N and IONIQ 6, looking ahead to Hyundai Motor’s future as it moves forward from a traditional automaker to a smart mobility solutions provider.

Visit Hyundai Newsroom for more information

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyundai-motor-celebrates-production-milestone-of-100-million-vehicles-with-one-step-further-exhibition-302272272.html

SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company

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Acer Medical: VeriOsteo OP Obtains Medical Device Approval from Indonesia’s Ministry of Health

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TAIPEI, Oct. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Acer Medical announced that its AI-assisted bone mineral density abnormalities screening software, VeriOsteo OP, has obtained a medical device certificate from Indonesia’s Ministry of Health. This marks the second product to receive registration approval, following the certification of the VeriSee DR, an AI-assisted diagnostic solution for diabetic retinopathy VeriSee DR.

VeriOsteo OP analyzes bone mineral density (BMD) through X-ray images, calculates the bone mineral density (BMD) and to predict T-score and assists doctors in assessing potential BMD abnormalities. The software offers both medical professionals and patients with quick results and appropriate treatment options.

Indonesia has a population of more than 200 million, making it the fourth-largest country in the world. Their elderly population of approximately 16 million is susceptible to abnormal bone density. Due to low awareness of the disease, many forego or delay seeking medical treatment, missing the critical period for early intervention.

Acer Medical, a subsidiary of the Acer Group, specializes in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and software development to produce medical imaging devices for early and preventive disease detection. The company is dedicated to developing smart medical software and hardware solutions based on AI-driven medical imaging technologies to enhance the diagnostic process. To date, Acer Medical’s AI medical imaging products have obtained 12 medical device certifications in Taiwan and have been successfully implemented in over 300 medical institutions.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/acer-medical-veriosteo-op-obtains-medical-device-approval-from-indonesias-ministry-of-health-302269784.html

SOURCE Acer Medical Inc.; Acer

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