Biotech
The biggest thing since recombinant technology, the Elixir of life enabling people to live forever, could take off in 2022
…According to one venture capitalist. The reasons for this is as follows:
Alto Labs – a new anti-ageing company that pursues rejuvenation technology, founded earlier this year by Jeff Bezos and others.
Calico labs – pursuing the same, backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, and partnered with AbbVie.
NewLimit – again, pursing the same, founded this month by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and others.
All based on Nobel-prize winning Prof Yamanaka’s discovery that the addition of four proteins (called Yamanaka factors) can make a cell act like stem cells (iPS –induced pluripotent stem cells).
Big Tech
Polish Competition Authority to challenge Apple’s decision to enable users to prevent tracking as anticompetitive
…The issue is only Apple will be able to tap into users’ data leaving third party digital advertisers unable to efficiently carry out targeted advertising.
UK Competition and Markets Authority frowns on Apple/Google duopoly in the mobile market ecosystem in its 445 page report
…The CMA considers that the two tech giants have wielded its power anticompetitively to create closed ecosystems by way of owning operating systems, digital marketplaces, and preinstalled applications on the smartphones. It will consult on its findings and collect responses in February next year, with the final report planned to be published in June.
FTC Chair Lina Khan expresses concern about provision of payment systems by BigTech
…BigTech critic Lina Khan makes the following points in her letter concerning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s investigation into payment services provided by Big Tech (eg. Apple Pay etc)
- It could extend further their already dominant market positions by having privileged access to “hyper-granular” data and AI enabling them to wield anticompetitive power
- Advantages gained in marketing activities owing to better targeting / personalizing ability
- Get users to use their products and services over third party’s resulting in market expansion, and access to even more data
- Ability to create alternative credit scoring models for loaning services, combined with lack of transparency, fairness (including algorithmic bias) [see Delving Deeper, on what Tesla’s doing below]
- Their algorithm use enables discrimination, bias and opacity [see more on Delving Deeper section below too]
- Concentrates risk and single point of failure (especially with their co-mingled roles such as payment and authentication providers).
- Power to ban users from services in arbitrary ways
Data
Virginia and Colorado follows California to protect consumer data
…California Privacy Rights Act which will come into force in 2023 enables consumers the right to veto the sale of and sharing of their data to third parties. Virginia and Colorado has announced similar law which will come into play also 2023. Other rights include rights of access, correction, deletion, data portability and protections for sensitive data. This is all very similar to EU data laws.
Apple aims to gain revenue by buying Google ads for 3rd party premium apps
…What does this mean? For example Apple might purchase an ad for Tinder (a premium app with high in-app purchases) on Google. Users will click on that link instead of perhaps an ad purchased by Tinder itself. Apple can then enjoy its 30% commission on in-app purchases by users who downloads Tinder through the App store (which the ad leads you to), not Tinder’s own website. It can thereby undercut Tinder, plus Tinder doesn’t get to access its subscriber’s data – that is kept by Apple on privacy grounds. Moreover, Tinder will have to pay more to beat Apple’s Google ad. Google policy says that “The ad’s landing page is primarily dedicated to selling (or clearly facilitating the sale of) products or services, components, replacement parts, or compatible products or services corresponding to the trademark” –so Apple can purchase ads for third party products and services in accordance to the Google policy.
On a similar theme, you may recall that Apple has been ordered not to prohibit developers from steering users away from the App store (ie: anti-anti-steering injunction) [order currently stayed] in the case Epic v. Apple. I have never heard of anti-anti-steering injunctions before but this possibility has been raised in other types of cases such as:
- U.S. v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Hospital Authority d/b/a Carolinas Healthcare System – where US Department of Justice claimed that the practice of healthcare provider defendant preventing healthcare insurers from persuading users to go to cheaper hospitals was anticompetitive. This case has settled.
- Ohio v. American Express – where AmEx prevented merchants from persuading customers to use cheaper credit cards, such as Visa. Plaintiff complained it was anti-competitive but failed in its case because it failed to meet the burden of proof.
Meta sues HK Social Data Trading (but allegedly bank-rolled by Russian individuals) for scraping data off Instagram
…This seems very close to the HiQ v LinkedIn saga in the US – in which HiQ had been data scraping public data from LinkedIn to let employers know which employees are likely to be wanting to leave firms. This case is still trundling on. It is very likely that cases like this will continue – with interesting jurisdictional issues.
The Complaint alleges that the Defendant used automated Instagram accounts and a network of computers or “bots,” which pretended to be mobile Android devices connected to the official Instagram app, to scrape publicly viewable profiles of Instagram users, including the username, profile photo, number of followers, posts, and likes, and information about their followers, including gender, language, and location and sold off “in-depth insights into the demographics and psychographics of influencers and their audiences”.
Want to know about a particular person you follow Instagram? Type in their username and the Defendant will provide you a report. Instagram complains that this is unlawful.
Causes of action are breach of contract, California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.
Software
Widely used open source software Apache Log4j has weakness which has been targeted
…The weakness enables hackers to upload and take control of a server – Apache software has been installed in almost one third of web servers globally. Cloud products from tech giants are affected, as well as defence system of Belgium. Apache Log4j enables apps to collect information on how people use the apps.
HSBC fined £64m by FCA because their automated money laundering processes were inadequate
…They failed to
- Carry out timely assessments of new scenarios
- Appropriately test and adjust parameters
- Check the quality of data input into the processes
Note that, in the case of automation, mishaps will be systematically repeated until it gets spotted, whereas human errors failing to identify fraudulent activities tend to arise on an ad hoc basis. Thus critical to have systems in place to spot issues in the software processes asap.
EVs and Auto generally
Ford and Rivian no longer working together
…Rivian’s opening market value was way over $100 billion –without producing a single EV for market consumption. The share price has now reduced considerably, partly because they have failed to produce as many EVs as they said they would. Now Ford, a major rival and shareholder of Rivian has announced it is no longer working together to make future EVs (here, trucks) jointly. Ford will retain the shareholding for the time being though. Ford’s main profit centre is the trucks business with the traditional auto division not making much by way of profits. Analysts have said it makes sense to focus on making its own EV trucks rather than spending the resources on joint development with Rivian.
NPE sues Toyota, Blackberry and Subaru for infringing patent concerning process for retrieving automatic software updates in electronic systems
…The Claim, which is initiated in the Eastern District of Texas by Liberty Patents (which may possibly be some relation to Intellectual Ventures), seeks an injunction. This sort of claim where the patent covers the software upgrade system is bound to rise….
The EV with $4,500 price tag
…That’s right. I haven’t just dropped a zero. Any guesses for how this auto company does it? The line is profitable, and not even reliant on subsidies.
It’s the cost of a Hongguang Mini EV, courtesy of GM backed SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile of China. And it’s outselling Tesla’s Model 3 in China. There is no magic in it though, just pure business logic:
- Lack of regenerative breaking system – this adds to the cost of EVs and reduces the EV range (the distance it can travel with one charge). But it’s perfectly adequate for a short run around.
- No cooling system – this cuts down the cost but reduces the lifespan of the semiconductor and other electrical components. But that’s OK because the auto maker has made it easy to replace them.
- Use of off the shelf components rather than EV specialised components – it’ll do, it considers, because it passes the performance test.
Metaverse/NFT
Nike buys premier metaverse fashion brand RTFKT [Artifact] NFT collectibles studio
…This follows Adidas’ partnership with Bored Apes Yacht club [NFTs of bored looking apes, trading for enormous amounts]. RTFKT is reported to have previously collaborated with Bored Apes to make physical shoes.
It’s a good branding strategy, Nike gets to embody a cutting edge image. No doubt other brands are already poised to jump in if they have not already done so. There are those that are sitting on the fence, such as Hermes who states that it values the “tangible expression of handcrafted physical objects” – see here an article on an artist Mason Rothschild who created Birkin NFTs, complaining of knock-off material that appears to have flooded the market, which then in turn attracted a complaint from Hermes). I guess Hermes and Nike will have different brand strategies with different client bases. The issue will be whether Rothchild’s pieces of work can be considered as art and so protected by the First Amendment (Freedom of Speech).
A comment that has been made is that NFTs can help lower entry points for luxury goods for those who can’t afford it. Can’t afford a Chanel bag? Well maybe you can afford to buy your avatar one. Mind you is that really true when physical objects can be often actually cheaper than the virtual price?
NFT hits the wine world
…[Slightly old news] Back in September the first all NFT wine brand, Hello Fam was launched. One Hello Fam Grape Fam NFT is equal to one 6 bottle case of wine. Apparently the cases of wines in this instance are not all equal, so there is an element of gambling; you could end up with a very valuable case. Each case is registered for authenticity on a blockchain. Once bought, it will not be delivered to you immediately, but stored in appropriate conditions – hence wine trade is ripe for NFTs – until you decide to sell your NFT (preferably at a higher price), or consume it, by redeeming, or “burning” your NFT (meaning you sort of delete it so that the NFT can no longer be traded on). Never knew you could go from NFT world to the physical world by this burning process…
Privacy
End to end encryption (E2EE) – should it be mandated?
…Should end to end encryption be mandated? It’s a Privacy vs Safety debate.
The Yes Camp:
- Confers privacy to users.
- Protects users from cybercriminals hacking into the messages
- Businesses that host the platforms cannot abuse data by using it in a way which is not consented to.
The No Camp:
- Surveillance necessary to prevent crimes such as child abuse and other online harms.
- Safeguarding against terrorism
Meta has said it will delay implementing E2EE except WhatsApp has E2EE by default– but WhatsApp itself has been criticised for allowing moderators to check the content of messages flagged as being abusive.
Online Harms Bill imposes a duty on social media firms to protect users from harm (by taking down harmful content such as hate speech). This will inevitably require social media firms to scan content. Breach can result in penalty amounting to maximum 10% of annual turnover plus criminal liability for executives of social media firms. The Bill has been criticised as undermining security.
Digital Health
Hunt for data continues as Microsoft poised to buy Nuance a healthcare service provider
…Microsoft has been cleared by the EU Commission to buy Nuance, from the perspectives of transcription software, cloud services and PC operating systems markets. The Commission said healthcare transcription service providers are not particularly important users of cloud computing services.
Nuance specialises in speech recognition and transcription services for clinics and its product is used in 77% of US hospitals (as well as by a majority of physicians and radiologists in the US).
…and Oracle to buy Medical Records company Cerner
…The Digital Health sector is on the cusp of taking off. Due to sensitivity of patient information, sheer volume, lack of interoperability (ie: formats of information are not uniform, and there are different types of files such as PDFs, other files, doctor’s notes, X-ray images etc), digitalisation of health records has not been easy. It takes a business that can process digital information to execute. In steps Oracle – it aims to use the Cerner business as a stepping stone into the digital health business.
Cerner’s health record system will run on Oracle database to which medical professionals can have access but not the IT profession which operate the system, it is said. Subject to regulatory approvals.
mRNA x AI
Moderna to collaborate with AI driven CRIPR gene editing company Metagenomi
…Moderna of mRNA Covid vaccine fame, has entered into an R&D collaboration agreement with Metagenomi, which boasts AI-based cloud computing technology which identifies and improves natural enzyme systems for gene editing to cure serious genetic diseases.
Baidu (Chinese answer to Google) licences its algorithm for mRNA to Sanofi for designing vaccines
…Baidu’s algorithms are designed to identify optimised mRNA sequences for tackling targeted diseases.
Trade Secret Litigation
AbbVie sues Teva and Alvotech for trade secret misappropriation via its former employee and asks ITC to block the import of their biosimilar equivalent of Humira
…AbbVie claims that Alvotech directed AbbVie employee to provide it with proprietary information before leaving AbbVie for Alvotech.
Bonus News
Japanese Billionaire Yousuck MZ [real name Yusaku Maezawa] delivers Uber Eats in Space
…He didn’t make the 30mins delivery target though. Enjoy the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiJKfuJlF30