The World
FT analysis shows concern over potential China/Taiwan conflict at all time high
…analysis based on annual regulatory filings. Technology sector (especially as they are dependent on semiconductors) most concerned, then Healthcare. US likely to apply more pressure on key suppliers to ban exports to China, it is reported.
It is probably no coincidence that Apple has said that it will set up a factory in India. India has just announced a chip making incentive scheme, (which Foxconn (who assembles iPhones for Apple) said will be taking up) and it has the second largest number of smartphone users (though I don’t think iPhones dominate there).
Artificial Intelligence
EU Commission proposes new Liability rules for those users harmed by the use of AI
….there are in fact two proposals:
- Revised Product Liability Directive: Modernises the existing rules on the strict liability of manufacturers for defective products (from smart technology to pharmaceuticals). The commission says that it will ensure that victims can get fair compensation when defective products, including digital and refurbished products, cause harm. Eg. compensation for loss arising out of cybersecurity vulnerability.
- AI Liability Directive: Harmonisation of national liability rules for AI – making it easier for victims of AI-related damage to get compensation. The Commission explains: where a relevant fault has been established and a causal link to the AI performance seems reasonably likely, the so called ‘presumption of causality‘ will address the difficulties experienced by victims in having to explain in detail how harm was caused by a specific fault or omission. They will have right of access to evidence from companies and suppliers, in cases in which high-risk AI is involved. This could mean that the businesses will have to disclose trade secrets to show that they are not liable.
Photo distributing company Getty Images are removing AI generated artworks
…Getty cites copyright liability concerns. The AI software may have been trained on scraped copyright protected images. This then has implications for the output of the AI Process. Identifying AI generated images for removal is however, not an easy process.
In the US there is a question about whether the output can be exempted from copyright infringement relying on fair use – the position would be harder for a commercial company like Getty whose business concerns dealing in images.
In the UK, the government has said that data mining will not require permission from the copyright owner by anyone with lawful access to the material even if it is protected by copyright. The aim of the policy is to make UK a location of choice for data mining and AI development.
In the EU, the data mining exceptions under EU’s Copyright Digital Single Market Directive (applicable across the EU), are quite narrow although it is possible to data mine without permission if there are no express reservations prohibiting data mining (for example coding on the webpage, contractual terms).
OpenAI open sources Whisper – a neural network that transcribes speech in multiple languages and translates into English
…Google, Meta and Amazon all have good speech recognition systems, but Whisper sets itself apart from these because it claims to be able to recognise heavy accents, background noise and technical jargon. Having said this it is reported that it has not escaped the common pitfalls; it is less good at recognising less well represented language owing to the lack of training data and some words remain wrongly recognised.
Nvidia unveils two new large language model cloud AI services, the NVIDIA NeMo Large Language Model Service and the NVIDIA BioNeMo LLM Service
…What do these large language models do?
NeMo: Developers can customise the natural language processing models for content generation, text summarization, chatbots, code development.
BioNeMo: There are two, one for chemistry and one for biology. Developers can customise the AI application for protein structure, and biomolecular property predictions – for drug discovery. Nvidia says ” It helps researchers identify patterns and insights in biological sequences by supporting protein, DNA, and biochemical data.”
What’s so good about Nvidia’s AI service? Developers can utilise their own training data, but it takes only “minutes to hours” not “weeks or months” to train from the start. This is because it uses “Prompt Learning” – the model is already trained using “billions of data points” – which enables the developer to adapt the AI for its use more swiftly.
Note
What is a Large Language Model?: These are machine learning algorithms that can recognize, predict, and generate human languages on the basis of very large text-based data sets.
What is the difference between Natural Language Processing and Speech Recognition: NLP is a system that can understand language, understand sentiment, understand meaning and respond to inputs or come up with further questions. Speech Recognition is the ability to interpret spoken words and convert them into text.
T-Mobile will help Pano-AI, a “disaster preparedness company” to deploy 5G connected cameras to detect wildfires in high risk areas
…the cameras will be installed in high vantage points such as cell towers. The cameras can see miles away. Pano-AI have humans in the loop, but uses AI to detect smoke as fast as possible.
Microbots – the width of a hair could be at some point crawling inside our bodies and clean up our pipes
…the possibility is still way into the future, but scientists are now developing tiny bots that can autonomously operate. The link is to a very short YouTube clip. Take a look!
New AI uses spotted this week
Some interesting ones:
- Text to Image AI which generates new Pokemon characters (you input for example, Donald Trump – take a look, it is fun)
- AI which tracks construction site projects and identifies issues – allowing remote workers to monitor progress and identify problems early.
- Raydiant’s Digital menus at fast food places could scan you, determine your age (eg. wrinkles), mood (face scan, weather), gender, and provide you with recommendations.
BigTech/ Data / Platforms
Content moderation
TikTok bans political fundraising
…TikTok says that it…”is an entertainment platform where people come to share their stories… including current events like elections and political issues…We …keep harmful misinformation off the platform, prohibiting political advertising, and connecting our community with authoritative information about elections. Today, we are building on that approach by making a series of changes to government, politician, and political party accounts…. This means accounts belonging to politicians and political parties will automatically have their access to advertising features turned off, which will help us more consistently enforce our existing policy….Additionally, we will be prohibiting these accounts from accessing other monetization features…. like gifting, tipping, and e-commerce, and will be ineligible for our Creator Fund.
…all in preparation of keeping out of troubles in the run up to the midterm elections.
Why is TikTok so controversial?
- Chinese owned – US citizens’ data may be accessible to the Chinese Communist party. To allay the concerns, all TikTok data has been transferred to Oracle’s data server. However, TikTok has not committed to cut off all data to China.
- TikTok can be used to brainwash users [and there are many] – by spreading propaganda by tweaking its alogorithm
TikTok will be introducing a dislike button to help Algorithms point user away from content which is inappropriate or not desired
…your dislike vote will not be shown and those that uploaded the undesired content will not be notified. This will inform TikTok about the users further, but also avoid bullying by creating numerous accounts and piling on dislikes against any particular content maker. The idea may be that content generators of bad taste end up shouting into a void unbeknownst to him or her.
You can also retract the dislike as well. It’s great – a way of content moderating your own content, and tailor things to your taste.
Inquest into the suicide of UK teenager after consuming self-harming images on Instagram and Pinterest questions social media company policies
…Instagram owner Meta’s representative said it allowed graphic pictures to be displayed to enable those in need to cry for help, and seek for community. It explained that damage could be caused by silencing those that are struggling. Instagram changed its policy to ensure that posts encouraging self-harm was removed, although it did not take down posts which admit vulnerabilities.
Pinterest admitted that its site was not safe before the teenager’s death. Meta has apologised.
The posts included close-ups of individuals cutting themselves up with a razor blade, which the coroner said was “almost impossible to watch”.
Both social media companies had recommended content about depression.
The inquest is heard as the UK considers to pass its Online Safety Bill, which includes responsibility for platforms to remove “legal but harmful” content – this includes bullying, extreme dieting, and of course self-harm. Prime Minister Liz Truss is inclined to remove such obligation (although perhaps with stricter rules for minors?), but the inquest could change her mind. A Texan appeal court has recently held that its state law which prohibits content moderation was not unconstitutional – the issue is being appealed to the US Supreme Court as the effect of the Eleventh Circuit (Florida) decision is opposite to that of the Texan Court.
Content moderation issues are incredibly difficult, and would seem to require careful evidence based policy making. However, Meta official at the inquest commented that the impact of certain material can affect people in different ways and different times and that it was really complicated to carry out research in this area.
Competition
UK Regulator OfCom to look into the competition landscape in Cloud services – Amazon, Microsoft and Google to be probed
…these hyperscalers account for about 80% of the UK cloud market. Ofcom’s aim is to identify competition issues (if any) at an early stage to prevent the market from becoming entrenched. FT reports that Ofcom is worried about barriers to market entry.
I think they may be a bit too late. Hyperscalers had the foresight (and cash) to invest significant amounts into buying up data servers and securing data centres across the world. One benefit of this is that they have the bargaining power to purchase servers cheaply. Furthermore, they have done well to build their businesses early for at present, the world is riddled with supply chain disruption and chip shortages. Not only that, these companies have invested heavily into emerging technologies such as data processing and AI that enable them to provide tailored, useful cloud service to their customers. As a consequence, there is naturally a large moat around their cloud services. A big part of their dominance may not be due to any particular business conduct. In short, the first mover advantage may have paid off big time.
Ofcom plans to also look at how audio-visual services such as WhatsApp, FaceTime and Zoom are affecting traditional services such as telecommunication and messaging.
Connectivity
T-Mobile and Helium in partnership to provide new 5G Network
…the partnership enables subscribers to the Helium Network to have access to both Helium and T-Mobile 5G Network. Helium Network is a decentralised wireless network for IoT devices powered by cryptocurrency (Helium Network Token HNT). The network is made up of antennas owned and placed by individuals in their homes/offices (costs about $500) which can send data packets over long distances (using LoRa, or Long Range – its range is long like cellular, but data rate is lower so the infrastructure and running cost are cheaper). It is quite clever as it makes enterprising individuals help set up the network – otherwise, the cost of setting up such a network could be significant. The network’s bandwidth is hired out and owners can receive tokens for IoT businesses to use (governed by smart contracts). One use case is the tracking of e-scooters or e-bikes which are dotted around a city. A company can track their electric scooters without having to enter into expensive cellular connectivity contracts with a network operator.
Crypto/Blockchain
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforces a DAO and its members for breaching regulatory laws
…arguably, this action puts a lot of cold water over one of the most interesting feature in web3 – DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation – in short a company on a blockchain).
The charge is illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets using a blockchain based software protocol; engaging in activities only registered futures commission merchants (FCM) can perform; and failing to adopt a customer identification program (ie: KYC) as part of a Bank Secrecy Act compliance program.
Defendants was bZeroX and its founders. Although the bZx Protocol purported to offer users the ability to engage in these transactions in a decentralized environment—i.e., without third-party intermediaries taking custody of user assets, the company was a centralised company so the CFTC was able to enforce. Those charges are settled.
The key aspect of this development is the enforcement against the successor DAO, Ooki, apparently an unincorporated association which is carrying on using the software protocol of bZeroX. According to Coindesk interview, CFTC is enforcing against members of the DAO – making those that voted with the tokens personally responsible (and query is whether there is a distinction between the voting persons and those that are just holding the tokens). Another question which is raised is how the court papers will be served.
EVs
All Volvo’s new models to be fitted with laser sensors (LiDAR)
…these are very expensive and other auto makers have announced laser use too, but only on certain models. Volvo is known for its safety credentials, and it is thought to reinforce this reputation by its use of LiDAR. Volvo said the technology will help reduce collisions by about 9%, and accidents involving fatalities/injuries by about 20%. Volvo will also use cameras and radar systems as well.
What’s good about LiDAR
- Precise detection – it can detect “a black tyre on a black road at 120 meters ahead, or a pedestrian at 250 meters
- Can function well in darkness (unlike cameras)
- Faster detection – LiDAR works at the speed of light, radar works at the speed of sound.
- Facilitates emergency breaking capabilities which the EU is requiring all cars to have.
Volvo will purchase its LiDAR from Luminar, a company in which Volvo has a stake.
Google’s attempts at developing eVTOLs ends
… the 12 year project was called Kittyhawk, and was Google founder Larry Page’s baby. Kittyhawk did give rise to Cora, a two-seat autonomous eVTOL under a joint venture with Boeing called Wisk Aero. This JV is expected to continue, and focuses on autonomous flights, unlike other rivals. Good to know that even Larry Page fails sometimes. He would consider that as just a step to success I’m sure.
Metaverse / VR / AR / MR / XR
Walmart land and Walmart Universe of Play enter Roblox
…Walmart hopes to attract Gen Z. It says ” Walmart Land will bring the best fashion, style, beauty and entertainment items directly to the global Roblox community of over 52 million daily users. The retailer will continue to bring the fun with Walmart’s Universe of Play – the ultimate virtual toy destination in Roblox”.
Walmart Land will have:
- Electric Island – learn to mix different beats. In October, well known artists will have concerts there.
- House of Style – virtual dressing room, strike a pose challenge
Walmart’s Universe of Play will have
- Immersive games featuring well known toys (eg. Paw Patrol)
- Rewards – collect virtual toys, earn coins and then redeem against an avatar merchandise (called verch)
Accessible on PCs, smartphones, game consoles and VR headsets.
Zepeto – Korean derived Asia’s biggest metaverse
…it is owned by Korean tech group Naver. It is reportedly a long way behind Roblox, but I would not bet against the Koreans judging by their dominance in the pop world thanks to acts like BTS, Black Pink, Super Junior (all knowledge gained thanks to my primary school aged daughter). And a lot of metaverse at the moment centers around “pop”, like gaming, fashion, cosmetics etc.
But Zepeto is an avatar centric social media platform unlike Roblox which is more a channel to chat to others whilst gaming. Unlike a normal social media platform, participants are expect to be whoever they want to be through their avatars. On the flip side you don’t really know who you are talking to (a point well illustrated in the movie Ready Player One). As you might expect from a popular metaverse it has partnerships with luxury brands and you can drive Korean cars like a Hyundai or have Korean appliances such as Samsung – to fit in your virtual home (ie: metaverse no longer a place for fashion brands only).
Naver uses AI to identify inappropriate behaviour on its metaverse, but says policing is tricky. Brand owners may have to check out a platform’s guardrails before they do a partnership deal.
Must check out: Nreal AR gives users an IMAX screen in the comfort of their own phone
…play whatever on your smartphone and visualise through these AR glasses. They look more like sunglasses rather than ski goggles. Nreal seems to have definitely upped the game for everyone working in AR.
Patents
Google challenges the video codec field as Project Caviar set to take off…
…the intention is to topple Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos (also royalty free for streaming services only, but licences hardware companies and users instead) by offering purportedly royalty free formats for High Dynamic Range (HDR) Video and 3D audio. Google can thereby avoid paying licence fees for their hardware and help increase sales of Android devices by keeping costs of hardware lower than those that opt to adopt Dolby’s video codec technology. YouTube is a must have app on devices. By having YouTube support the technology (for a more immersive experience), Google hopes to gain wide adoption both by streaming businesses and device makers.
The article notes that these technologies may in the future also contribute to VR and AR devices.
Quantum Computing
Novo Nordisk puts up $200million to create Quantum Computer especially for Life Sciences
…such device can be used for
- Formulating personal medicines, relying on analysis of genome data
- Making drug discoveries
- Modelling reactions
Semiconductors
ARM explores “strategic alliance” with Samsung
… If so in what form? An acquisition is thought to be unlikely. Nvidia bid for and failed to acquire ARM on antitrust grounds (because it would then make it very difficult for other businesses to share their IP with ARM). The same barrier is highly likely for Samsung, should it wish to acquire ARM. The great majority (estimated 90%) of today’s processors are based on ARM architecture. A strategic alliance with such a company would be more welcomed by Samsung, which has been reported that it is losing the technical edge in Smartphone Application Processors (the computer that runs the operating software, apps, processing commands, graphics, memory management etc). Chipmaker Qualcomm will be looking at the strategic alliance closely – it relies on ARM intellectual property, has been vociferous about anticompetitive effects of Nvidia/ARM acquisition, and have recently announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Samsung. ARM is also suing Qualcomm – so could ARM be trying to get some sort of leverage in the litigation by sidling up to Qualcomm’s customer?
GM’s EV venture Cruise also to start designing chips
…buying chips of vendors too expensive so they are doing it in-house, GM says. It will also help them take control of the edge; for the edge is likely to be highly dependent on the chips and software when it comes to future cars. Which is certainly not going to be about engines. One of GM’s chips will be based on ARM architecture but it says that it is also exploring RISC-V, an open source architecture. These define the kind of software the chips can run. RISC-V can be said to be ARM’s greatest rival and threat.
Satellites/Space
NASA successfully hits an asteroid – to test our capability in averting planet killing hurtling asteroids
…the collision took place 7million miles away. SpaceX provided the engine for the satellite.
One more thing…
Ohio Jury to decide on the question of whether game maker NBA 2K infringed a tattoo artist’s copyright for depicting real life athelete’s tattoos in its games
…was the game maker’s use of the art work within the scope of US copyright fair use exemption/ de minimis use? Further, did the artist authorise the players to allow third party use of his work? Those are the questions.