2018 – Page 56 – Impact Lab

SEC decision on Ethereum cryptocurrency could affect others funded by ICOs

May 10, 2018

The SEC is scrutinizing Ether, second only to bitcoin in value, to determine if it should be considered a security; the decision could affect other digital currencies launched through initial coin offerings.

The second most valuable cryptocurrency behind bitcoin, Ethereum, is under regulatory scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is considering whether it should be classified as a commodity or a security.

An SEC decision to classify Ethereum’s Ether cryptocurrency as a security could have far-reaching consequences for other digital monies originally crowdfunded through initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Continue reading… “SEC decision on Ethereum cryptocurrency could affect others funded by ICOs”

City Planning, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

The new magnetism of mid-size cities

May 9, 2018

For many millennials, second cities are becoming their first choice.

If, 10 years ago, you had asked 28-year-old Sarah Luckett Bhatia if she’d eventually return to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, she “would have laughed in your face.”

Even just a few years ago, the prospects of coming home to Derby City would have seemed slim. Bhatia moved to Chicago for school, studied at Columbia College, and immediately got a job in corporate planning and strategy. Like many 20-somethings, she steered her life and career trajectory toward big cities and the opportunities they promised.

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Business, Economy, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News, Startup

America’s disappearing IPOs

May 9, 2018

What happened to all the IPOs?

It wasn’t so long ago that the market for initial public offerings — in which a promising and often young private company first allows public investors to buy its stock, often as a way to raise money and invest in the future — was booming. In the two decades before 2000, America was averaging some 300 IPOs a year. In fact, volume was considerably higher than that from 1990 to 2000, reaching 706 in 1996, for example.

Then they fell off a cliff. Last year, there were a mere 147. What happened?

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Agriculture, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Driverless vehicles, Farming, Farms

The AI farm experiment

May 8, 2018

Major companies are bringing together new machine learning algorithms, better and cheaper sensors, and increased computing power in hopes of addressing growing global demand for food and agriculture’s diminishing labor force.

The big picture: Alphabet’s X and John Deere, startups and universities are looking to AI-based agriculture to address these problems. But farming presents hard problems for AI that, if solved, could ultimately help it be deployed in more structured places (think: homes).

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Amazon.com, China, Google, Home Technology, Science & Technology News

SoundHound has raised a big $100M round to take on Alexa and Google Assistant

May 8, 2018

As SoundHound looks to leverage its ten-plus years of experience and data to create a voice recognition tool that companies can bake into any platform, it’s raising another big $100 million round of funding to try to make its Houndify platform a third neutral option compared to Alexa and Google Assistant.

While Amazon works to get developers to adopt Alexa, SoundHound has been collecting data since it started as an early mobile app for the iPhone and Android devices. That’s given it more than a decade of data to work with as it tries to build a robust audio recognition engine and tie it into a system with dozens of different queries and options that it can tie to those sounds. The result was always a better SoundHound app, but it’s increasingly started to try to open up that technology to developers and show it’s more powerful (and accurate) than the rest of the voice assistants on the market — and get them to use it in their services.

Continue reading… “SoundHound has raised a big $100M round to take on Alexa and Google Assistant”

Automation, Automobiles, China, Driverless cars, Electric Automobile

Didi and Volkswagen partner to develop a ‘purpose-built’ fleet and scale up autonomous driving capabilities

May 8, 2018

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is nearing an agreement with Volkswagen (VW) to deploy a “purpose-built” fleet of VW vehicles in its home country, according to The Wall Street Journal.

As part of the joint venture, the German carmaker would provide around 100,000 vehicles, electric and autonomous vehicle technology, and manage the fleet.

Continue reading… “Didi and Volkswagen partner to develop a ‘purpose-built’ fleet and scale up autonomous driving capabilities”

Coding, communication, Computer Security, Corporate Manipulation, Hot Issues

Should software engineers care about ethics

May 7, 2018

It’s time for engineers to hold themselves accountable.

In his essay, “Design’s Lost Generation,” Mike Monteiro describes how he shocked a crowd of designers at a San Francisco tech conference by suggesting design — like medicine, law, and even driving — should be regulated:

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Architecture, City Planning, Latest Trend

American highways are so expensive that cities are tearing them down — here’s what they’re turning into

May 7, 2018

Traffic moves on the elevated Central Artery in Boston (2003, top). Parks and open space are seen in the same area (2007, bottom). AP

Throughout the 20th century, highways were key generators of economic growth for American cities. They allowed commuters to quickly travel between urban centers and the suburbs, unclogged traffic-ridden streets, and created infrastructure jobs.

But these days, investing in highways is a bad business decision for many cities.

An increasing number of cities around the US are choosing to tear down or transform parts of their dilapidated interstates, rather than repair them. These redevelopments are largely happening because old highways are costly to rebuild, according to Rob Steuteville from a DC-based nonprofit called the Congress for New Urbanism.

For the past decade, Steuteville’s team has documented cities that have or are considering highway removals. He expects the trend to continue to grow.

Continue reading… “American highways are so expensive that cities are tearing them down — here’s what they’re turning into”

Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Economy, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The economics of artificial intelligence

May 6, 2018

Rotman School of Management professor Ajay Agrawal explains how AI changes the cost of prediction and what this means for business.

With so many perspectives on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) flooding the business press, it’s becoming increasingly rare to find one that’s truly original. So when strategy professor Ajay Agrawal shared his brilliantly simple view on AI, we stood up and took notice. Agrawal, who teaches at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and works with AI start-ups at the Creative Destruction Lab (which he founded), posits that AI serves a single, but potentially transformative, economic purpose: it significantly lowers the cost of prediction.

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Analysis, Culture, Economy

The most inclusive U.S. cities, mapped

May 6, 2018

Heads up, cities: Economic growth does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with economic and racial inclusion.

That’s the finding of a new, in-depth analysis by the Urban Institute (UI) of the 274 largest cities in America. The report and accompanying data tool show how economic shifts in these cities since the 1980s have corresponded with “inclusion”—the ability of low-income residents and people of color to benefit from and contribute to the city’s economic gains.

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Big Problems, Economy, Higher Education, Money Talk

This generation has a huge and growing student debt burden. It’s not who you think

May 5, 2018

A recent analysis of American debt revealed a startling shift: Borrowers between the ages of 45 and 74 now owe more money in education-related debt, on average, than do younger college graduates.

People under age 35 with student debt owe $32,900 on average, according to data from the Fed’s 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances. That debt number is higher for every other 10-year age bracket up to age 75: It peaks at $37,000 for 45- to 54-year-olds, but even 65- to 74-year-old borrowers owe an average $35,400.

Continue reading… “This generation has a huge and growing student debt burden. It’s not who you think”

Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, Corporate Manipulation, Internet

The era of fake video begins

May 5, 2018

The digital manipulation of video may make the current era of “fake news” seem quaint.

In a dank corner of the internet, it is possible to find actresses from Game of Thrones or Harry Potter engaged in all manner of sex acts. Or at least to the world the carnal figures look like those actresses, and the faces in the videos are indeed their own. Everything south of the neck, however, belongs to different women. An artificial intelligence has almost seamlessly stitched the familiar visages into pornographic scenes, one face swapped for another. The genre is one of the cruelest, most invasive forms of identity theft invented in the internet era. At the core of the cruelty is the acuity of the technology: A casual observer can’t easily detect the hoax.

Continue reading… “The era of fake video begins”