IDC and Forrester issued recently their predictions for artificial intelligence (AI) in 2020 and beyond. While external “market events” may make companies cautious about AI, says Forrester, “courageous ones” will continue to invest and expand the initial “timid” steps they took in 2019.
Continue reading… “Top Artificial Intelligence predictions for 2020 from IDC and Forrester”
One day, contact lenses could do much more than just correct our vision
The notion of wearing lenses over our eyes to correct our vision dates back hundreds of years, with some even crediting Leonardo da Vinci as one of the first proponents of the idea (though that remains somewhat controversial). Material science and our understanding of the human eye have come a long way since, while their purpose has remained largely the same. In the age of wearable computers, however, scientists in the laboratories of DARPA, Google, and universities around the world see contact lenses not just as tools to improve our vision, but as opportunities to augment the human experience. But how? And why?
As a soft, transparent disc of plastic and silicone that you wear on your eyeball, a contact lens may seem like a very bad place to put electronics. But if you look beneath the surface, the idea of a smart contact lens has real merit, and that begins with its potential to improve our well-being.
Continue reading… “Smart contacts: The future of the wearable you won’t even see”
Eight hundred drones came together to create a ‘ghost plane’ in the sky, in a display reminiscent of Gandalf’s fireworks in the Shire.
Visitors to the 2019 Nanchang Flight Convention were treated to a majestic skyscape of glowing drones, creating what appears to be a propeller plane, an airliner, and a fighter jet.
The spectacular choreography was just one part of the convention, an industry event designed to show off China’s latest developments in aviation, space travel and drone technology.
Continue reading… “Amazing ‘Ghost plane’ created by 800 drones at air show”
While robots upend blue-collar factory work and trucking in the middle of the country, AI and machine learning are poised to deeply alter white-collar jobs in superstar coastal cities.
Why it matters: No one is immune to the shockwave of automation in the workplace.
“AI will be as central to the white-collar office environment as robotics has been to the production economy,” said Mark Muro, senior fellow and policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. “They’ll fundamentally change what work is and what humans do. And no one gets a free pass.”
Continue reading… “AI is coming for white-collar workers”
In the AI world, data is the new currency and analytics competency a crucial competitive differentiator across business lines
Cubicle workers. Shipping clerks. Loan processors.
“All gone,” Forrester vice president and principal consultant Huard Smith said in describing the impact of artificial intelligence on various professions by 2030.
Continue reading… “Artificial Intelligence will obliterate these jobs by 2030”
India Plans Incentives to Bring In Foreign Manufacturers From Tesla to Glaxo
Bloomberg) — India is planning to offer 324 companies including Tesla Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc incentives to set up factories in the South Asian nation in a bid to capitalize from the trade war between China and the U.S., according to a document seen Bloomberg.
The government proposes to provide the manufacturers land to set up a factory along with power, water and road access, according to draft of the document prepared by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and Invest India. Other companies that officials will reach out to include Eli Lilly & Co., South Korea’s Hanwha Chemical Corp., and Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
While the trade war has benefited countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, rigid land acquisition rules and labor laws have prompted investors to largely ignore India when looking for alternatives to China. The latest proposal may reduce red tape, and set the nation, which expanded at the slowest pace in six years last quarter, on a path to double its gross domestic product to $5 trillion by 2025 – a goal set Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Continue reading… “India mulls incentives to woo 324 firs as trade war simmers”
With the introduction of 5G and Wi-Fi 6, the advancement of Internet connectivity will elevate further
In today’s age and time, the Internet plays a major role in one’s everyday life. Our country is moving towards digitization and has proven to be a front-runner when it comes to Internet users and its usability. We have come to a point where it can be reasonably argued that Wi-Fi has become essential part of our life along with food, water and shelter. Just as every person needs to have access to the basic elements that support life, Internet connectivity is now considered a must-have by people from all walks of life.
Deployment of 4G technology has brought cellular performances to unmatched levels of data speed, coverage, mobility and security. With the introduction of 5G and Wi-Fi 6, the advancement of Internet connectivity will elevate further, the use of these technologies will play a dominant role in the way people work, watch and play.
Continue reading… “The future of Wi-Fi : Trends that could shape the future of India”
Doctors have placed humans in suspended animation for the first time, as part of a trial in the US that aims to make it possible to fix traumatic injuries that would otherwise cause death.
Samuel Tisherman, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told New Scientist that his team of medics had placed at least one patient in suspended animation, calling it “a little surreal” when they first did it. He wouldn’t reveal how many people had survived as a result.
The technique, officially called emergency preservation and resuscitation (EPR), is being carried out on people who arrive at the University of Maryland Medical Centre in Baltimore with an acute trauma – such as a gunshot or stab wound – and have had a cardiac arrest. Their heart will have stopped beating and they will have lost more than half their blood. There are only minutes to operate, with a less than 5 per cent chance that they would normally survive.
Continue reading… “Exclusive: Humans placed in suspended animation for the first time”
Penn State researchers have developed a method that dramatically reduces the amount of water needed to flush a conventional toilet, which usually requires 6 liters. Credit: Wong Laboratory for Nature Inspired Engineering, Penn State
Every day, more than 141 billion liters of water are used solely to flush toilets. With millions of global citizens experiencing water scarcity, what if that amount could be reduced by 50%?
The possibility may exist through research conducted at Penn State, released today (Nov. 18) in Nature Sustainability.
“Our team has developed a robust bio-inspired, liquid, sludge- and bacteria-repellent coating that can essentially make a toilet self-cleaning,” said Tak-Sing Wong, Wormley Early Career Professor of Engineering and associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering.
In the Wong Laboratory for Nature Inspired Engineering, housed within the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Research Institute, researchers have developed a method that dramatically reduces the amount of water needed to flush a conventional toilet, which usually requires 6 liters.
Continue reading… “New, slippery toilet coating provides cleaner flushing, saves water”
Machine intelligence, also known as artificial intelligence (AI) is going to have both an awesome and an unfortunate impact on our posterity. Let’s explore one possible way AI may impact the future of work, and how it may dramatically change how we train our workforce.
A brand manager needs an advertisement. So, the brand manager sends a brief to the senior art director (in-house or at an agency) and asks for something amazing to be created. On or before the deadline, the brand manager and the art director meet to review the work. The brand manager is presented with three approaches, and after a number of meetings, a number of revisions, and revelations, they agree on a final product.
This is a process that has repeated itself for more than a century, and AI is not going to stop it (today).
Continue reading… “AI won’t take your job, people will”
It may be little more than grains of weathered rock, and can be found in deserts and on beaches around the world, but sand is also the world’s second most consumed natural resource.
A South African entrepreneur shot dead in September. Two Indian villagers killed in a gun battle in August. A Mexican environmental activist murdered in June.
Though separated by thousands of miles, these killings share an unlikely cause. They are some of the latest casualties in a growing wave of violence sparked by the struggle for one of the 21st Century’s most important, but least appreciated, commodities: ordinary sand.
Trivial though it may seem, sand is a critical ingredient of our lives. It is the primary raw material that modern cities are made from. The concrete used to construct shopping malls, offices, and apartment blocks, along with the asphalt we use to build roads connecting them, are largely just sand and gravel glued together. The glass in every window, windshield, and smart phone screen is made of melted-down sand. And even the silicon chips inside our phones and computers – along with virtually every other piece of electronic equipment in your home – are made from sand.
Continue reading… “Why the world is running out of sand”
Cyberscams are getting more sophisticated.
The secret to comedy, according to the old joke, is timing. The same is true of cybercrime.
Mark learned this the hard way in 2017. He runs a real estate company in Seattle and asked us not to include his last name because of the possible repercussions for his business.
“The idea that someone was effectively able to dupe you … is embarrassing,” he says. “We’re still kind of scratching our head over how it happened.”
It started when someone hacked into his email conversation with a business partner. But the hackers didn’t take over the email accounts. Instead, they lurked, monitoring the conversation and waiting for an opportunity.
Continue reading… “Cybercrime booms as scammers hack human nature to steal billions”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.