Month: January 2021

Entertainment Commerce

I did a panel talk this month chaired by Pat Murphy of MCA and I was asked about eCommerce and how I felt it will evolve and the production behind development.
I used a few examples then this example popped into my head from Kanye West.
Where Kanye wanted to bring Art and Entertainment together with Commerce. The site is a beautiful and engaging, but usability is the main component I was missing after watching the video below.
I believe there is a space for entertainment and commerce to live beautifully together, but we have to make sure the balance is right from entertainment and functionality.

Sadly I have not been able to launch the website and keep getting an error message, which might be because I am located in the UK.

A longer article is here from Fastcompany.

Indy Autonomous Car Race

Yes, its real!
A race happening this year.

Who?
A competition among accredited, tax-exempt colleges and universities (including foreign institutions of higher education that are organized and operated in a manner consistent with requirements for exemption from federal income tax under the laws of the United States) to create software that enables automated-capable racecars to best compete and aspire to finish first in a head-to-head race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s (IMS) famed oval.

Prize?
1 Million dollars to the first team to cross the finish line in 25 minutes or less in a head-to-head, 20-lap race of automated Dallara IL-15 racecars around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval

Here is the CES press conference

and Here is the competition website

Five AI developments will shape 2021 and beyond

1. AI and vaccine development
It typically takes years, if not decades, to develop a new vaccine. But by March 2020, vaccine candidates to fight covid-19 were already undergoing human tests, just three months after the first reported cases.

2. Fully automated driving and the rollout of robotaxis
Autonomous driving technology continued to mature in 2020, with the industry’s leading companies testing driverless cars and opening up robotaxi services to the public in various cities.

3. Applied natural language processing
In 2020, natural language systems became significantly more advanced at processing aspects of human language like sentiment and intent, generating language that aligns with human speaking and writing patterns, and even visual understanding, meaning the capability to express understanding about an image through language.

4. Quantum computing
Quantum computing has the potential to supercharge AI applications compared to binary-based classical computers

5. AI chips
Chips can already cope with a small amount of AI processing, but with the need for more AI we will need to develop chips that can focus on the deep learning processing required.

Read the full article on MIT

Coin sized smart home amazon competitor

Josh.ai have developed a few products to compete with the amazon suite, one of these products that caught my eye was the Josh Nano, the reason being that over the past few years smart home devices are always quite large in size, I know they are always trying to make them look futurist and or beautifully designed so they almost look like a sculpture, BUT what if you had a device that had all the same functions but was hidden into you already beautifully designed home.

I’m a big fan of amazon and must admit every room in my house has a device, but if i could have the option to change a few to these hidden Josh Nano’s then I would jump at the chance.

Personally I haven’t trying the tech to give a full review..
*hint hint @josh.ai

AI Powered Parking

A trail project led by Fetch.ai and a blockchain company called Datarella has launched in Munich to A.I a parking facility of a company called Connex.
The purpose behind the technology is to control pricing on the buildings parking spaces and rewarding employees whom don’t use the parking with public transport passes.

“It could say okay if you park closer, you’re going to be charged more; if you park farther away, you’ll be charged less,” says Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai. “We reward you for doing certain actions and we discourage you from doing certain actions.”

This sort of system has shown that putting a price on parking based on demand has shown a reduction in vehicle miles travelled and greenhouse emissions.

From a commercial point of view: Fetch.ai’s approach aims to streamline the process of finding a parking spot using an app that drivers can set to automatically book parking spaces when available, based on predetermined price and location settings.

Full story on FastCompany

Google FREE AI assisted monster maker

This is one of those tools you will spend hours on without getting the result you really wanted.

Google has launched a fun tool that takes your strange sketches and turns them into a kind of 3D monster.

Its fun and I am sure lots of AI and tech behind the scenes, but not something to use in the real world where monster don’t exist, well not looking like these ones.

Check it out if you have a spare 10 mins at chimera