Kozminski Techblog

Apple’s new AirTags, a location device that you can attach onto almost anything and track it through your application has been met with a lot of love, but also criticism. People are afraid that these will be used for stalking or other illegal activities. 

Apple responded that they are aware of the issue and they are trying to deal with it. Their solution, for now, is to notify users that have been tracked for 3 days that they may be stalked. There is a debate inside whether or not that is the correct ammount of time. On the one hand, getting a notification after 3 days allows you to make sure that you will not be tracked long term without your knowledge, but 3 days is still a lot of time in which someone may stalk you and potentially take advantage of you with the information he has aquired. 

Another issue with these devices is the way they communicate. They basically send SOS signals to other people’s iPhones in the area, allowing them to communicate the signal to Apple.  The issue is, if there are no iPhones around then there will be no SOS signal received. Apple’s team has been working on this and ‚lost’ ome of these AirTags on purpose to test them to their limits. 

What do you think about Apple’s new AirTags. Would you use them and are you worried that someone may track your whereabouts with one? 

An idea from the Cold War times – mercury as a spacecraft fuel, used by startup from Silicone Valley.

Recently, Apollo Fusion, a startup led by Mike Cassidy (ex VP of Google) was purchased by Astra for $50 million. The company is specialised in electric propulsion systems. Currently, gases such as xenon or Krypton are used to power spacecrafts, but according to Apollo Fusion, mercury gives new opportunities.

Mercury is a much heavier alternative from used gases, which gives the possibility of obtaining a larger power from such fuel, based on the research, it could be up to 3 times more powerful than the strongest engine known to us today system, powered by xenon.

Mercury would allow you to give a much larger and heavier cosmic vehicles, which would accelerate the investigation of space.

Sources:
https://apollofusion.com
https://spacenews.com/astra-to-acquire-spacecraft-propulsion-company-apollo-fusion/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a25242578/apollo-fusion-mercury/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-19/this-space-startup-could-lace-the-atmosphere-with-toxic-mercury

Social Media mogul, Facebook, announced that it will start advertising in a virtual reality environment using the Oculus platform. The first attempts will be carried out on a game called Blaston, which is a single player shooter.

The game is not a highly popular one, but Facebook wants to run the tests on less used apps. “For now, this is a test with a few apps – once we see how this test goes and incorporate feedback from developers and incorporate, we’ll provide more details on when ads may become more broadly available across the oculus platform and in the oculus mobile app “

The first doubts are directed towards the data privacy and whether the headset from Oculus will not use camera or user movements for advertisement targeting purposes. Facebook denied accusations and ensured that all activities will be ethical and the data will come from other sources. As it is mentioned on oculus blog, “ads are most effective when they’re high-quality and relevant—because of that, Oculus ads will follow Facebook’s advertising principles, the first of which is “build for people first””

Sources:

https://www.oculus.com/blog/testing-in-headset-vr-ads/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/16/facebook-to-begin-testing-ads-inside-oculus-virtual-reality-headsets.html

For the first time in 11 years, on June 17, 2021, China launched a space mission with a crew. The mission will last 90 days, which makes it the longest crewed space mission in China’s space exploration history.

Three astronauts are participating in Shenzhou 12 mission – Commander No Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, the goal of the mission is to work on Chinese space station, “Preparing a new home in space for use”.

Astronauts docked at Tianhe, the main section of the Tianongong station, which was launched on April 29. In May, it was equipped with fuel, food and everything else needed for a crewed mission.

China invests billions in development of space program, this year their space rover landed on Mars, and 11 space missions have already been planned for next year.

Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57504052
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/17/china-launches-3-Astronauts-to-its-new-space-station-core-module/
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/16/china/china-manned-mission-space-launch-intl-hnk-cn/index.html

PGNiG is a Polish state-owned company specialised in extracting gas and kerosene operating since 1976. This week, the company has launched a AI implementation project called Smart Field.

The aim of the project is to maximize resource extraction, its operation will “slow down deplet of its recoverable gas reserves by 7.3 Billion Cubic Meters over the next 12 months.”

In 2009, the PGNiG launched the Digital Deposit Platform, which connected work related to hydrocarbon extraction into and single deposit model, since then the company effectively introduces AI and tech innovations in analytics and automation of company processes. Smart Field is considered as a direct effect of the platform that will help the company develop further. “This is a technological leap that opens up new Opportunities for us to build our position on global markets” – Robert Perkowski, PGNiG’s Operations VP

What’s more, the company plans to implement AI-based solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the effectiveness of working on the extractions. “Natural gas can play a key role in the process of rapid deconison of the national economy. We want the fuel we supply to have the lowest possible carbon footprint in the entire value chain, “Pawel Majewski, PGNiG’s Board President.

Sources:

https://en.pgnig.pl/news/-/news-list/id/pgnig-to-harness-artificial-intelligence-to-make-production-more-efficient-cheaper-and-greener/newsGroupId/1910852

https://aibusiness.com/document.asp?doc_id=770253&

https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/pgnig-to-increase-domestic-gas-deposits-thanks-to-ai-project-22574

Alphabet, Google parent company, initially was the only investor of Waymo, but recently it opened to investments and quickly gathered over $2 billion. In the latest round, the company gathered over $2.5 billion, which in total gave $5 billion Capital.

Waymo has been operating for 12 years, the company specialises in autonomous vehicles. It is one of the oldest and best co-financed companies in this industry, and their great advantage is full access to unlimited Google resources.

Company’s cars are tested on the roads of 25 cities, Waymo One, which is a service that allows a ride to a stand-alone car, traveled thousands of kilometres, what is more company signed partnerships with numerous transport companies.

Recently, Waymo entered cooperation with Daimler – the owner of Mercedes-Benz, to work on autonomous trucks. After that, many other automakers have started a similar cooperation with Waymo.

Despite numerous successes and continuous development, the company also faced many problems that leaked to the public. This year, from the company, the vast majority of CxO level employees left, which was probably associated with videos that appeared soon after. The movies showed as autonomous vehicles get out from control during road tests. In recent years, numerous accidents were caused by autonomous vehicles and media was vocal about every case.

The autonomous vehicle market is dynamically developing and interest is increasing among tech giants such as Microsoft or Amazon. The first one invested $2 billion in Lyft, and the second one bought a company called Zoox. Companies from the automotive market are also increasingly interested in this technology, Daimler took over many companies specialised in autonomous tech, Ford and Volkswagen invested gigantic capital in Argo Ai, Toyota started working on the first autonomous car, and Bridgestone bought the majority of Kodiak Robotics, all these activities look like a technological race.

Despite this, the old player on the market, Waymo claims that “They love a challenge.”

Sources:

https://waymo.com

https://aibusiness.com/document.asp?doc_id=770295&

Nowadays, some organisations look at applying AI in order to solve problems by applying it onto existing processes to automate them or add insights. Other organisations undertake a total makeover of their business overhauling the entire organisation with AI. However, neither of these two options can deliver speed of change as well as level of change companies need in order to develop.

Organisations need to identify business domains which are broad enough and as a result AI will improve their financial performance as well as customer and employee experiences. The areas should be identified along with some characteristics :

• Areas which will create solutions to systemic business problems (e.g. chronic process inefficiency and difficulties getting services and goods to customers) needs to be addressed together.
• Areas with sponsors and teams. Reinvention with AI needs a supportive business leader (or maybe even multiple leaders) and a team which will take roles such as product owner, translator and change lead. AI practitioners should also be included in the area.
• Area with AI assets and reusable data since it is of significant importance to have domains in which the data needed to run the AI models overlap. Consequently, every new AI project with such a domain can be built based on previous projects instead of starting from zero.

In the majority of cases, leaders are able to identify from eight to ten domains in order for AI to completely transform their business. Nevertheless, organisations are usually succeeding when they pay attention to one or two main domains to start. These domains are based on value and leadership support so that they can build up their capabilities and skills before moving on.

Most leaders can likely identify around eight to ten domains where AI can transform their business. However, we find that companies are most successful when they focus on one or two priority domains to start—based on value, feasibility, and leadership support—so they build up their capabilities and skills before expanding further.

Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence#

The last big presentation at this year’s virtual E3 is behind us. Nintendo as always showed a lot of games, including some novelties. Unfortunately, there were nothing said about the new Switch Pro console. Well, unless we treat the new version of “Game & Watch” with games from the “The Legend of Zelda” series as a new Nintendo console.

Expectations had been high for a glimpse of the new Zelda title, as this year marks the franchise’s 35th anniversary.

There were newer and newer titles throughout the conference. However, the renewed versions of old and well-known games for years were in the lead. This shows what is the trend in Nintendo lately.

However, all die-hard fans of the company have been waiting for the new installment of one of Nintendo’s greatest titles.

The presentation of a sequel to the 2017 game “Zelda Breath of the Wild” which was widely reviewed as a masterpiece – came in the last few minutes of the 40-minute show.

New game footage revealed that the game will involve floating islands, skydiving, and new powers in the same world as its predecessor.

Unfortunately, the game will not be released this year, and is currently announced for a 2022 release date.

Resources:

https://www.nintendo.com/e3/

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57484727

The Spotify Live app, Greenroom, officially launches today for iOS and Android, marking the first real attempt at creating their social media platform. A social app that is similar to Clubhouse allows users to have live conversations about sports, music and culture.

Recently, the tweets of Elon Musk and several other famous names about the Clubhouse app have gotten loud around the world. The application, unlike all the others, is based not on photos, videos or text content, but on the sound itself. This innovative and interesting form attracts many people looking for something new and inspiring on social media.

However, the Clubhouse app has become unavailable for many people. To log in to the site you need only or until an invitation by an active user. The application cannot be used without an invitation.

In this regard, Spotify has decided not to limit restrictions and allow any interested person to join the application. Maybe it was the curiosity and the inability to check the Clubhouse application itself that made it so popular?

Today’s launch doesn’t include an announcement of a specific event planned, but instead the company is taking the opportunity to get people to sign up and agree on how they’ll want to use the app. Some of its core features will eventually end up in the actual Spotify app, so the team will be closely monitoring what’s going on in the Greenroom.

Users can register to the app using their Spotify login. However, it is not required to use the application. The initial registration process will also allow users to choose their main interests, genres of music they like, favorite sports teams and much more.

Resources:

https://techmaniacy.pl/greenroom-konkurent-spotify-clubhouse-jest-tutaj/

https://spidersweb.pl/2021/01/clubhouse-co-to-jest.html

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22535214/spotify-greenroom-locker-room-live-audio-app

One of the most popular companies in the world, decided to produce and sell on COVID-19 tests. Each person can order their own test kit, and the result will appear on the special diagnostic website.

Information from The Verge indicates that the tests that Amazon sells were originally used to test the company’s employees. Considering the number of people employed in the company, it is not surprising that Amazon decided to produce its own test. One infected person in the parcel packing hall could immobilize the department for several weeks.

Using Amazon’s test is very easy. It involves taking a nasal swab yourself at home. Then place it in a box with the prepaid return label provided. The swabs are sent to Amazon’s centralized laboratory. You can check the test result on the page after registering your kit.

People interested in performing Amazon brand tests can purchase it on their sales platform for $ 39.99. For US residents, overnight shipping is possible via Prime.

like many other big companies, Amazon has found a way to monetize covid-19. Previously, the company already sold products needed during a pandemic, such as masks, visors and disinfectants. Now it’s time for testing. In this way, they make it easier for people to access the products they need today, and at the same time it gives the company additional income.

In addition to its own test, the company also offers a COVID-19 test kit manufactured by DxTerity and a quick 10-minute test kit from Quidel.

Resources:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/15/22535453/amazon-covid-test-consumers-available

https://tech.wp.pl/amazon-udostepnil-testy-na-covid-19-swojej-produkcji-6651247329004416a