Kozminski Techblog

Face-mapping, or face hacking technology is a not-so-new revolutionary invention that lets the person using it replace anyone’s face on the video with their own, or vise-versa.  It was created a few years ago and was not really used in a while, but last year its history was continued, as scandalous deepfake Chinese app was released.

Zao is an app for iOS, that is currently available only for users that have Chinese phone number, and whose phone is in a list of the UK or US App Store or Play Store. It quickly became the most-downloaded app on Chinese App Store, as people used to “put” their face on on faces of actors in, foe expamle, scenes in movies.

In case you haven't heard, #ZAO is a Chinese app which completely blew up since Friday. Best application of 'Deepfake'-style AI facial replacement I've ever seen.

Here's an example of me as DiCaprio (generated in under 8 secs from that one photo in the thumbnail) ? pic.twitter.com/1RpnJJ3wgT

— Allan Xia #ArtistsForFireRelief (@AllanXia) September 1, 2019

According to a transcript of a press, the ap and face-mapping technology at all can “endanger national security, disrupt social stability, disrupt social order and infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of others”

Indeed, not only can this technology be used in an innocent way, like users of Zao did, but as an instrument of sabotaging, for example, news reports, as it is shown in this article and video from BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-46200018/the-face-mapping-technology-raising-fears-about-fake-news

Situation got to the point where Chinese government considered an option of making face-mapping technology illegal.

The real question is if in the future we will have access to tools that can detect and eliminate face-mapping, because if not, it can endanger global areas of our world, such as advertisement, political debates and big businesses. For now, development of such tools has only started, we will see what it will result into in the future.

Sources:

https://www.sciencealert.com/disturbing-deepfake-app-lets-you-convincingly-superimpose-your-face-onto-celebrities

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/how-deepfake-app-zao-became-most-downloaded-free-app-in-china-and-whats-next/articleshow/71096391.cms

https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/how-deepfake-app-zao-became-most-downloaded-free-app-in-china-and-whats-next/articleshow/71096391.cms

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-46200018/the-face-mapping-technology-raising-fears-about-fake-news

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-technology/china-seeks-to-root-out-fake-news-and-deepfakes-with-new-online-content-rules-idUSKBN1Y30VU

We often hear that educational system around the globe is non-progressive and has not changed in decades, even in most advanced countries. While I can agree that this is true, the real question is – what is the future of educational environment, how it can be modified, and the most important – should it be changed?

• More practice

While reading books and articles on subject’s topic helps students get the theoretical knowledge, it does not prepare them for real-life troubles. For example, only knowing the structure of how memorandum should be written, student will not be able to produce decent memorandum right away. Only dozens and dozens of written memos will give a student an experience. That’s what teaching of the future will focus on – giving mostly skills and experience, not theory, that may never even be used.

• Technologies are not a replacement for teachers

While technologies may help students gain skills, teachers help students gain motivation, social skills, and give them feedback. AI may be used as an instrument to perfect student’s practical knowledge, but as well as skills are essential, proper guidance from a teacher is a key factor in learning. For example, online courses rarely are valued as much as real-life ones because of human factor in us.

• Technologies will make a teacher’s job easier

Using technologies in education, such as automatic grading system will let teachers concentrate on students, helping them individually, instead of checking and grading dozens of tests all night not. The perfect perspective is that in the future the checking-grading will be automatized to the point where the teacher’s only job will be working with students face-to-face, individually.

Sources:
https://www.christenseninstitute.org/blog/future-of-teaching/

https://www.edsys.in/trends-defining-future-education/

https://www.rmit.edu.au/study-with-us/education/discover-education/the-future-of-learning-and-teaching-big-changes-ahead-for-education

According to a definition, data analyst is the type of data scientist, who is hired temporarily to collect various data about certain organization, analyze it and present their conclusions to a manager of said organization, offering ways to improve business.

The most interesting part is – not only tech companies are interested in services of data analyst – companies in various areas of business – from traveling agencies to perfumery and wine selling businesses are hiring data analysts constantly.

Kwame Awuku, self-employed data analyst, gives a great example on what typical order for a data analyst is in a recent video about whole structure of his job:

*******

What qualifications are essential for an entry-level data analyst?

First, and basic one – Barchelor’s degree in spheres such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Finance or Statistics.

Second  one – to complete courses for data analysts, where they basically teach you how to use the most common data mining tools and write reports with recommendations.

Tools you may need to use as a Data analyst:

Microsoft Excel®

SQL

Google Analytics ™

RapidMiner™

Google AdWords™

Kwame Awuku has his own blog, dedicated to providing courses to data analysts, I recommend you to check it out if your goal is to raise your qualifications as a data analyst:

https://courses.coglitics.com/?ref=341360/*

Sources:

https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/data-analyst/

https://www.roberthalf.com.au/our-services/it-technology/data-analyst-jobs

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/technology/blog/what-does-a-data-analyst-do/

Cryptocurrencies have been around us for a really long time-even though society really got to hear about them only a few years ago – when all the business world was discussing sudden growth of Bitcoin in 2015.

After the year 2017, after the peak of Bitcoin, experts and investors all around the world stated, that blockchain technology has no more potential to grow, yet, as it turns out – in the year 2020 new era of cryptocurrency may start.

In the 2019, blockchain technology got plenty of big sponsors, (such as IBM, Microsoft etc) and in the year 2020 and further in the future dozens of new cryptocurrencies are expected to be created. The biggest and most ambitious currencies are:

• Facebook – Libra (2021)
• Digital yuan in China
• Bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund)

Not only Facebook will create Libra, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and many others social medias are looking forward to create their own cryptocurrency. We will see if their initiative will be successful in the future.

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/09/30/the-7-biggest-technology-trends-in-2020-everyone-must-get-ready-for-now/#47219e582261

https://qz.com/1778527/2020-predictions-for-bitcoin-libra-and-the-digital-yuan/

https://www.bitdegree.org/tutorials/best-cryptocurrency-to-invest/

http://theconversation.com/more-than-1-000-cryptocurrencies-have-already-failed-heres-what-will-affect-successes-in-future-127463

We all at some point at our lives may have been involved in extended reality industry. Even the person, who on the first thought has nothing to do with AI development industry, may use latest AR technologies on the daily basis. The thing is, Extended Reality (XR from now on) has taken over our lives in the shortest amount of time, yet people seem not to notice it.

XR is, basically, the term, that is intended to include all the latest technologies, made to “manipulate” the reality and to create more immersive computer experiences.

Probably, the most famous and popular type of XR nowadays is Virtual Reality (VR from now on). It seems that VR found its way into gaming industry – indeed, the first thing we think if we hear the term “VR” are headsets like Vive, Oculus Rift etc. VR happens to fully immerse the person using it into “alternative reality” through headset, using manipulations with visual and auditory senses.

Alternative reality (AR) is the type of XR that projects certain objects onto real ones through, for example, camera of the smartphone – exactly how Instagram masks work.

Mixed Reality (MR) is the most recent and interesting type of XR – it allows real and digital objects to interact- for example, you can “put” any virtual object on your table and interact with it as if you would do with real-life one. It should be mentioned, that even though MR has a great potential, at this point of time it requires a lot of processing power and is definitely not completely ready to be used in everyday life, yet companies still explore it in order to use in the future. ( look: Microsoft’s HoloLens)

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/08/12/what-is-extended-reality-technology-a-simple-explanation-for-anyone/#4f06a6a57249

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/extended-reality-xr/