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8 February 2023
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Neuralink Musk accused of killing over 1500 animals in experiments

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which wants to plant chips in people’s brains, giving us a direct connection to various devices, is under federal investigation in the United States due to possible massacres and violations of animal rights. All of this comes amid complaints from company employees that testing on pigs, sheep and monkeys is being carried out in a hurry, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.

In February 2021, the company was able to successfully implant a chip into a monkey that allows it to play video games with its mind. And in August 2020, she held the first presentation on piglets. Now we can hear signals from the pig’s brain in real time, isn’t it funny? The monkey moves the cursor! But few people know about the horrors that happen behind closed doors. Experiments reminiscent of Josef Mengele’s worst tests in 1943.But was it all justified?

All this, of course, is justified by a good purpose!Neuralink Corp’s goal is to develop a special brain implant that the company hopes can help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological conditions.But the FBI and the US Department of Agriculture have been seriously investigating the activities of the organization for six months. According to them, the way researchers treat their test subjects during tests violates the Animal Welfare Act.

Reporters from Reuters, CNN and other outlets obtained Neuralink’s internal documents and conducted interviews with more than 20 current and former employees. According to them, the number of failed tests is off scale, and they are often repeated over and over again, even if the previous experience was a failure. And Elon Musk urges them to experiment faster, which causes even more errors in the process.

When it became known in February that 15 of the 23 monkeys that had chips and electrodes in their brains died themselves or were sent for euthanasia, it caused quite a scandal. Various animal welfare groups have filed a series of lawsuits against Neuralink, which Musk’s lawyers are now fighting off.

But now it turns out that the company has already killed more than 1,500 animals. Including about 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys since 2018, as well as more than a thousand rats and mice. Reuters sources said the figure is rough and could be “many times higher” because the company does not keep accurate records of the number of animals tested and slaughtered.

In fact, almost every creature that had a Neuralink inserted ended up being euthanized. True, such a high number of deaths does not necessarily indicate that the company is violating the rules or standard research practice. Animal protection laws do not specify a specific number – how many living creatures can be killed to achieve an effect. What’s more, scientists are even allowed to kill animals themselves when they’re done with experiments, because it’s often necessary to properly investigate them posthumously.

But the law prohibits the “senseless” and “unjustified” death of living beings. And current and former employees of Neuralink say that the number of euthanasia they have is many times higher than it could be. Mostly because of Elon Musk’s demands to speed up research.

Strong contender

At least four Neuralink tests involving 86 pigs and two monkeys have been tainted by human error in the past year. These errors reduced the research value of the experiments—in fact, rendered them useless. Therefore, repeated tests were required, which led to the death of even more animals. The reasons are different – an unfinished device, insufficient training of medical staff, fatigue, stress. One small mistake and the animal is finished. In general, all this is familiar to IT specialists: this is the notorious crunch. Neuralink employees work as if they have a project handover in a couple of days, and they have just decided on a framework.

Musk’s impatience with the tests grew because the company, launched in 2016, repeatedly missed the deadlines set and announced by him with hype. At the same time, Neuralink’s competitors have been more successful. For example, Synchron, which was founded in the same 2016. They make the implant with slightly less ambitious goals – solely to alleviate the suffering of people (so it will not work with the brain to play ping-pong with it). But back in 2021, he received approval to start human trials.

Synchron chip vs Elon Musk chip. The first one is much smaller and much easier to insert into the brain

The Synchron device is supposed to allow paralyzed people to text and type, as well as move mechanical arms and legs. The company also conducted animal testing, and according to their internal data unearthed by journalists, only about 80 sheep were killed as part of these studies. Things got to the point that Elon Musk himself turned to Synchron this summer about potential investments in their projects.

What happened to their deal is not clear. But a week ago it became known that the funds of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos invested in Synchron. They gave the company $75 million — for comparison, Elon Musk alone invested $100 million in Neuralink through 2019. Synchron has 60 employees, Neuralink has more than 300 (and Musk wants 10,000). At the same time, sheep and pigs are dying at Neuralink, and Synchron has already begun testing its brain implant on humans. Her device is in two patients in the States who are now undergoing recovery under the supervision of doctors.

Such successes of the main competitor are pushing Musk to hurry even more.

Meanwhile, Neuralink is already planning to start its human trials with might and main. They haven’t been patient for a long time. In 2019, Musk promised that this would happen by the end of that year. In 2020 – which is no later than 2021. In December 2021, he announced that such experiments would begin in 2022. Well, in order not to break the tradition, a couple of weeks ago, at the same big YouTube event, the company again announced that everything it will happen in 2023. Like, now they are already exactly 6 months from the first human trials, and everything is ready for this. Their goal is to have the first person with Neuralink in their brain by the end of summer 2023, and they will work even faster to get there!

References:

1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCul1sp4hQ

2.https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/17/business/elon-musk-neuralink-animal-cruelty-intl-scli/index.html

3.https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-neuralink-faces-federal-probe-employee-backlash-over-animal-tests-2022-12-05/

4.https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/physicians-group-files-state-lawsuit-and-federal-complaint-against-uc-davis

5.https://www.businessinsider.com/neuralink-elon-musk-microchips-brains-ai-2021-2?IR=T#an-animal-rights-group-filed-a-complaint-against-neuralink-in-february-2022-over-the-treatment-of-the-monkeys-used-in-its-research-7

6.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-20/elon-musk-s-brain-implant-company-is-inching-toward-human-trials

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7 February 2023
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Gravity batteries are the new #1 candidate for storing the excess energy inevitably generated in our systems.

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Gravity batteries are the new #1 candidate for storing the excess energy inevitably generated in our systems. There are several startups working on the development of such batteries. They all say that gravity is a reliable friend that will never evaporate and will always work. But finding a place to install such batteries is not an easy task. Recently, researchers have considered that abandoned mines around the world are a cost-effective solution that can also provide jobs. And the number of such mines allows you to store all the energy of the world.

So yes, the decaying mining towns may have another chance.

The eternal problem

One of the problems with energy is where to store excess energy. This is especially true for emerging wind and solar power generation — which often generate more power than the grid can use right away, and then can generate next to nothing for several days. Therefore, energy companies definitely need to somehow store what is left. Usually very expensive batteries are built for this. Or they use entire lakes, pumping water upwards with an excess of energy, and with its shortage, allowing water to drain down, rotating generator turbines.

In China, where thousands of terawatt-hours need to be stored and there are not enough suitable lakes, unique compressed air storage facilities are being built to store energy. This is a market for several tens of billions of dollars. By 2030, the Celestial Empire is going to contain up to 25% of their “extra” energy. One such storage facility, which compresses air with excess energy and allows air to expand when there is a shortage, is already helping to keep the nation’s capital, Beijing, uninterrupted power.

Chinese underground energy storage in a salt mine with a potential of 1.4 GWh (aerial view)

But there is perhaps an even more natural way to store excess energy: gravity. Just lift something, increasing its potential energy. And when necessary, let it go down, giving this energy back in the process. Here you can even not turn any turbines, and not build any complex structures. The efficiency of such a system, according to sensations, can be higher: it has fewer individual parts, at the junctions of which losses can occur. Only one problem remains: where to find storage of this size? And who will build them?

How to store gravity

The construction of giant towers. With huge powerful cranes that would lift 35-ton cement blocks with excess energy, and then let them sink. The concentration of energy is much higher, the extra space is not wasted, and gravity works. The development of this technology is carried out, in particular, by the Swiss startup Energy Vault. It is one of the World Economic Forum’s favorite companies, with hundreds of millions of investments from Saudi Aramco, SoftBank and others. The startup shares are already traded on the stock exchange (NRGV token), the capitalization at the peak was $2.5 billion.

Energy Vault wants to build “smart” gravity towers. With complexes of mega-cranes 120 meters high, six on each tower. They will lift 35-ton blocks, placing them around themselves. It turns out that they will “build” around themselves a huge (but useless) concrete skyscraper, and when necessary, slowly dismantle it. At the same time, special software will play “energy Tetris”, moving the blocks up and down in order to generate or spend energy as efficiently as possible.

Efficiency is promised up to 80-90%, and the total output power (full storage capacity in this case) is from 2 to 5 MW, as in average hydroelectric power plants. But this is still in theory. It all depends on the software algorithms and how well the model will perform in reality.But in general building such tower it is not cheap.

The fact is that there is a much less expensive (and, what is there, more obvious) way to store gravitational energy. Namely, abandoned mines in which, say, gold or coal were once mined.

You don’t even need to build anything! The vaults are ready. Their work does not depend on the weather. They are protected from wind and rain. And they don’t interfere with anyone, they don’t take any extra space at all.

Gold in the mines

New research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) informs us of such a potential path. In it, scientists argue that decommissioned mines can be repurposed to operate gravitational batteries. And they can easily store enough energy to meet the current demands of the entire planet.

In the IIASA project, excess energy is also used to lift heavy objects. And then the load is dropped, driving the turbine and converting the kinetic energy of the fall into electrical energy that is useful for us, which is easier to transfer to consumers.

Theoretically, anything that has a lot of weight, such as water or solid objects, can act as gravitational batteries. In an IIASA study, sand descended and rose in abandoned mine shafts. It was moved back and forth between the upper and lower chambers depending on the need for energy. The good news is that it is completely safe: nothing will happen if it leaks.

The scheme of operation of such a gravitational battery

Another advantage of the whole process is that usually batteries tend to self-discharge over time. Gradually, they lose the ability to hold the accumulated energy, so that after a few decades it is necessary to invest in their repair or replacement. But the gravity method stores energy in sand (or something else heavy) that doesn’t self-discharge. We can be sure that the accumulated potential energy will remain with us in ten, and in twenty, and in a hundred thousand years.

To accumulate this energy, IIASA proposes to use abandoned mines – of which, according to them, there are already millions on the entire planet. They can be converted very cheaply for this purpose. Most of them already contain the basic infrastructure, are designed to regularly lift large loads and are connected to the public power grid.

Scientists have calculated that the investment costs for underground gravity storage will be from 1 to 10 dollars per kWh, which is relatively inexpensive. The technology is estimated to have a global energy storage potential of between 7 and 70 TWh, with most of this potential concentrated in China, India, the US and Russia. Up to 70 TWh – while, according to the International Energy Association, global energy consumption for 2020 amounted to 24,901.4 terawatt-hours, which is about 68 terawatt-hours per day.

The study also suggests that the operation of gravity batteries in abandoned mines can restore or save some of the jobs lost after the closure of these mines. An unexpected plus.

In general, it turns out to be a rather elegant transition to wind and solar energy – in which the old mines that produced the same coal will turn out to be useful. They won’t have to be buried or made a problem for future generations. It turns out that everything we did before was also not in vain.

References:

1.https://newatlas.com/energy/abandoned-mines-gravity-batteries/

2.https://www.energy-storage.news/construction-starts-on-1-4gwh-compressed-air-energy-storage-unit-in-china/

3.https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/14/energy/energy-vault-renewable-storage-spc-intl/index.html

4.https://iiasa.ac.at/news/jan-2023/turning-abandoned-mines-into-batteries

5.https://www.newswise.com/articles/turning-abandoned-mines-into-batteries

6.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_battery

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6 February 2023
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Is the era of space advertising approaching?

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We live in a time when launching a rocket is no longer something supernatural and something expensive, now everything has become much easier with this.Of course, where there are new technologies, there are also marketers trying to use these technologies. Just as the entire Internet lives on advertising now, so future space programs can be sponsored by displaying the logos of famous brands in the night sky.

It is assumed that space advertising will be able to use ultra-small satellites, cubesats, equipped with solar-reflecting sails, in the form of individual pixels. Together they will create a giant advertisement that will be visible from Earth to the naked eye. And it will cost quite inexpensively – cheaper than modern advertising campaigns involving big celebrities. At least, this is the opinion of one group of Russian researchers who have recently studied all the specifics.

CubeSats

According to scientists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), space advertising will cost significant money, and few companies will be able to afford it. But it will still not be too expensive, and in the end it will be able to bring huge profits, and its “exclusivity” and cost will just help companies not to outshine each other in the sky, and leave more than enough free space for everyone.

“No matter how unrealistic it may seem now, here we show that space advertising based on 50 or more small satellites flying in formation is cost-effective,” write Shamil Biktimirov, Gleb Bely and Dmitry in the international scientific journal Aerospace.

The main factor that makes space advertising profitable is SpaceX’s reduced cost of launching rockets and low-cost cubesat satellites that weigh a kilogram or less, but can still be much brighter than the stars in the sky. Launching one such cubesat into orbit now costs $60,000, and if there are several dozen of them, such a satellite constellation is already becoming visible from Earth.

This Russian startup wants to put huge ads in space. Not everyone is on board with the idea.

Currently, cubesats are mainly used by universities, schools and small groups of scientists to conduct private experiments in microgravity. But nothing prevents you from installing reflective material on them, and making them bright pixels on the “monitor” of the night sky. According to Russian researchers, fifty small satellites will be enough. That’s only about $3 million. For comparison, a 30-second Super Bowl slot costs $9 million.

According to calculations, space advertising will not cost much more. Even taking into account a number of unforeseen circumstances, the need to pay for a rocket launch, hiring a new team, paying for the development of a scheme for deploying material, testing the process, purchasing all licenses, and so on, the cost of such a very first advertisement should not exceed $65 million (and most likely an order of magnitude lower). ). This takes into account that each of the fifty satellites will have a reflector with an area of 32 square meters – the largest ever successfully deployed on cubesats. The whole procedure will take from one to three months, and then it remains only to monitor this satellite constellation.

The researchers calculated the possible optimal path for the constellation, assuming that it would fly over the cities, displaying ads over each for a little over a minute, and then move to the next location. Researchers estimated how much advertising with such coverage can usually cost, including on billboards.

This Russian startup wants to put huge ads in space. Not everyone is on board with the idea.

Shamil Biktimirov, one of the authors of the study:

“The revenue estimate for this configuration is based on standard outdoor advertising spend, city population, and factors that limit the number of people seeing space ads: cloudiness, cold weather that keeps people indoors, and the city’s demographics.”

Based on all of these estimates, scientists have determined that cubesat space advertising could generate revenue of up to $2 million a day.

The main advantage here is that the fixed costs will be relatively low. In order for the system to work, the presence of sunlight is sufficient. At the same time, the theoretical coverage is the entire territory of the globe. What will be especially true for rich transnational companies that do not focus their PR efforts within one country.

For example, in Central Africa, even the most expensive Coca-Cola Internet advertising will not be seen by anyone, and on the distant islands of Polynesia you cannot install billboards, there are almost no roads there. And here – as soon as the product appears on the shelves, everyone will already be perfectly familiar with it. And the “recognition” and “familiarity” of the brand is, in fact, everything for the sake of which such wide-ranging campaigns are carried out.

At the same time, not everyone likes the prospects and economic feasibility of such an idea. For example, all astronomers are unequivocally in favor of the purity and immutability of our night sky. Artificial structures constantly falling into the frame can create many new problems when studying distant galaxies and stars. The time lapse of the night sky in the United States is constantly pierced by myriads of satellites.

If every major brand on the planet launches its own constellation into space, the work of scientists will become much more difficult. And, probably, the study of space by mankind is a more important task than the mass display of advertising in the sky 24/7. For example, this is the only way to detect asteroids that are on a collision trajectory with the Earth.

Connie Walker of NOIRLab, the US National Center for Terrestrial, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, told BBC News back in February:

“The number of artificial satellites continues to grow, and astronomy is now facing a tipping point. The amount of interference increases and we lose a lot of scientific data.”

By the end of the decade, more than 5,000 satellites will be above the observatory’s horizon at any given time. Many of them will be illuminated by the Sun. Such satellites are detected by even the simplest optical or infrared telescopes, depending on the time of day and season. That’s hundreds or thousands of noise in each picture.

This is now one of the main arguments that can prevent major brands from “joining” space advertising. No one wants to be branded as the main “litter” of the orbit and the enemy of astronomy. It’s almost certain that if launch prices don’t go up, eventually some company will decide to place their billboard in space. And if they make a lot of money from it, get a lot of publicity, and don’t get sued, space advertising might soon start to fill the sky above our heads, especially at dusk and dawn.

References:

https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/9/8/419

2.https://www.freethink.com/space/space-advertising

3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CubeSat

4.https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/9-million-for-30-seconds-most-expensive-super-bowl-ads-012256123.html

5.https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60262100

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27 November 2022
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How the Chinese are trying to circumvent US technology sanctions

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US-China Trade War | Potential Benefits or a Global Fallout

As we know, there has been a trade war between the US and China for a long time, and not so long ago, the US tightened trade sanctions against China, namely in the areas of high technologies “The commerce department on Friday announced restrictions that will make it extremely hard for Chinese companies to obtain or manufacture advanced computer chips and will slow their progress in artificial intelligence.”FT. All this is being done to prevent the strengthening of China and at least slow down progress in the development of the high-tech industry. Also, as a result of sanctions, a huge number of highly qualified specialists from the United States also began to leave China. Now China is in a very difficult situation and Beijing is looking for ways out and solutions to the problem.

At the moment, some companies have already come up with methods to get around this problem, and today I will talk about some of them.

Let’s start with the fact that China has been trying to develop its own manufacturing industry for both chips and high technologies for a long time. To understand how much China wants to achieve this, you need to know that they will invest –1.4 trillion dollars in this space industry from 2020 to 2025 it is really huge amount of money. And all this in order to become less vulnerable and independent in terms of production, so as not to suffer from the sanctions on which they were imposed. However, at the moment China has not achieved full independence in this area.

What is important, it was modern chips that fell under the sanctions that can be used by Chinese scientific organizations and, worst of all, by the Chinese military. As we know, China has not increased its capacity in the production of powerful processors and chips, so they are highly dependent on third-party manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

But as we know, Taiwan de facto does not belong to China, therefore, after the introduction of sanctions, TSMC, observing the sanctions, stopped all contacts with companies from the mainland that produce chips of a certain power.

“A person close to TSMC said Biren’s public presentations touting its processors had forced the contract chipmaker to halt supplies because the chips’ performance probably met the specifications banned by the US restrictions. “Unless they can prove that they are OK under the export controls, we will not be able to ship to them,” the person said. “Whenever there is a red flag, we will have to review.” Chinese engineers said figuring out what was compliant was complicated because of Washington’s unclear rules for calculating a key metric in the thresholds for chips called the bidirectional transfer rate, or the speed with which they send data to each other. The export controls cap chips at below 600(GB/s).”FT.


It was difficult to figure out this rate, but the Chinese specialists managed to do it “There are several ways in which [this transfer rate] can be calculated,” said a senior engineer at Biren, who asked not to be named. The company had begun to tweak its designs to reduce processor speeds in the hope of getting them manufactured by TSMC, the person said.”FT.

Well, if a component is known that can’t be exceeded, then the maximum can be avoided by a fairly simple solution. Deliberately decreseing the performance of processors and chips and reduce their functionality. For example, Biren “Archived versions of Biren’s website from before the US imposed sanctions show specifications for its first processor, the BR100, that would give it a transfer rate of 640 GB/s, exceeding the US limits. Now Biren’s site shows slower specs for the BR100 of 576GB/s, according to calculations from research group Bernstein.”FT.

Китайская компания Biren представила ИИ-ускоритель BR100, который обгоняет по производительности NVIDIA A100 / ServerNews
Biren Technology-AI Accelerator BR100

How the Chinese are reducing processor power was detailed by “Dylan Patel, chief analyst at semiconductor research group SemiAnalysis, who first noticed Biren’s change of specs, said the company was attempting to slow down its processors by disabling part of the chip. “They are not changing the chip design, so it’s like saying ‘pinky promise we won’t re-enable it later on’ and it’s unclear if the [US] government will accept that,” said Patel.”FT.

However, how long China will use such solutions is not an easy question. But as far as one can judge, China is still quite advanced in the development of its own industry for the production of semiconductor components and systems, although not so much as to fully cover all needs, but there are already successes. For example, China produces its own processors using the 14nm process technology, it is expected to release chips according to the 7nm and 5nm process technology.

However, we must not forget that American technology is used almost everywhere, so if the United States acts tougher, it may well slow down China’s progress.
But you still need to understand that sanctions can at least slow down progress, but not completely stop development. Because Chinese companies a long time already not so mediocre to as not to be able to realize their own potential, for example, the well-known Huawei is implementing very ambitious projects, they began to build their own production plant modern chips.

In general, if you look at the whole picture, you can understand that the new sanctions are a tangible blow for China, but not a fatal one, and no matter how US tries to slow down Chinese the development of its own high technologies. You need to understand that China will be able to develop its own industrial high-tech base and not depend on anyone in the future. But the main question remains, how long will China need to implement these plans?

Write in the comments what do you think China will be able to become technologically independent despite the sanctions?

Sources

1.https://www.ft.com/content/7df13a5e-84e8-44af-b0d3-3e3efa6a8671

2.https://futuresupplychains.org/chinas-semiconductor-supply-line/

3.https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/partner-spotlight/11775-chinese-14nm-chips-to-enter-full-scale-production-in-2022.html

4.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-21/china-s-top-chipmaker-makes-big-tech-advances-despite-us-curbs

5.https://www.huaweicentral.com/huawei-will-start-manufacturing-its-own-chipset-in-2022/

19 November 2022
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Can AI evaluate job interviews without bias?

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How Will We Truly See the Impact of AI & Robotics in HR? - HRO Today

Answer to the main question -the short answer is no

However let’s begin with that we know, our world does not stand still and is becoming more and more automated and more and more people are being replaced by machines. Artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated into many companies, especially in recent years against the backdrop of the past pandemic.

During this period, many companies have developed a set of AI that will evaluate the interview for employment without bias, and offer it to various companies.
However, not so long ago, scientists and students from the University of Cambridge decided to conduct a study in order to prove the opposite, that even artificial intelligence can be a subjective and unreliable tool for recruiting.
As the direction of their work, the experts chose discrimination on ethical or gender grounds in employment. As a result, the researchers came to the conclusion that, trying to ignore external factors, HR specialists risk either making mistakes or becoming victims of “automated pseudoscience” with an emphasis on physiognomy and phrenology.
To illustrate their idea, the Cambridge Center for Gender Studies, together with computer science students, developed the “Personality Machine“. Built on the basis of AI, it, according to the creators, is a toy version of the models that are used in HR in practice to analyze videos of candidates and interpret their personality by assessing certain areas of the face. In this case, applicants are graded on the basis of the “big five” personal characteristics: extraversion, complaisance, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism.

And as it turned out that all AIs similar to the “Personality Machine” react to arbitrary changes in facial expression, to a change in clothing, lighting, and even background. Thus, the same person, depending on the coverage during the interview with the “Machine”, may receive a job offer or a refusal. At the same time, the researchers emphasize that the results of their application are quite typical for all AI tools for recruiting.
The authors of the study remind that in recent years there have been many developers offering analytical software for video interviews.
Those behind the technology claim that it erases human preconceptions about external attributes (gender, age, or nationality) using algorithms that evaluate vocabulary, speech patterns, and facial expressions. But in fact, the algorithms work quite “clumsily”. The Cambridge team is confident that using AI to narrow the pool of candidates could eventually lead the system to suggest those who are most similar to previously selected candidates, or those who can fool it.
One of the surveys cited in Cambridge was conducted in 2020 and affected 500 organizations from various industries in five countries.
It showed that 24% of businesses have already adopted AI for hiring, and 56% planned to do so in the next year. Another survey of 334 HR leaders conducted in April of the same year showed that 86% of organizations are using new virtual technologies when hiring. In two years, AI in recruiting has become even more in demand, and the technology itself does not look as perfect as it is presented in HR.

As we see that even with today’s modern technologies and large cash injections into AI, we still have not reached the stage when AI algorithms can evaluate interviews with potential employees perfectly, accurately and impartially. However, in my opinion, if this system is well finalized, then I believe that in the next 10 years, developers should succeed in this area of ​​​​artificial intelligence.

What do you think, will AI be able to successfully and unbiasedly conduct interviews with future candidates in the future, and successfully replace a person in this direction?

Sources:

1.https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/claims-ai-can-boost-workplace-diversity-are-spurious-and-dangerous-researchers-argue

2.https://personal-ambiguator-frontend.vercel.app/

11 November 2022
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The global crisis is seriously hitting Big Tech, thereby starting a wave of layoffs

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https://www.ft.com/economics-of-big-tech

Let’s start with the fact that against the backdrop of the global crisis and the incredible growth of inflation and the slowdown in economic growth at the global level. Big Tech companies published reports for the 3rd quarter of 2022, which clearly showed that the period of rapid growth, during the coronavirus, has come to an end and now it is very hard times, everyone understands this. Against this backdrop, the stock market opened in the morning with rather sharp losses from technology companies, but the blow came even more strongly after the disappointing Amazon report.

“The stock market losses accelerated late on Thursday after Amazon shocked Wall Street with a weak revenue forecast for its all-important fourth quarter of the year, when holiday shopping normally buoys its revenues. The US ecommerce company indicated revenue in the period was likely to be as much as $15bn below the $155bn analysts had been predicting.”Financial Times

Well, given the fact that the stock market is very sensitive to such reports and reacted instantly, leading to the fact that large Big Tech companies lost a lot in value, namely more than 800 billion dollars only for one week. However, if you look even more globally at the picture, the companies lost only more than 3 trillion dollars for year, which is very scary.

Just yesterday,Amazon was reported as the world’s first company to lose more than 1 trillion in market value in a year.
Meta, against the backdrop of failed attempts to create Metaverse and increased competition from Tik-Tok, has already lost more than 700 billion of its value.
Even major tech giants such as Microsoft and Google lost over 34% of their value.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/27/the-biggest-tech-stocks-have-lost-3-trillion-in-market-cap-the-last-one-year.html

If we look at the whole picture that is happening on the world market, then such huge losses do not just pass without consequences and painlessly.As in any crisis, as we know first of all companies, when the dark times begin to come, companies cut costs drastically. Namely, first of all, they hit employees, mass layoffs did not have to wait for a month, as one after another Big tech companies began a wave of layoffs.

So only Meta laid off 11 thousand employees, namely 13%, which is one of the largest reductions in tech companies, and also stopped recruiting new workers. Following Meta, Amazon also began to optimize and reduce costs, as well as a wave of layoffs and also stop recruit new workers
“Amazon is conducting a review of its loss making business units as part of a sweeping effort to cut costs at the ecommerce and cloud group, two people familiar with its plans confirmed.” Financial Times. Google and Microsoft are also conducting cost optimization and a wave of layoffs , but in much smaller quantities than their counterpart.

Thousands of Facebook Employees May Be Fired - Lahore Herald

However, the biggest wave of layoffs and cost-cutting has come from Elon Musk, who laid off more than 50% of employees and recently announced the possibility of Twitter going bankrupt.This is very scary where Elon Musk’s Twitter is leading after the acquisition, because even in his main company Tesla, things are not going super smoothly, so against the backdrop of the global crisis of companies, it lost more than 674 billion $ in 1 year.

Элон Маск, владелец Tesla, SpaceX, а теперь и Twitter, на конференции

Image: Mike Blake/REUTERS

In general, summing up, we can say that the crisis has a rather strong effect on the market and it is not known what awaits in the future, but I did not want the world to be dragged into the abyss of the economic crisis of 2008 and 1930s.

So leave your comments what do you think big tech companies will be able to recover their lost market value and how long will it take them?

Sources:

1.https://www.ft.com/content/3abf8c31-95bb-47ea-a461-351a5fbfaa4d

2.https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/27/the-biggest-tech-stocks-have-lost-3-trillion-in-market-cap-the-last-one-year.html

3.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/amazon-hits-unwelcome-milestone-with-1-trillion-in-value-lost?leadSource=uverify%20wall

4.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-stock-down-earnings-700-billion-in-lost-value/

5.https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2022/11/08/amazon-apple-microsoft-market-cap-down/8295415001/

6.https://www.ft.com/content/348068b1-24d9-434b-9ae7-6599027bf84f

7.https://www.ft.com/content/b6e8e01c-cc48-43cc-9405-2fc67ff20817

8.https://tech.co/news/microsoft-fires-1000-workers

9.https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/11/04/twitter-temporarily-closes-offices-as-elon-musk-begins-mass-layoffs

10.https://www.dw.com/en/twitter-musk-warns-of-bankruptcy-as-executives-quit/a-63720402

11.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/tesla-market-value-halves-in-a-year-rocked-by-musk-stake-sales?leadSource=uverify%20wall

31 October 2022
2 Comments
Bez kategorii

With the acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk excites the crypto markets more and is full of ideas to integrate the blockchain into Twitter more strongly.

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Elon Musk pushes Dogecoin up 20% with  tweet of Tesla accepting the meme coin  
https://nairametrics.com/2022/10/30/dogecoin-gains-126-in-one-week-as-musk-buys-twitter/

Well, let’s start as everyone knows, recently Elon Musk became the official owner of Twitter. As we can see, Elon Musk is wasting no time and is trying to implement a blockchain system on Twitter in the near future, and Bloomberg analysts believe that this will happen.

So,against the backdrop of these news the “meme” currency dogecoin (dogecoins), which Musk has long supported for a long time (he even called himself “Dogefather”), and which, according to his negotiations with colleagues, he even planned to use on Twitter to pay for reposts and comments, as result already gone up sharply in price.We can notice over the past five days, the dogecoin (DOGE) rate has grown by 83%, however, then it slightly decreased as part of the correction.

So, in a discussion with The Boring Company President Steve Davis, Musk said that “my plan B is a blockchain version of Twitter, in which transactions are built into the commenting system. The user will pay… let’s say 0.1 DOGE for each repost or comment.” Later, however, Elon Musk admitted that the plan was not feasible, but the course of his thoughts was generally clear.

However, you need to understand long before the acquisition of Twitter by Musk, Twitter was still consciously developing its crypto direction and Twitter even created a dedicated Twitter Crypto department.Earlier, under the leadership of Jack Dorsey, Twitter took steps to integrate blockchain technology into this social network – for example, the ability to accept tips in Bitcoins, Ethereum, NFT and the USDC digital dollar was introduced.

In general, Elon Musk is not the first time integrating cryptosystems into his companies. Let me remind you that in May 2021, Tesla offered the opportunity to pay for electric cars with bitcoins, but two months later the project was curtailed. However, from January 14, 2022, the company introduced payment in dogecoin cryptocurrency for Tesla merch. So, currently, you can buy a whistle in the form of the expected Cybertruck SUV with meme-coins. Previously, you could also buy a Tesla logo buckle and a Tesla Cyberquad for kids.

We should also note that one of the co-investors in the purchase of Twitter was the Binance crypto exchange, which, according to some information, has already created a special department whose task will be to study the use of cryptocurrencies in the Twitter social network.

So let’s wait, what will be the consequences of Elon Musk’s decision to strengthen crypto integration on Twitter, as well as cooperation with Binance, and what will they achieve together?

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-29/how-elon-musk-can-add-crypto-nft-transactions-on-twitter?leadSource=uverify%20wall

https://www.analyticsinsight.net/everything-elon-musk-has-said-about-dogecoin-twitter/

https://www.tesla.com/support/dogecoin

https://www.reuters.com/technology/crypto-exchange-binance-musks-co-investor-help-twitter-with-blockchain-2022-10-28/

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20 October 2022
Leave a comment
Devices, Security, Software

Meta opens a new pandora’s box that will allow them track your eyes for targeted advertising.

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Photo by Meta/Meta Quest Pro

Last week, Meta introduced the Meta Quest Pro, a new virtual reality headset. However, things are not so simple in the virtual headset there is a “trick” – certain cameras pointing inward to track your eyes and face. Also, along with the announcement of the headset, the company updated its privacy policy, adding a “scary” section called “Eye Tracking Privacy Notice”.

” Meta made some fun new additions to its privacy policy, including one titled “Eye Tracking Privacy Notice. The company says it will use eye-tracking data to “help Meta personalize your experiences and improve Meta Quest.” The policy doesn’t literally say the company will use the data for marketing, but “personalizing your experience” is typical privacy-policy speak for targeted ads. ” [1]

To be more specific about what the data will be used for, a Meta official confirmed in an interview with the FT that the data is needed to figure out how people interact with ads.

Let me remind you earlier back in 2012, then Facebook (Meta) acquired the eye-tracking startup “GazeHawk”. As we can see, 10 years after the acquisition, Meta began to successfully implement GazeHawk developments.Let’s be honest whether you agree to targeted ads or not, this technology takes data collection to a whole new level.

Скриншот 2012-03-08 в 22.39.46

However, the use of this technology, in my opinion, is not a boon for society, but simply a tool to increase the company’s profits.
This reminds me of the scene in “Black Mirror” where the character had to watch ads in order to access the content because his eyes were tracked, and if the advertisement was not viewed, then harsh measures were taken against the person. Quite scary is how close we come to the reality of the “Black Mirror”

1984 & Black Mirror | Video Art
An episode from the series “Black Mirror”

What do you think, what will be the consequences of such technologies and whether they bring any benefit to society?

Write in comments

Sources:

https://gizmodo.com/meta-quest-pro-vr-headset-track-eyes-ads-facebook-1849654424

https://techcrunch.com

https://www.ft.com/content/76d40aac-034e-4e0b-95eb-c5d34146f647

https://www.meta.com/en-gb/help/quest/articles/accounts/privacy-information-and-settings/eye-tracking-privacy-notice/