TechFirst with John Koetsier (John Koetsier)

Joe Rogan is getting $100M+ to move to Spotify exclusively. But that might just be less than he's worth ...

Massively social platforms built around gaming or video or news might be our new way to experience entertainment. We've already seen concerts in Fortnite -- Travis Scott, a month or so ago. Now we're going to see movies being screened in Fortnite.

Christopher Nolan, the filmmaker behind Inception, The Dark Knight, and Interstellar will be bringing “one of his iconic films” to the massively popular Fortnite game this summer.

And guess what:

No risk of COVID-19!

Could rural Montana be the next Silicon Valley? Check internet speed off your list of reasons why not.

Even though Elon Musk’s SpaceX says its expanded “Better Than Nothing” test is still a beta version of Starlink’s eventual capabilities, at least one early Starlink internet service customer says he is getting better than expected speed. Starlink says it should give you between “50 and 150 MB/s with 20-40 milliseconds of latency.” Starlink customer “FourthEchelon19” is getting 161 megabits/second download and 23 megabits/second upload speed.

In rural Montana.

Apple has extended Apple TV+ for free for three more months for customers who bought an Apple product and received their first year free. The good thing is: now there’s actually content worth watching on the service.

“We’re giving you extra time to discover the latest Apple Originals and catch up on shows returning for a second season,” my email from Apple says. “You don’t have to do anything — just keep watching for free until February 2021.”

I watched almost nothing on Apple TV in the first few months of free service. But that changed recently ...

The Forbes story for this is here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/23/apple-extends-free-apple-tv-3-more-months-and-now-theres-actually-stuff-to-watch/

Texting is nice. Zoom is great for work and birthday parties. And Facebook works for our wider circle of friends.  

But there's something about good old-fashioned audio that has us returning to voice calls on our phones during quarantine.

TextNow says its users spent more than 450 million minutes talking on the phone in the first full month of shutdown, March. While once that might not have been a shocking thing to say, it’s up 36% more than the previous month, and totals 313,000 days or 850 years of cumulative time talking on the phone.

TikTok was THE mobile phenomenon of 2019 with almost 700M app installs. But with the ban talk getting louder and louder ... are other contenders poised to steal its thunder? 

We chat with one of the owners and board members of Triller, which has over 100M installs ... and just got a bump of 40M new installs in India after the TikTok ban. 

Triller thinks TikTok will get banned in the U.S, as well as in India. And Triller is trying to take full advantage of that by poaching all of TikTok's creators and helping the monetize 2X more on Triller than they did on TikTok ...

How will generative AI impact work? And why are smaller companies adopting generative AI more than enterprises?

Generative AI is almost literally exploding: there are so many possibilities. But how is it changing work and business?

Recently GBK Collective, a consultancy founded by top academics at Wharton, studied 672 businesses in the US with annual sales over $50 million

In this TechFirst we're chatting with 2 of the authors to get a sneak peek into what they learned:

- Dr. Stefano Puntoni, Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School and Co-Director of AI at Wharton

- Jeremy Korst, former Microsoft and T-Mobile exec, now President of GBK Collective

Adtech is in upheaval. We've seen 7 billion-dollar acquisitions so far this year and we've seen massive change: Uber Eats has an ad network. Doordash has an ad network. Gaming company Zynga owns an ad network. CVS and Walgreens recently launched ad networks too.

So what is an ad network these days?

And are emerging titans like Unity, ironSource, Applovin, and Liftoff+Vungle going to be able to challenging the reigning heavyweights: Google & Facebook?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I'm chatting with Mark Ellis, the CEO of Liftoff or … Liftoff + Vungle or … name-to-be-revealed-at-some-point-in-the-future ...

Links:

Liftoff: https://liftoff.io/

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

We know how to get people to work together. How do you get robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, and smart systems to collaborate?

Welcome to TechFirst with John Koetsier. No jobs are simple ... getting a pizza requires multiple steps, processes, and hands, not to mention a car. Everything in factories takes steps and processes too. If we're going to get to an autonomous reality ... smart machines need to work together.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we talk to Kumardev Chatterjee, CEO of Unmanned Life. His company is working with Walmart, Vienna, Deutsche Telekom, and other companies to help drones and robots work together.

One example? Drones that take off from fire trucks and fly ahead to help in search and rescue operations, which Unmanned Life is doing now with the city of Vienna.

50% of the food produced globally is wasted. At the same time, a child dies from hunger every 10 seconds, and 25,000 people starve to death every single day. Another billion, almost, are malnourished and don't have enough food.

Can AI fix this?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with SPRK.Global CEO Alexander Piutti, who is a finalist in Samsung's Extreme Tech Challenge startup competition.

Thinking to type sounds interesting to most of us. Crazy and futuristic, yes, but also freeing and fast. But for those with massive spinal cord injuries or degenerative diseases, it's an absolute lifeline.

In this TechFirst, we chat with Marcus Gerhardt, CEO of Blackrock Neurotech, about a brain-computer interface they've invented, "installed" for people who cannot use their arms or legs anymore, and enabled typing, speech, and the use of robotic arms to feed themselves and more.

Blackrock's tech enables thought-to-text typing at 90 characters per minute with 94% accuracy (just imagine what Dr. Stephen Hawking could have done with this) and gives tetraplegic patients the power to move a prosthetic arm, grab a glass of water, and drink by themselves again for the first time since their tragic accidents.

Links:

Blackrock Neurotech: https://blackrockneurotech.com

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Is the Apple Vision Pro the future of surgical training? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier discusses the transformative impact of virtual reality (VR) on surgical training, highlighting the cost-efficiency and effectiveness of VR in reducing the learning curve for surgeons. The conversation features Richard Vincent, CEO of Fundamental VR, who elaborates on how VR technology, particularly the Apple Vision Pro, is revolutionizing surgical education by offering rapid, repeatable training sessions without the logistical setbacks associated with traditional methods. They explore the hardware agnosticism of Fundamental VR's software, ensuring compatibility with various VR platforms, and delve into the new possibilities unlocked by the Apple Vision Pro's advanced features, including its intuitive control system, powerful compute capacity, and exceptional optics. The discussion also touches on the incorporation of haptics for a more immersive training experience, the potential of VR for remote collaborative training, and the broader implications of VR technology in the medical field. 00:00 Unlocking the Future of Surgical Training with VR 01:15 The Cost-Effectiveness of VR in Surgical Training 03:13 Achieving Competence: The Role of VR in Surgery 04:45 Hardware From Oculus to Apple Vision Pro 07:04 The Revolutionary Apple Vision Pro in Surgical Training 10:35 The Power of Haptics: Enhancing VR Training with Physical Feedback 13:07 The Impact of Device Cost on VR Training Accessibility 14:34 Expanding Horizons: VR's Role in Remote Surgery Training 17:03 The Future of Medical Training and Collaboration with VR 18:48 Apple Vision Pro: A Game-Changer for Medical VR Applications 20:15 Closing Thoughts and Future Prospects

I’ve done a lot of shows on alternative energy ... green energy sources like wind, geothermal, solar ... but should nuclear be in the mix?

Nuclear’s having a bit of a resurgence lately as a green option for reliable energy. To talk about why and where it might fit we chat with the founder and president of Nano Nuclear Energy, Jay Yu, and the CEO, James Walker.

We discuss Zeus and Odin, their two nuclear reactors, safety, disposal after their usable lifespan, and what the ideal mix of green energy sources might be.

Punching something is probably a good way of blowing off steam, as long as it's an inanimate object and you're not hurting anyone. It's also a surprisingly good workout.

In this episode I try out Fight Camp's smart boxing fitness program and chat with the founder, former US National Team member Tommy Duquette ... now founder and CEO of Fight Camp.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Should social media censor free speech?

Something fairly unprecedented happened this past week: Facebook and Twitter both blocked a NY Post story.

Now … whatever you think about that story (and I think it’s pretty flimsy) blocking it almost immediately is pretty shocking. How should social media deal with controversial subjects … or false information?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with Bill Ottman, founder and CEO of the open source social network Minds.com, about what big tech and big social should do, about algorithms, shadow banning, free speech, virality, and what Ottman is doing with Minds.com to fix it.

We have synthetic humans earning millions as influencers and models who are created by a computer. What’s driving this … and where’s it all going? To dig in, we’re chatting with Tyler Lastovich, who leads strategy at Generated Photos.

Generated Photos makes realistic faces via AI: generative adversarial networks.

They're growing incredibly fast, count most major gaming companies as their customers, and are talking to major social media outlets as well. The market right now is for synthetic models and characters, but in the future is probably as large as the world: avatars for all of us in an augmented reality and virtual reality world.

We chat about the growth, the implications, the ethical considerations, and much, much more.

Episode links:

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Throw everything cool and techy in a blender and what do you get? Million Doge Disco. It's an augmented reality game similar to Pokemon Go with NFTs ✅ and blockchain ✅ and augmented reality  ✅  and partying  ✅  and Tamagotchi  ✅  and Dogecoin  ✅  and ... free money.

Or free Dogecoin, at least. One million free Dogecoin. 

Which you have to capture, then dance with, and babysit while they increase in value.

Yes, it's insane. And so is (in a good way!) its founder and CEO Gary Lachance, who co-created the Distributed Dance Party and sees gaming as a way to bring about world peace.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Million Doge Disco: https://dogedisco.com/

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

So I did a Twitter Space with a bunch of really smart people, and they said I could upload the results to TechFirst. The only thing ... it's literally over 3 hours.

So ... listen however long you'd like!

The people on the Twitter Space include the host, Robert Scoble, as well as:

• Bryan Talebi, CEO of Ahura AI
• Tiarne Hawkins, director of AI at WeLocalize
• Chris Nakayama from Nufa/Mimesis Labs
• Ajay Juneja, CEO of Speak with Me
• Adryenn Ashley, founder of Wow is Me
• Martine Paris, AI columnist
• Jon Swartz, senior reporter at Dow Jones
• Ben Parr, co-founder of Octane AI and former tech reporter
• John Bigs, former TechCrunch journalist

 ... and ... of course ... yours truly, John Koetsier!

Drones are super-cool and fun. They could also be a terrorist's favorite weapon, allowing them to strike from a distance in safety.

But how do you defend against tiny, almost invisible flying machines that fly fast, elevate over fences, and can carry explosives or toxins into dangerous proximity to infrastructure and people?

In this episode of the TechFirst podcast, I chat with the CEO of Dedrone, which "dedrones" sensitive airspaces using sensors, AI, machine learning, and orchestration of defense and interdiction activity via lasers, jamming, and yes ... "putting lead on it."

Links:

Dedrone: https://www.dedrone.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Digital retail giant Amazon has over 200,000 robots helping deliver more than 350 million different products in an unceasing flood of billions of deliveries. Its fulfillment machine with both free and fast shipping has become a key competitive moat against other retailers: free shipping and 1-day or 2-day shipping is why Amazon customers chose Amazon.

So how can other retailers, whether giants like Walmart or smaller brands, compete? One way is by stealing a march on the e-commerce behemoth and automating themselves. 

In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Locus Robotics CMO Karen Leavitt. Locus Robotics robots-as-a-service will pick more than a billion items in warehouse, fulfilment centers, and logistics hubs ... and the company just added more.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier explores the future of robotics and agricultural technology (agtech) with Kevin Dowling, managing director at Robotics Factory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They discuss the evolution of robotics in farming, from traditional methods to the modern use of drones, autonomous tractors, and AI-driven systems. Kevin highlights the diversity of robotic forms in agriculture, including wheeled, legged, flying, and swimming robots, and the role of morphology in determining the best tool for various farming tasks. The conversation covers the current trends in robotic investments, the potential of humanoid robots in agriculture, and the economic challenges faced by hardware startups in AgTech. Kevin predicts a shift towards smaller, more affordable robots for smaller farms and emphasizes the importance of technology in reducing environmental impacts, enhancing food production efficiency, and potentially democratizing farming. The episode also touches upon innovative startups in Pittsburgh, the challenges of introducing robotics into unpredictable farm environments, and the vision for future farming landscapes transformed by robotics and autonomous machinery. 00:00 Exploring the Future of Robotics and Ag Tech 00:46 The Evolution and Future of Robotics in Agriculture 03:39 The Role of Humanoid Robots in Farming 07:38 Challenges and Opportunities in Ag Tech Startups 10:05 Innovative Startups Shaping the Future of Agriculture 12:49 The Complex Environment of Farm Robotics 15:30 The Potential of Indoor and Vertical Farming 23:30 Envisioning the Future of Farming with Robotics

Have we already achieved AGI? OpenAI just released GPT-4o. It’s impressive, and the implications are huge for so many different professions ... not least of which is education and tutoring. It’s also showing us the beginning of AI that is truly present in our lives ... AI that sees what we see, doesn’t exist just in a box with text input, hears what we hear, and hallucinates less. What does that — and other recent advancements in AI — mean for AGI? In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier discusses the implications of OpenAI's GPT-4 release and explores the current state and future of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) with Roman Yampolskiy, a PhD research scientist and associate professor. They delve into the rapid advancements in AI, the concept of AGI, potential impacts on different professions, the cultural and existential risks, and the challenges of safety and alignment with AGI. The conversation also covers the societal changes needed to adapt to a future where mental and physical labor could be fully automated. 00:00 Exploring the Boundaries of AI's Capabilities 01:36 The Evolution and Impact of AI on Human Intelligence 03:39 The Rapid Advancements in AI and the Path to AGI 06:38 The Societal Implications of Advanced AI and AGI 09:27 Navigating the Future of Work and AI's Role 14:52 The Ethical Dilemmas of Developing Superintelligent AI 19:22 Looking Ahead: The Unpredictable Future of AI

Is technology and AI out of control? Is AI already beyond our ability to manage and monitor? In this TechFirst, we chat with David B. Auerbach. He's a software engineer who has worked for Google and Microsoft and recently wrote a book. The title is a bit on the scary side ... MEGANETS: How Digital Forces Beyond Our Control Commandeer Our Daily Lives and Inner Realities. He says technology is already way out of control ... just like weather. "Rather than treating these technological systems as based on algorithmic recipes that we can just debug, it's better to think of them like the weather. The weather is a classically chaotic system that we cope with, but nobody thinks that we can actually control ..."

Is generative AI the beginning of the end for humans ... or the end of the beginning?

And, did you know generative AI has been around since 1972?

In this TechFirst we chat with Ilke Demir, a research scientist at Intel who is working on ethical generative AI applications, like a speech synthesis project that aims to enable people who have lost their voice to talk again, an open urban driving simulator developed to support development, training, and validation of autonomous driving systems.

And a privacy-focused face generator that allows researchers to mix and match facial regions (nose of person A, mouth of person B, eyes of person C, etc.) to create an entirely new face that does not already exist in a dataset, so that people can request anonymization in public photos.

We also -- of course -- talk about OpenAI and Chat GPT, and how Ilke feels that it is not actually generative AI.

Literally five minutes ago I updated to the new version of Safari, version 14. Then I browsed Forbes, hit up Techmeme, checked Twitter briefly, went to Fox News (first time, I think), clicked over to Slashdot, and finally read a story on ZDNet. Oh, and I checked for a picture for this story on Unsplash.

In that five minutes, Safari prevented 90 trackers from profiling me.

Let me repeat that. Five minutes, 90 trackers.

Read this story in my Forbes column: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Nuport Robotics just landed a deal with Canada's largest retailer, Canadian Tire, and the Canadian government to test its self-driving truck capability. The technology uses lidar, cameras, and radar to guide trucks. And the company has a vision to make every truck self-driving ... not just brand-new ones coming right out of the factory.

That's a big deal, because there's about 80 million trucks on the planet right now that don't have self-driving capability. And transport companies aren't going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for new trucks just for some new tech.

Not, at least, if they can get it aftermarket.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with the CEO of Nuport, Raghavender Sahdev, about how his solution works, and what their new project with Canadian Tire means.

Episode links:

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Nuport: https://www.nuport.ai

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Optimus, the Tesla bot, has been in development for 2 years and still can’t really do that much. There’s another dream team of engineers and roboticists who are building a humanoid robot that they call the “kinder, gentler” robot.

In this TechFirst we chat with 2 investors in Figure.ai: Jesse Coors and Gregg Hill.

They think humanoid bipedal robots could be one-to-one with humans in numbers "pretty quickly." Corporations will want thousands, and most of us will want at least one.

We also dive deep in the Figure.ai robot as I ask them these questions:

- Capability?

- Timeline to usefulness?

- Battery life?

- Cost?

- Where does a humanoid robot fit in the world?

- What does it do to our economy?

- Where do you see it helping most?

• Let’s start with TikTok. It gained over 500 million new users just last year. Why is it growing so quickly?
  
• When you’re on TikTok -- and other, similar social platforms -- there’s an almost compulsive view and flick, view and flick as you scroll through bits of content. What’s happening in the brain while this is going on?
  
• And … what does this do to people? Does it kill their attention span? Does it ruin them for anything requiring deep focus?
  
• As a culture, we have a long history of crying wolf at the next new media platform, claiming it will ruin kids, ruin society, destroy education, kill the future workforce. Contextualize TikTok and other similar platforms for us within this history.
  
• But are digital platforms fundamentally different than previous shifts?
  
• How do you see people changing as we grow up with technology and media like this?
  
• What are the good things that come out of this?

There's a dirty little secret of most wearable tech, and the dirty little secret is ... it's not actually wearable. It's strappable, it's mountable. 

It's not actually something that you wear in any traditional meaning of that word. One startup in New York, however, is trying to change that. Imagine smart thread woven right into all of your clothing -- no straps, no attachments, just clothing and data. To chat more and learn more, I'm talking to the CEO and founder of Nextiles, George Sun.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Nextiles: https://www.nextiles.tech

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Today we're stuck at home. Wouldn't it be great to virtually wander the world in virtual reality? (At least until we can go out for real again!)

In this episode of TechFirst we chat with Simon Che de Boer from New Zealand’s Reality Virtual, who took 4,000 photos in Queen Nefertiti's tomb and digitally reconstructed King Tut's mask. 

They're working on technology to virtually re-create real physical locations, make them available to all, create ways for people and organizations to contribute to sort of a Wikipedia of virtual places, and tele-present us in more real ways than ever before.

How?

A ton of machine learning, generative adversarial networks, and a lot of computer. Graphics processing tech from Invidia helps, as did a big grant from Epic Games.

The world's tallest autonomous robot can scan a million square feet of warehouse and 100,000 pallets in a day. In this episode of TechFirst, we chat about AI and robotics with Andrei Danescu, the CEO of Dexory. Dexory's autonomous robot can scan a million of square feet daily, creating a digital twin of entire warehouses and significantly improving efficiency and accuracy. 00:00 AI and Robotics in Logistics 00:45 Warehouse Challenges 01:27 Dexory's Technology 02:26 World's Tallest Autonomous Robot 04:06 Technical Deep Dive: Robot Design and Functionality 07:04 Operational Efficiency and AI Integration 12:13 Subscription Model and ROI 23:21 Future of Autonomous Systems 24:43 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Elon Musk calls him "batshit crazy," but Dan O'Dowd has built software for the F-35 fighter jet, the B2 bomber, and to secure U.S. nuclear forces. He's also built a microprocessor for Mars, worked on the Mac at Steve Jobs' request, and completed a ton of test drives of Tesla full self driving.

His conclusion: it's worse than a drunk driver.

And: it does not recognize small children.

In this TechFirst we chat with Dan about his tests, what he thinks is wrong with Tesla, and why Tesla is falling behind General Motors and Google (Waymo) in full self driving.

COR is an infrared spectrometer that measures your blood health and how the food you eat and the exercise that you engage in impacts it. The first product of its kind, COR was created by a former Apple Health exec who wanted to know: is my diet good for me?

Because everyone's response -- even to theoretically healthy foods -- is different. Even genetically identical twins don't have the same metabolic response to things, recent studies have shown.

So the idea with COR is that you analyze your blood at home via infrared spectrometry about 4 times over a 3-week period, and you get specific data and recommendations back about what's good -- and what's bad -- for your health.

The result, CEO Bob Messerschmidt says, is potentially the ability to have another 15 years of healthy, productive life.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Why games are making record revenues in a recession, with Unity VP Julie Shumaker. In a recession revenues generally go down. That’s not been the case in 2020, at least for games. Games have been seeing record-high revenues over the past few months ... we'll chat about what's hot and why ...

What we talk about:

 - First off, what happened with games over the past 3-5 months?

 - What kind of games grew the most?

 - Weekends and weekdays kinda flipped. Why?

 - Revenue was up … how?

 - What’s different about “pandemic gamers?”

 - Could you basically track COVID-19 across the world in game downloads and sessions?

 - Are games recession-proof?

And … the world-famous TechFirst 10 in 5 … 10 questions, 5 minutes

 - Favorite piece of tech gear in your house

 - Can’t-do-without-it tech that you wear

 - Android or iOS?

 - EV or gas?

 - Mac or Windows?

 - GIF or JIF?

 - Favorite tech news source?

 - Do you want a self-driving car or do you want to drive yourself, forever?

 - Elon Musk offers you a trip to Mars. In or out?

 - Alexa or Hey Google or Hey Siri?

Do you want sushi by drone? Ice cream or coffee in 2 minutes? Wing is Google's drone division (OK, Alphabet's!) and is doing just that right now in three locations around the world.

They're planning to scale globally and in the U.S., but are working out all the kinks and regulatory permissions. And they just announced some exciting news: first of its kind rooftop drone stations at a mall.

You order on an app, a retailer preps your item, attaches it to a drone, and it flies to you at 110 km/hour.

In this edition of TechFirst, we're chatting with Jonathan Bass, Wing’s head of marketing and communications.

Links:

Wing: https://wing.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

0:00 50X more efficient

1:12 Rooftop delivery service

2:54 How long does drone delivery take?

3:59 How Wing's drone delivery works

6:34 What customers say

7:00 Retailers and drone delivery

9:01 Where's Amazon?

11:00 When will Wing scale?

What is it like to go to space? Today we have a special privilege: we’re talking to an astronaut who has spent 136 days in the International Space Station and completed 2 space walks. He’s also the mission director for the recent Intuitive Machines lunar lander, the first US mission to the moon in more than 50 years. His name is Jack Fischer In this episode of TechFirst, host John Koetsier interviews astronaut Jack Fisher, who spent 136 days on the International Space Station (ISS). Fisher describes the awe-inspiring experience of space travel, emphasizing the different perspective gained from 250 miles up. He humorously recounts adapting to zero gravity and the physical relief it provided for his neck and back. The conversation covers Fisher's role as mission director for the Intuitive Machines lunar lander and space missions' significance. They delve into the technological and cooperative efforts required for future Mars missions, including efficient propulsion and collaboration across industries. Fisher keeps the discussion engaging with anecdotes and enthusiasm for space exploration, highlighting recent advancements and the potential for a lunar economy. 00:00 Liftoff: Journey to Space 01:22 Experiencing Zero Gravity 04:48 Adapting to Space Life 10:57 Mission to the Moon: Intuitive Machines 22:25 Future of Space Exploration 29:48 Making Humanity Multi-Planetary 36:31 Space Movies and Fun

The electricity that powers our digital future is very, very analog. Is that about to change?

We don’t think a lot about the technology that drives our computers and homes ... we flip a switch and get to work, or turn on the TV. But the actual mechanics of what happens in our walls and wires is very 18th century.

One company is working on making it better. In this edition of TechFirst with John Koetsier we’re joined by Thar Casey, founder and CEO of Amber, to dive in and check it out.

We need more homes for people. We need them cheaper so people can afford them. And we need them eco-friendly and carbon-neutral and self-powering so that our planet doesn't die in the process.

Is the answer 3D printing homes?

Perhaps, partly.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with the CTO of Mighty Buildings, Dmitry Starodubtsev. We talk about the fact that the construction industry in the US produces 600 million tons of waste annually, that we need robotics, automation, and 3D printing involved in home building, and we talk about Might Buildings, which says they have a solution that is 80% automated, 50% faster, and produces 99% less construction waste to create Net Zero communities: communities that produce all the power they need.

We also chat about Light Stone, which Mighty Buildings has pioneered, which the company says is lighter than concrete while 4X stronger.

Links:

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Programming robots is so 2010. Providing the AI framework within with they can teach themselves is accelerating training and development of new behaviors from 100 days to 3 hours.

In this TechFirst, we meet 2 of the researchers behind making MIT's mini-Cheetah robot learn to run ... and run fast. Professor Pulkit Agrawal and grad student Gabriel Margolis share how fast it can go, how it teaches itself to run with both rewards and "punishments," and what this means for future robots in the home and workplace.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

The 500-year ceramic geodesic dome home is now an actual physical reality.

I first wrote about Geoship's plan to build long-lasting, inexpensive, earth-friendly, community-centric homes about 3 years ago. Last year, Geoship showed me a prototype. Now there's an actual built, powered, and furnished dome home in Nevada City, California.

In this TechFirst, we chat with Geoship founder Morgan Bierschenk, see the dome first-hand, and get some insight into pricing, availability, technology, and livability.

The first dome home is the 18-foot diameter model. But ultimately, Geoship plans to make domes that are anywhere from 1500 to 3000 square feet. A large individual dome might be 1,000 square feet, but can be combined and connected with smaller domes for bedrooms, kitchens, home gyms, living rooms ... pretty much anything.

Is an AI system smart when it can do what a human can do? Or … when it can do things humans can’t do? For years we’ve had the Turing Test … measuring AI’s ability to mimic being human. But is that really the right benchmark? In this TechFirst, host John Koetsier chats with a computer scientist who has been working in AI for more than a decade. He’s currently VP strategy at Intuition Robotics, which makes an AI-powered robotic care companion for the elderly called ElliQ His name is Assaf Gad, and we talk about intelligence, AI and OI (organic intelligence), as well as how smart machines like ElliQ engage with people. 00:00 Introduction to AI and Machine Intelligence 00:57 Defining Machine Intelligence 02:01 The Role of Memory in AI 04:20 Human Interaction and AI Design 06:32 ElliQ: The AI Care Companion 11:02 Proactive AI and User Experience 13:22 Challenges and Solutions for Elderly Care 17:34 The Future of AI and Multiple Intelligences 20:53 Ethical Considerations and Control in AI 23:07 Impact of ElliQ on Social Isolation and Independence 27:42 Technical Aspects and AI Integration 29:45 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Amazon's new flying home security drone does not have lasers. Nor can you mount a gun on it, much to the dismay of many, apparently. 

But will you buy it?

To chat about the Ring Always Home Cam and Amazon’s other announcements we have repeat guest Brian Jackson, who is an analyst, researcher, and consultant with the Info-Tech Research Group.

iOS 14 is a game-changer in more than a few ones. One of them is definitely privacy.

I've been writing a lot about privacy, Apple, and what Apple's been doing with the IDFA (identifier for advertisers), so I was invited to speak at the Mobile Growth Summit about it. Here we talk about what's changing, why, what the implications are, and what Google will do as a result.

What I chat about:

• Why Apple made the change
• What's dangerous about IDFAs
• What motives might be behind Apple's decision besides privacy
• Apple's IDFA policy and how it potentially conflicts with GDPR, CCPA (California's privacy law), and other privacy statutes
• Why Apple delayed full implementation until 2021
• How Facebook influence those decisions
• Where Google might go with GAID
• And ... what the long-term impact to mobile and advertising is likely to be

It feels like we're at a tipping point right now in humanoid robotics. Models are getting released faster and faster, more and more capable than ever. Robots are actually taking paying gigs in warehouses and factories, and there's accelerating innovation. Author, engineer, doctor, investor, and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis just released a major report on the entire industry, and together we dive into what's happening and what's changing. One prediction he made: we'll have humanoid robots in the home, helping us with our work, by 2026 in beta. We discuss recent advancements, like the shipment of new models by Agility Robotics and Figure, and the development of Tesla's Optimus. Peter Diamandis shares insights from his extensive report on the state of humanoid robotics, highlighting key players in both the United States and China. We also talk about the implications of having humanoid robots integrated into various industries, the potential for radically reduced labor costs, and the impact on global economics. And we touch on the broader societal impact, evoking considerations for purpose and struggle in a highly automated future. 00:00 Introduction to Humanoid Robots 01:07 Meet Our Expert Guest: Peter Diamandis 01:33 The Rapid Evolution of Humanoid Robots 03:06 The Future of Humanoid Robots in Society 07:13 Economic Implications of Humanoid Robots 12:17 Technological Advancements and Human Adaptation 19:28 The Design and Functionality of Humanoid Robots 22:00 Future of Work: Robots Taking Over 22:39 The Evolution of Robot Design 23:08 Challenges and Early Days of Robotics 23:42 The Rise of Robot Companies 24:26 Integration of AI and Robotics 25:56 China's Role in the Robotics Revolution 28:58 3D Printing and Robotics 30:22 Top Players in the Robotics Industry 36:31 Robots in Medicine and Surgery 38:43 Conclusion and Upcoming Events

At WWDC this year Apple essentially killed the IDFA, the identifier for advertisers. It’s not completely gone … but it’s now opt-in with a big scary warning.

Now we’re wondering … will this kill modern mobile marketing as we know it?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Eric Seufert former VP of User Acquisition for Rovio. He runs Mobile Dev Memo, QuantMar.com, and is a consultant.

What we chat about:

Is this a mobile marketing apocalypse?

Attribution

Look-alike audiences

AEO and VO: Facebook

tROAS: Google

Retargeting

Ad-based monetization

Segmentation & cohorts

LTV modeling

Fingerprinting

Facebook & Google

Ad networks

SSPs

DSPs

This year we saw consumers push back hard on BMW's decision to include heated seats in vehicles but only make them actually work if people paid a monthly subscription fee.

Why?

And how does the concept of ownership change when everything is smart, everything is remotely configurable, and everything can report its own level of usage?

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Zach Supalla, the CEO and founder of Particle. We talk about music, software, hardware, and buying versus renting ... everything. What does value mean, and when do we like paying monthly fees versus when do we prefer to buy something upfront and own it outright?

And what does that mean for our right to repair the products we think we own? 

And does our new relationship with ownership of objects mean that the US government could force companies like Apple and Google to brick all iPhones and Android phones in Russia, if Russia used nuclear weapons?

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

What changes when quantum computing is mainstream?

Quantum computing is on the far reaches of science, using technology that accesses aspects of matter at quantum scales where physics almost overlaps with magic. 

Classical computing is simple: deterministic. You have something, or you have nothing. Quantum computing is complex: you can have something, or nothing, or both something and nothing at the same time. If that’s hard to wrap your head around, you’re in good company. Even Richard Feyman, 1965 Nobel Laureate in Physics and one of the founders of quantum computing famously said, “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”

But we’re seeing major advancements in quantum computing today. You can now write a program and deploy it on quantum computers from anywhere. And D-Wave says that it's doubling qubits every 2 years.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we’re chatting with Alan Baratz, president and CEO of D-Wave.

The wetware in a casket of bone that we each carry on our shoulders is 1 million times more efficient than the AI models run by services like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, or DALL-E.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat for a second time with Gordon Wilson, CEO of Rain AI, which is building a neuromorphic artificial brain simulating the structure of our biological brains, and aiming at 10,000 to 100,000 greater energy efficiency than current AI architectures.

We also discuss "mortal computation" and a radical co-design of the hardware and software for AI systems, which could lead to much more efficient (and more effective) smart tools, machines, and companions.

Links:

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

When will AI replace developers? Or is it an if? In this TechFirst we dive into a survey focused on how 4,000 software developers use AI to generate, test, and check code. Justice Erolin, the CTO of BairesDev, recently surveyed over 4,000 developers globally. The goal: exploreing how AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot are being utilized in software development. He and host John Koetsier chat about how these tools are employed for code generation, scaffolding, and testing, and debates the potential over-reliance on AI and its impact on entry-level engineers. They also highlight key findings from the survey, including surprising trends in AI tool preferences and the perceived productivity impacts. Gain deeper insights into the future of AI and its role in software development in this engaging discussion. 00:00 Introduction: Will AI Replace Developers? 00:47 AI in Code Generation: Benefits and Processes 02:16 Popular AI Tools Among Developers 08:17 Challenges and Cultural Shifts in AI Adoption 12:39 Future of AI in Development and Security 17:41 Impact of AI on Entry-Level Engineers 21:08 Conclusion: Surprising Survey Results

Microsoft just announced a massive quantum computer breakthrough that uses an entirely new state of matter. The new quantum computer uses topological superconductors to create stable qubits with low error rates.

Topological superconductors enable stable qubits by utilizing Majorana zero modes to protect quantum information from decoherence.

The result: Microsoft should have a fault-tolerant usable quantum computer this decade. As in, before 2030.

In this TechFirst, we talk with Microsoft's head of quantum hardware, Chetan Nayak, who has been working on solving this problem for literally 19 years, and he talks us through the technology and what it means for quantum computer. He explains the methods to measure this new state non-destructively, the novel architecture that leverages it, and Microsoft's ambitious roadmap towards building a fault-tolerant quantum computer within this decade.

The conversation delves into potential future applications, the integration of this technology into global data infrastructures, and the transformative possibilities it holds for various fields, including chemistry, materials science, and beyond.

00:00 Introduction to Fault Tolerant Quantum Computing

00:48 Understanding the New Phase of Matter: Topological Superconducto

r02:10 Properties and Applications of Superconductors

03:11 Creating and Engineering Topological Superconductors

05:16 The Significance of Topological Superconductors for Qubits

09:54 Measuring Quantum States with Quantum Dots

13:03 Building and Testing Quantum Devices

19:43 Future Roadmap for Quantum Processors

19:53 Unveiling the Quantum Roadmap

20:34 DARPA Collaboration and Engineering Milestones

21:23 Fabrication and Demonstration of the Eight Qubit Processor

21:43 Accelerating Quantum Progress

23:22 Scaling Quantum Computers for Practical Applications

27:04 The Long Journey of Quantum Research at Microsoft

33:24 Future Prospects and Challenges in Quantum Computing

38:10 Quantum Computing's Role in Addressing Global Issues

42:32 Reflections on a 19-Year Journey

In this episode of TechFirst we chat with Google director of engineering Ivan Poupyrev. He's making the world smart, starting with clothing (we buy 150 billion items of clothing a year, according to one estimate) released with Google's Jacquard technology.

That's going to help us all move beyond screens and make technology ambient in our lives, not central, he believes.

But the vision extends beyond clothing to every object in our worlds. Join this chat to see what Poupyrev is working on, and how he sees the world in 10 years.

Episode links:

TechFirst transcripts (in about a week): https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Google Jacquard: https://atap.google.com/jacquard/

Catawba Indian Nation in Rock Hill, South Carolina has established a new Special Economic Zone where the tribe will provide space and regulatory certainty for crypto and fintech companies.

It's called the Catawba Digital Economic Zone, and the Catawba Corporation says it "can be prosperous thanks to the ability of Native-American Tribes under US law to have their own commercial code, regulation-making and administrative capacities." Catawba is a sovereign jurisdiction under U.S. law, allowing it to built a regulatory framework that is friendly to fintech, blockchain, and crypto companies, says Ronnie Beck, CEO of Catawba Corporations.

The closest similarity?

Estonia's eResidency program.

In this episode of TechFirst we chat with the CEO of the CDEZ, Joseph McKinney, and Thomas Trimnal, a VP at Catawba Corporations. Our focus: what will the enable, who will come, and how will this generate value for both companies and the Catawba themselves.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Right now might be the golden age of humanoid general purpose robot development. Tesla, of course, is building the Optimus robot. Figure.ai is working on one as well, plus others like Chinese company Fourier Intelligence with the GR-1 Boston Dynamics, and Agility Robots. So is Sanctuary AI. Sanctuary says they’re on a mission “to create the world’s-first human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots.” They’ve recently released their 6th generation robot, called Phoenix, and have completed their first commercial deployment in March. They’ve raised over $100 million. Today we’re chatting with co-founder and CEO Geordie Rose.

What if building a robot was like picking options on a car? I'll have the vision module, the speech module ... better give me a wheeled transportation package for this one, a flying navigation module for that one ... I'll take LIDAR and a natural vision module ... and so on ...

Ohmnilabs offers an modular robotics platform that lets companies configure autonomous robots. They have customers like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Toyota, and they 3D print components so you can test new versions quickly. The idea: pick your hardware, pick your software, build your robot.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Ohmnilabs' CEO Thuc Vu about how it works, what's possible, and how much faster/better/cheaper this model is ... 

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Ohmnilabs: https://ohmnilabs.com

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

How soon will we have robot surgeons? Health care has gone remote lately, but in reality, most of it is fairly simple: video conferencing during Covid.

But just recently for the first time ever a robot surgeon at Johns Hopkins University performed abdominal surgery on soft tissue. Granted … it was on a pig, not a human … but STAR, or Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, was a success. And that means there's significant hope that robot surgeons are not only possible but a reality.

Unfortunately, it might be a decade or two before this is normal. But technology does advance quickly ... and we need it to. Healthcare is unevenly and inequitably available both globally and nationally, and cheap, fast, effective surgeries would be a huge boost to health care outcomes.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Tamir Wolf, CEO and co-founder of surgical intelligence platform Theator.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

File this one in the didn’t-expect-that department.

TikTok parent company ByteDance has launched a smart desk lamp for school kids in China. The Dali Smart Work Lamp is intended to provide a “better experience for children” doing homework with better illumination ... and constant surveillance. 

(The “constant surveillance” part is not in the press release.)

The Forbes story for this episode is here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/29/tiktok-owner-bytedance-selling-smart-lamp-with-camera-for-school-kids/

A staggering 40% of the top 20 TV shows and series in the U.S. are produced, owned, and delivered on one network that isn’t available over the air or on standard cable TV and didn’t exist much more than two decades ago.

It’s Netflix, of course ....

It's not every day that you get to interview a 357-year-old company founded by a king, and the company that ships 1 out of 6 things moved globally.

In this TechFirst I chat about how we're going to fix the $100 trillion global economy: make it smarter, make it faster, and make it much, much more planet-friendly.

This is a session I moderated at Web Summit in Lisbon about a month ago with Ursula Soritsch-Renier, the Chief Digital & Information Officer of Saint-Gobain, and Rotem Hershko, Senior Vice President, Head of Business Platforms for Maersk.

Enjoy!

Digital security sucks, and it’s about to get much worse. The question is: can quantum computing save us?

In this episode of TechFirst I chat with Quantropi CEO James Nguyen, who has built the world's first non-photonic quantum key distribution over the Internet. He says that quantum computing is the next foundation of computing, period. And functioning, fast cryptography will open up our ability to use it, just like the internet unlocked PCs in the 90s.

At stake? $100 trillion in annual commerce. Global national security. Safety in internet of things devices. Medical privacy. And much, much, more.

Episode links:

TechFirst transcripts (in about a week): https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

What will 2023 bring for mobile apps and games? We chat with Data.ai's Ted Krantz about 21 new billion-dollar mobile apps including Call of Duty Mobile, Bumble, and HBO Max. 

We also chat about entertainment, about third-party app stores competing with Apple, and the decline in ad revenue growth for mobile apps.

One category that's growing fast: travel, hotel, airplane ticket booking, and rental car booking apps.

Links:

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Epic sued Apple for the right to sell in-app purchases in Fortnite itself and not pay Apple a 30% cut. And it won ... but also lost, as the judge ruled in favor of Apple on nine of the ten claims Epic made.

But the big deal is payments in apps. And that changes everything.

Here are the most interesting rulings, findings, and facts unearthed in U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' 185-page report.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Is space the future of IoT? Australia-based Myriota has the world’s first low power, ultra-low cost global internet of things solution from space. 

In this episode of TechFirst, we're chatting with VP of Engineering Steve Winnall about the company's 20-pound suitcase-sized satellites and its ground-based IoT modules, which cost on the order of hundreds of dollars.

The company's modules are used for wind farms, good-old-fashioned food farms, ships in the ocean ... and even rhinos in Africa.

Billions of people have jobs that require heavy lifting, and most of them will lose health and ability over years of repetitive stress. German Bionic thinks its Cray X bionic exoskeleton, powered, by AI, will not only help workers do their jobs safely, but also help others: sick, injured, or old.

Cray X helps workers lift with 66 pounds of lifting support, and uses rechargeable batteries so you can wear it all day. It's built with carbon fibre so it's light, and it's built-in AI learns your patterns to assist better.

Best part: at the end of the day the AI tells you how many tons you've lifted and what you've done ... essentially gamifying work.

Links:

German Bionic: https://www.germanbionic.com/en/home/

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

A massive aerospace corporation cancelled an order for 40,000 Oculus Quest VR headsets when they saw the technology in this video.

In this very special TechFirst, I've received permission from TechBeach Retreat to share the first global unveiling of a technology called AirGlass from Mobeus HQ which, the founder Richie Etwaru says, is finally the Z-axis of tech: the depth to the horizontal and vertical of our flat screens.

The most interesting part to me is that AR/VR/MR headsets are bulky and limiting. This potentially works right on every computer's screen in the world: no additional hardware needed.

After Richie's demo of Airless 2, we chat about the consequences and uses of technology you can engage with physically, as well as get into some of the details of how it's made, including that it doesn't really touch the operating system but operates between the camera and the GPU in pretty much any computer.

Links:

Mobeus: https://mobeus.com

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

It looks like we will soon be delivering power wirelessly to NASA robots on the moon. Yank Tech just won a NASA contract to to develop wireless charging solutions for autonomous vehicles on the moon.

In this TechFirst, we chat with CEO Josh Yank.

Topics we cover include:

- Wireless power on the moon ... how does it work?

- What’s the power source … solar energy?

- When will it be ready?

- When could it be used?

- What missions will this be used on?

- Any uses on earth?

- There's been a massive growth in humanoid robots … is this tech useful for them?

Can the Dyson Pure Hot + Cool clean your air from smoke and soot? 

That’s what I have been testing for parts of the past few months during the western fires that hit California, Oregon, and Washington State. They’ve been banished from the news cycle thanks to the impending election, but the fires this summer were devastating, horrific, and massive. 

When you can’t breathe safely, few other things in life matter.

The Forbes story for this podcast episode is here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/18/dyson-hotcool-cleaned-70-of-smoke-particles-from-my-air-during-the-fires-in-california-oregon-washington/

Tesla CEO suggested Optimus, the Tesla Bot, would come in around $20,000. He's been wrong about pricing before. 

But is Tesla the only company that can pull off humaniform robots with strong AI that can do multiple tasks? In this TechFirst we chat with Robert Scoble and Irena Cronin from Infinite Retina about what Tesla Bot is, what it can do, and whether it's possible.

Imagine being able to get a driver's license, pay your taxes, get a fishing license all online. And: anything you want to do with your government, you can do online.

That's what the state of Oklahoma is currently doing. I chat with Matt Pinnell, OK's lieutenant governor, about how.

Would you let a robot make you prettier? The LUUM lash extension robot could soon do all kind of spa treatments ... and even do hair transplants. We have robot surgery, robot manufacturing … so why not robot aestheticians? Or … lash artists?

I wouldn’t know from personal experience, but getting fake lashes takes 2-3 hours. A new robot can do it in just 30 minutes ... snd could eventually do everything from makeup to hair transplants.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Philippe Sanchez, CEO of LUUM, and we watch his robot apply fake lashes to a client.

Episode links:

TechFirst transcripts (in about a week): https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

If you’ve been around marketing, you'll have heard the phrase "customer journey." It's what people do when they buy ... or don't buy.

Naturally, marketers want to optimize that trip, and Adobe has developed an AI system that finds out where those journeys break. Theoretically, that will help brands sell more.

Our guest this episode: Steve Hammond, a director at Adobe Experience Cloud.

Alexa, Siri, Google: which is the smartest? Dumbest? Most useful? Growing the fastest? 

And ... what capabilities will AI assistants have in the future? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with Brian Jackson from Info-Tech Research Group.

On the one hand … Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are amazing technology ... on the other, they face-palm on some ridiculously simple tasks. We chat about:

- which are leading (and getting smarter faster)

- Google Duplex

- Alexa and smart home

- Privacy

- Why Apple's challenged to make Siri truly smart

- Smartglasses ... how they'll work with AI assistants

Can I only experience a Facebook metaverse in Oculus Quest? Can I only enter your virtual event with an HTC Vive Pro? Or can we build connections, doors, windows, and pathways through all digital realities that anyone can access with smartphone, laptop, or -- yes -- a VR headset?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Hans Elstner, the CEO of Rooom. Rooom offers the "first all-in-one platform for content in 2D, 3D, AR and VR." In other words: digital realities that anyone can access. 

This is super-important in a era of silos and platforms and barriers. And if you want literally hundreds of thousands of people to attend your virtual event ... as Rooom did with IFA 2020.

Links:

Rooom: https://www.rooom.com/

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Is neuromorphic computing the only way we can actually achieve general artificial intelligence? 

Very likely yes, according to Gordon Wilson, CEO of Rain Neuromorphics, who is trying to recreate the human brain in hardware and "give machines all of the capabilities that we recognize in ourselves."

Rain Neuromorphics has built a neuromorphic chip that is analog. In other words it does not simulate neural networks: it is a neural network in analog, not digital. It's a physical collection of neurons and synapses, as opposed to an abstraction of neurons and synapses. That means no ones and zeroes of traditional computing but voltages and currents that represent the mathematical operations you want to perform.

Right now it's 1000X more energy efficient than existing neural networks, Wilson says, because it doesn't have to spend all those computing cycles simulating the brain. The circuit is the neural network, which leads to some extraordinary gains in both speed improvement and power reduction, according to Wilson.

Links:

Rain Neuromorphics: https://rain.ai

Episode sponsor: SMRT1 https://smrt1.ca/

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Today Elon Musk unveiled more about his mysterious brain-to-computer interface company Neuralink, showcasing a pig named Gertrude with a “Link” installed and sharing that Neuralink has received a “Breakthrough Device” designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One of the abilities he teased was being able to summon your self-driving car — a Tesla, of course — with a thought.

But Musk’s ambitions extend much farther.

And his Link isn’t intended just for early adopters, niche technophiliacs, or bleeding-edge cyborg wannabes. Rather, Musk intends this device for almost everyone.

Can virtual reality make your home gym less boring ... and maybe improve your workouts?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with Eric Malafeew, former chief architect of Guitar Hero. He's worked on Mars landers and the Xbox Kinect, among other things, and now has VZfit, a VR app that makes workouts feel like a game

I’ve been using Beat Saber to get a bit of a workout at home in VR. But according to Malafeew, VZfit can make your workouts better … longer … more frequent ... and more intense without you even really feeling like you're working out.

The idea is that you bike on your stationary bike and, thanks to VR, go anywhere in the world … fight tanks … drive Formula 1 ... face off at the OK Corral ... and much more.

How will AI change games? How is AI changing games? In this TechFirst we chat with Morgan McGuire, Roblox's Chief Scientist and a former Nvidia research scientist. He tells host John Koetsier how AI is not only enhancing game creation through generative AI but also revolutionizing multiplayer game safety with advanced AI moderation systems. We chat about the explosive growth of Roblox and share insights into how AI is shaping the future of interactive, social, and immersive gaming experiences. Ultimately, McGuire says, we might be creating games with our voices in the not-so-distant future ... 00:00 Future of AI in Game Development 01:28 Roblox's 4D AI Initiative 03:24 Roblox's Impressive Growth 07:33 AI and Safety on Roblox 09:52 Voice Moderation Technology 17:49 Translation and Global Reach 20:10 Open Source Voice Safety Model 20:49 Native Language Translation Approach 21:20 Insights from AI Systems 22:09 Human Communication and AI Moderation 25:23 Generative AI in Roblox 26:13 User-Generated Content and Platform Growth 28:10 AI-Powered Content Creation 31:02 Quality and Community in Roblox 32:48 Innovative Social Roleplaying Experiences 35:46 Challenges and Future of AI in Gaming

Imagine the ability to have a say in who I interview next. Imagine owning a token from your favorite creator or artist that gives you special access or a closer connection.

Now imagine it’s a currency that can grow as the community does. And can be used to purchase goods and services ... or even exchanged for US dollars

That’s a creator coin.

Recently Rally.io raised $57M to make literally a million of them. Including #SMRT​ coin, which is my creator coin.

In this episode of TechFirst I interview Bremner Morris, former Patreon executive and now chief marketing officer of Rally.io.

Links:

#SMRT coin: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Health and fitness apps are winning the Covid-19 era, thanks to closed gyms. But a certain kind of health and fitness app is winning mobile, according to a new report from Apptopia.

“Six out of ten of the top Health & Fitness apps are apps that offer video workouts or video-guided exercises,” Apptopia says. “If non-workout apps like Calm, Headspace, and Flo were not included here, the ratio of video to non-video fitness apps would be even greater.”

This story is currently live at Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/05/the-top-10-health--fitness-apps-of-2020-have-one-thing-in-common-mostly/ 

In this special episode of TechFirst, I'm sharing the on-stage chat I had with Ghazi Shami, the Founder & CEO of EMPIRE, an innovative hip hop music label, and Wilfrid Obeng, the Co-founder & CTO of Audiomob.

We chat metaverse, gaming, NFTs that don't suck, and what the tie-in is between a hip hop label and an audio ads company.

Both also chat about their metaverse plans ...

Will super-smart artificial intelligence be the ultimate cheat code for beating the market? Probably not ... but its could ensure you retire with 25% more than you otherwise would.

In this TechFirst we chat with the CEO of Qraft USA, Robert Nestor. Qraft is an AI company focused on investing. The company has a billion USD "assets under AI" in Korea and is expanding to the US. While the AI is active in crafting the strategy and execution, humans still make the final decisions.

The result, so far, is about a 1% improvement on what financial advisors would otherwise get. While that doesn't sound huge, that's significant over your earning and investing lifespan.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

The Android DJI Go 4 app lets you fly your drone. It also contains sophisticated hidden functionality that can “phone home” every hour to Sina Weibo, one of the most popular Chinese social media sites, asking for fresh commands.

Those new commands could include installing new apps on your phone for almost any purpose.

In addition, the app restarts itself automatically when you try to quit it.

Studies say you can prevent about 50% of mental health challenges if you catch and address them early. Doctors from Cincinnati Children’s hospital are using the world’s second-most powerful supercomputer to help solve mental health right at the start: when we're kids.

This is a big deal.

About 13% of us suffer from some form of mental health disorder ... that’s 971 million people globally. And it’s only gotten worse since Covid.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, we meet and chat with Dr. John Pestian, who is leading the effort.

Links:

Cincinnati Children's hospital: https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Who's winning in the media and entertainment battles? We are currently seeing an epic battle in the mobile space for consumer time, attention, and dollars.

Two of the biggest juggernauts are short video versus long ... think Netflix vs TikTok, Disney+ vs Reels, with many more combatants and some like YouTube and Facebook with stakes in both sides.

What’s happening here … and who’s going to win? And why did Tiktok just have the biggest quarter of any mobile app ever?

In this TechFirst, we chat with Data.ai CEO Ted Krantz.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Are 50 million YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch creators the new founders? And … are they far more numerous and economically important than we think?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we’re chatting with Yuanling Yuan (AKA YY), a senior associate at SignalFire. She recently did a massive study of the creator economy, finding that of the more than 50 million “creators” in the world on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok, two million of them are professionals, earning a full-time living.

And that number is growing fast.

Full transcript will be here: https://johnkoetsier.com/

YY on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YuanlingY

SignalFire: https://www.signalfire.com

An alleged YouTube bug has retroactively taken thousands of dollars in revenue away from YouTube creators. YouTube, however, has neither acknowledged the problem nor provide details to YouTubers who rely on the platform for income.

“There are people who can’t feed their families and pay their bills ... one girl I have been talking to ... had a breakdown,” Randy Lynch, who runs the Mid-South Slots YouTube channel, told me via Messenger. “[YouTube] admitted it was a bug, then backtracked, blamed us, and shut down all communication with us eight days ago.”

A new startup out of Harvard Labs has invented a way to print camera lenses 5,000 at a time just like computer chips, and in the same semiconductor foundries that make our computer’s CPUs. They’re 100X thinner than standard smartphone camera lenses, are simpler and cheaper to make, sense the full electromagnetic spectrum — not just visible light — and have excellent 3D-sensing capabilities that could bring Lidar-based dimensional sensing functionality that’s currently only on high-end phones like the iPhone 12 to smartphones across the price spectrum.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I interview Metalenz co-founder Rob Devlin.

We talk a lot about self-driving cars. But what about autonomous robots, doing work that isn’t safe for people? We’re talking environments like mines a mile deep … nuclear reactors … remote locations. 

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we're chatting with Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies. Exyn is building robots that have to think for themselves and communicate with each other where they don't have GPS or radio communication. Exyn just signed a deal with a Finnish mining to provide drones for autonomous mapping and exploration.

It all started with a stolen car. In 1983 Chicago resident David Meilahn's car was stolen. He bought a new one, a Mercedes Benz 280SL 2-seater. But then he needed to replace his old radio-phone ... and the sales rep told him there was something new: a cellular phone. He was one of the first few to be selected, then won a race to place the very first commercial cell phone call, which ended up being from Soldier Field in Chicago, IL, to Alexander Graham Bell's grand-daughter in Germany. This is his story, along with the story of Stuart Tararone, the AT&T engineer who helped build that system and still works for the company to this day.

Unity might be better positioned than any other company to usher in the Oasis ... AKA the metaverse.

71% of the top thousand mobile games are made with the technology. Half of all mobile PC and console games are also made with Unity. Unity is inherently open, running on over 20 different platforms. The world's already there: 2.5 billion people are playing games built with Unity.

So I'm wondering ... Unity has the planets, the rooms, the solar systems ... when is it going to build the galaxy, the corridors, the connections?

In this episode of TechFirst I chat with Julie Shumaker, who leads growth at Unity.

Links:

Unity: https://unity.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Next-day delivery? Same-day delivery? Super-lame. What about 5-minute delivery?

That's Manna from heaven ... or manna from drones. Manna is running autonomous drone delivery right now in Galway, Ireland, and has the licenses in place to take the service across Europe and maybe Canada. This tiny startup is beating Amazon to the immediate delivery punch in Europe.

And the US? That's a problem: regulation is way, way, way behind.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Bobby Healy, CEO of Manna, about drone delivery, how it works, what it's accomplishing right now, and how soon you might see it in your backyard. Plus, what drone delivery as a service means for the future of commerce.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Manna: https://www.manna.aero

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

What if plants could tell us when pests are attacking them, or they’re too dry, or they need more fertilizer. One startup is gene engineering farm plants so they can communicate in in fluorescent colors. The result: a farmer’s  phone, drone, or even satellite imagery can reveal what is happening in hundreds of acres of fields … 

That leads to better food, fewer crop failures, and more revenue for farmers.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier we meet Shely Aronov, CEO and founder at InnerPlant, and chat about what plants say, and how farmers can understand their messages.

Links: 

Innerplant: https://innerplant.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Pilot free level 4 drone autonomy? Exyn Technologies says they've achieved it, and in this episode we chat with CEO Nader Elm.

Topics: what drone autonomy means, what level 4 looks like, and, crucially, what this unlocks for search, rescue, research, security, surveillance, inspection, delivery, and many more drone operations.

According to Exyn, this is no longer point-to-point flight, but open exploration flight at double the speed with a smoother flight path and higher quality data accuracy.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Exyn: https://www.exyn.com

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

Fake news: the truth about lies .... what is fake news? How can you spot it? And what can we do about it?  

In this edition of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Mitch Chaiet, who is the Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Coordinator at the University of Texas at Austin.  

We'll discuss computational propaganda, reality bubbles, and Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation, as well as how to spot fake news and how to fight fake news. (Including how to bring it up with Uncle Bob, who won't like it if you tell him his news is fake.)  

We'll also talk about who creates fake news, and why. (Hint: there's a lot of money in fake news.)

TransPod, a four-year-old company with roots in Canada and France has signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Alberta to study the feasibility of linking the provinces two major cities, Edmonton and Calgary, by a hyperloop-like system.

Top speed would be over 1,000 kilometers/hour, or about 620 miles/hour, and the Hyperloop would be an above-ground enclosed tube.

Since Edmonton and Calgary are just under 200 miles apart, travel time would be about half an hour.

Could you love an AI? What does love with "digital humans?" look like? Is this the future of relationships? In this TechFirst, we chat with Artem Rodichev, CEO of Ex-human and former head of AI at Replika. We dive into the concept of forming relationships with AI companions and the future of love and friendship in a world integrating advanced artificial intelligence. The discussion covers Rachev's new startup, issues of loneliness and how digital humans might offer a solution, the intricacies and potential pitfalls of emotional AI interactions, and the evolving technology behind AI companions. We also chat about some real-life stories, ethical concerns, and the emotional impacts of these digital relationships ... including some of the most extremely negative realities. 00:00 Introduction to AI and Relationships 00:58 The Concept of Digital Humans 05:05 Addressing Loneliness with AI 07:40 Building AI with Personality 16:54 Challenges and Ethical Considerations 17:34 The Emotional Fallout of Removing Replica's Romantic Features 18:04 The Deep Connections Users Formed with Replica 19:39 The Italian Ban and Its Consequences 23:07 The Impact of AI Upgrades on User Relationships 24:55 Real-Life Tragedies Linked to AI Companions 27:45 Safety Measures and Ethical Considerations in AI Development 31:55 The Future of Human-AI Relationships 34:53 Concluding Thoughts on AI Companions

Did you know your computer transmits a log of every single app you open? Apple has made privacy a core part of the brand -- including entire TV commercials dedicated to it -- but as a self-described hacker and security researcher recently found, every Mac sends a stream of data about every app you open (and more) to Apple.

And ... sends it unencrypted. And … bypasses any local VPN software you’ve installed.

In this edition of TechFirst with John Koetsier we're chatting with Jeffrey Paul, the hacker who found and wrote about the problem. We chat with him about why Apple did this, who else could see the data, what Apple's changing, and what this means for the future of computers.

(Hint: it's not great.)

You might think the iPhone 12 starts at one dollar under $800. You might even have a distinct memory of seeing a price that looked suspiciously like $799 during the Apple special event yesterday.

And you’d be right on one of those two beliefs. (The latter.)

This story is live on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/14/no-the-iphone-12-doesnt-actually-cost-799/

Can AI help us connect trillions of smart devices? There are currently perhaps 20 billion devices connected to the internet: things like laptops, phones, smartwatches, TVs, smart speakers, smart home devices ...

In a decade, that could be 50 billion … and a lot of it is enterprise IoT.

In this edition of the The AI Show with John Koetsier we chat with Intel and the National Science Foundation, which has funded $30M+ into projects to use AI to figure out how we'll manage ultra-dense wireless networks ... how we'll keep it secure, and how we'll keep everything connected.

Joining me in this episode:

Vida Ilderem, VP, Intel Labs

Thyaga Nandagopal, National Science Foundation

Pu Wang, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Apple announced this morning that it has launched two new “radio” stations on Apple Music: Apple Music Hits, and Apple Music Country.

Apple is investing significantly in its Radio product, with major stars and shows that are part talk radio, part Casey Kasem, part podcasting. An important question for stars to ask, however, is how broad an audience they can get by focusing on a single platform versus allowing their shows to appear on every platform simultaneously. 

Or ... if they’re better off opening up their content on a freely available service.

When you plunk a $100 million wind farm down on 98,000 acres of varying terrain, you want to know a few things. You want to know that you’re optimizing the location of your multi-million-dollar turbines. You want to know that the turbines you source can handle the gustiest gust of wind they will ever encounter without shattering dramatically in a viral video. And you want to test potential uses cases and changes in software, which is cheap and changeable, rather than in hardware, which is expensive and hard to edit.

Which is why Siemens Gamesa, the global renewable energy company, is working with NVIDIA to generate AI-powered digital twins of its turbines.

In this TechFirst, I chat with Dion Harris, Lead Product Manager of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA and Greg Oxley, Siemens Gamesa.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ 

Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 

Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier