For a long time, excitement and potential drove the commercial drone industry in a way that could literally be calculated. Countless reports talked up the billions of dollars that commercial drone technology represented, but whether it was the $82 billion estimated by AUVSI or the $127 billion that PwC predicted, the hype associated with drones was mostly irrelevant to the actual users that wanted to adopt the technology to create value. Plenty have done just that in very defined ways over the past few years, but just as the drone industry was in the midst of fully transitioning from hype to reality, COVID-19 changed the paradigm.
As literal social distancing tools, the pandemic highlighted how drones could be utilized in ways that were never envisioned but nonetheless created real value. However, those new opportunities have been complicated by misconceptions that predate the pandemic. Additionally, the regulatory challenges with legally taking a drone into the sky that users have to sort through are just as relevant now as they were in the midst of that hype cycle. What has this evolution of the commercial drone industry meant to the people that are working to define the value of the technology in the present and future?
That very topic is a focus of numerous conference sessions at the upcoming Commercial UAV Expo, where professionals from across the space will come together for what is now recognized as the world's largest show for professionals integrating commercial drone technology. In preparation of the event, we connected with numerous experts across the space to capture their insights around how expectations associated with the technology will impact the market in the short and long term.
Continue reading: https://www.commercialuavnews.com/infrastructure/has-the-evolution-of-the-commercial-drone-industry-created-opportunities-or-cultivated-misconceptions

In May, Uganda Flying Labs conducted a drone application training course with 75% of the attendants coming from the nation’s agricultural sector. Uganda is not the only nation in Africa taking steps to adopt drone technology. In Togo, in West Africa, e-AgriSky, a vocational farmer’s training school, has recently admitted 16 students from across Africa to learn more about drones. Such private sector-driven initiatives may be the baby steps towards fully adopting the technology in Africa’s agriculture. While some argue that the small-scale nature of most African farms limits the application of drones, offering drones as a service is a viable option that entrepreneurs should consider. This model allows a few drones to be used by many farmers, delivering the benefits of drone technology in agriculture while realizing reasonable profits to ensure sustainability.
Drone technology traces its history to military applications, where it is deployed in aerial surveillance. In recent years, drones have found their way into agriculture in various applications, including land and crop surveying, inspection and monitoring, and agricultural assets and insurance. Previously, other technologies such as satellites and helicopters performed most of these applications at substantial operational costs and limited efficiency. Thanks to drones, which usually come equipped with sensors and software to gather and process data, most of the mentioned agricultural operations are now much easier to conduct and at a lower cost. While the technology’s adoption is at advanced stages in other parts of the world, its application in Africa remains a challenge for various reasons.
Continue reading: https://intpolicydigest.org/drones-in-africa-a-viable-business-model-for-small-entrepreneurs/

The past decade has seen several structural changes in know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations in Europe and globally. High-profile money laundering cases and the penetration of illicit funds into global markets have caught the attention of regulators and the public, and rightfully so.
The Wirecard scandal was a particularly salacious example, in which the investigation into widespread fraud revealed a chain of shell companies involved in illegal distribution of narcotics and pornography. Over at Danske Bank, some $227 billion was laundered through an Estonian subsidiary, going virtually unnoticed for nine years.
In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an action against Ripple Labs and two of its executives, claiming they had raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering. That case is ongoing.
As regulators and financial institutions improve their understanding of these criminal practices, AML requirements have likewise been improved. But these adjustments have been an overwhelmingly reactive, trial-by-fire process.
Continue reading: https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/16/regulating-crypto-is-essential-to-ensuring-its-global-legitimacy/

• Microsoft is looking to use the ethereum blockchain to combat digital piracy, according to a recent white paper published by the firm.
• The company is exploring a new system named Argus, which it dubbed as the "first public anti-piracy system."
• Across 11 pages, Microsoft laid out the design, implementation, and evaluation of the new system.

Software giant Microsoft is looking to use the ethereum blockchain to combat digital piracy by relying on the network's transparent and decentralized nature, according to a new paper released by the firm's research department.
The Redmond-based company is exploring a new concrete system named Argus, which Microsoft dubbed as the "first public anti-piracy system."
In the 11-page paper, Microsoft - together with researchers from Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University - laid out the design, implementation, and evaluation of the new system.
Continue reading: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/microsoft-msft-ethereum-blockchain-fight-piracy-digital-tech-public-ledger-2021-8

Cryptocurrency and blockchain have become buzzwords these days. While cryptocurrency has been a tad easier to understand as a concept, the blockchain technology that cryptocurrency runs on has been a complex one to grasp. In the simplest of terms, blockchain can be defined as a database that stores data in blocks. The information is recorded in these blocks in a way that makes it difficult to hack or cheat or change the system. Since the blocks of information create a chain, hence the name blockchain.
How Does It Work?
A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger that keeps a record of all transactions carried out on the system. These transactions are then duplicated to be reflected across all computer systems active on the blockchain. Every time a new transaction is carried out the blockchain stores the data on that participant's block and is reflected across all digital ledgers on that network. All transaction data present on the systems of the blockchain can be accessed from any part of the world. 
Continue reading: https://www.ndtv.com/business/what-is-blockchain-and-how-does-it-work-find-out-here-2511764

First-generation blockchains generated some of the biggest hype in the history of IT before flaming out in a morass of abandoned deployments and failed expectations. The lack of enterprise readiness, from inflexible storage solutions to missing compliance regimes to poor scalability and high costs, resulted in many early deployments being abandoned.
What’s changed in blockchain 2.0? The new generation of blockchains are practical, cloud friendly, high performance, software-as-a-service-based and already tackling enterprise use cases around the globe. Blockchain is back, and it's (finally) ready for its close-up.
The Missing Use Case
Blockchain 1.0 lacked actual use cases. Throw in confusion over competing technologies, “public” versus “private” chain debates and more, and it was a frustrating, multi-year detour that soured many IT leaders on even hearing the term “blockchain.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/08/17/blockchain-20-finally-ready-for-the-enterprise/?sh=26678f4e158d

We often hear about applications of technology bound to alter the status quo. Blockchain, notably, has had its fair share in the limelight with much focus on cryptocurrency, tokens and mining. But this is misplaced idolatry, and while several crypto-enthusiasts have made bank (pun intended) on decentralized electronic currencies, the real near-term value of blockchain is in tethering the technology to the mitigation of climate change.
How does one get from the current hopped-up non-fungible token craze to a net-zero world in less than 30 years or less? It may start with the Biden Administration. With steep targets to slash greenhouse gas (GHG) to reach net-zero emissions economywide by no later than 2050, global businesses and industrial companies are deeply amid a flurry of churning nerves and strategies aimed at tackling the crisis at hand. Megacompanies — including prominent tech companies — are hot-to-trot to tout progress with emission reduction programs, but there are numerous obstacles. One of the largest issues is that of unreliable or inaccurate data. Another significant obstacle: environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure requirements from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is expected this fall and is already making ripples.
The precipitous rise of ESG has reinvigorated participation in carbon offsetting programs as a steppingstone to make headway on sustainability targets. With this renewal, near-term applications of blockchain can provide immutable veracity (a much-needed and previously missing component) to offsetting practices — and in doing so, can aid in achieving progress on the path to net-zero.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/16/the-near-term-future-of-blockchain-tracking-carbon-offsets/?sh=543775475790

Artificial intelligence has always been met with both excitement and fear. It can make tasks much easier — but it can also replace jobs. It gets the same mixed reception in the world of accounting.
For CPAs who use it well, automation can take over some of the more mundane, time-consuming tasks. For CPAs offering advisory services, an estimated 80% of advisory time is used for processing information — just the sort of thing automation is built for. With so much effort devoted to tasks a machine could do, CPAs and their clients alike may begin to wonder if the CPA could just be replaced by this incredible technology.
For companies who are intrigued by the idea of AI replacing their CPAs (and CPAs who fear as much), it might be time to pump the brakes a little. As with other technologies that have emerged over the years, this tool is only as good as the craftsman who wields it. Here's why every business should have a real, live CPA — even with the advancement of AI.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/16/why-every-business-needs-an-accountant---dont-leave-it-up-to-ai/?sh=13d61b731a83

Everyone is familiar with IBM’s leadership in IT, AI, and cloud services. It also happens to be one of the leading providers for Enterprise Asset Management software through its Maximo line of software and services. These tools help manage large machines, like factories, powerplants, and heavy equipment.
Now, with the rise of digital twins, IBM is pivoting this business as an onramp to bringing intelligence, agility, and efficiency to a wide range of industries. The company has gone so far as to declare “You cannot have AI without Digital Twin.” The new IBM digital twin exchange promises to create an app store for the digitization of the physical world that brings together enterprises and various services and tools providers.
Welcome to the era of Data Commerce- Activate the full potential of data ecosystems to drive net new value for your business 1
We caught up with Lisa Seacat DeLuca, distinguished engineer and director of Emerging Solutions at IBM, who leads IBM’s digital twin research. She is also the most prolific woman inventor in company history; she has filed more than 800 patent applications and had over 600 granted.
Her team develops tools that are changing how engineers and technicians do their jobs by combining digital twins, AI, and IoT technologies and allowing organizations to share expertise across common assets.
She has also published two children’s books for geeky kids, “The Internet of Mysterious Things” and “A Robot Story.”
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/08/16/how-ibm-is-using-digital-twins-to-optimize-ai/

The web is full of stories detailing all the wonderful things artificial intelligence (AI) can do, and all the terrible things as well. But now that the deployment phase is well underway, one salient question remains: What is it like to work with AI?
For most people, the AI experience has been limited to consumer releases like Siri and Alexa, which, at the beginning at least, did not exactly shine. Yes, they could name the capital of Albania and direct you to the nearest coffee shop, but beyond that, the broad impression has been that AI is not all that intelligent. In fact, it can be downright stupid.
Training the newbie
In the workplace, the first thing most people will likely notice is that AI won’t simply take over all the tedious, unpleasant jobs right out of the box. It must be told what to do first. This is a radical departure from past generations of software in which users had to be trained and retrained with each new release. Going forward, the software will change on its own, but the user must do the training.
For this reason, said Turker Coskun, group manager at software developer C3 AI, AI apps will require a lot more care and feeding than traditional enterprise programs. The performance of any number of operating models will not remain consistent over time, due to AI’s ability to ingest data and alter its own operations as circumstances and objectives change. To accommodate this, many leading AI adopters are implementing MLOps frameworks (an intelligent form of DevOps) to continuously monitor performance and kick the AI back on track if it starts to drift beyond accepted parameters.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/08/16/bringing-your-ai-coworker-up-to-speed/

Most industrial organizations don't need to be sold on AI. They know its benefits, its value for being competitive, and that it's critical to their existence as a business. Consider some of the findings from a 2019 Accenture study, where 84% of C-suite executives said AI was essential to achieving their growth objectives, and 75% added that failing to scale AI across their organization will lead to them going out of business in five years.
So, the will to adopt AI is there; nobody still needs to hear the sales pitch. What's needed, though, is guidance on just how and where to get started.
How do you make AI real in the industrial space? With Industrial AI — AI solutions purpose-built for industrial sector applications. The issue organizations run into with adopting and scaling AI across the enterprise is this notion that AI needs to be applied to every system and business process right away. But implementing AI isn't like flipping a switch. If your measure of success is going to be based on turning an AI-less organization into an entirely AI-powered one overnight, you're almost certainly going to fail. Instead, start smaller and evolve your roadmap incrementally — with AI embedded into specific industrial applications underpinned by an ROI-driven use case. This ensures a more gradual transition, one that's easier to scale and quicker to prove value.
These Industrial AI applications need to be guided by domain knowledge and carefully chosen for purpose-fit, tangible use cases. While needs will vary between plants and the business problems you want to resolve, here are a few choice use cases that might help you start your own Industrial AI strategy — and reap a faster time-to-ROI from it.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/08/17/jumpstart-your-industrial-ai-strategy-with-these-three-use-cases/?sh=2db6c8f9139a

Latest released COVID-19 Outbreak-Global Internet of Things (IoT) in Energy Market Research Report provides detailed assessment of Key and emerging players showcasing company profiles, product/service offerings, market price, and sales revenue to better derive market size estimation. With this assessment the aim is to provide viewpoint on upcoming trends, growth drivers, opinions and facts derived from industry executives with statistically supported and market validated data. Furthermore, a detailed commentary on How or Why this market may see a growth momentum during the forecast period is analyzed and correlated with dominating and emerging players strength and weakness.
What's keeping AGT International, Maven Systems, Davra Networks, IBM, Flutura, Northwest Analytics, Cisco, Wind River, SAP, Carriots, Symboticware & ILS Technology gain competitive edge in COVID-19 Outbreak-Global Internet of Things (IoT) in Energy Market and stay up-to-date with available business opportunity in various segments and emerging territory.
Continue reading: https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/270722767/internet-of-things-in-energy-market-may-see-big-move--cisco-wind-river-carriots

Ife Joseph is only 11, but she has something to say.
The Montclair sixth grader, a poet and computer coder, has read her work on stage and designed an app as part of a collaboration between MIT and the group Black Girls Code. This spring, she was nominated to be Time magazine's "Kid of the Year," and was named one of 50 finalists out of 5,000 applicants before being eliminated.
Ife, who learned to code at age 6, became worried about racial inequality after George Floyd's death in 2020. "I saw what was happening and I didn't like it," she said. "I wanted to make a change, to be one small part of the thing that can help." 
Last spring, she was part of a "hackathon" between MIT and Black Girls CODE, the California-based nonprofit designed to combat the scarcity of black women in technology. On the last day of the coding marathon, the university invited participants to enter a contest to design an app focused on specific social themes. She signed up and created an app called “Mental Health for Social Justice," a digital journal for kids. With prompts and positive affirmations, the app makes it easier for kids to express their feelings and experiences around racial injustice. 
Continue reading:
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/montclair/2021/08/15/montclair-nj-ife-joseph-competed-time-magazine-kid-of-the-year/5551298001/

Ritu Thareja’s fascination for computers started while she was in school. She started writing BASIC codes and algorithms during her spare time, which led her to pursue a career in computer science.
But her road to her current position as Vice President, Software Development, Fiserv, did not start easy.
Her parents, who hail from small towns in Haryana and Rajasthan, had seen a life of financial hardships and faced societal prejudices for believing in her – a girl child.
“Despite this, they believed in my capabilities and ensured I received a good education, even if that meant selling their ‘only’ asset to pay my engineering college admission fee. Driven by their faith in me, I was determined to seek financial independence and security,” she says.
As a mathematics geek, her interest was reflected through top academic scores in subjects that involved mental math, logical reasoning, and data interpretation. After completing her BE in electrical engineering at Punjab Engineering College, Ritu joined Infosys as a mainframe programmer on banking projects and steadily managed technology teams to drive outcomes in the digital space.
Continue reading: https://yourstory.com/herstory/2021/08/women-tech-fiserv-ritu-thareja/amp

• First-ever AI-based 360° drone cybersecurity system that can detect, prevent, and respond to multiple cyber threats in real-time without requiring an operator
• Designed specifically for industrial and commercial drones, robotics, and autonomous platforms, Mobilicom’s ICE Cybersecurity Suite is a 3600 and multi-layered system that protects the platform, safeguards communication channels, and encrypts data
• The system will be incorporated into Mobilicom’s range of end-to-end smart solutions for the drone and robotics market and caters to fast-growing cybersecurity demand
• The Cybersecurity Suite expands Mobilicom’s offering and aligns with its transition to a software-as-a-service business model

Mobilicom Limited (Mobilicom or the Company, ASX: MOB) has launched its AI-based Immunity Cybersecurity and Encryption (ICE) cybersecurity suite to provide industry-leading 360° protection for commercial and industrial drones, robotics, and autonomous platforms against a wide variety of malicious attacks, including jamming.
Mobilicom’s ICE cybersecurity suite is the first AI-based 360° system in the world to be able to detect, prevent and respond to multiple drone/robotics cyber-attacks in real-time without requiring intervention by an operator. The ICE multi-faceted and multi-layered suite protects the platform, safeguards communication channels and encrypts the data that is transmitted and collected.
Specifically designed for commercial and industrial drone, robotics and autonomous platforms, Mobilcom’s ICE cybersecurity solution protects against more than 10 different types of cyber breaches and malicious attacks including jamming.
Continue reading: https://www.suasnews.com/2021/08/mobilicom-launches-world-first-ai-based-360-cybersecurity-suite-for-drones-robotics/

Ready to launch a blockchain project? Not so fast. Before you get started, you’ll want to make sure you know how to take a blockchain project from start to finish. CompTIA’s Blockchain Advisory Council has developed an infographic to help technology and business professionals better understand the seven phases of blockchain implementation.
Phase 1: Learn
Ensure everyone in your organization understands blockchain.

• Review recent research, business use cases and case studies.

Phase 2: Strategize
Integrate blockchain strategies into your business strategy.

• Define the business transformation opportunity.
• Determine if blockchain is the right choice.
• Develop a blockchain strategy.
• Integrate the blockchain strategy into the current business strategy.

 
Continue reading: https://connect.comptia.org/content/infographic/7-phases-of-blockchain-implementation/

According to its potential, blockchain is being used in various sectors of our life
A blockchain is a digital database, often known as a ledger, that is used to collaboratively record information and transactions. Blockchain is currently widely discussed in the media throughout the world. They’ve already been used in a variety of applications as decentralized ways to fraud-resistant computing that don’t rely on a trusted authority. A distributed, append-only log of time-stamped entries that is secured by cryptography from manipulation and alteration is known as a blockchain. Because of its unique characteristics, blockchain has been proposed for usage in a variety of applications following its successful implementation in Bitcoin.
1. Finance: By establishing a distributed public ledger, the blockchain reduces the complexities involved with financial services by allowing miners to verify transactions using proof-of-work.
2. Cryptocurrency: Blockchain has enabled the creation of cryptocurrency, which now has a market capitalization in the billions of dollars. A new block is created by running a consensus method such as proof-of-work on the Bitcoin network, which is based on a blockchain – a distributed transaction public ledger.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/blockchain-is-being-used-in-various-sectors-of-our-life/

The study of history and ancient people is immensely important to preserving the knowledge passed down through the generations. 
Unfortunately, the significance of the knowledge is particularly acute when it is lost. With tragedies such as the fire of the Library of Alexandria, or the pillaging of the House of Wisdom in ancient Baghdad, or the more recent losses of artifacts at the Iraq Museum, perspectives were lost, advancements in philosophy and literature were forgotten, and languages and translations vanished from the earth. 
As we look to preserve our history, how can we safeguard the artifacts of our heritage from disaster?
Using blockchain technology to keep a record of the data stored on a decentralized cloud service could be exactly what the historical and archive industries need to protect our collective human history from destruction, pillage and faulty record-keeping.
Blockchain as a data keeper
The archive industry in many sub-sections is underfunded and lacks the means to properly care for the data being held. As told in this 2014 declaration petitioning for more funding for the United States Archive, it is clear that there is a lack of funding on many fronts, which could result in the loss of physical and digital records. 
An alternative solution is to store data directly on the blockchain. As David Vorick, CEO of Skynet and co-founder of Sia, said to Cointelegraph, “a major advantage of using a blockchain is that you can build on an open marketplace, which ensures fair pricing for everyone.” This prevents third parties from taking part of the funding, while also making sure that community members who are passionate about protecting their heritage can fund a storage system directly. 
Continue reading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-blockchain-could-have-saved-the-library-of-alexandria

The blockchain industry market size was estimated by some to reach more than $21 billion by 2025. The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market as a whole already reaches over $1.9 trillion. An ecosystem that was once defined by its tight-knit community and exclusivity now reaches governments, businesses, institutional investors and individuals who are all becoming more positive about the evolving space.
With this new popularity, a crossroads has emerged. We have reached the stage of adoption where the amount of users utilizing decentralized technology has exceeded the functionality of the technology itself. This has resulted in regularly congested networks and a demand for solutions.
Many of the roadblocks we are experiencing could easily be solved with scaling solutions such as bridges, parachains and other features that create seamless transitions for Web 3.0 users and depend solely on a shared vision of a multichain approach to the next wave of blockchain adoption.
Scalability: The Ethereum challenge
Today, nearly all DeFi projects are being built on the Ethereum blockchain, making it the standard default blockchain for many decentralized applications (DApps) and protocols. However, scalability on Ethereum has presented many challenges. The pain points that have delayed adoption include costly gas fees, a complicated onboarding process and unnecessary repetition and obstacles for developers aiming to create new DApps and accompanying products.
Continue reading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/a-multichain-approach-is-the-future-of-the-blockchain-industry

Could your next lawyer be a robot? It sounds far fetched, but artificial intelligence (AI) software systems - computer programs that can update and "think" by themselves - are increasingly being used by the legal community.
Joshua Browder describes his app DoNotPay as "the world's first robot lawyer".
It helps users draft legal letters. You tell its chatbot what your problem is, such as appealing against a parking fine, and it will suggest what it thinks is the best legal language to use.
"People can type in their side of an argument using their own words, and software with a machine learning model matches that with a legally correct way of saying it," he says.
The 24-year-old and his company are based in Silicon Valley in California, but the firm's origins go back to London in 2015, when Mr. Browder was 18.
"As a late teenager in Hendon, north London, I was a horrible driver," he says. "I got a lot of expensive parking tickets - which, since I was still in secondary school, I couldn't afford."
Continue reading: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58158820

From maximizing advertisement relevance to customizing user experience, the benefits of applied sciences and advanced data analytics have become more apparent as industries adopt data-driven approaches to create new competitive advantages. In this article, we focus on companies in the insurance industry that are implementing applications of data science to deliver efficient, risk-adjusted solutions by detecting fraudulent activity and providing a personalized customer experience. The best place to start is by looking at some of the technological trends being used by insurance companies today.
Growing Trends in the Insurance Industry
Customer Experience & Coverage Personalization
With access to a customer’s behavioral, geographic, social, and account data, AI-enabled chatbots can provide seamless, automated, and personalized buying experiences. These bots are quickly becoming the industry standard. According to a 2020 MIT Technology Review survey of 1,004 business leaders, customer service (via chatbots) is the leading application of AI being deployed today. The study shows that 73% of respondents indicated that by 2022, it will still be the leading use of AI in companies.
Behavioral-Based Policy Pricing
In the auto insurance industry, we are seeing ubiquitous IoT sensors provide personalized data to pricing platforms, allowing safer drivers to be rewarded by paying less for auto insurance (known as usage-based insurance). These techniques have expanded beyond auto insurance, and we are now seeing health & dental insurance companies also use IoT sensors that provide people who maintain a healthier lifestyle with a lower rate for insurance. A recent article highlighted dental insurance company Beam Digital for their use of IoT technologies. This company provides a smart toothbrush to every customer and monitors their oral health, while using this information to support a dental insurance plan. Beam sends the customer notices and encouragement if their brushing habits are falling short of the required standard. The company hopes this will result in improved dental hygiene and reduced premiums.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/08/14/science-applied-3-ways-ai-and-ml-are-advancing-the-insurance-industry/

Pepperdata, a provider of tools that optimize IT infrastructure for computation, has seen a lot of trends come and go over the years. Now organizations are using the company’s tools to optimize infrastructure to process AI models.
VentureBeat caught up with Pepperdata CEO Ash Munshi to gain a deeper appreciation for IT issues, such as data management, that are holding back the rate at which enterprise IT departments can meaningfully implement AI. But he also pointed out that a lot of companies struggling with AI might be fighting the wrong battle for their business needs.
VentureBeat: What’s the trouble with data management in the enterprise today?
Ash Munshi: When we had just classic databases, data warehouses, and stuff like data was managed sort of centrally, people had a very well-defined view of what was going on. It was very narrow in scope. That definition has been blown to smithereens. It’s like everything is enterprise data. It’s just ballooned.
People have recognized data is important. That’s a good thing. More data is better, but what do you do with it? People don’t really know this.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/08/15/pepperdata-ceo-says-ai-ambitions-outpace-data-management-reality/

Teachers are one of the professions least at risk of being automated. A job that requires emotional intelligence and flexibility — in adapting lesson plans on-the-fly to a particular group of children, for example — is not one particularly well-suited to robots. Artificial intelligence, however, still deserves a role in the classroom. This is not as a replacement for teachers, but as a tool or an assistant that can aid them both in trying to close the gap in achievement between the rich and the poor and in making up for lost teaching time during the pandemic.
In the UK, school closures to stop the spread of coronavirus have helped to accelerate the adoption of AI-based learning platforms as teachers sought new online methods to keep students engaged and to track their progress. These new approaches, where they have been seen to work during the pandemic, will continue when pupils return to something that looks more like a normal education.
The right approach to such technologies is to see them not as substitutes for human labor, but as a way of improving its quality and productivity. Machine learning may be more sophisticated than a shovel but the principle is the same: tools enhance humans’ existing capabilities. The best AI applications promise to improve and accelerate teachers’ knowledge of what their students need, how best to deliver that teaching, and which students require the most help — from a human teacher — to keep up with their learning. 
Continue reading: https://www.ft.com/content/ef231955-e97d-4552-8dcc-f1afe01ad613

The Internet of Things (IoT) is already transforming supply chains, from asset tracking to inventory management to warehouse and fleet operations. There are more than 10 billion IoT devices operating today, and in the next decade, experts project an additional 15 billion devices will come online. IoT devices have the potential to tell supply chain managers where assets are, keep employees safer onsite and yield valuable data that can be used to eliminate logistics bottlenecks and ensure product quality.
But to date, the limitations of wired and conventional/ disposable battery-powered solutions have made the deployment of IoT challenging. It has been dramatically slow in adoption of intermodal tracking. When products leave the manufacturing site, there’s often no visibility into location until products are received inside a distribution center. Technologies such as wireless power will transform the supply chain by closing that gap, and giving supply chain managers more insight into the conditions the product encounters along the way that may affect quality or safety.
Wired power and conventional batteries won’t allow IoT to reach full potential
Currently, most IoT devices in the supply chain are powered by electricity delivered via wire or batteries that have to be changed or charged up using traditional cords, disposable batteries or charging pads. Delivering electricity to sensors through conventional wiring tethers devices, which limits where and how they can be deployed, making their use impractical for supply chain applications that involve moving products.
Disposable batteries don’t tether devices, but they are expensive to deploy at scale, and their manufacture has many negative environmental impacts, plus they can leak toxins and corrosive materials if not properly recycled. It’s also expensive and inefficient for workers to replace batteries at points along the supply chain. Labor costs are an issue with rechargeable batteries too; employees have to place them on wired charging pads, which is impractical when products are in transit.
Even with these power-related limitations, IoT has changed how supply chain managers keep track of goods. Supply chain managers currently use sensors to monitor products in the cold chain and keep track of assets in warehouses. But, real wireless power is poised to have an even more transformative effect, making intermodal asset tracking a reality.  
Innovations in truck trailer tracking point to wirelessly powered future
There’s one recent innovation that illustrates how real wireless power can be a gamechanger. Tracking truck trailers at giant distribution centers has long been a significant challenge. Distribution centers that serve huge retailers or logistics companies can occupy several square miles and receive hundreds of trucks per day, making it hard to precisely track dropped trailers in rows of nearly identical containers.
Continue reading: https://www.sdcexec.com/software-technology/supply-chain-visibility/article/21603100/ossia-how-real-wireless-power-will-transform-the-supply-chain

The final specification of Matter, the smart home interoperability protocol founded by Apple, Google, and Amazon, has been delayed by a few more months. While it was originally expected to be ready this fall, according to Tobin Richardson, the CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), that timeline has been pushed out until the first half of 2022, with members getting a sneak peak before voting on the spec at the end of this year.
That means we’ll have to wait until the first half of next year for the software development kit, the start of a formal certification program, and the first certified devices it turns out. When I asked Richardson if he could narrow that time frame down a bit, he declined. For consumers, it means the wait for new smart home devices that support the Matter protocol will be delayed until the latter half of 2022 (I can’t wait for our 2022 Gift Guide!) and for those developing products, it means they will need to hold off on their plans for a few more months.
Richardson gave several reasons why the Matter Working Group (formerly known as the Project Connected Home over IP Working Group) decided to delay the specification. They included the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the addition of another 29 companies to the Matter membership, and the challenge of delivering a high-quality software development kit as part of the spec.
The delay is disappointing, but it isn’t a huge shock. What the folks behind Matter are trying to do is audacious. The goal is to deliver an interoperable smart home protocol that lets devices talk to each other and share their capabilities. It will help cut through the challenges of building a smart home, where consumers have to worry if their light bulb will work with Alexa or Google, or if their door locks can talk to their security sensors. All Matter-certified devices will be able to work together; consumers will be able to choose from among multiple digital assistants, hubs, and apps as suits their needs.
The idea for Matter was launched in December 2019; participants expected the standard would be ready in about a year’s time. But then COVID happened, so the spec was delayed until the first half of 2021. Then in May, we learned that spec was delayed further, until the fall. But we did get several updates on its progress, including details about some of the planned features and supported devices. For those wondering, here’s what we know about Matter so far, and what we still don’t know.
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