In August 2021, we published a report entitled “What is the ‘Thin IoT’ stack and why do I need it?” which examined the availability of a set of technologies spanning hardware, software and connectivity that are individually optimised for constrained environments and collectively will help to drive enormous growth in the market. The report considers them collectively under the name ‘Thin IoT’ because they are all developed to be as lightweight and undemanding on resources as possible.
The constraints that these technologies need to work under is a combination of limited access to power, low bandwidth connectivity, and limited processing and memory. In some cases, these limitations are in part due to the nature of the applications, for instance being located in a remote place with no ready access to power. 
For the most part, however, the constraints are self-imposed, required in order to ensure that the application is as cheap to deliver as possible at the required scale. Many of the IoT applications with the greatest potential (in terms of volume of devices) are viable only if they can be delivered at very low cost. A good emerging example is the provision of printable smart labels for asset tracking as developed by Altair Semiconductor, ARM, Murata and Vodafone, and deployed by Bayer.
To a great extent, the ‘low hanging fruit’ of applications with ready access to power, processing and the other elements, and limited price sensitivity, have already been quite effectively addressed. The arguments over whether to connect aeroplanes, wind turbines and industrial compressors, for instance, have already been won. While not all have necessarily been connected yet, inertia being what it is, the argument over the value of doing so has certainly been overwhelmingly established. 
What is required for the IoT market to boom is the expansion to new mass-adoption high volume applications where the use of IoT has been limited to date. To do that requires the simplification of the process of deploying IoT and a reduction in cost. This combination will open up a lot of new applications. That is where the Thin IoT Stack comes in. It is collectively aimed at reducing the complexity (by using off-the-shelf elements) and, particularly, the cost, of deploying IoT. In the case of cost, in large part this is by way of reducing the IoT application’s need for power, processing, memory and so forth. 
Continue reading: https://www.toolbox.com/tech/iot/guest-article/thin-iot-will-accelerate-connected-devices-in-future/

Internet of Things isn’t just for industrial enterprises or smart home enthusiasts. The strengths of this tech revolution—in which equipment shares real-time data—are ideal for meeting the challenges of service providers, from restaurants to automotive shops to pet groomers. Chief among those challenges is evolving customer expectations. 
Today’s consumers expect fast, consistent service. In one 2021 survey, nearly 70 percent of respondents considered fast shipping a deciding factor for online purchases. Increasingly, “fast” means instant, with the same-day delivery market expected to grow at a rate of over 20 percent through 2027. But these expectations aren’t limited to e-commerce. If you can’t meet a client’s timeline, they’ll go somewhere else—maybe somewhere that’s already using IoT solutions for a better customer experience.
IoT has plenty to offer in addressing service challenges, including predictive maintenance, asset tracking, and advanced process automation. But the critical advantage IoT brings to service industries comes from one capability: service tracking.
Service Tracking with IoT Solutions
Service tracking is just what it sounds like real-time visibility into the progression of a task, whether that’s boat repair or a haircut. An IoT solution provides this visibility automatically. Here’s a quick picture of how IoT service tracking works: 

1. Multiple low-cost sensors observe the task, watching for progress indicators. These are the things of the IoT, sensors embedded in equipment or posted at a distance, like cameras or RF devices. They’re called edge devices, and they collect data at the point of work. 
2. Internet connectivity transmits the data. Edge devices collect process data, but to share it, they need wireless connectivity. That could be a dedicated narrowband IoT network, 5G, or even Bluetooth. 
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   Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/how-iot-is-transforming-the-service-industry

Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky detected 1.5 billion attacks against Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the first half of this year, using "honeypots," software that impersonates a vulnerable device, the company’s research department said in an email to PYMNTS on Friday (Sept. 3).
Kaspersky's research found that there were twice as many attacks compared to the first six months of 2020. IoT devices include connected appliances, smartwatches, voice assistants and much more.
“Since IoT devices, from smartwatches to smart home accessories, have become an essential part of our everyday lives, cybercriminals have skillfully switched their attention to this area,” said Dan Demeter, security expert at Kaspersky. “We see that once users’ interest in smart devices rose, attacks also intensified. Some people believe they aren't important enough to be hacked, but we’ve observed how attacks against smart devices intensified during the past year.”
Demeter added that most of the attacks can be avoided with the installation of a trustworthy security service.
Data collected from the honeypots show there is a continuous upward trend of attacks on IoT devices. The honeypots were posted publicly on the internet and served as a decoy for hackers going after such devices, according to the statement.
Because fraudsters going after IoT gadgets always “update their toolsets,” cybersecurity pros at Kaspersky warn that exploits are “being weaponized” to glean sensitive information from infected devices. Further, the compromised devices can be used to “mine cryptocurrencies” as well as to execute conventional distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Continue reading: https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2021/kaspersky-detects-iot-cyberattacks-double-last-year/

The underrepresentation of women in the South African technology sector is a problem that has for years begged the attention of government and the industry itself.
According to the Women In Tech ZA initiative, only 23% of tech jobs in South Africa are held by women. The Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on various sectors and the economy but has also been touted as the most effective catalyst for digital transformation, and the technology sector has reaped the rewards.
There is hope. According to Seugnet van den Berg, a founding partner at Bizmod, the technology sector is one of the sectors that can claim the least damage from the pressures of the last 18 months.
But there are several things that need to be done to close the gender gap in the industry.
Van den Berg says it starts with the recruiting process.
It is crucial that organisations recruit based on potential and performance, and not on gender. Therefore, selection practises should be designed to incorporate a portfolio or body of evidence.
Organisational policies also need to be reviewed, and reflect the change in the workforce demographic. Where necessary, policies need to be amended to attract more women.
The physical workplace and culture needs to be scrutinised to ensure that gender bias is removed and replaced with a gender-inclusive environment for all to thrive.
Continue reading: https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/entrepreneurs/companies-that-employ-women-are-45-more-likely-to-have-greater-profit-study-9192f6aa-984f-47bb-9641-9c1def4d658f

In the professional world, we’ve taken some laudable steps on the path to gender parity — but there’s still an awful lot of work to be done. This is true especially in the technology sector; a realm in which women remain woefully underrepresented with recruitment structures skewed heavily towards their male counterparts. 
The proportion of women in tech remains staggeringly low. A recent study found females to make up just 16 percent of IT professionals, a figure that has scarcely risen over the last ten years. This cannot be explained away by a dearth of youthful, academic talent: when it comes to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects (STEM), research indicates that boys and girls study in equal numbers, with the latter typically achieving higher grades. 
The problem isn’t one of pipeline potential; it’s about entrenched employment inequality and workplace discrimination. It’s in the offices and interview rooms that gender bias manifests — and there it must be rooted out. I believe this can be done, but only if companies commit to some significant changes. 1) Introduce blind CVs 
The recruitment process is riddled with gender discrimination — that’s a depressing thing to say in 2021, but it’s a reality we can’t ignore. 
Much of this bias is unconscious, a consequence of deep-seated societal prejudices that seep into the professional sphere, contaminating company cultures and tainting how new talent is taken on.  
Studies bear this out. Women are on average 30 percent less likely to be contacted for a job interview than men with comparable qualifications and experience, a recent piece of research suggests. Even the science profession — known for its unsentimental objectivity — is plagued by discrimination, Yale researchers have found. 
When women are selected for a role, they’re often offered a smaller salary than male colleagues. That's the conclusion reached by tech industry recruitment site Hired, whose most recent report on wage inequality suggests the gender pay gap widened 3 percent between 2019 and 2020. 
The answer? Blind CVs. If a hiring manager can’t tell an applicant’s gender, they can’t be prejudiced — unconsciously or otherwise — against them. Indeed, with anonymity preventing female candidates from falling at the first hurdle, research suggests they’re up to 46 percent more likely to be hired.
2) Set gender targets 
It’s heartening when a tech company commits itself to gender parity — but without concrete, measurable goals, they’re unlikely ever to get there. 
That’s why employers should spell out clear, incremental gender inclusivity targets. Measures to reach these targets can take a number of shapes: robust onboarding processes, reverse mentoring, external coaching, assessments that unlock sponsorship programs for high-performers to accelerate to senior leadership positions.  
However, these alone are not enough. Organizations must assign a certain proportion of C-suite and top-tier executive roles to women. Additionally, they should set quarterly and annual success targets pegged not only to financial performance, but gender parity progress as well. 
Continue reading: https://www.itproportal.com/features/how-can-firms-shatter-the-glass-ceiling-when-it-comes-to-achieving-gender-parity/

All Raise, a nonprofit backed by Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures that works to support women and non-binary startup founders, is launching a Chicago organization led by some notable local tech leaders.
All Raise said this week that it's launching a Chicago chapter in partnership with Gender Equality in Tech (GET) Cities, a group focused on gender equity in tech, to make sure men aren't the only ones benefiting from the fast-growth that Chicago's tech scene has seen in recent years.
The group, which provides mentoring, events and resources to help women founders get more funding—and help more women launch careers in venture capital—is launching with a steering committee made up of several familiar faces in Chicago's tech community. 
The Chicago committee includes Desiree Vargas Wrigley, a serial entrepreneur and leader of P33's Techrise program; Elle Ramel, the GET Cities Chicago director; Genevieve Thiers, the founder of Sittercity.com; Haley Kwait Zollo, a partner at Chicago VC firm Starting Line; Jasmine Shells, the co-founder and CEO of local startup Five to Nine; and Lindsay Knight, a partner at Chicago Ventures.
Continue reading: https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/inno/stories/news/2021/09/03/melinda-gates-all-raise-chicago-chapter.html

Over recent times, the tech industry has been rocked with apparently endless high-profile age discrimination lawsuits.
IBM, for example, is in the process of being sued by a number of different parties for what was claimed in a report by ProPublica and Mother Jones as far back as 2018 to be systematic efforts to get rid of older employees and replace them with younger ones. Recent court documents contend that the company’s “highest executives created and attempted to conceal a multi-faceted ‘fire-and-hire’ scheme with the ultimate goal of making IBM’s workforce younger”.
A similar lawsuit against HP was given the green light in April, after five plaintiffs alleged they were part of a process of illegally selecting older workers for dismissal under the supplier’s multi-year Workforce Restructuring Initiative, which began in 2012.
But they are scarcely the only ones. So just what is going on here? Despite the tech industry’s persistent hand-wringing over talent shortages and the continual launch of one diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiative after another to try and resolve the skills crisis, why does the issue of age discrimination continue to rear its ugly head? Is it simply the unfortunate reflection of a sector that really is as notoriously ageist as the popular stereotype suggests?
The answer to the latter question appears to be a resounding “yes” – although more so in less mature subsectors, such as software and the digital startup world, and less so among established companies and more mature subsectors, such as telecoms or hardware.
While most of the available data seems to have been complied pre-pandemic, a report by CWJobs at the end of 2019 revealed that the average UK tech worker starts experiencing age discrimination at the tender age of 29, nearly a decade earlier than the national average. As a result, by the time they hit 38, they are considered by colleagues to be ‘over the hill’, with 35% saying they are classed as too old for their role and 32% afraid of losing their job as a result.
Unsurprisingly then, just over two out of five (41%) acknowledged having observed age discrimination in the workplace compared to an average of 27% across other UK industries. The most common form this bias takes consists of older workers not being offered a job (47%), being overlooked for promotion (31%) and excluded from social activities (28%).

Age discrimination in action
If statistics across the wider economy are anything to go by though, the situation has only got worse since the pandemic struck. The Office for National Statistics indicates that over 50s have been hit harder than any group other than the under-25s, who were disproportionately employed in distressed sectors, such as leisure and hospitality.
In the case of older staff though, not only were they more likely to have had their working hours reduced, but they also experienced higher levels of long-term furloughing, making them now the most likely group to lose their jobs and become unemployed long-term.
Continue reading: https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Age-discrimination-an-overlooked-diversity-issue-in-tech

A research study by The National Center for Women & Information Technology showed that “gender diversity has specific benefits in technology settings,” which could explain why tech companies have started to invest in initiatives that aim to boost the number of female applicants, recruit them in a more effective way, retain them for longer, and give them the opportunity to advance. But is it enough?
Four years ago, we launched a diversity series aimed at bringing the most inspirational and powerful women in the tech scene to your attention. Today, we’d like you to meet Abigail Ramlogan, Marketing product evangelist at NetBrain.
Today’s Woman in Tech: Abigail Ramlogan, Marketing product evangelist at NetBrain
With over a decade of experience as a Network Engineer, Abigail Ramlogan is a fierce advocate for “working smarter, not harder” through network automation. She is the Product Evangelist at NetBrain, the leading solution for transforming network operations from human-centric to automation-centric. Abigail spearheaded the company’s hands-on Test Drive environment and manages thought leadership for its social media platforms.
When did you become interested in technology? What first got you interested in tech?
Technology is so important to everything we do in our everyday lives. Tech makes life much more efficient i.e. COVID and remote working. My interest in technology began long ago, but the point at which I knew I wanted to immerse myself in the industry was after I took a part-time job during my master’s program.
I had a part-time job working on campus doing websites and IT. I remember feeling really sad about my original master’s program’s field of study, and my work at my part-time job was more fulfilling. I enjoyed my job so much I knew at that point the tech industry was where I needed to be. I walked over to the information science and technology department and requested a program change. At the time, there was a 24-hour window and very slim chance of me getting in the program, but I was able to talk to the head leaders of the department and get any issues I would have faced resolved. Through my tenacity, they could see my passion for technology. It was and still is the best choice I’ve ever made.
How did you end up in your career path? What obstacles did you have to overcome?
I am originally from Trinidad & Tobago, and in our culture we emphasize the importance of math and science. If you are good in either it is expected to go into the medical field or engineering. Growing up, I was really good at math. As the daughter of an engineer, it was essentially destined I would become one.
In undergrad, I studied and received a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. As mentioned previously, I later received a master’s degree in information science and technology. I worked as an engineer and consultant for over a decade at companies like Norwegian Cruise Line, Hotwire Communications, and USAA.
Continue reading: https://jaxenter.com/women-in-tech-ramlogan-175281.html

It’s a question that takes some pondering: How do you get an aerial spraying drone with rotaries and extended booms out of the middle of a field of 9-foot-high corn in August?
Jason Webster, the chief agronomist at Precision Planting, was faced with that dilemma at the company’s research farm in mid-summer when a Rantizo spraying drone suddenly set down in the middle of the field.
Companies provide him with equipment to demonstrate to farmers and crop advisors touring the research farm, and he had a tour coming in a few hours.
As a safety feature, the Rantizo spraying drone is designed to land immediately if it senses a wall or some danger. Webster didn’t know why it suddenly landed where it did. He did know he needed to get it out of the field with minimal damage to both the specialized equipment and the corn.
First, he sent in reconnaissance.
Part of his aerial crop scouting system included a smaller drone which could help him find the larger one and map its location.
Once found, the next question was how to get it out.
Someone suggested using the Hagie high boy for the rescue mission as a way to minimize crop and equipment damage. So the team maneuvered the Hagie out to the designated location in the field, gently loaded the drone and returned it to safety.
Continue reading: https://www.montgomerynews.com/around_the_web/agriculture/field-day-demos-ups-and-downs-for-drone-application/article_e03ae3a9-3741-527d-ad0f-55cb76519634.html

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is busy these days, tracking the formation and movement of powerful storms during another above-average hurricane season. NOAA’s mission goes far beyond telling the country when and where a tropical storm might hit, however.
“NOAA is in charge of studying everything, from up in the sky to down to the bottom of the ocean,” says Katie Sweeney, a biologist at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center Marine Mammal Laboratory.
For years now, NOAA has used unmanned aerial systems, better known as drones, to help it fulfill a variety of its missions, from forecasting weather to monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions and protecting fisheries and marine mammals.
The drones NOAA uses have become increasingly sophisticated, and the agency is using edge computing and the cloud to more efficiently gather, analyze and disseminate data that they collect in the field. NOAA’s drones also leverage artificial intelligence capabilities to better study hurricanes and keep track of populations of seals in Alaska.
NOAA Uses Drones to See Inside Hurricanes
Most of the drones used in the government have bene developed by the Defense Department and defense industry, and NOAA has been able to take advantage of some of those investments, according to Phil Hall, director of the uncrewed systems program in the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations at NOAA.
However, those drones are typically not tailored to NOAA’s needs, so the agency uses a “mix between specialized UAS that might be used to measure weather, or we’re also using a lot of commercial off-the-shelf, rather inexpensive systems and modifying those for NOAA uses,” Hall says.
“In some parts of NOAA, they have really exploded and have become a must-have technology,” Hall adds.
Joseph Cione, lead research meteorologist for NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory’s Hurricane Research Division, notes that scientists have long conducted manned reconnaissance of storms through old-school “hurricane hunting.”
However, drones can provide NOAA and other researchers with more detailed information that can help communities prepare for disasters. “We live in the boundary layer, we live low, we don’t live at 20,000 feet,” Cione says. “So, when storms make landfall, we want to know what the winds are doing right at that boundary layer.”
NOAA notes that the agency does not want to fly manned planes low, for safety purposes. Like the Navy, NOAA uses P-3 aircraft to fly into hurricanes. The Navy suggested to NOAA that it follows its lead and drop drones out of P-3 planes into hurricanes. “So we did, and it worked,” Cione says.
NOAA had “some great success” with this approach between 2014 and 2018, Cione says. The agency learned several lessons from using the drones, but because they were designed from the military, Cione wanted to design something from scratch. The drone would need to be sophisticated and intelligent.
“We have every intention of making these things artificial intelligence-driven,” Cione says.
According to Cione, the AI-driven drones are not automated in such a way that they are dropped out of planes and then fly only one preplanned route. “Each storm is different, so that won’t work,” he says.
“As it’s flying, it senses what’s going on,” Cione adds. “It’s using its sensors, its machine learning, its artificial intelligence, understanding its environment, making decisions based upon the sensors and then going into the environment that we want it to go into.”
Such tools show the “potential for these systems to really leverage and increase our ability to get more data in these locations,” Hall says.
Those AI tools will enable NOAA to gain “situational awareness in a storm that is going to make landfall,” Cione says. That can help NOAA and state and local authorities evacuate communities with more precision. “You save lives,” Cione says.
Continue reading: https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2021/09/how-noaa-uses-drones-study-everything-seals-hurricanes

Several years ago, Probyn Thompson saw the writing in the skies. A retired Air Force officer and pilot, Thompson closed out his career training airmen to fly drones in unmanned missions over Afghanistan.
"In 2016 I saw that this commercial drone industry was taking over. So I started doing instruction for that on my own," said Thompson. "This is one of those areas somebody is going to have to learn how to fix them, how to program them, how to take the data and analyze it. There's a lot of jobs there."
Since then, Thompson has been teaching a mixture of in-person and remote commercial drone classes at colleges, trade schools and law enforcement agencies.
Later this month, his program lands at Cleveland Community College.
The college's continuing education department has partnered with Thompson to offer a six-week commercial drone pilot program.
Conducted online over that six weeks, the course covers topics from unmanned aircraft regulation, operation in weather and commercial laws regarding drones.
During the online portion of the course, students meet once per week with Thompson via a web call, where he assigns weekly homework assignments and uploads training videos and reading materials for the class.
Continue reading: https://www.shelbystar.com/story/news/2021/09/03/new-drone-program-comes-ccc/5684746001/

Women in the AI field are making research breakthroughs, launching exciting companies, spearheading vital ethical discussions, and inspiring the next generation of AI professionals. And that’s why we created the VentureBeat Women in AI Awards — to emphasize the importance of their voices, work, and experiences, and to shine a light on some of these leaders.
We first announced the six winners at Transform 2021 in July, and ever since, we’ve been catching up with each of them for deeper discussions around their work and emerging challenges in the field. Our conversations have touched on everything from regulation and dealing with messy real world data to how to approach AI more responsibly. The winners — who span the globe — also talked us through successful efforts and initiatives they’ve launched, from groups focused on increasing diversity in the field to a machine learning bootcamp upskilling workers.
Now, we’re bringing all these discussions to one place. Enjoy the summaries below, and click through to read the full conversations.
Think of an AI technology, and Dr. Nuria Oliver was likely working on it decades ago when it still felt like science fiction.
Her research and inventions have ignited advancements across the industry and now drive many of the products and services we use every day. But while Oliver, the winner of our AI Research Award, has published more than 150 scientific papers and earned 41 patents, she doesn’t believe in technological advancement for the sake of it. Above all, she is today focused on responsible AI and “developing technology that’s on our side, that really has our interests and our well-being as the main objective function.”
Read the full interview with Oliver, a true AI research pioneer, where she details her impact on the technologies we use today, the need for responsible AI, and how she thinks we should redefine “progress.”
Briana Brownell didn’t enter this field to earn accolades. She set out to create an AI that would do her job for her — or at least that’s the joke she likes to tell.
Really, Brownell, winner of VentureBeat’s Women in AI entrepreneur award, set out to build a company that would combine her data analytics background with AI. In 2015, she launched Pure Strategy, which uses an Automated Neural Intelligence Engine (ANIE) to help companies understand unstructured data. She and her team invented algorithms from scratch to make it happen, and the system has been used by doctors to communicate with patients and with each other across cultural knowledge, for example. She also moonlights as a science communicator, inspiring not just young children — especially girls — but everyone around her.
Read the full interview with Brownell, where we discuss how to work with messy real-world data, the importance of science communication, and how AI research and entrepreneurship can best come together.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/03/women-in-ai-ethics-research-and-entrepreneurship/

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in managing records in the government continues to grow in importance, and it will continue to play a critical role in the future, Federal agents said during a virtual conference hosted by the Digital Government Institute on September 2.
According to Christopher Carr, records manager at the Department of the Defense (DoD), the role of AI in the government is to perform repetitive and mundane tasks for the allotment of a user’s time to be focused on more complex duties and challenges.
“AI is our best solution for greater agility in serving our customers and meeting their mission and our mission requirements. [It’s] an enhancement of our practices rather than a replacement or substitution of those current practices,” Carr said.
However, while Carr’s office has many hopes for the implementation of AI, it remains in a pre-AI stage, he added.
“We do have several high-tech scanners that intricately scan record books. But with regards to information organization and other elements of records management, I would say that we’re in a pre-phase, and we still have a way to go on this journey,” Carr said.
Additionally, AI allows government agencies to distill information so that senior decision-makers can make data-driven decisions. Ultimately the factors in decision-making must be distilled down for a senior decision-maker. And without the use of automation, AI, it’s going to be very difficult to make the best decisions possible.
Continue reading: https://www.meritalk.com/articles/federal-agents-on-ai-use-for-records-management/

Facebook users who recently watched a video from a British tabloid featuring Black men saw an automated prompt from the social network that asked if they would like to “keep seeing videos about Primates,” causing the company to investigate and disable the artificial intelligence-powered feature that pushed the message.
On Friday, Facebook apologized for what it called “an unacceptable error” and said it was looking into the recommendation feature to “prevent this from happening again.”
The video, dated June 27, 2020, was by The Daily Mail and featured clips of Black men in altercations with white civilians and police officers. It had no connection to monkeys or primates.
Darci Groves, a former content design manager at Facebook, said a friend had recently sent her a screenshot of the prompt. She then posted it to a product feedback forum for current and former Facebook employees. In response, a product manager for Facebook Watch, the company’s video service, called it “unacceptable” and said the company was “looking into the root cause.”
Ms. Groves said the prompt was “horrifying and egregious.”
Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman, said in a statement: “As we have said, while we have made improvements to our A.I., we know it’s not perfect, and we have more progress to make. We apologize to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations.”
Google, Amazon and other technology companies have been under scrutiny for years for biases within their artificial intelligence systems, particularly around issues of race. Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is biased against people of color and has more trouble identifying them, leading to incidents where Black people have been discriminated against or arrested because of computer error.
Continue reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/technology/facebook-ai-race-primates.html

Two years ago, before Apple’s launch of the Apple Card, there was much discussion about how the no-fee credit card would enable the tech giant to storm into the financial services business. However, when people discuss the Apple Card today, it’s in part because of the glitches in Apple’s artificial intelligence algorithms that determine wannabe cardholders’ credit limits. 
In November 2019,  a Dane tweeted that while his wife and he had both applied for the Apple Card with the same financial information, he was awarded a credit limit 20 times higher than that of his wife—even though, as he admitted, his wife had a higher credit score. Adding fuel to the fire, Apple’s cofounder, Steve Wozniak, claimed that the same thing had happened to his wife too. The card had been launched in August 2019, and it was estimated that there were 3.1 million Apple Card credit card holders in the U.S. at the beginning of 2020, so this issue may well have affected tens of thousands of women. A spate of complaints resulted in a New York Department of Financial Services investigation, which recently cleared Apple of gender-based discrimination, but only after the digital giant quietly raised wives’ credit limits to match those of their husbands. 
As business sets about deploying A.I. at scale, the focus is increasingly shifting from the use of the technology to create and capture value to the inherent risks that A.I.-based systems entail. Watchdog bodies such as the Artificial Intelligence Incident Database have already documented hundreds of cases of A.I.-related complaints, ranging from the questionable scoring of students’ exams to the inappropriate use of algorithms in recruiting and the differential treatment of patients by health care systems. As a result, companies will soon have to comply with regulations in several countries that aim to ensure that A.I.-based systems are trustworthy, safe, robust, and fair. Once again, the European Union is leading the way, outlining a framework last year in its White Paper on Artificial Intelligence: A European Approach to Excellence and Trust, as well as its proposal for a legal framework in April 2021. 
Companies must learn to tackle A.I. risks not only because it will be a regulatory requirement, but because stakeholders will expect them to do so. As many as 60% of executives reported that their organizations decided against working with A.I. service providers last year due to responsibility-related concerns, according to a recent Economist Intelligence Unit study. To effectively manage A.I., business must grasp the implications of regulations and social expectations on its use even while keeping in mind the technology’s unique characteristics, which we’ve discussed at length in our recent Harvard Business Review article. Indeed, figuring out how to balance the rewards from using A.I. with the risks could well prove to be a new, and sustainable, source of competitive advantage. 
Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2021/09/03/artificial-intelligence-business-benefits-safety-risk/

Marketers are no exception to the relentless pace of organizational digital transformation and automation—especially by leveraging artificial intelligence. AI-powered automation doesn’t just make a firm’s marketing department faster, it also becomes smarter by leveraging data far more efficiently than through manual methods. It’s no surprise that many companies have already begun to adopt marketing intelligence in their digital marketing strategies, which can generally be broken down into three main areas: smarter customer interactions, personalization and risk assessment.
Smarter customer interactions
An increasing number of businesses have modernized their methods for customer communication by implementing predictive messaging tools such as chatbots and more. These automated communication instruments enhance the customer experience by opening rapid communication channels between interested buyers and sellers, bolstering the customer experience while simultaneously fostering brand loyalty. Younger customers especially have higher expectations for customer service innovation. 
In particular, the era of direct messaging has led to a boon for “smart” chatbots. They can be a powerful customer tool, cutting response times, saving costs and expediting customer interactions. These automated interfaces operate through several channels to streamline conversations with customers at any time and place, even outside regular working hours. Chatbots’ cousins, AI-powered phone agents, are also becoming customers’ everyday companions. Virtual assistants in general have grown in popularity, as they provide faster, more economical ways of encouraging online sales.
Smarter personalization
Another marketing area that AI transforms is personalization. According to data from dotdigital’s Global E-Commerce Benchmark Report 2020, only 5% of brands currently provide contextually relevant content. 
As businesses market across multiple channels, it is essential to utilize every piece of data collected to conduct smart outreach. Artificial intelligence enables businesses to predict consumer preferences by collecting and interpreting data to tailor messaging, products and recommendations accordingly across channels, from social media to email. For instance, web metrics, such as response and value indicators, will indicate what resonates with the targeted consumer. Sellers can then predict consumer wants and needs more accurately through AI-powered data mining. This allows businesses to personalize their content in terms of segmentation and targeting. 
Smarter risk assessment
Digital transformation, which has only been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, opens the door even further to security risks. Hence, solutions that help businesses detect and prevent security risks are more needed than ever. 
Continue reading: https://adage.com/article/opinion/3-ways-artificial-intelligence-will-change-marketing-forever/2362516

Everyone agrees artificial intelligence is powerful technology. That’s why agencies across the government are looking at it to speed things up and improve mission delivery. But AI can be misused. Just look at the super-surveillance society that is communist China. For how federal agencies can keep AI honest, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turned to someone who’s done extensive AI research. She’s the program lead for the artificial intelligence security initiative at the University of California Berkley, Jessica Newman.
Listen in to the podcast: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/artificial-intelligence/2021/09/some-ways-agencies-can-keep-artificial-intelligence-from-getting-out-of-control/

Not only has demand for cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related expertise increased, but new data suggests that the kinds of roles being posted have shifted over time.
Gathering together the most recent data on the cryptocurrency and blockchain job market, a new report suggests that higher levels of institutional adoption have spurred greater demand for expertise in the sector.
According to the employment website Indeed — cited Thursday in Korea IT Times — as of mid-July 2021, the overall share of crypto and blockchain job postings on the platform has grown 118% compared with early September 2020. 
This solid growth has also come with a shift in the roles being sought after, with the share of management posts in crypto and blockchain increasing 29.87% year-on-year as of July 16. Human resource accounts have risen 200% over the same time frame, whereas software development jobs have dropped down to 29.7% of all crypto and blockchain posts compared with 34.8% the previous year. All data on the allocation of roles has reportedly been drawn from the crypto trading simulator Crypto Parrot. 
As the Korea IT Times observes, blockchain-related roles tend toward a higher salary range than other technology posts as they demand a strong knowledge of cryptography combined with expertise in ledger economics and object-oriented programming, among other areas. While crypto and blockchain — even DeFi— have gained traction in educational institutions steadily, the report alleges that many developers in the sector remain largely autodidact, suggesting that universities and programs are lagging. 
The report further claims that reliance upon remote workers during the pandemic may prove to be a good fit for an industry that prizes decentralization, encouraging core developers and researchers to engage with multiple partners and employers on different projects. 
While the report does not provide data on the share of public and private sector employers seeking crypto talent, this year has seen everyone from Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to the Bank of England advertise related roles.
Continue reading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-and-blockchain-jobs-share-grew-118-in-ten-months-new-data-shows

There is a lot of excitement around blockchain right now, for a good reason. Production use cases continue to emerge across sectors such as manufacturing, energy, air travel, insurance and finance. Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations using blockchain smart contracts will see a 50% increase in their data quality.
Yet, Gartner also predicts that blockchain will reduce data availability by 30%. Before its use can reach ubiquity, blockchain-based application development has some hurdles to overcome. And if enterprises are to get on board, executives will need to see tangible proof of its value in the form of reduced expenses and increased profits directly correlated with blockchain adoption.
“Enterprises aren’t going to change their business model to adopt a new technology,” said CasperLabs CEO Mrinal Manohar. Just as it’s difficult to dramatically alter the UX for established products, it’s similarly difficult to change the developer experience for established software production routines.
I recently met with Manohar to discuss the limitations and the changes required to accelerate enterprise blockchain adoption. According to Manohar, much of it boils down to taking a DevOps approach—reducing energy use, enabling CI/CD, ensuring stable development environments and providing room for change and ongoing testing—will be critical to spur adoption. This could also mean abstracting complexity away from the developer and end users. However, once more production proofs are out there, the shift toward blockchain will be swift and it will be massive.
What’s Hindering Enterprise Adoption?
Enterprise adoption comes down to UI and UX, said Manohar. He predicts blockchain will follow a similar path as the internet. In its command-line days, the internet was only adopted by die-hard techies. But once visual-based actions were possible through the browser, consumer interest exploded.
Similarly, blockchain might see more production use once the complexity is pushed to the background. “A technology is awesome when it’s 99% invisible,” said Manohar. However, at the moment, blockchain is 99% visible, he adds. For example, it isn’t easy to spin up a node and test a blockchain app. Lowering the requirements to 50% with more abstraction, simulation and integration with cloud providers could help tremendously.
In general, Manohar believes that four key factors are hindering enterprise adoption:

1. Enterprises need a lower energy footprint. Attaining high throughput on a public network without sacrificing decentralization and security is tricky. If blockchain drains operations when scaled, organizations may simply opt for a centralized data store. Therefore, enterprises will require a blockchain with minimal energy requirements.
2. Large companies want developer environments that are similar to what’s already in place. In many ways, blockchain throws out the old playbook. But such a significant shift is a hard sell across multiple IT divisions. Large companies will require blockchain abilities that plug into the existing developer stack. Using a blockchain with familiar programming languages and plugins to popular IDEs like Visual Studio and IntelliJ will decrease onboarding effort.
3. They need more control. Blockchains typically use immutable contracts. This is great for sustaining a shared distributed history, but Manohar believes that contracts need to be more malleable to enable continual upgrades. Furthermore, there is the issue of privacy when adopting blockchain. Some implementers don’t want all 100% of data to be on the public chain. Having the ability to maintain both private and public nodes for smart contracts could help enable more flexibility.
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   Continue reading: https://devops.com/enterprise-blockchain-adoption-hinges-on-devops/

Like all other industries, fashion is hoping for a speedy recovery from the pandemic. More than any other, however, sector demands have changed. Today’s consumers expect brands to provide a friction free experience with transparent ethical standards in production. For these companies, there is hope from an unlikely saviour: Blockchain.
Supply chain issues are not a new problem. Unsustainable manufacturing, unethical labour practices, and overproduction are widely reported, and consumers have taken notice. Today, 64% of shoppers look for ethical or sustainable features when making a purchase. While the sector must meet demand, they must also drive ethical standards and meet sustainability commitments.
That’s where blockchain – a decentralised, chronological, and public ledger of transactions across a peer-to-peer network – comes in. Blockchain can track a garment’s full life cycle, from design through to sale to ensure transparency and traceability. The supply chain needs connectivity and accountability and blockchain can deliver it.
Traceability across the entire lifecycle
When a raw material leaves its place of origin, the lifecycle of a garment begins. Cotton for example, is made into a fabric, dyed, stitched together to make clothing, then mass produced for distribution. Manufacturers and suppliers must have full visibility into the production process, and this starts with having a permanent digital record of every step of the journey so consumers can understand the environmental and social impacts of the product. As well as providing greater insight to customers, retailers who gather this information can also become more efficient and less wasteful when designing garments.
Lenzing’s TextileGenesis™ platform is paving the way for retailers to utilise Blockchain. Blockchain assets called “Fibercoins” are issued to physical shipments of Lenzing fibres. Raw materials to finished goods are monitored in real-time and provides heightened transparency into the flow of physical goods.
One of the biggest behavioural changes in recent years is consumers becoming more conscious about their impact on the environment. To meet this demand and avoid criticism, fast fashion retailers have been entering the resale and rental clothing markets. The UK government recently unveiled plans to support sustainable fashion in a bid to tackle waste in the fast fashion industry and hold manufacturers to account. Such developments may ultimately see more brands enter the resale market and kickstart additional green initiatives. While this may be effective for high street brands, luxury brands are seeking new ways to maintain the value and longevity of their products. Again, blockchain is here to help.
Continue reading: https://internetretailing.net/views/guest-comment-blockchain-in-fashion-bringing-sustainability-and-transparency

Blockchain technology is one of the leading innovations in the finance industry, holding promise to reduce fraud, ensure quick and secure transactions and trades, and ultimately help manage risk within the interconnected global financial system.
Blockchain accomplishes this through advanced cryptography that is designed to be resistant to hacking, adding trust to the transaction ecosystem.
There are many financial uses provided by blockchain, not limited to keeping track of transactions and trades. As our global financial system becomes more connected in our age of digital transformation, investors would be well advised to learn about how blockchain is changing the system and how to gain and regulate exposure to this development.
Here's what investors should know about blockchain's growing role in financial services and the earning potential and risk factors it poses, from tech-oriented startups to traditional banks:

• What is blockchain?
• Benefits of blockchain in financial services
• Risks that blockchain and financial institutions face
• Blockchain investments to buy

What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is a digital collection of transactions that are tracked and recorded in a decentralized network. It is a distributed ledger, which means there is no central authority of the network, or no one person or entity in control with the ability to corrupt the network. The blockchain comprises individual blocks of data, each containing a record of information, that are linked together in chronological order. These links cannot be changed, which is what instills confidence in the network.
This revolutionary technology manages transactions of information by securing them as they occur. The purpose of blockchain is to lower the cost of transactions and make them more efficient and faster.
The technology has many applications that can be integrated into different industries, providing investors with many opportunities. For starters, it's one of the technological underpinnings of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
One industry with clear applications for the blockchain is financial services, where companies are in a perpetual race to reduce the costs and friction of transactions.
Benefits of Blockchain in Financial Services
Blockchain has the potential to make the financial services industry more transparent, less susceptible to fraud and cheaper for consumers.
Improving transparency. Blockchain can make the financial industry more transparent since users are performing activities on a public ledger. This transparency can expose inefficiencies like fraud, leading to problem-solving that could reduce risk for financial institutions.
Adding security. As consumers become increasingly active online, the digital universe is a breeding ground for scammers. With blockchain technology, this concern could be reduced. Payments and money transfers made on the blockchain are faster and more traceable than in traditional banking.
When information flows through different financial intermediaries, there is a risk of interception of that information, raising the possibility of fraud. This hole in oversight can be filled with blockchain's cryptographic algorithms that bring security in the exchange of information between parties.
Continue reading: https://money.usnews.com/investing/cryptocurrency/articles/how-blockchain-can-transform-the-financial-services-industry

Riverside County, Calif., is testing a proof-of-concept that uses blockchain to securely share digital official and vital records.
Currently, the county’s process is paper-based: Someone requests the record and the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Office makes a physical copy that it delivers either via mail or in person to customers who come into the office.
For the past six months, the office has worked with Infosys Public Services on a solution that would allow for a fully digital process. Through the web, customers can select the records they need, authenticate themselves, pay for the copies and digitally receive them within minutes through a government portal.
“We’re trying to become much more of a customer-centric organization,” said Peter Aldana, the county’s assessor-county clerk-recorder. “We felt like blockchain might be able to help us in particular areas of our processes, one of those being obtaining official and vital records,” he said. “Allowing our customers and citizens to do that digitally vs. the time and effort needed to do that in paper form would save citizens a lot of time and effort, as well as our own department.”
A crucial part of the effort is ensuring that the record has not been changed at any point along its journey from creation to delivery to a requester. That’s where blockchain comes in. It is a decentralized system of record, or ledger, that cryptographically stores every transaction happening in the network. As a result, data is encoded with an alphanumeric code, or hash.
The best way to maintain security speed processing and maintain trust “is not to take the whole record and store it on the blockchain, but take the hash that identifies a particular vital record and put that on the blockchain ledger,” Infosys President and CEO Eric Paternoster said. “Every time that the agency issues one of the vital records, a digital twin of that record in the form of another hash is stored on the blockchain ledger. And then only if the citizen wishes to share the record, which can be done as a PDF of a copy that they already had, with another agency for verification, then the entity will upload that document through a portal and then that portal will create a hashtag. The two hashes will only match if the record hasn’t been tampered with.”
Continue reading: https://gcn.com/articles/2021/09/03/blockchain-county-vital-records.aspx

Blockchain boosters have long touted cross-border remittances as a market that’s practically begging to be disrupted by their technology of choice, the public ledgers that underpin cryptocurrencies. 
But what if early blockchain proselytizers weren’t quite right? What if the biggest impact blockchains will have isn’t enabling overseas workers to send money back home cheaply and quickly (and thereby circumventing the steep fees levied by services such as Western Union’s)? What if the real innovation lay, instead, in people’s ability to earn a living wage…while working from home…playing video games?
That’s the dream offered by Axie Infinity, a video game developed by Sky Mavis, a Singapore-based development studio. The game recently blew up, attracting more than 1 million daily players in August, up from less than 500 in July of 2020. (Yes, that’s a 200,000% increase in usage, approximately.)
Axie is a bit like Hearthstone, the popular, phone-based collectible “card” game, which is itself sort of like a digital Magic: The Gathering. The difference is that Axie uses blockchain tech to let people buy, breed, and battle a race of chubby, fantastical beasts called Axies.
Through playtime and match victories, Axie players can earn SLP, or “smooth love potion,” an Ethereum-based crypto token. People make money exchanging the token on online crypto exchanges, for fiat currencies. Alternatively, people can “burn”—or spend—the tokens to create more Axies, fueling the in-game economy.
I recently spoke to Gabby Dizon, founder of Yield Guild Games, a company that invests in Axies, SLP, and other in-game assets in order to rent them out to prospective players in return for a share of their virtual proceeds. Since we chatted last month, the Guild raised $4.6 million in investment from a16z crypto, the crypto-focused arm of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, along with other investors. 
Axie is rolling in the crypto dough. SLP is now trading at $0.13, up from $0.02 in January—though down from an all-time high of $0.36 in May. Axie, itself, brought in $364 million in revenue last month, up from $196 million in July, according to data from the blockchain-tracker Token Terminal. In terms of revenue generation for a crypto project, that puts Axie second only to Ethereum, which brought in $670 million during the same period.
Third place at about $80 million went to OpenSea, a marketplace that sells NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, a technology that makes digital media—anything from artwork to pixelated profile pictures to virtual real estate—trackable and tradeable on blockchain.
Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2021/09/02/__trashed-2/

Researchers from the College of Engineering at Villanova University are behind a blockchain project that will be launched into space Thursday night to test the viability and trustworthiness of the technology and its transactions in orbit.
Adjunct Professor of Engineering Hasshi Sudler is behind the project, and has been working on space-related projects since his time at the university as an undergrad. But the launch Thursday will be his — and the university’s — first time completing a trip to space.
Sudler is working with grad student Alejandro Gomez on the project. The pair will be testing a recent consensus protocol known as proof of authority, a means of confirming transactions on the blockchain through validator nodes that store data, securing the network. Villanova is working with Teachers in Space, a nonprofit that developed the Serenity educational CubeSat satellite that will launch on the Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha vehicle Thursday night from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Serenity will carry a suite of data collection sensors and provide its data in response to requests by amateur radio operators. The experiment uses a private Ethereum blockchain, and the satellite will remain in low Earth orbit for about a month. Blockchain experiments will take place for the first 15 days. The satellite will be destroyed on its return to earth, but Sudler said they’ll have all the data they need collected and stored on earth.
Continue reading: https://technical.ly/philly/2021/09/02/villanova-blockchain-space/

A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Commercial Drones - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics". The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.
FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 18; Released: April 2021 Executive Pool: 13472 Companies: 13 - Players covered include AeroVironment Inc.; Agribotix, LLC; Airware; Cyberhawk Innovations Ltd.; CyPhy Works Inc.; Draganfly Innovations Inc.; Drone Aviation Holding Corporation; DroneDeploy ; EHang Inc.; Intel Corporation; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Parrot SA; PrecisionHawk; Skycatch Inc.; SZ DJI Technology Co. Ltd.; Yuneec International Co., Ltd. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Segment (Commercial Drones) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.
Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass™ Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report.
Continue reading: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/valued-15-4-billion-2026-144000938.html