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Why Web3 represents a new frontier for personal data ownership

The idea of handing over personal data and access to our browsing habits to be able to access online services is something to which we’ve become so accustomed, we don’t even question it anymore. However, the dawn of Web3 is introducing a new paradigm of data ownership, one where we own our personal data and can determine who accesses it and how it’s used. But what does that mean for the vast global economy that exists around data in Web2? 
Just how big is the data economy? 
Quantifying the scale of the global data economy is a gargantuan task. Statista estimates that the value of the data economy in the UK and EU in 2020 was around $440 billion and estimates it could grow to as much as $1 trillion within the next three years. But how do you define the boundaries of the data economy? Statista’s definition is the value derived from the “generation, collection, storage, processing, distribution, analysis, elaboration, delivery and exploitation of data enabled by digital technologies.” 
But as it’s been pointed out in the past, every company is a data company because the Web2 model has evolved around the idea of intermediary platforms that only really exist for harvesting data. It’s a model that’s become pervasive, taking over entire industries, and it’s almost universally detrimental. 
Marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy have taken over ecommerce to the chagrin of small sellers who see their profits diminished thanks to ever-rising fees. Uber has taken over the personal transport and now food delivery businesses, inflating the cost of a takeout meal by more than 40% in some cases. 
In each case, it’s the same pattern – the platform moves in, creates a virtual monopoly, and then starts hiking fees in the knowledge that people will pay for convenience, and sellers have no other choice because they can’t compete on scale. But as well as turning the screws on fees, these firms are also doing a roaring trade in the vast amounts of user data they collect. 
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2022/05/28/why-web3-represents-a-new-frontier-for-personal-data-ownership/

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Crypto insurance – how the market is expanding

A remote team spanning thousands of kilometers across the globe, working with crypto assets on a digital insurance marketplace. Ten years ago, you might be forgiven for thinking this was the far-flung dream of a financial futurist – but today, in 2022, this is the reality being built by Nayms’ CEO and co-founder Dan Roberts (pictured) and his colleagues.
Roberts spoke to Insurance Business as crypto investors looked to recover from a “crash” that reportedly saw $2 trillion wiped off the market’s value since its November peak.
The event has driven insurance front of mind for crypto platforms and businesses, Roberts said, with insurance becoming a “main topic” at recent Florida blockchain conference Permissionless.
“We don’t want these kinds of crashes to happen, just because of [how it affects] the reputation of the market and so forth,” Roberts said.
“[But one positive] is it makes sure that good projects who survive become better and more robust, and some weaker projects tend to be sifted out.”
According to Roberts: “For us, it’s a further need for an evolved, diverse, mature insurance ecosystem within the market.”
This is something that Nayms – named after Lloyd’s of London’s Names – intends to deliver. The blockchain start-up’s insurance marketplace got the green light for two licenses from the Bermuda regulator last month after two years in its sandbox.
Supply and demand
“Everyone in the crypto space is after some sort of cover, whether that’s tech errors and omissions or directors’ and officers’, crime, cyber, cold storage, protection, whatever it might be, there’s lots of demand for insurance,” Roberts said.
It may have shrunk in recent months with currencies such as Bitcoin plummeting in value, but the global cryptocurrency market cap – as of Thursday, May 26, when Roberts spoke to Insurance Business – sat at $1.29 trillion, according to tracker Coin Gecko.
Continue reading: https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/technology/crypto-insurance--how-the-market-is-expanding-407783.aspx

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Blockchain Brings Tough Challenges Befitting a Revolution

Blockchains have intrigued investors because they are a cutting-edge technology with the potential to reduce transaction costs significantly. Blockchains enable direct transactions among an indeterminate number of mutually untrusting users in a secure manner. As blockchain hype fades, other technology implementation issues are becoming clear. Let’s look at these difficulties in further detail to understand better them and how you may overcome them. If you are not familiar with blockchain use cases, our list of best blockchain books is a great place to learn.
CAN BLOCKCHAIN IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES STOP THE HYPE?
While this cutting-edge technology may assist level the playing field for firms of all sizes, it also has drawbacks and risks for consumers and companies who want to utilize it. Despite its ability to reduce hype, blockchain will not be prevented from infiltrating our daily lives.
Since its inception, blockchain has significantly impacted many sectors, including blockchain gaming, in our everyday lives. To ensure that everyone understands the various sorts of blockchains, you could go through them once more. We’ve already explained all 4 types of blockchains to help you better comprehend them.
Blockchain is a new technology with its own set of challenges. If you’re wondering why blockchain adoption is lagging, this post will go over all of the major issues.
BLOCKCHAIN CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS IN 2022
Companies must consider a well-designed approach and evaluate accessible resources similarly to any other technology.
It’s crucial to understand what obstacles may arise from introducing it and the technology itself before deciding whether or not to use it.
Continue reading: https://dataconomy.com/2022/05/blockchain-implementation-challenges/

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Australia: Drone Capability Soaring to New Heights

Australian Aviation is eagerly gearing up to host its inaugural Australian Aviation Awards later this year. One of its key objectives is to reward aviation businesses and individuals for their innovation, research, and development in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and drone capabilities.
Out of the 24 individual and company categories on offer in our first awards program – which will culminate in a gala dinner in Sydney on Thursday, 25 August 2022 – two categories include Remotely Piloted Aircraft Business of the Year and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Professional of the Year.
The first award recognises the remotely piloted aircraft business that has most effectively capitalised on market opportunities and supported the strengthening of Australia’s UAS and drone capabilities.
The second award is for an operator of remotely piloted aircrafts who has delivered outstanding work for their organisation or institution while supporting the strengthening and advancement of Australia’s aviation and UAS industry.
Read more and find the nomination details here: https://australianaviation.com.au/2022/05/drone-capability-soaring-to-new-heights-the-newsmakers/
 

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Here’s how Edotco is using drones and AI to speed up deployment of mobile towers and 5G-enabled solutions

Edotco, the telecommunications infrastructure company under the Axiata Group, has reiterated its commitment to enhancing equitable connectivity in Asia by using its solutions such as Network and Planning Analytics (NaPA) and Digital Twin to facilitate the impending 5G rollout in its nine markets. It aims to become one of the world’s top five Tower Companies (TowerCos).
Edotco Group Director and CEO, Mohamed Adlan Ahmad Tajudin said “We want to be the tower company of choice, delivering value to our customers in terms of price, efficiency, and productivity, and collaborating with MNOs to increase their revenue generation potential. We also intend to expand into several new markets in Southeast Asia and South Asia, completing our presence in the region over the next few years. This expansion is required to ensure that the company continues to deliver scale while solidifying our foothold in the region and solidifying our position as the leading pan-Asian next-generation TowerCo.”
To ensure new towers are erected effectively in areas lacking internet connectivity, their NaPA tool is used to provide insights into potential locations for new tower sites, while reducing build and delivery time. According to Edotco, NaPA uses geocoding and analytics to generate coordinates with granularity and accuracy. Used since 2019, the company claims that it has been able to identify potential coordinates for future infrastructure development.
With NaPA, Edotco has identified and installed 113 sites that meet the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) objectives as well as 223 sites for Jalingan Digital Negara (JENDELA) initiative. The tool was developed in-house by Edotco’s engineers to proactively assist telcos to be more efficient in achieving their planning objectives.
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After a tower is deployed, there’s always a need to monitor the infrastructure closely. Traditionally, a field data capture of the towers would require manual inspection which is not only time-consuming and expensive but it is risky as well. Edotco uses Digital Twin, a solution that uses drones to capture a digital copy of the physical asset to assist customers in interacting, analysing, simulating, predicting and improving performance remotely, without requiring a person to be physically present at the tower sites.
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The drones can perform fully autonomous data capture of the physical structure. Utilising analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), the solution can capture, label and calculate with auto report generation. The system can also provide a high-resolution inspection of the equipment and it also helps with planning for future upgrades. This AI-powered tower inspection solution by drone was also implemented by Maxis back in 2019 under its Project SkyEye.
Continue reading: https://soyacincau.com/2022/05/30/edotco-digital-twin-napa-drones-ai-analytics-roll-out-mobile-tower-5g-network-solutions/
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How to grow business through blockchain technology

Amidst the surge in digital adoption, various new-age technologies are emerging. Blockchain is one such technology that is gaining prominence and is expected to be the next in-thing for businesses. This trend is highlighted by Grand View Research in its recent report which states that the size of the global blockchain technology market stood at $5.92 billion in 2021. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 85.9% from 2022 to 2030.
The study states that the APAC region, especially India, is expected to be one of the fastest-growing markets in the future. In fact, the government of India has been actively promoting the use of blockchain technology. The major reason driving the growth of this solution is due to high transparency and increased efficiency.
Blockchain: The way forward for businesses to grow
The technology works in two models - centralized and decentralized. The former allows the control over data to be implemented by just one entity. It could be a person or an enterprise. Whereas, in the case of the latter; the control is shared among various independent entities. Primarily, the centralized model is implemented in businesses due to security and privacy issues.
Being one of the beneficial technologies, it has become imperative for businesses to adopt blockchain. Organizations would have to cash on this trend so as to cope with industry dynamics and enjoy a competitive edge in the market. The reasons for this are varied.
Security, encryption, and privacy
The primary factor for blockchain adoptions among businesses is that the technology comes with a promise of security and privacy. The value of blockchain arises from its ability to share data in a fast and secure manner. It creates a record of data with end-to-end encryption. It also secures the transactions committed to the blockchain network since they can’t be edited or changed. This way the data can’t be altered and hence the chances of fraud, cybercrime, or even malicious acts are reduced drastically. 
Continue reading: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-to/how-to-grow-business-through-blockchain-technology/articleshow/91906404.cms

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Blockchain Technology is Changing Business

This blog is about Blockchain Technology is Changing Business. We will try our best so that you understand this guide. I hope you like this blog, Blockchain Technology is Changing Business. If your answer is yes, please do share after reading this.
Check Blockchain Technology is Changing Business
Blockchain technology is a structure that stores transaction records, also called blocks, of the public in multiple databases, called a “chain”, in a network connected by peer-to-peer nodes. This storage is often referred to as a “digital ledger”. Each transaction in this ledger is authorized by the owner’s digital signature, which authenticates the transaction and protects it from tampering. Therefore, the information contained in the digital ledger is extremely secure. In simpler terms, the digital ledger is like a Google spreadsheet shared by numerous computers on a network, where transaction data is stored based on actual purchases. What’s fascinating is that anyone can see the data, but they can’t falsify it.
A blockchain is an electronically distributed ledger, or list of entries, much like a stock ledger, maintained by multiple participants over a computer network. Blockchains use cryptography to process and verify transactions on the ledger. Encryption and scrambling improve transparency, efficiency, and trust in the exchange of information. All of this is causing innovative companies to rethink their strategies for the digital age. Below are five ways that blockchain technology is changing the way we do business, with some profound changes.
How is Blockchain technology changing businesses today?
As cryptocurrencies are used at a fast rate in various industries, the use of blockchain technology has multiplied. One report even claims that 10 to 20% of the global economic structure will be based on the Blockchain system. So, it’s time to find out how Blockchain is bringing about this massive change in the business world.
Continue reading: https://www.bollyinside.com/articles/blockchain-technology-is-changing-business/

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What Leaders Need To Know About Blockchain

If you’re anywhere near the tech or financial space, you’ve likely been hearing terms like DeFi, blockchain and smart contracts more and more frequently. Ever since cryptocurrencies and other decentralized technologies came on the scene, they’ve been the subject of much speculation and debate among engineers and business leaders.
Some tech thinkers suggest that blockchain is the future of our society—that it has the ability to revolutionize all our businesses and interactions. Others believe it’s just a fad that will fizzle out eventually. But many tech experts say that, while blockchain is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, it’s too early to tell what its future will look like.
In the early days of the internet, it would have been difficult to imagine the business models like social media and e-commerce that have evolved today. Similarly, it isn’t easy to know exactly what the blockchain ecosystem will ultimately look like, but in its early stages, it has a lot of potential for sustainable business models.
While no one can be certain how the blockchain ecosystem will ultimately evolve, leaders who get into and stay on top of this field in its early days will have the power to shape the economy of the future. That’s why it’s so important for business leaders to learn about blockchain and how they can use it; the best way to ensure that you thrive in the future is to be a part of shaping what it looks like.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2022/05/27/what-leaders-need-to-know-about-blockchain/?sh=71c440531b4d

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What Is AI? Understanding The Real-World Impact Of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is today’s most discussed and debated technology, generating widespread adulation and anxiety, and significant government and business interest and investments. But six years after DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated a Go champion, countless research papers showing AI’s superior performance over humans in a variety of tasks, and numerous surveys reporting rapid adoption, what is the actual business impact of AI?
“2021 was the year that AI went from an emerging technology to a mature technology... that has real-world impact, both positive and negative,” declared the 2022 AI Index Report. The 5th installment of the index measures the growing impact of AI in a number of ways, including private investment in AI, the number of AI patents filed, and the number of bills related to AI that were passed into law in legislatures of 25 countries around the world.
There is nothing in the report, however, about “real-world impact” as I would define it—measurably successful, long-lasting and significant deployments of AI. There is also no definition of “AI” in the report.
Going back to the first installment of the AI Index report, published in 2017, still does not yield a definition of what the report is all about. But the goal of the report is stated upfront: “…the field of AI is still evolving rapidly and even experts have a hard time understanding and tracking progress across the field. Without the relevant data for reasoning about the state of AI technology, we are essentially ‘flying blind’ in our conversations and decision-making related to AI.”
“Flying blind” is a good description, in my opinion, of gathering data about something you don’t define.
The 2017 report was “created and launched as a project of the One Hundred Year Study on AI at Stanford University (AI100),” released in 2016. That study’s first section did ask the question “what is artificial intelligence?” only to provide the traditional circular definition that AI is what makes machines intelligent, and that intelligence is the “quality that enables an entity to function appropriately and with foresight in its environment.”
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2022/05/29/what-is-ai-understanding-the-real-world-impact-of-artificial-intelligence/?sh=6683adcc4507

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Artificial Intelligence is Growing, But What Do You Really Know?

Artificial intelligence has been talked about for years, but is it really close to taking over the world? Could you rely on it to manage your business?
“Maybe you’re using artificial intelligence without knowing that,” said Iva Ignjatovic. “AI is pretty much everywhere. Even search engines predict the full search item.”
Ignjatovic looks at AI through the eyes of a marketing, strategy, leadership and business consultant. She, along with marketer Ivana Taylor, wonders what type of business would you start if you could only use artificial intelligence.
Taylor owns DIYMarketers, a company “committed to helping small business owners get out of overwhelm.” Increasingly, the prospect of AI’s creeping into the marketplace gives entrepreneurs a sense of overwhelming nervousness.
Ignjatovic and Taylor take a different approach. If not welcoming robot overlords, they suggest owners run their business like it’s 2099, asking how artificial intelligence makes their business better.
“AI can help me become much more productive — arranging calendars, setting meetings and actually completing tasks like an assistant,” Taylor said.
“I’ve definitely become a faster writer, thanks to AI,” she said. “It really helps bust through the writer’s block. I end up changing almost everything, but I can move faster if I see stuff that’s written.”
According to Forbes, only 29 percent of small and medium-sized businesses — those under 1,000 employees — said they have adopted artificial intelligence technology.
“Almost 80 years in the future, I want to be able to connect with AI somehow,” Ignjatovic said. “Make data input faster and easier. AI should be able to do the work for me without making mistakes while I sleep.”
Better for Competition
Both Taylor and Ignjatovic contend artificial intelligence will make it easier for small businesses to compete.
“Artificial intelligence will free up owners to focus on strategy,” Taylor said.
On the finance side, AI already helps employers and employees alike be smart with money.
“Unless AI is accessible — for real, easy to use and implemented — it will be used mainly by large companies,” Ignjatovic said. “That would make things more difficult for small businesses.”
Continue reading: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/artificial-intelligence-is-growing-but-what-do-you-really-know-9e60ddd54852

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What AI can (and can't) do for organizations' cyber resilience

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, the internet of things and quantum computing are expected to unlock unprecedented levels of computing power.
These so-called fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies will power the future economy and bring new levels of efficiency and automation to businesses and consumers.
AI in particular holds enormous promise for organizations battling a scourge of cyber attacks. Over the past few years, cyber attacks have been growing in volume and sophistication.
The latest data from Mimecast's State of Email Security 2022 report found that 94% of South African organizations were targeted by e-mail-borne phishing attacks in the past year, and six out of every 10 fell victim to a ransomware attack.
Companies seeing potential of AI
To protect against such attacks, companies are increasingly looking to unlock the benefits of new technologies. The market for AI tools for cyber security alone is expected to grow by $19 billion between 2021 and 2025.
Locally, adoption of AI as a cyber resilience tool is also growing. Nearly a third (32%) of South African respondents in Mimecast's latest State of Email Security 2022 report were already using AI or machine learning – or both – in their cyber resilience strategies. Only 9% said they have no plans at the moment to use AI.
But is AI a silver bullet for cyber security professionals looking for support with protecting their organizations?
Where AI shines – and where it doesn't
AI should be an essential component of any organization's cyber security strategy. But it’s not an answer to every cyber security challenge – at least not yet. The same efficiency and automation gains that organizations can get from AI are available to threat actors too. AI is a double-edged sword that can aid organizations and the criminals attempting to breach their defenses.
Continue reading: https://www.itweb.co.za/content/xnklOqz1Eb9M4Ymz

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AI in Supply Chain: Five Things to Prioritize

To cope with the seemingly never-ending supply chain crisis, business leaders are turning to artificial intelligence to make strategic business decisions. A recent survey by PwC found that 48% of business leaders use AI to drive supply chain decisions, and 54% of business leaders plan to use AI-driven simulations to enhance supply chain operations.
AI allows for simulations of vast amounts of data from suppliers, customers, competitors, and external factors like weather or geopolitical events. In the process, leaders can better predict supply chain dynamics and disruptions, and have the most up-to-date integrated business plans in place to navigate the complexities of a rapidly shifting business environment.
Leaders taking a holistic approach to AI can realize three overarching benefits:
  • Supply chain transformation. Companies that approach AI comprehensively across their supply chains are roughly twice as likely to report substantial value from initiatives to improve productivity, decision-making, the employee experience, product and service innovation, the customer experience and more. 
  • Enhanced decision-making. By bringing together so many observations and insights from inside and outside the organization, a comprehensive AI approach facilitates scaled data processing and cross-functional correlations that foster repeatable, consistent strategic insights and enable business-relevant decisions that deliver valuable outcomes quickly.
  • Systems modernization. Thirty-six percent of companies with a comprehensive approach to AI are planning to use it this year to help create a data fabric —a 360-degree view of all data that touches their organizations and drives end-to-end value from critical functions within the supply chain.
As leaders look to implement AI within their operation, they should focus on five priorities: 
Think efficiently, long-term. Seventy-four percent of tech leaders are using AI for decision-making.  AI streamlines the process by enabling organizations to analyze more data than any one person could on their own. For business leaders, it can estimate possible outcomes of price changes, customer satisfaction and product availability.
Start with desired outcomes instead of existing data. Then then search for the data and analytics to support it.
Continue reading: https://www.supplychainbrain.com/blogs/1-think-tank/post/34972-why-ai-is-essential-to-supply-chain-transformation

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How To Make It Easier To Implement AI In Your Business

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a buzzword in the digital world. It is believed to have the potential to make a transformation in any industry and offer a promising future for businesses with its learning algorithms. The global technology intelligence organization ABI Research predicts the number of businesses that will adopt AI worldwide will scale up to 900,000 this year, with a compound annual growth rate of 162%. This revolutionary technology helps improve customer decision management, forecasting, QA manufacturing and writing software code, increasing revenue with the data it generates every day.
Why Implementing AI Can Be Challenging
With its unprecedented capability to learn and comprehend, AI is disrupting the world at a speed never seen before. The results of a 2019 McKinsey survey reveal that the use of AI has increased about 25% every year in standard business processes with executives inferring its potential to reduce costs and boost revenues. But implementing AI in business operations can be tough due to the following factors:
The Costs Involved: AI implementation in businesses demands deployment of expensive and high-performance hardware and software. This has to be executed within a limited allocated budget. To implement AI algorithms at a reasonable cost, consider approaching AI solution providers who have the best expertise in this industry.
Small Datasets: AI business systems need to be programmed to manage enormous amounts of data. You can expect better outcomes with higher quality data. Often, it is difficult to interpret whether the data you have is structured or unstructured and compare it with your data model based on the customer information and onsite interactions.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/05/27/how-to-make-it-easier-to-implement-ai-in-your-business/?sh=13752215300e

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How to reskill yourself for a career in AI

This year, LinkedIn named data scientist specialists and artificial intelligence practitioners among the top jobs that enterprises sought to fill. The salary range for an artificial intelligence practitioner is $124,000 to $150,000. For a data scientist specialist, the salary range is $100,000 to $130,000. Compare this with the average U.S. salary for programmers, which is under $100,000.
If you’re working for a company, you want to make as much money as you can — but you also want to enjoy what you’re doing, and you want the self-confidence and assurance that you’re providing value in your job and that you yourself are valued.
Sometimes an IT professional can feel trapped in a job, with no way out for promotions or a higher salary. Software maintenance programmers often fit into this category. So do non-technical business analysts or IT support persons who have spent so much time managing databases, storage and the help desk that they are recognized as entrenched experts in these areas, which unfortunately can be a career dead-end in IT.
Is it time to try AI?
The requisite skills for a data scientist specialist are knowledge in data visualization, statistical modeling and open-source tools and libraries for machine learning and artificial intelligence. For artificial intelligence practitioners, the skill set is machine learning, C++, Python and cloud services such as Amazon Web Services.
Want to try AI? Consider the following first.
Learn AI job-seeking strategies
If you’re an IT employee who wants to transition to AI, what skills will you need and what strategies should you apply?
Continue reading: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/reskill-yourself-career-ai/

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It’s Time to Recalibrate Our AI Expectations

I can still remember the first time I used Alexa.
It’s crystal clear in my head: I said, “Alexa, play Take On Me and a few seconds later A-ha’s synthy drums kicked in. It was one of the few times in my life that artificial intelligence has left me speechless.
It was a real-world version of the technology I grew up seeing in countless science fiction movies and TV shows. Giving that command, I felt like Captain Kirk talking to the computers on the USS Enterprise.
This was in 2013. I recall wondering where the technology would be in another five or 10 years -- which is roughly where we are right now. I imagined myself having full-blown conversations with personal AI assistants and giving complex voice instructions to my computer. That all seemed achievable, even probable. After all, technology advances exponentially.
With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that I was too optimistic. We’re still a long way from bona fide human-to-AI conversation.
Human imaginations always outpace technology. What I can imagine in a minute takes a decade to become something tangible. Left unchecked, our perceptions race away from facts. Every so often, we have to recalibrate our expectations.
We need to swap out our science fiction dreams for technological fact.
How Advanced is AI -- Really?
For as long as I can remember, people have claimed that fully self-driving cars are just over the horizon. Tesla, Toyota, General Motors, and Google all promised us self-driving cars by the end of 2020, but we’re still waiting. The technology seems to always be just out of reach.
It’s the same in most other industries.
Take cloud communication. People have long dreamed of autonomous AI agents that handle the bulk of contact center communication. Some have even promised they’re on the way. But like building an autonomous car, crafting an artificial agent is a big challenge. I have no doubt that we can get there, just that it will take more time than expected.
Continue reading: https://www.informationweek.com/big-data/it-s-time-to-recalibrate-our-ai-expectations

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The 10 U.S. cities where women are most likely to earn $100,000 or more

Bringing home a six-figure salary is a mark of financial success for many people, and it’s more common depending on where you live.
For example, as many as 1 in 3 women in San Jose, California, brings home at least $100,000 a year, according to a new report from GoodHire, an HR platform. The analysis draws data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Commerce to find out where there are higher shares of high earners across the country.
It makes sense that the highest concentration of six-figure earners live in expensive cities around the Bay Area and on the East Coast. Workers in these competitive talent markets may also have more leverage to negotiate higher pay, though that doesn’t always mean it goes as far to cover essential living expenses.
And because of racial and gender wage gaps, women are less likely to reach the six-figure threshold compared with men. Just 11% of women make $100,000 or more on a national level, whereas 21% of men do.
Here are the top 10 U.S. cities where women are most likely to earn six-figure salaries:
1. San Jose, California
34% of women earn six figures
Women’s median annual income: $70,743 per year

2. San Francisco
31% of women earn six figures
Women’s median annual income: $70,597 per year
3. Washington, D.C.
27% of women earn six figures
Women’s median annual income: $65,344 per year
4. Stamford, Connecticut
25% of women earn six figures
Women’s median annual income: $62,860 per year
5. Boston
21% of women earn six figures
Women’s median annual income: $61,202 per year
Continue reading: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/30/10-us-cities-where-women-are-most-likely-to-earn-six-figure-incomes.html

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How to Fix The Minority STEM Crisis

Boasting a stellar academic record, a bachelor’s degree in engineering, and an MBA, Carla landed a plum job at one of the nation’s leading computer and information technology companies. She was excited to join the tech world and contribute to the Texas-based company where she hoped to make her career.
Carla’s excitement didn’t last. A Black woman, she felt overlooked and excluded from opportunities to advance. She found herself fighting for her annual raise. “I honestly felt,” she said, “like it was because I was a woman. I had probably one other woman on my team at various times, and it just seemed like the men weren’t having the same problems we were having … I felt like at some point they weren’t listening to me.” After being asked to clean out the office of a colleague who had left the firm, she came across one of his old pay stubs. She discovered that he’d been making four times her salary despite having just one more year of experience. She abandoned her dream of working in technology and now works as a human resources officer for a law firm.
Carla’s story is one of 25 qualitative interviews at the core of a new report, STEM Voices: The Experiences of Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Occupations, published by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). (Subjects spoke to us on condition of anonymity.) Carla’s account—and others—echoes many of the themes discovered in an earlier AEI survey of STEM worker perspectives, which identified sharp differences in perception about workplace environment, support, and opportunities. In that survey, conducted in 2020, white and Asian men saw the workplace as collaborative, open, and friendly and believed that women and minorities experienced their jobs in similar ways. Female and minority respondents said quite the opposite: They felt overlooked, not included as teammates, and cut off from the kind of coworker support their white and Asian male coworkers said they enjoyed. The survey data showed two almost entirely different worlds.
Continue reading: https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/05/27/how-to-fix-the-minority-stem-crisis/

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Web3 eases technology access for women and minorities, experts say

Web3 has opened up access to technology and decentralization for women and minorities everywhere, Cathy Wu, director of investor relations at Multicoin Capital, has said.
Ms Wu, whose company invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens and blockchain ventures, made the remarks during an Access Abu Dhabi session titled “The Future of Web3 is Female”, which discussed ways to make the sector more inclusive.
Women represented about 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the workforce in Web2, compared with 8 per cent of Web3, said senior female US technology entrepreneurs during the session.
Web3 is the emerging third generation of the World Wide Web — blockchain, decentralization, openness and greater user utility among its core components — while Web2 is the current iteration.
“We look forward to seeing more women coming into the Web3 space,” Olayinka Odeniran, founder and chairwoman of the Black Women Blockchain Council, which aims to inspire and train black women pursuing careers in blockchain and FinTech.
Continue reading: 
https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/2022/05/27/web3-eases-technology-access-for-women-and-minorities-experts-say/

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Crypto 1.0’s Original Regulator Is Preparing For Web3

Perhaps no regulator in the world has been at the forefront of the cryptocurrency industry than the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). From holding its first virtual currency hearings in 2013 to the creation of the famed “BitLicense” in 2014, which was the first bespoke piece of regulation focused on crypto in the country, the NYDFS has played an outside role in the development of crypto across the world.
As we are preparing to enter a new stage of industry development due to the advent of Web3, increased regulatory pressure as a result of the LUNA/UST collapse, and more institutional money coming into the space I reached out to NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris to get her thoughts on how the NYDFS has grown and adapted to changes in crypto. She also shed some interesting insights on how the agency is scaling up and building out its expertise to track everything from stablecoins to NFTs.
I spoke to Harris on the sidelines of Chainalysis’ Links conference in New York City on May 19.
Forbes: To start off, could you give me a quick rundown of what you spoke about on stage?
Adrienne Harris: We covered a wide range of things. We talked a lot about the DFS and what we do, regulating about 80 foreign banks—17 of the 30 G-SIBs (global systemically important banks)—in addition to state-chartered banks and insurance companies. It really is a preeminent global financial regulator just by virtue of being here in New York, and we have such a broad purview of the financial services space, from student lending all the way up to the largest and most important financial institutions in the world. We obviously talked quite a bit about crypto, including our internal transformation initiative around our licensing with the BitLicense and the limited purpose trust charter. We call that transformation initiative VOLT for “vision, operations, leadership and technology.”
We’re working very hard to maintain DFS’s role as the preeminent digital asset regulator. As you know, DFS was the first to regulate the sector, and we continue to improve and do new things, like our blockchain analytics guidance. We’re soon to put out some stablecoin guidance that we’ve been working on for a while. So, in terms of vision: maintaining that status as the preeminent regulator and cementing New York’s place as the financial capital.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2022/05/27/crypto-10s-original-regulator-is-preparing-for-web3/?sh=56b59d8536fe

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What Is Web3? A Primer for MSPs and Other Tech Companies

Unsurprisingly, I get asked “What is Web3?” a lot these days along with "What happened to blockchain?," "What is the metaverse?," and "Are NFTs legit?"
Before we answer these questions, let me pose another one: Why should you care about any of it? There are several possible scenarios where MSPs, technology vendors, integrators, et al, will need to deal with Web3, metaverse, NFTs, etc. (which I will group under “Web3 technologies” from now on):
  • Your client asks, “What is Web3 (or metaverse, NFT, etc.)?” In this case, you will want to be knowledgeable to maintain your credibility with your client.
  • A customer says, “I want to do something in Web3. What can we do?” You are going to want to speak knowledgeably on how their request fits within their business goals, roadmap, model, etc., where Web3 can benefit them, and what are the next steps to exploring the concept.
  • Your client is required by one of their business partners or customers to be part of a decentralized (i.e., blockchain or Web3) system. You will want to know enough to hit the ground running to support your client, which may require spinning up a blockchain node for the shared system, connecting blockchain wallets, etc.
So, let me answer the above questions as best they can be.
What is Web3?
No one knows exactly what Web3 is or will be, yet. First, the terms “Web1” and “Web2” only came into common use recently and were defined in hindsight, so we’re probably a few years, or decades, away from truly understanding what Web3 really is (was), mostly likely when we are on the precipice of Web4. Second, there is an implication in those terms that each subsequent iteration of the web replaced the previous, which could not be further from the truth. Each iteration built on the previous, adding more features and function.
 
web-3.jpg

 
One way to look at this is by the above graphic. Web1 was essentially one-way communication—from website owners to the public.  It was largely informational (Wikipedia, webzines, etc.) with no feedback loop. Web2 added two-way communication allowing for feedback, ecommerce, and content to upload and monetize content. However, it is entirely centralized with power consolidating in very few monolithic companies who can change their affiliate programs at a whim and have as evidenced by the criticism leveled against YouTube. Web3 will allow creators to not only own their content, but their revenue streams, turbo charging the Creator Economy. To be fair, some Web2 companies are already doing this, but they retain control. Web3 will decentralize control, granting far more power to creators.
Continue reading: https://connect.comptia.org/blog/what-is-web3-a-primer-for-msps-and-other-tech-companies

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Crypto Future Is Bright in Developing Economies

With emerging markets stocks and cryptocurrencies both trading lower this year, it’d be easy for investors to criticize both asset classes.
After all, some of the reasons these assets are faltering in 2022 are the same, but heaping amounts of criticism applied to bitcoin, other digital currencies, and emerging markets equities belies an under-appreciated opportunity: The future potency of crypto and emerging markets coming together.
As investors well know, there are plenty of emerging markets exchange traded funds on the market today, but not many are constructed in such a way as to adequately address crypto-related opportunities. The Next Frontier Internet & Ecommerce ETF (FMQQ) is and the proof is in the pudding.
“A 2021 crypto adoption index published by industry watchdog Chainalysis ranks Vietnam, India, and Pakistan as the top three, followed by Ukraine, Kenya, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Nineteen of the top 20 countries are in the developing world. The exception is the U.S. at No. 8,” reported Craig Mellow for Barron’s.
Continue reading: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/crypto-future-is-bright-in-developing-economies

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What is the future for blockchain technology with NFT’s in India?

In recent times, the idea of digital tokens, blockchain, and cryptocurrency has been in focus for many many eyes around the world, especially in India. From common man to celebrities, everyone talking about digital tokens, digital money, etc. Among them, NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens also getting much importance. NFTs are digital assets based on Blockchain technology and traded through the use of cryptocurrency. The technology uses a DLT system that allows secure trading with immutability.
Blockchain technology is a distributed ledger technology that supports crypto functions and allows trading in them. NFT being a digital asset use this for secure transactions and trade with proper encryption messages. 
Moreover, NFTs are not digital currencies but digital assets and are useful to exchange by using cryptos. They are traded through digital platforms to facilitate users buying and selling NFTs. The blockchain behind all these systems works to secure them from outside threats.
Therefore, blockchain technology has a great future and of course, it is called a future technology. Most business entities including the government are planning to adopt this technology to improve the monetary transactions with security. This will enhance the growth of the economy digitally and make it more transparent.
Future of blockchain technology
It is expected that by the year 2030, around 30% of the global customer base will use blockchain as a primary technology. Also, blockchain will add more value to businesses that will grow by more than $170 bn by 2025. These stats are enough to say that blockchain will lead the future business market. 
Continue reading: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/what-is-the-future-for-blockchain-technology-with-nfts-in-india/

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AI Adoption Will Cause Workforce Reorganization

Human resource executives at companies that are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technology can expect to scout for higher-skilled IT workers as demand for their skills rises. They will also be faced with managing labor composition disruptions and workforce reorganizations as more companies use AI's predictive technology capabilities to solve business problems.
In a recently published research paper titled Firm Investments in Artificial Intelligence Technologies and Changes in Workforce Composition, professors from Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of Maryland pored over almost a decade's worth of data and found that AI adoption will change the employment landscape as well as HR managers' priorities.
Researchers examined changes in labor outcomes from 2010 to 2018 using several datasets, sourced from Cognism Inc., a London-based sales intelligence firm.
Researchers also used 180 million job postings provided by Boston-based Burning Glass Technologies, an analytics software company that conducts research on labor market trends. The data details job descriptions and specific requirements such as years of education and experience.
Additional data sources were wage and education data grouped by commuting zone from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and wage and employment data grouped by industry from the U.S. Census Quarterly Workforce Indicators. From Compustat, researchers obtained firm-level data on operational variables such as sales, cash and assets.
The research shows that when companies invested in AI, there was a corresponding demand for workers who possess undergraduate and graduate degrees in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Continue reading: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/ai-adoption-will-cause-workforce-reorganization.aspx

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How to Use AI to Increase Business and Make Customers Happy

A teacher of artificial intelligence engineering at Columbia and NYU is adamant: Taking a human approach with your customers can set your company apart.
As the co-founder of NLX, a conversational Artificial Intelligence company, I have a people-focused/solution-oriented approach.
There’s a tendency to glorify AI and make it sound like it’s going to take over the world.  NLX was born in 2018 with the mission of helping companies transform customer contact into personalized self-service.
Along the way, I’ve learned that means to be a people-first leader, to always take the human approach with your products and customers.
Here’s what that means...
Designing people-centric products
When it comes to a product or service-related problem, the issue is not always your ability to solve it, but the utility of a fix.
We’re organizing and simplifying AI. We want to make it easy for non-technical clients to be able to take charge and build applications their users truly need. People like feeling empowered.
Furthermore, we’ve made the conscious choice to not build our own conversational AI model, because there are multi-trillion0dollar companies heavily invested in doing just that. Instead, we ask ourselves: “How do you manage content in tens of languages while streamlining integration for better automation?”. 
What drove products five years ago are coming to pass and putting technologies up against each other may not provide solutions. This is why, for instance, we don’t lock in unhappy customers in multi-year contracts and use pay-as-you-go pricing instead of the tiered pricing that is the norm. 
Stick to human-oriented design and solutions. It will help you focus on what’s truly important as you build your products and that will set you apart.
Continue reading: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/427377

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