Drones, CrowdStrike, Olympics, Lying AI, Broligarchy, and Imagination
Weekly Review of News in Technology, UX and AI
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Here’s the latest news, resources, and use cases from the world of product, UX, AI and technology. Let’s go:
🕹️ Drone Revolution
🟦 CrowdStrike
🤾♂️ Olympics
🤥 Lying AI
📆 Prime Day
🤴 Broligarchy
🧠 Imagination
Podcast
The Subterranean Drone Revolution: Transforming Grain Storage with Dr. Lorenzo Conti
In this episode of Prodity: Product by Design, Kyle interviews Dr. Lorenzo Conti, founder and managing director of Crover Ltd, a groundbreaking startup based in Scotland. Dr. Conti shares his unique journey from academia to entrepreneurship, detailing the development of the world’s first subterranean drone designed to revolutionize grain storage. They discuss the challenges of creating technology that moves through grain without damaging it, the significant impact of customer feedback on product development, and the importance of resilience in building a successful startup. Dr. Conti also touches on the potential future applications of Crover’s technology, including space exploration, and the exciting expansion plans into the U.S. market. Join us to learn about the innovative advancements in grain storage technology and the inspiring story behind Crover’s success.
News and Useful Reads
How One Bad CrowdStrike Update Crashed the World’s Computers
It wasn’t a terrorist attack or a natural disaster that brought the world to its knees this weekend, but a software bug. And it shut down banks, airlines, hospitals, restaurants, businesses, and more. But not Teams and Outlook. Those stayed up.
Only a handful of times in history has a single piece of code managed to instantly wreck computer systems worldwide. The Slammer worm of 2003. Russia’s Ukraine-targeted NotPetya cyberattack. North Korea’s self-spreading ransomware WannaCry. But the ongoing digital catastrophe that rocked the internet and IT infrastructure around the globe over the past 12 hours appears to have been triggered not by malicious code released by hackers, but by the software designed to stop them.
Omega’s AI Will Map How Olympic Athletes Win
Technology continues to advance rapidly at the Olympics. It probably isn’t surprising, but it also is. How much will technology begin to replace the human element? We’ve been having this debate in soccer for years, and getting calls correct is generally better in my opinion, but making it all seamless is a work in progress.
In diving, the systems will track the athletes from the beginning to end of their dive, producing a 3D image using a specific mathematical algorithm, while at the same time generating image data and metrics such as speed of entry into the water. This data should also allow judges to see the distance between the diver and the board—a specific distance that was previously judged by eye, and that, if not maintained, is a reason for points deduction.
AI can strategically lie to humans. Are we in trouble?
Yes. When a super intelligent machine can strategically lie to you, you are in trouble.
Last year, researchers tasked GPT-4 with hiring a human to solve a CAPTCHA, leading to the AI lying about a vision impairment to achieve its goal. This incident, along with other examples like AI playing the game Diplomacy and bluffing in poker, raises concerns about AI’s growing tendency to deceive humans.
Amazon Prime Day drives U.S. online sales to record $14.2 billion
Even though it seems like not all the deals were actual deals, Amazon still had record sales.
Online spending in the U.S. surged 11% year over year to $14.2 billion during Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day event, topping estimates and setting a record, according to Adobe Analytics.
Donald Trump and Silicon Valley's Billionaire Elegy
More and more billionaires are endorsing Trump, which should give us all pause. Elon Musk endorsed Trump and is donating $45 million each month. Peter Thiel bankrolled Trump’s running mate and vaulted him to his position. And now Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz are endorsing Trump. Why? In order to preserve and increase their money and power.
Andreessen feels that the Biden administration in particular doesn’t give him and his cohort their due. He concedes that he has personally argued for his business positions to many of Biden’s appointees, including cabinet members and Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients. But he’s livid that Securities and Exchange Commission head Gary Gensler won’t accept his request to meet with him to hear his demands that the commission rethink its crypto policy. Worst of all, Biden himself hasn’t honored their request for a personal meeting with him and Horowitz.
Other Interesting Finds
How to get better at having a good imagination
I think about this a lot. I look around at others who have incredible imaginations, and feel like I’ve lost some of mine. I’m too practical or too grounded. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
“We tend to think of our imagination as something that’s bestowed upon [us] from above,” says Read, former managing director of Condé Nast U.K. “It’s the classical tradition of inspiration, which in Latin means ‘to be breathed upon by the gods.’ I’m saying imagination is in your control, and you have the ability to make it stronger just in the way you work at your health and your emotional well-being.”