Business – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jan 20
2016

Print Your Face On Your Drink and Never Misplace It Again!

Tired of the leaves and hearts floating on the foam of your coffee? Then this Ripple Maker by the Israeli startup Steam CC is the answer for you. This machine reproduces photos, text or other graphics on coffee foam.

The Ripple Maker was first unveiled last June, when it was revealed that Lufthansa airlines would be using the devices in its First and Business Class departure lounges. Last week at CES, however, broader availability of the system was announced – it can now be purchased by any business that serves coffee, starting at US$1,299, and is available with an $85/month service plan.

Jan 20
2016

Google is Back in the Virtual Reality Competition

Google is shifting employee responsibilities and forming its own dedicated division for virtual reality computing.

Google is forming its own dedicated division for virtual reality computing, promising some intense competition for Facebook and Microsoft.

Not only has CEO Sundar Pichai moved over a key deputy to run it, but the move also signals Google’s intent to build a viable enterprise business. Because with the executive shift, Google’s massive consumer Web applications now fall under incoming SVP Diane Greene.

Jan 20
2016

World Economic Forum 2016: Technology is like Force, depends how you use it, says Anand Mahindra

When AI and particularly a Quantum AI society takes hold; we may see another huge shift in the balance of economic power again. For the past 20+ years, we have seen the trade and economic power shift to emerging markets across Asia. What type of a shift may we see when AI and particularly Robots on Quantum are in place? Could we see a complete reversal of markets and growth shift away from Asia back to Europe and the US/ Canada? Or, even no shift at all, etc.? Key questions that we need to be ready to address especially as more sophisticated AI is introduced over the next 3 to 5 years.

DAVOS: Invoking the famous Star Wars series, top industrialist Anand Mahindra today said technology is like the Force and everything depends on how we use it, as business leaders from across the world began debating here the challenges and benefits from the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Speaking here at the first official session of the World Economic Forum’s five-day annual meet, which started last night, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also said the world cannot afford another digital divide and the key question was how to ensure that the fourth industrial revolution leads to digital dividends.

Participating at a session on the ‘Transformation of Tomorrow’ alongside Mahindra, Nadella said, “We cannot afford another digital divide. Key question is about how the benefits from the fourth industrial revolution will be spread.

Jan 20
2016

Quantum computing is coming — are you prepared for it?

2 weeks ago, I posted a big announcement was coming; well we have officially received it. Now, the question is “WILL YOU BE READY?” Within less than 4 years (2020) Quantum will be available. Everyone needs to be planning and getting budgets and resources in place for this massive transformation that is coming within 4 years. It will be expensive, time consuming, and a lot of prep work around business and it needs to be assessed, planned, and position to onboard quickly to quantum because other countries (including hackers) are going to be on quantum as well meaning more powerful network and platforms to attack older systems. https://lnkd.in/baSZrBY

Quantum computing will change lives, society and the economy and a working system is expected to be developed by 2020 according to a leading figure in the world of quantum computing, who will talk tomorrow Jan. 21, 2016 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Professor O’Brien, Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics at the University of Bristol and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University, is part of a European Research Council (ERC) Ideas Lab delegation who have been invited to talk at the annual meeting to industrial and political leaders of the world, including Prime Minister David Cameron. The session will discuss the future of computing and how new fields of computer sciences are paving the way for the next digital revolution.

Quantum computing has the capability to unlock answers to some of humanity’s most pressing questions that are presently unsolvable with current computing technologies. In 2014, the UK government invested over £270 million in the development of quantum technologies, ensuring that the UK becomes the epicentre of a technology revolution and Professor O’Brien has been leading the development of quantum computing using light in its quantum state — the photon — as the key ingredient.

Jan 20
2016

New player Masten eyes Space Coast for launches, research

A scrappy but successful startup in the space industry, Masten Space Systems, is making new moves toward opening an office at Cape Canaveral.

Masten recently hired former NASA engineer Jason Hopkins as a business-development scout at Kennedy Space Center.

“I’m basically paving the way to get us set up here and have an office here,” Hopkins said. “Masten is a very small, efficient company, with about 30 people total at the Mojave (Calif.) Air and Space Port. We are considering another office here with the same capabilities.”

Jan 18
2016

EverLaw: Another Useful Artificial Intelligence Capability By @BobGourley | @CloudExpo #Cloud

With AI, why have attorneys or judges anymore. Frankly, AI is proving to be the most unbiased judges/ decision makers already. And, AI can develop contracts and patent agreements, etc. better than most humans. Plus, AI will outperform humans in discovery work on cases. So, we truly in just 3 years may not need judges and attorneys anymore.

Our list of Truly Useful Artificial Intelligence Tools You Can Use Today was out of date the minute we published it. We knew that would happen and are absolutely thrilled when we discover new capabilities that belong on this list. One we just learned about is EverLaw, provider of perhaps the world’s most advanced litigation platform, designed to be easy to use and programmed to leverage the most powerful technologies available, including cloud computing, mobile solutions and yes, artificial intelligence.

We found Everlaw and learned about their prediction engine and other key platform characteristics from an a16z blog post introducing a new investment. From a16z:

There is also a need for modern solutions to deeply technical problems — such as searching terabyte corpora for relevant documents (the state-of-the-art is mostly keyword search) or identifying clusters of relevant documents based on machine learning techniques (versus relying on humans to manually sift through and connect millions of documents). Historically, an industry vertical with such a legacy business model and architecture (i.e., very slow to change) would have a very hard time attracting top computer science talent to improve the space.

Read more

Jan 18
2016

The disruptive technologies that will shape business in the years ahead

Good article. I need to highlight that Quantum will most definitely take all of these technologies to a new level of performance and sophistication that we have never seen before. AI (including robotics) will be able to be the independent thinkers and humanoids that we all read about in SciFi or the AI Warning articles and blogs that we read about today. VR will be to interact and predict movements that are at least 20+ steps ahead of the average person; etc. This is why Quantum is the true game changer among all of these.

2 technologies missing that should also be included to this list is nanbots and CRISPR. Just like wearable’s and AI; CRISPR and nanobots are not new; however, they will change our healthcare industry.

It won’t happen overnight but it will happen.

Jan 18
2016

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is already here

Very interesting; the article highlights that there was no mention of job losses in 2020 within the IT field instead the writer highlights a shortage of IT resources to fill the jobs. And, thoroughly appreciate that the writer highlighted that Quantum, Nanobots, etc. are making the 4th Industrial Revolution happen; I couldn’t agree more.

To be sure, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is still in its nascent state. But with the pace of change and disruption to business and society so swift these days, the time to join in is now.

Author: Gary Coleman is the Global Industry and Senior Client Advisor for Deloitte Consulting and lead partner in Deloitte’s strategic relationship with the World Economic Forum. Follow him on Twitter@gcoleman_gary. He is participating in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

Jan 18
2016

Neura raises $11 million to create digital identities from consumers’ connected lives

Interesting; your own Digital DNA.

Neura, an Israeli Internet of Things startup that pulls together data from users’ connected devices, has raised $11 million to expand its “business reach and make the service ubiquitous.” The Series A round was led by AXA Strategic Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital, with participation from Liberty Israel Venture Fund and Lenovo Group.

Founded in 2013, Neura launched in the U.S. out of UpWest Labs, a Silicon Valley-based accelerator specifically for Israeli startups. The following year, Neura announced a $2 million funding round.

Neura’s core raison d’être is to serve up back-end analysis to the Internet of Things industry, and its technology can gather data on individuals from a range of connected devices, including phones, tablets, apps, and more. Neura’s artificial intelligence recognizes and analyzes human behavior and develops what it calls a “digital identity” for each person, insight that can be used to personalize applications, services, and devices.

Jan 16
2016

Intellia Therapeutics Launches New Division to Accelerate Ex Vivo Programs with CRISPR/Cas9

Excellent news; Intellia to continue their focus of leveraging the CRISPR/Cas9 across a variety of immune cells, such as natural killer cells and T-cells. From my own experiences with T-cells and other blood disorders; this is a big deal and one that I personally excited to see what potential cures and improvements come about.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intellia Therapeutics, a leading gene-editing company, has launched a new division, eXtellia Therapeutics, with the intent of focusing resources and research on ex vivo applications of the novel technology, CRISPR/Cas9. As in vivo and ex vivo programs require different competencies in research, manufacturing and commercialization, eXtellia Therapeutics is being launched to accelerate Intellia’s efforts in areas of significant unmet medical need – immuno-oncology, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases – using an ex vivo approach. Intellia will continue its in vivo programs and strategy through a dedicated scientific team.

“We are excited to announce the establishment of eXtellia, increasing our footprint in ex vivo gene editing for oncology and autoimmune diseases,” said Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Intellia Therapeutics. “eXtellia enables us to bring together the required capabilities needed to take the CRISPR/Cas9 technology beyond Intellia’s emerging in vivo, HSC and CAR-T efforts. We believe eXtellia further positions us to maximize the CRISPR/ Cas9 opportunity to address severe unmet medical needs for patients.”