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From the COVID-19 vaccine to advances in machine learning, AI, improved W-Fi and 5G, and telemedicine, experts expect a move to “patient-centric” health next year.

COVID-19 accomplished what entrepreneurs, doctors, and activists couldn’t: Designing a healthcare system that works for patients instead of providers and health insurance companies.

The industry promised to be “patient-centered” for the last decade but only the harsh demands of COVID-19 have made this a reality. As Ian McCrae, CEO of Orion Health, described it, COVID-19 is ushering in the long-overdue transformation of the healthcare system and, finally, a move to “patient-centric” health.

That is partly because AI businesses are not consumer-facing. Because they are mostly providers of back end hardware and software to other businesses, or, more critically, to governments, AI business will not become giant platform companies servicing billions of users.


Nina Xiang is the founder of China Money Network, a media platform tracking China’s venture and tech sectors.

In 10 years no one will remember the names of China’s artificial intelligence unicorns. While many aspects of the coming AI revolution remain unpredictable, one thing is clear: no AI company will emerge as a Big Tech brand.

While the internet era of the 2000s, and the mobile internet era of the 2010s, created the Chinese tech giants of today, such as Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding, and Tencent Holdings, collectively referred to as BAT, as well as Toutiao, Meituan, Didi-Chuxing, together known as TMD, the AI era is unlikely to produce anything like that by comparison — even if overly zealous investors have nursed over a dozen AI unicorns in China worth tens of billions in total.

Hackers with possible links to Iran appear to have breached an unprotected human-machine interface system at an Israeli water reservoir that connected directly to the internet and lacked security protocols, according to industrial cybersecurity firm Otorio.

See Also: Live Webinar | Securing Mobile Endpoints to Protect IP in the Pharma Industry

The security firm reports that the alleged Iranian hacking group, referred to as “Unidentified TEAM,” published a video of the attack on an unnamed reclaimed Israeli water reservoir human-machine interface (HMI) system, which did not require any authentication to access and modify the system. This allowed the threat actors to tamper with the water pressure, change temperatures and more.

Not much of a surprise there…


Let’s say you hate 5G and genuinely believe it causes cancer or spreads COVID-19, despite there being no evidence to support those wild conspiracies. To shield 5G’s myriad evils, then, you put your WiFi router in a metallic box that “blocks about 90 percent” of the signal. There! Now you’re instantly protected from those treacherous waves of radiation!

This may sound like a made-up scenario, but 5G truthers really have bought these devices in droves. There’s just one small problem with their fool-proof plan: The kinds of containers that truly do block all electromagnetic radiation are called Faraday cages, and they’re not the same thing as these so-called “router guards” that look like glorified mesh file organizers. If they were real Faraday cages, none of your home WiFi signal would come through.

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Since Xi put out the call to build up the new area, China’s tech giants have piled in. Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, Baidu, Zhongguancun Science Park and Tsinghua University have all established projects in Xiongan. The projects include the use of sensors, 5G networks and facilities for supercomputing and big data in the pursuit of building up the smart city. Alibaba is the parent company of the Post.


JD Digits, the e-commerce giant’s big data arm, is building a smart city operating system that uses artificial intelligence for urban management.

Global #connectivity lets for #digitalidentity for billions of people worldwide, giving them access to #telehealth, #education, #careers, #entertainment and #finance services, as well as raising #cybersecurity and #dataprivacy concernsRe-sharing. Starlink can help telemedicine become more reliable and available to people in need. Especially those in rurual or far flung locations.


Video Source/Credit: SpaceX Youtube Channel

One interesting sub-division of SpaceX is Starlink, which is Musk’s venture into increasing global connectivity. Starlink’s mission is to use a global network of low Earth orbit satellites to eventually “deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.” While satellite internet itself is not a novel concept, most of the traditional systems use dated technology that have far less capabilities with regards to internet speed, connectivity, and sustainability. Starlink’s goal is to provide high-speed broadband internet, using cutting-edge satellite systems that will also not add to the space pollution created by traditional systems. As of now, the company states that it “is targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near global coverage of the populated world by 2021.”

Werner Herzog criticizes Musk and SpaceX prepares to break a rocket reusability record. What’s next for Crew Dragon? It’s Musk Reads: SpaceX Edition #221.

Back in 2013, Elon Musk released the “Hyperloop Alpha” PDF outlining his vision for a space-age styled pod that would speed 700 mph through a vacuum tube. More than seven years later, one company is actually coming close to making it a reality — and we have an exclusive interview with its co-founder and first passenger. You’ll only read it in Musk Reads+.