Fwd: Abundance Insider: August 18 Edition

In this week's Abundance Insider: Tesla's self-driving truck tests, Qualcomm's mind-blowing smartphone sensors, and the financial impact... In this week's Abundance Insider: Tesla's self-driving truck tests, Qualcomm's mind-blowing smartphone sensors, and the financial impact of pilotless planes. Cheers, Peter, Marissa, Kelley, Greg, Sydney, AJ, Bri and Jason P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking hereto this link to subscribe, and send your friends and family to Abundance Insider. Meet the Company That's Using Face Recognition to Reshape China's Tech Scene What it is: The use of facial recognition as a means of online identity verification is exploding in China. Face++ -- available as an API and developed by Bejing-based Megvii -- is used by 300,000 developers across 150 countries and, according to the company, about 90% of the top Chinese Internet companies. Key applications for Face++ and competing services from companies like Baidu and SenseTime include using your face in place of a badge to enter Alibaba, as a means of verifying ID prior to boarding trains, or authenticating users of online banking. Interestingly, Face++ is powered by its own deep learning algorithm, Brain++, which enables Megvii to customize it for clients -- for example, an app used by law enforcement where network connectivity may not always be perfect. Why it's important: The use cases for AI in China are exploding. Most of the Rising Billion are coming online via mobile, and culturally are more comfortable with radical transparency than in the West. Written Chinese characters are not as straightforward as English, leading to different adoption curves and UI's than in the West. As with conversational interfaces, look for new use cases for facial recognition to emerge, and think about how they might be applied in your region of the world.  Share on Facebook Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Jason Goodwin Here Come the Mind-Blowing Smartphone Sensors That Could Bring AR to the Masses What it is: Qualcomm recently released a video of its next mobile processor Snapdragon and sensor package. This package is essentially comprised of thousands of infrared light dots that map objects in 3D and in real time. Although Qualcomm does not refer to it as LIDAR, the effects of the new imaging capabilities are comparable: a device with active depth-sensing on board can gauge the shape of objects and their distance to within about 0.1mm. Apple is also involved in the development of AR apps for iOS, as Apple is already planning for its first phone with laser range-finding capabilities. Why it's important: Soon we will see a rapid uptake of AR using our mobile devices. These devices will be packed with a suite of sensors connected by high-bandwidth communications to the cloud. The result is that each of us will have an incredible user interface with high-speed communications, making our virtual experiences so good that you won't need to travel to experience something. The use of AR on mobile devices could potentially replace the use of displays and screens in the near future.  Share on Facebook Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Sydney Fulkerson The World's Best Dota 2 Players Just Got Destroyed By a Killer AI from Elon Musk's Startup What it is: OpenAI recently defeated the world's best players in the Dota 2 tournament, setting a new record for the first AI to beat top pros in competitive e-sports. The complexity of this game is due to the incomprehensible number of possibilities presented in the game, yet the Elon Musk-backed bot succeeded nonetheless -- and with only two weeks of learning time. Musk initially founded OpenAI as a nonprofit venture to help prevent AIs from destroying off civilization. The team behind the Dota 2 AI are now working to extend the bot's capabilities to compete across the full game during next year's tournament. Why it's important: Following the AlphaGo AI vanquishing Asia's Go champs and the poker bot Libratus beating top pro poker players at Pittsburgh's Rivers Casino earlier this year, this e-sports AI demonstrates just how capable AI systems are getting. As AI can learn and apply reasoning in highly complex situations, we'll eventually adopt the technology throughout our everyday lives using methods we once conceived as incomprehensible.  Share on Facebook Spotted by Marconi Pereira / Written by Sydney Fulkerson Microsoft Announces the Coco Framework to Improve Enterprise Blockchain Networks What it is: Microsoft recently announced its Coco Framework, adding further legitimacy for the use of blockchain applications throughout the enterprise, and establishing a foundation from which more complex, real world applications can be developed to transform industries. Compatible with any ledger protocol and boasting transaction speeds of 1,600 per second with distributed governance, Coco addresses some of the main areas of complexity that limit adoption by IT organizations today. Why it's important: Think of Coco as a the start of a simplified user interface to the blockchain. By reducing some of the complexity at the foundation of blockchain, this seems analogous to the explosion of the Internet after the entrance of the Mosaic web browser. Keep an eye out for unique ways of using blockchain throughout key verticals like healthcare and finance -- what does this mean for the adoption of cryptocurrencies like Ether? Share on Facebook Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Jason Goodwin Pilotless planes could save airlines $35 billion, UBS says What it is: New research conducted by UBS Bank claims that pilotless planes have the potential to save the aerospace and aviation industry more than $35 billion. As a result, airlines could reap the rewards of lower costs -- operating, training, fuel and insurance premium costs -- totaling $26 billion in pilot cost savings for commercial airline firms. Despite these savings, UBS' Evidence Lab Survey of 8,000 people showed 54 percent of respondants as reluctant to fly in a pilotless plane. Seventeen percent of people stated that they would partake in a pilotless flight -- and 30 percent of participants between the ages of 18 and 34 indicated they would. Why it's important: As this exponential technology continues to advance and improve, the cost to build and operate pilotless planes will drop drastically. Although there are still design, security and technological challenges to overcome, pilotless planes have the potential to completely disrupt the airline industry and demonetize air travel. Share on Facebook Spotted by Sydney Fulkerson / Written by Sydney Fulkerson Portable Diagnostic Tool Detects Disease in 15 Minutes What it is: A team at Duke University led by Ashutosh Chilkoti have created a portable "lab on a chip" capable of testing for disease biomarkers in as little as 15 minutes -- the same accuracy of the ELISA method, the current gold standard. By introducing a novel polymer brush coating, the team's D4 Assay reduces the background noise in the sample, enabling sharper accuracy in far less time. The D4, which can produce results with a mobile phone camera, is anticipated to cost less than $30 when produced at scale. Why it's important: As a precursor to full-scale digitization of blood diagnostics, this breakthrough represents a step to the democratization of healthcare, and an example of applying information theory and noise reduction concepts to the analog world (i.e. blood analysis). Cheaper testing is in itself a boon to diagnostics, as it enables the collection of more data on which to apply AI for new insights. Share on Facebook  Spotted by Ian Pitchford / Written by Jason Goodwin Exclusive: Tesla Developing Self-Driving Tech for Semi-Truck, Wants to Test in Nevada What it is: Tesla is in talks with the State of Nevada and the State of California to begin testing fully autonmous electric long-haul trucks. Operating in platoon style, where one truck follows closely behind another, this concept has customers and autonomous vehicle fans excited. Very little cross traffic on highways presents a great first use case for autonomous systems, and would go a long way in making us comfortable with fully unmanned systems. Why it's important: Interestingly, most of the skepticism here centers on the viability of an electric long-haul truck versus the unmanned element, indicating that fully autonomous vehicles seem to be close to a tipping point in public discourse. As with the other aspects of mindset we discuss, when people believe things are possible (e.g. going to the Moon), big breakthroughs occur. Expect the disruption of the transportation industry to continue and expand. Share on Facebook  Spotted by Sydney Fulkerson / Written by Jason Goodwin What is Abundance Insider? This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by Marissa Brassfield in preparation for Abundance 360. Read more about A360 below. Want more conversations like this? At Abundance 360, Peter's 250-person executive mastermind, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.  Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up. PHD Ventures   800 Corporate Pointe  Suite 350  Culver City,  California   90230   United States You received this email because you are subscribed to Abundance Insider from PHD Ventures. Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive.  Unsubscribe from all future emails

Fwd: Abundance Insider: August 11 Edition

In this week's Abundance Insider: Augmented reality benches, 3D printed plane engines, and China's blockchain tax experiment. In this week's Abundance Insider: Augmented reality benches, 3D printed plane engines, and China's blockchain tax experiment. Cheers, Peter, Marissa, Kelley, Greg, Sydney, AJ, Bri and Jason P.S. Send any tips to our team by clicking hereto this link to subscribe, and send your friends and family to Abundance Insider. Disney Research Magic Bench Makes Augmented Reality a Headset-Free Group Experience What it is: Disney Research has created the first headset-free shared augmented reality experience, dubbed Magic Bench. Leveraging Microsoft Kinect technology, the experience allows users to view themselves through a mirror with other characters sitting next to them. As one example, they might sit next to a rabbit or an elephant, feel them move on the bench, and hear their words as if they were sitting next to them. Why it's important: Cumbersome head-mounted displays pose an obstacle to mass adoption of mixed reality experiences; in response, we're seeing a number of different approaches to this challenge, from holograms to this new approach from Disney. Look for many more combinations of sensory input to "level up" the social experience of this new medium.  Share on Facebook Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Jason Goodwin Scientists Dim Sunlight, Suck Up Carbon Dioxide to Cool Planet What it is: Since the Paris Climate Accords in 2015 and a realization that cutting carbon emissions will probably be insufficient to keep global temperatures from rising above catastrophic levels, geo-engineering attempts are gaining more traction. Companies like Climeworks and Carbon Engineering are removing carbon directly from the air, hoping to make a positive planetary impact and resell the carbon for a profit. Other approaches include the cloud-seeding efforts announced in China earlier this year, and researchers who are attempting to create clouds to dim the intensity of the sun, like Harvard's planned project in Arizona in 2018. Why it's important: Like many other technology developments, widespread acceptance can often take time. In 2009, when oil prices were at all-time highs, the general mindset was focused on carbon capture efforts that were profitable from the start, tied directly to a price on carbon. Today, with high-profile investors like Bill Gates and leading institutions like Harvard and the European Space Agency leading the charge, it feels as if profitability is just one of many drivers to these endeavors.  Share on Facebook Spotted by Sydney Fulkerson / Written by Jason Goodwin GE 3D-Printed Plane Engine Makes Its Debut What it is: GE recently unveiled images of a new airplane engine built, in part, through 3D printing. Over one-third of the parts in the 1,300-horsepower engine are 3D printed. Internal testing has shown that through additive manufacturing, GE has reduced the fuel consumption of this engine by over 15%. They believe that advances in this technology will allow engines with 30% fewer parts -- and without the risk of joint leaks, as the 3D-printed design doesn't require joints at all. The engine is set to unveil at this week's airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Why it's important: Evidence of 3D printing increasingly fulfilling the needs of more complex manufacturing. As more industries integrate 3D printing into their manufacturing processes, we'll see it demonetize further, with simultaneous improvements in safety and reliability.  Share on Facebook Spotted by Peter Diamandis / Written by Neil Jain What is Ray Kurzweil Up to at Google? Writing Your Emails What it is: After reading Ray Kurzweil's work on the brain, Larry Page recruited him to join Google with a goal of creating an artificial intelligence system to understand human language. Since then, Kurzweil and his team have been applying neural networks to tackle the deceivingly small task of suggesting replies to emails. Taking the form of Smart Replies, a feature in Inbox by Gmail, Kurzweil and his team have improved the computational efficiency of Google's existing neural networks. According to Kurzweil, while the current state may seem small, it's a critical first step in developing discrete units that in sum add up to powerful pattern recognition, similar to his view of how the brain functions. Why it's important: As Ray and Peter have both mentioned, humans are ill-equipped to think exponentially. You cannot, for example, assume that because it might take 5 years to fully map the function of one neuron that we will never never map billions of neurons. While suggesting a "Sounds good" email reply might seem trivial, it's a deceptively hard task, and an easy entry point into a more collaborative human-AI interaction. Share on Facebook Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Jason Goodwin Top U.S. Tech Companies Founded by Immigrants Are Worth Over $3 Trillion What it is: The U.S. government has announced a plan to decrease the number of legal immigrants it allows into the country by half in 10 years, and this article outlines how this legislation overlooks the immense benefit immigrants bring to our country. Of the top 25 largest companies -- including Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Oracle -- over half were founded by first- or second-generation immigrants. These companies have a combined market cap of over $3 trillion and employ more than 1.5 million people. Why it's important: Anti-immigrant rhetoric is prevalent not just in the U.S., but all over the world. As we move towards a world of abundance and resources are no longer scarce, the need for national boundaries will begin to dissolve. As such, it is important we encourage and welcome immigrants, and the innovation and opportunity they bring with them. Share on Facebook Spotted byPeter Diamandis / Written by Neil Jain China Will Experiment With Using Blockchain to Collect Taxes What it is: China recently unveiled a plan to begin using the blockchain to collect taxes and issue electronic invoices. While exact details have yet to be released, this experiment complements a separate initiative to create a digital currency for its national bank. If implemented, China would be the first to use the new technology after adding blockchain to a list of its priorities in the government's 13th Five-Year National Informatization Plan, released in 2016. Why it's important: While China may be the first to implement blockchain distributed ledger technology, it will by no means be the last. Legislation involving the use of blockchain technology for tax returns and health records has been introduced to the U.S. Congress in the past, and will likely resurface in the near future. The potential implementations for blockchain are limitless, and it's exciting to see large governments experiment with the technology rather than fear it. Share on Facebook  Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Neil Jain What is Abundance Insider? This email is a briefing of the week's most compelling, abundance-enabling tech developments, curated by Marissa Brassfield in preparation for Abundance 360. Read more about A360 below. Want more conversations like this? At Abundance 360, Peter's 250-person executive mastermind, we teach the metatrends, implications and unfair advantages for entrepreneurs enabled by breakthroughs like those featured above. We're looking for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to change the world. The program is highly selective. If you'd like to be considered, apply here.  Know someone who would benefit from getting Abundance Insider? Send them to this link to sign up. PHD Ventures   800 Corporate Pointe  Suite 350  Culver City,  California   90230   United States You received this email because you are subscribed to Abundance Insider from PHD Ventures. Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive.  Unsubscribe from all future emails