😱 Genuinely Scary AI Businesses, The Impossible Burger Breakthrough, and The Robot Butler

Get a Robot to Do The Dishes

Hey friends! Hope you’re doing well today. How’s your Spooky October going? I’ve been trying to watch new horror movies every week.

Side Note - Skew and The Monster Project are not very good found footage films. Skip those. 🎃 Also - 30 Days of Night is excellent, but the sequel is terrible!

Please send me an email if you’ve seen any good ones. I’d love to hear your recommendations!

I turned 28 this week. Hard to believe I’m getting close to 30. Kinda like this. . .

Haha! Well, let’s dive on into the topics shall we? It’s time for some scary stuff! Grab that Pumpkin Spice Latte and let’s go!

💀Scary AI Businesses

Curated by Daviddao, this fascinating list of AI projects is called “Awful AI.” Ranging from Racist AI’s to actual businesses and autonomous weapons, here’s a few of the most terrifying.

You may have heard about this one - Clearview AI? Think of it as the Real Manifestation of all those ID scanners from Sci-FI films. It seems that only Law Enforcement can use it . . . . at least that’s what their website says.

Clearview AI build a facial recognition database of billions of people by scanning their social media profiles. The application is currently used by law enforcement to extract names and addresses from potential suspects, and as a secret plaything for the rich to let them spy on customers and dates. (Source)

Speaking of Facial Recognition, there’s a company called Faceception that is attempting to classify what kind of person you are. Seriously! Could you imagine someone saying to you “Sorry, you can’t enter our restaurant because our algorithms determine that you don’t spend much?”

Based on facial features, Faception claims that it can reveal personality traits e.g. "Extrovert, a person with High IQ, Professional Poker Player or a threat". They build models that classify faces into categories such as Pedophile, Terrorist, White-Collar Offenders and Bingo Players without prior knowledge. (Source)

Anddd Let’s not forget the Health Monitoring systems being developed by Vitaly and other Health Care Providers. Give us your data in exchange for incentives! Stay active if you want to keep that Apple Watch. Run another mile - or else.

Vitality members will now be able to get Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS) and Apple Watch Nike+ (GPS) from just £29 and then fund the remaining balance by getting active, with the potential to reduce all future monthly payments to zero. Additionally, until December 31 2017, Vitality members will be able to get an Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS 38mm) or Apple Watch Nike+ (GPS 38mm) for £0 and pay nothing more if they stay active. {Emphasis mine} (Source)

Well, there’s a whole lot more of this kind of thing in daviddao’s list. Heck - if you read the whole thing I bet you’ll be more terrified than when you watched The Exorcist.

BIG BROTHER DATA IS WATCHING YOU 😱

Check out all the other Awful AI at the link!

🍔The Impossible Burger Breakthrough

It’s been a while since I last wrote about the Impossible Burger.

Yes - I still haven’t had one. That’s my fault.

It’s really amazing how far along the plant-based meat industry has come. Only a few years ago we were hearing rumors about the wonders of plant-based meat.

Now? It’s flying off the shelves.

Every time i go to Publix or Kroger I always look over to see if there’s any Impossible Burgers. Usually, there’s only a package or two left.

Data is starting to back that up.

 the percentage of first-time customers has doubled each month since April. In the past 6 months, Impossible Burger sales have increased 77-fold and are now available at 11,000 retail locations in all 50 states, including Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and Walmart. Starting this month, Impossible Burger is rolling out at nearly 1,500 Target stores nationwide. “Three out of four Americans now live within 10 miles of a grocery store where they can buy Impossible Burger. And when people cook it at home, they start telling friends and family about it,” Impossible Foods Senior Vice President for Sales Dan Greene said. “Our retail surge has become a powerful flywheel for long-term growth.” (Source)

That’s absolutely crazy growth! 11,000 Retail locations and counting.

I remember reading articles last year that mused if Impossible Foods was going to really herald the revolution. It looks like Impossible is getting that Viral effect! Their play for people who like meat for the taste/look seems to be winning.

The Plant-Based Meat Revolution is here to stay.

Impossible has a pretty cool Environmental Impact calculator that’s worth checking our if you get a chance. Check it out at the link!

🤖The Robot Butler

Remember when the Roomba came out and boggled everyone’s minds back in 2002? Who in the world would need a robot vacuum?

They’re a lot more common than they used to be.

Then Amazon and Google came along with a host of smart products - from microwaves to light bulbs.

Whenever we think of the idea of household robots, probably some Japanese robot comes to mind. Maybe something like this.

However, Toyota has something much different in mind for households.

Something like this. (Image Source)

Their solution was to imagine a future home built with robots directly integrated into the architecture. Building new robot-assisted homes from scratch would create its own problems, of course, but the design itself does solve some issues. “What if instead of needing a robot to navigate the cluttered floor, it could travel on the ceiling instead, and be tucked out of the way when it’s not needed?” said Dan Helmick, co-lead of robotics fleet learning at the Toyota Research Institute (Source)

Could you imagine something like this in your home? A Robot doing the dishes and cooking?

That’s not even the wildest statement in that paragraph. What would it be like to build a Robot-Assisted home? We’re already seeing the rise of AI integrated homes - I guess it makes sense that Robot-assisted homes will be coming out in the next decade.

Then I guess - we’ll finally see “There will come Soft Rains” from Ray Bradbury play out. Wait - you haven’t read that classic SciFi short story about the death of a smart home? Ray Bradbury was soooo far ahead of his time.

🐙The Land of Random

Random Random Links. Here They Are!

Unicorns Feed

An awesome weekly newsletter discovering new resources and articles to supercharge your productivity, creativity, and thoughts. It’s totally awesome! Subscribe at the link.

Run Android on Your Linux

Ever wanted to run Android on your Linux computer? Well, you can with “Android in a Box.” It’s free and open source!

The Ethical Hacking of Starbucks

Sam Curry hacked Starbucks and gained access to users info, including names and emails! Don’t worry, he’s a ethical hacker and notified Starbucks right away - and made some money from their bug bounty program. It’s a fantastic read.

The Razer Card

Razer has tried a lot of stuff the past few years - from fitness trackers to phones - and now - a prepaid Visa card! Yes, the Razer logo glows on the card.

Neon Genesis Evangelion Headphones

Ever wanted a pair of wireless headphones inspired by the classic Anime? Well say no more.

Daniel Sternlicht

This guy’s website is AWESOME. It’s a Pokemon throwback.

🎵Tiktoks You Can’t Miss

When the backyard science experiment goes wrong. Horribly wrong.

Inexplicable Madness and Hilarity

This Dolphin Saves Iphones

If These Board Games were Horror Movies

Woah! So That’s how they do it . . .

Can You Play The Floor is Lava Now?

Well, that’s all for this week’s issue. Until next week!