š± Genuinely Scary AI Businesses, The Impossible Burger Breakthrough, and The Robot Butler
Get a Robot to Do The Dishes
Hey friends! Hope youāre doing well today. Howās your Spooky October going? Iāve 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. š Also - 30 Days of Night is excellent, but the sequel is terrible!
Please send me an email if youāve seen any good ones. Iād love to hear your recommendations!
I turned 28 this week. Hard to believe Iām getting close to 30. Kinda like this. . .
Haha! Well, letās dive on into the topics shall we? Itās time for some scary stuff! Grab that Pumpkin Spice Latte and letās go!
šScary AI Businesses
Curated by Daviddao, this fascinating list of AI projects is called āAwful AI.ā Ranging from Racist AIās to actual businesses and autonomous weapons, hereās 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 thatās 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 usedĀ by law enforcementĀ to extract names and addresses from potential suspects, and asĀ a secret plaything for the richĀ to let them spy on customers and dates. (Source)
Speaking of Facial Recognition, thereās a company called Faceception that is attempting to classify what kind of person you are. Seriously! Could you imagine someone saying to you āSorry, you canāt enter our restaurant because our algorithms determine that you donāt spend much?ā
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 Letās 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 Ā£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 Ā£0 and pay nothing more if they stay active. {Emphasis mine} (Source)
Well, thereās a whole lot more of this kind of thing in daviddaoās list. Heck - if you read the whole thing I bet youāll be more terrified than when you watched The Exorcist.
BIG BROTHER DATA IS WATCHING YOU š±
Check out all the other Awful AI at the link!
šThe Impossible Burger Breakthrough
Itās been a while since I last wrote about the Impossible Burger.
Yes - I still havenāt had one. Thatās my fault.
Itās 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? Itās flying off the shelves.
Every time i go to Publix or Kroger I always look over to see if thereās any Impossible Burgers. Usually, thereās only a package or two left.
Data is starting to back that up.
Ā 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 Joeās, and Walmart. Starting this month, Impossible Burger is rolling out at nearly 1,500 Target stores nationwide. āThree 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,ā Impossible Foods Senior Vice President for Sales Dan GreeneĀ said. āOur retail surge has become a powerful flywheel for long-term growth.ā (Source)
Thatās 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 thatās worth checking our if you get a chance. Check it out at the link!
š¤The Robot Butler
Remember when the Roomba came out and boggled everyoneās minds back in 2002? Who in the world would need a robot vacuum?
Theyāre 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. āWhat 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 itās not needed?ā said Dan Helmick, co-lead of robotics fleet learning at the Toyota Research InstituteĀ (Source)
Could you imagine something like this in your home? A Robot doing the dishes and cooking?
Thatās not even the wildest statement in that paragraph. What would it be like to build a Robot-Assisted home? Weāre 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 - weāll finally see āThere will come Soft Rainsā from Ray Bradbury play out. Wait - you havenāt read that classic SciFi short story about the death of a smart home? Ray Bradbury was soooo far ahead of his time.
šThe 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. Itās totally awesome! Subscribe at the link.
Run Android on Your Linux
Ever wanted to run Android on your Linux computer? Well, you can with āAndroid in a Box.ā Itās free and open source!
The Ethical Hacking of Starbucks
Sam Curry hacked Starbucks and gained access to users info, including names and emails! Donāt worry, heās a ethical hacker and notified Starbucks right away - and made some money from their bug bounty program. Itās 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 guyās website is AWESOME. Itās a Pokemon throwback.
šµTiktoks You Canāt 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 Thatās how they do it . . .
Can You Play The Floor is Lava Now?
Well, thatās all for this weekās issue. Until next week!