Curated Commons // Edition 48
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 48th edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
Automation in kitchens, slowly. And then…?
Kitchens in fast food chains are beginning to deploy robots. Good for tech progression, bad for a job category that’s consistently at lowest end of pay scales. - Read more ($)
Facial recognition is not foolproof
Our insecure future is starting at us right in the face. Literally.
Researchers have created ‘master faces’ to bypass facial recognition. And who might these faces be - non-existent elderly people. Wait for a low-cost easy-to-deploy Russian version of this on the black market pretty soon. - Read more
Esports gaining in popularity and acceptance
Tech is a great leveller. Singapore is now setting its sights on becoming an eSports force to reckon with. - Read here
Singapore may not compete for gold in many Olympic events, but the tiny city-state is emerging as a force in a different kind of sport: mobile and video games.
In May Singapore hosted the Free Fire World Series, which garnered a peak viewership of 5.4 million – the highest-ever for any eSports match outside of Chinese platforms, according to Esports Charts. In July the nation opened its first eSports experiential center, equipped with world-class live-streaming and pro-eSports facilities.
And where there’s growth, there’s spam and abuse. Twitch is promising to battle “hate raids” on its platform. - Read more
Deepfake…advertising
There’s an advertising version of it…is true for Deepfakes now.
Head to this Warner Bros website. Upload a pic, and let AI do its magic. It’s eerie. And it’s mind blowing how the system generates video out of a single pic. - Read more
When you type a typo, you better be angry
The AWS story is repeating…in logistics
Amazon is now delivering for its…competitors. And working around measures designed by competitors to avoid shipping by Amazon. Only thing holding it back - struggle to add extra capacity fast enough! Fascinating story. - Read here ($)
One version of the Metaverse, from the folks who gave us Pokemon Go
This is a piece well worth reading from Niantic Labs, the creator of one of the first games to successfully fuse atoms and bits. - Read here
Lest you forgot this brilliant New Yorker cartoon
When the State mistakes surveillance for transparency
Governments are under pressure to deliver. They see tech as a quick-fix. Vendors push overly broad tools to under-informed bureaucrats. End result - you end up using a scimitar when you needed a scalpel. This one’s a representative story from an Indian state, but such tools are everywhere, globally. - Read here
Apple goes down, and takes rest of world, down a long slippery slope
This op-ed is a good summary of the slippery slope that Apple has set the world on. Good intent is not a sufficient bar when it comes to taking decisions on tech. - Read here ($)
Reminded of this old NYT cartoon
Sony, Streaming, and Strategies
Very interesting read in the WSJ on how Sony, the only major studio without its own streaming service, is planning to profit from the spending urges of its competitors that are burning cash to grow their streaming offerings. - Read here ($)
Twitter’s photo-cropping algorithm and the inherent bias
Twitter’s weird photo-cropping algo has come in for criticism in the past, so they embarked on a contest to identify unfairness in the algorithms. The winning entry found that the algorithm favors young, thin females. - Read here
And lest we forget:
Misinformation kills :-(
“A Santa Barbara father suspected of killing his two children in Mexico told the FBI he was a QAnon adherent and had to kill them because they had been infected with serpent DNA and he was saving the world from monsters…” - Read here
More good reads:
Is Taiwan next? - Read here ($)
Interesting read on what it meant for the tech infrastructure for the Fox Corporation that came out of Disney’s deal - Read here
An office romance, a surprise will and the future of the “Harry Potter” franchise - Read here ($)
The virus is not done yet. China has this week partly shut the world’s third-busiest port after one worker was infected - Read here
The Swedish welfare state as a driver of Europe’s Silicon Valley - Read here
The Chinese Govt banned Bitcoin mining. Many of the miners headed to Texas - Read here
Autonomous Taxis are growing in China, thanks to a friendly regulatory regime (for now!) - Read here
Power Twitch user Vs the Olympics - something tells me this will be an issue that will repeat several times. - Read here ($)
“In 1999, roughly seven million girls in the U.S. were playing soccer. Each had a 0.00031% chance of making the Tokyo Olympics roster. Sam and Kristie Mewis both did it.” - Read here ($)
And finally, it’s the season of unicorns in India.
Who says unicorns are mythical! In India startup world in 2021, they definitely are not. Good summary via @ETtech's good newsletter economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/newslette…Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, please do share on your social networks. My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.