The Reason Use of Smart Drugs To Boost Mental Performance Is On the Rise

A global increase in ADHD diagnoses may be part of the reason, but a highly competitive 24-7 economy and lifestyle may also be influencing the trend to remain awake and focused longer.

Whether this leads to improved performance is another question. JL


Arran Frood reports in Scientific American:

14% reported using stimulants at least once in the preceding 12 months in 2017, up from 5% in 2015. The non-medical use of substances to increase memory or concentration is known as pharmacological cognitive enhancement (PCE), and it rose in all 15 nations in the survey. Medications (included) Adderall and Ritalin as well as sleep-disorder medication modafinil and cocaine. (The) US reported the highest rate of use, but the largest increases were in Europe. Cultural factors, the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses and availability influence use. (48%) obtained the drugs through friends.

The Amount Millennials Spend On Uber and Lyft In Major US Cities Every Month

The most spent monthly by Millennials on Uber and Lyft is in San Francisco at $110 and $89, respectively. The lowest amounts are $29 a month on Uber in Portland, Oregon and  $20 a month on Lyft in St. Louis, Missouri.


Myelle Lansat reports in Business Insider:

Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft thrive in areas with a highly concentrated population — and some millennials are spending over $100 a month to use them.

Want More Skilled Workers? Create Them

Invest in better pay, more flexible work arrangements and training.  JL

Jonathon Trugman reports in the New York Post:

Stop all this corporate complaining how hard it is to find qualified workers. The solutions are simple: Offer more pay, and/or more or flexible hours. Invest in the future of your business while at the same time investing in the future of your employees. Yes, training is expensive, especially for the highest-skill jobs.But in exchange for the training, you could require a commensurate commitment. (And) if a company has bona-fide needs for valuable, skilled employees due to high demand, it should offer more pay.

Can Artificial Intelligence Eliminate Traffic Congestion?

While better information is helpful, there are usually only so many routes available, especially for commuters or anyone headed to a specific destination.

For systems to really make a difference they are going to have to address a much broader issue: how to get drivers to switch to other transportation modes in order to reduce demand for the increasingly limited urban traffic space available. JL


Henry Williams reports in the Wall Street Journal :

(AI) has reduced waiting times at traffic lights by as much as 42%. Car makers are betting on short-distance communications between traffic-management systems, and between cars. Drivers are able to receive real-time information about the intersections they’re approaching, including how many seconds are left until the light turns green.“In the future it will suggest a speed” at which to drive to hit green lights along a route

Will Amazon's Virtual Reality Kiosks Transform the Future of Shopping?

Virtual reality has been overhyped, some would say chronically.

But this time it's being managed by Amazon - and just in advance of its Prime Day promotional shopping extravaganza. That combination may provide it with a scalable marketing boost no other technology has seen - or can match. JL


Jeremy Horwitz reports in Venture Beat:

Rather than taking the obvious retail angle and depositing you in a computer-generated facsimile of a brick-and-mortar space, Amazon instead transports the shopper into a city filled with Prime Day products. Customers can handle any product in full 3D, including clothing that can be placed on holographic people to determine fit and smartphones that can be examined from all angles with pop-up specification windows.

Why the Scooter Wars Will Be a Bloodbath - and How Uber Could Win

Customer acquisition costs are lower than ride sharing and payback times are shorter. All which attracts new entrants.

But Uber's and Lyft's installed customer base, algorithmic advantage, inter-modal connectivity - in other words, scale - give them a competitive advantage that may prove unassailable. JL


Sunil Paul reports in Re/code:

Uber now has a dominant source of demand for mobility solutions. Uber has spent years optimizing its algorithms to understand locations and times. Will that information be different between rides and scooters? No, because people who want to get from A to B are willing to try different modes at different times. The ride-sharing companies already have the relevant eyeballs — users of their app looking for a ride — and they have the logistics expertise to get supply to the right spot.

How Russian Intelligence Officers Used Bitcoin To Hack the 2016 US Election

Clever. If not exactly surprising. JL

Tom Schoenberg and colleagues report in Bloomberg, Kia Kokalitcheva reports in Axios:

Two separate Russian units of the GRU intelligence agency stole emails and information from Democrats and then disseminated it via online personas. The Russians masked their activities by using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to buy servers, register Internet domains and make other payments in the hacking operation, according to the indictment. It said the Russians also funded the operation in part by “mining” Bitcoin.

Twitter's Comeback Is a Feel-Good Story That's Probably Wrong

It has more to do with financial market dynamics than operational performance. JL

Felix Salmon reports in Slate:

After Jack Dorsey came back, he laid off employees, cut back on stock-based compensation, and started running more video ads, to the point that video now accounts for more than half of the company’s ad revenue. Those moves put an end to Twitter’s quarterly losses and the erosion of its share price. (But) Twitter can be found on the list of most-shorted stocks. When a company has a large short interest that drives the stock upward. The higher the stock rises, the stronger that force becomes. The rise in Twitter’s price can be attributed to stock-market dynamics, as opposed to corporate fundamentals.

If An Algorthim Draws Lines On a Map, Is That the Same As Surveying Land?

Depends what the courts say in the jurisdiction where the lines are drawn.

This is another in the long list of instances where technology is leapfrogging local laws, rules and - most of all - customs while taking income from an existing service. JL


Cyrus Farivar reports in ars technica:

Traditional land registry and surveying uses physical markers to define a piece of land. (Algorithmic mapping services) use a computer program to draw a polygon on a map. Banks lend money to facilitate real-estate acquisition, and can gain a better sense of where land is in relation to other property. But Mississippi’s Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors says it should be the state entity solely responsible for land surveying. The board alleges violation of state laws that require surveyors have a proper license

Job Security Is a Surprising New Perk of Factory Work

The value of human capital has grown as technological skills make the fewer, but better trained and experienced workers more valuable. JL

Eric Morath reports in the Wall Street Journal, photo by Case Clifford in Bloomberg:

Manufacturers say that in a tight labor market they are motivated to hold on to existing workers. “We’ve become more careful about letting people go. Most manufacturing jobs today are technology jobs. It takes a long time to train someone for that role, so you’re reluctant to let them go for what could be a short-term slowdown.”

Does Fake News Sway Financial Markets?

Yes. But how it does so is the crucial issue. JL

Marina Niessner reports in Yale School of Management Insights:

Researchers found that after fake news about small firms was published, the companies’ stock prices rose and then fell. The deceptive articles often coincided with press releases and insider trading, suggesting that those firms tried to artificially inflate prices and sell their stock in a “pump and dump” scheme. For small companies, “these knowledge-sharing platforms do seem to matter for financial markets.”

Why Humanizing Tech May Present the New Competitive Advantage

Artificial intelligence is inspiring a growing personalization of technology. From smart speakers like Alexa and Siri, to bot-driven customer service, products and services are increasingly 'friendly.'

This is occurring just as trust in tech has hit a wall. While consumer/citizens may be ever more dependent on their devices, data suggest faith in the motives of those behind the gadgetry is declining. Humanization may present an opportunity to regain that trust, but the competitive advantage comes at a price familiar to most successful companies: a willingness to invest in making relationship mutually beneficial. JL 


Bala Iyer and colleagues report in MIT Sloan Management Review:

With a focus on growth and velocity of innovation, companies have acted in favor of increasing market share, but have eroded the confidence and trust of customers. The proliferation of technologies that create, mimic, and facilitate conversation means designers are now introducing empathy, personality, and creativity to machine-human interaction in ways that affect user experience. Companies that gain the trust of users will be given the opportunity to offer new products and services to those users. The relationship a machine has with (and to) a user becomes a new competitive advantage.

Using Blockchain To Determine How Unique and Patentable an Invention Is

Innovators will hopefully recognize that unique and patentable does not necessarily mean monetizable. JL

Stewart Rogers reports in Venture Beat:

Take your idea, input it into platform for analysis, and then get a report that analyzes the product or service and sets a score that helps you understand how novel your idea is. If the analysis indicates (it) is not novel enough, the analysis provides feedback on how to modify the language, or the idea itself, to increase its uniqueness. That increases chance of gaining a patent. Once an inventor determines the uniqueness of their idea through the platform, they can stake it on the blockchain and file for a provisional patent.

Trade, Technology and Economic Progress

Frustration with the disruption technology causes - and humanity's seeming inability to corral it in ways that suit the myriad competing interests involved may be leading to short term decisions that could have deleterious effects on what continues to be a very long term process. JL


Kaushik Basu reports in Project Syndicate:

It may be that we have reached a turning point in the march of technological progress – one that we are navigating badly. Technology has been shaping our lives since human beings discovered how to make tools. It is natural for such a long process to include moments when technological change generates challenges. Globalization is the result of billions of individuals going about their daily activities, making decisions based on the possibilities available to them. In an age of advanced technologies and specialization, to manufacture everything domestically or bilaterally would be prohibitively costly.

The US Air Force Learned To Code - And Saved the Government Millions

Speed. Innovation. Move fast and break things. Ask for forgiveness, not for permission.

Not exactly the the MO for the military chain of command. But with software and hardware development moving much faster than the command and control decision-making process, failure to change meant competitive disadvantage - so necessity beat tradition. JL


Mark Wallace reports in Fast Company:

Best practices for modern software development would be impossible at DoD. Specs take years to write and  more years to deliver before code can be tested in the field—often making systems obsolete by the time they’re delivered. “The DoD violates every rule in modern product development. ”Technical people need to be in the room making technical decisions in places of authority.“Just because you followed the software requirements spec doesn’t mean you met the capability need.”

How Social Media Imposters Became The Rule, Rather Than the Exception

Follow the math: Mark Zuckerberg has become the third wealthiest person in the world. That is due to the increase in paid advertising the site receives. And that is due to the ease of setting up an account - real or fake. JL


Jack Nicas reports in the New York Times:

The New York Times commissioned an analysis to tally the number of impersonators across social media for the 10 most followed people on Instagram, including Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. The analysis found 9,000 accounts across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pretending to be those 10 people. Brazilian soccer player Neymar was the subject of the most fake accounts. Selena Gomez was second. Facebook said it removed 583 million fake accounts in January, February and March.It's estimate of fake accounts on the site is 80 million, 4% of the total.

How To Beat the Facebook Advertising Casino: Find An Affordable Audience

Growth and profit through segmentation. JL 

Daniel Gallant reports in the Wall Street Journal:

To remain successful against competitors in the Facebook advertising market, you need to wager more than they are willing to spend. Facebook customers are plentiful, and the ways to segment them are virtually infinite. The yawning gap between the numbers of social-media customers and social-media advertisers create opportunities to find profitable niches. Access to audiences that other marketers undervalue is remarkably affordable.

When Stores Don't Keep Products In Stock, Customers Turn To Amazon

This is a solvable problem. It requires investment in better data, better inventory management and better people to spot the trend. JL


Helen and Dave Edwards report in Quartz, photo by Lindsay Wasson in Reuters:

55% of American households are now Prime members, along with 69% of households than earn over $100,000. Prime members approach buying products differently than non-Prime members. If they need what they’re after in less than two days; they’ll head to the store. But (if) the product they’ve come for is out of stock - this can happen in one-third of all shopping trips - Prime members are 52% more likely to immediately take out their phones and buy the item on Amazon. 24% of Amazon’s current retail revenue comes from customers who first tried to buy the product in store.

Is ATT's Plan To Turn HBO Into Netflix Lite Doomed?

HBO has had a successful - which is to say popular and profitable-strategy. But its new owner, ATT, wants scale to move the needle and compete with Netflix.

Though ATT has deep pockets, this approach will be very expensive - and in the process could kill the proverbial golden goose. Money can't buy taste. JL


David Sims reports in The Atlantic:

HBO has always had more of a “prestige” bent, its profit model simple but effective. People pay a fee to subscribe; HBO uses that money to license movies and produce TV. Netflix’s approach is about scale and is underwritten by investors. (But) to AT&T, HBO is too small,  nimble, and boutique—ill-fitted for a media world all about size. The more data, the easier it is to understand what people want—at least that’s been Netflix’s guiding principle. But the idea that numbers alone will drive popular art is ludicrous

Sorry Power Lunchers, This Restaurant Is Now a Co-Working Space

As more people live in cities and rising costs make apartments smaller, there is demand for working space that is not a full-time office.

Restaurants have the space, the amenities - and the flexibility especially as higher costs inspire them to search for other ways to monetize their investments. JL


Nellie Bowles reports in the New York Times:

“Laptops used to send the message that we’re failing as a restaurant. But that’s changing.” (This is) part of a broader debate over how to use spaces in cities as people increasingly buy items online instead of in stores and as labor costs make restaurants even more challenging. A membership model is the future for bricks-and-mortar spots and restaurants are the easiest first step.

Can Ride-Hailing Improve Public Transit Rather Than Undercutting It?

The data reveal that public transportation ridership is declining while vehicle miles traveled is increasing, leading to increased congestion in many urban areas.

The challenge lies in reducing dead-heading on-demand drivers waiting for fares. The solution may be encouraging more multi-passenger travel, discouraging single riders and offering more 'last mile' links between public transit and home or work. The ride hailing services are here to stay but the need for public transit has only grown. Optimization means coordination and collaboration. JL


Daniel Sperling and colleagues report in The Conversation:

An overarching goal should be to increase mobility—passenger miles traveled—while reducing vehicle miles traveled. This will only happen if ride-hailing services continue to shift toward multi-passenger services, such as Lyft Line and UberPool. Such a change will require policy frameworks that encourage shared rides and discourage single-passenger rides

How the Most Successful Digital Brands Treat Customers Like Users, Not Buyers

They are shifting focus from recruitment to retention.

That may seem like putting the cart before the horse, but actually concentrates on where the real value is generated. JL

Mark Bonchek and Vivek Bapat report in Harvard Business Review:

Brand ratings measure how much a brand is worth to investors more than consumers. Their focus is on how people perceive the brand rather than how they experience the brand. Digital brands don’t just do things differently; they think differently. Where traditional brands focus on positioning their brands in the minds of their customers, digital brands focus on positioning their brands in the lives of their customers. They engage customers more as users than as buyers, shifting their investments from pre-purchase promotion and sales to post-purchase renewal and advocacy.

The Reason Marketers Need To Start Preparing For the End of the Digital Age

With two or three generations of humans now familiar with, if not adept at utilizing technology, deploying it no longer provides the same economic advantage.

It is optimizing its impact which savvy customers will demand - and for which they will pay. JL


Greg Satell reports in Digital Tonto:

A significant amount of marketers’ time and energy has been spent chasing “shiny objects.” Social media, online video, mobile technology and now, artificial intelligence, are each transformative.Over the next decade there will be few advances, except for artificial intelligence. What will have to change is the marketing mindset. The fundamental questions in the coming years will not be how to deploy this or that new technology, but how to can solve fundamental marketing problems, such as how to create experiences that are more impactful, useful, productive and beneficial.

Why the Data Markets Of the Future Will Sell Insights Not Data

Data by itself is a commodity. It is the wisdom to be derived from it in which economic value can be optimized. JL

Munther Dahleh is interviewed by MIT Sloan Management Review:

Companies getting into the business of trading data are buying and selling data sets, with a fixed price. Buyers don’t know how much financial value the data is going to provide, or if it will provide value. The market will pay more to those whose data contributed more to the prediction task, so I’ll get the most out of selling data by contributing the best data sets. Companies are storing tons of data they hope is going to translate into their bottom line. Much of that data is just useless.A marketplace centered around the value of data incentivizes people to collect better and more useful data.

Phone Calls Are Dead. Is Voice Chat the Future?

The tech imperative has always been the most convenient and low cost option. If voice chat can surpass texting in that regard it will prevail. If it can't, it won't. JL


David Pierce reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The phone call over the past few years has gone the way of the telegraph and the typewriter. In the swing from calls to texts, we lost the warmth and humanity that made the phone work in the first place. Better ways to actually talk to people already exist. A few companies are building tools that improve upon what didn’t work about phone calls, making them less disruptive and more productive.

Sorry, Your Company's Culture Is Not Unique. And That's a Good Thing

Understanding how one organization is similar to others makes it easier to recruit and retain talent, and reduces the danger of self-deception which can lead to suboptimal allocation of resources and strategies. JL

Eric Johnson reports in Re/code:

"Every company I’ve gone into, what I hear is, ‘Our culture is unique!'.”‘People really believe in our values and they think that we’re a cause, so we’re so passionate about the mission!’. “Great. So is pretty much every other company. ‘We give employees flexibility,’ ‘We have benefits no other company offers,’ and ‘We live (have) integrity no other company does.’ The same platitudes over and over.” Th(at) companies remain ignorant of how much they are like their competitors is a problem. When leaders think they are uniquely talented at forging culture, that belief “closes the door to learning.”

Twitter Has Suspended 70 Million Fake or Suspicious Accounts - in Two Months

The interesting question is whether this will enhance its credibility - or simply reduce advertiser and user interest. JL

Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin report in The Washington Post:

Twitter has sharply escalated its battle against fake and suspicious accounts, suspending more than 1 million a day in recent months. Twitter suspended more than 70 million accounts in May and June, and the pace has continued in July.The aggressive removal of unwanted accounts may result in a rare decline in the number of monthly users in the second quarter.

Amazon Will Publish a Toy Catalog This Holiday Season Fill Toys R Us Void

Since it drove them out of business,  might as well replace them. JL


Sam Machkovech reports in ars technica:

Amazon's toy-specific catalog will be mailed to "millions" of Amazon shoppers' homes and will also be given away for free at Whole Foods locations. This news follows Bloomberg's prior reports that Amazon had "considered" buying various Toys 'R Us physical locations, though that March plan revolved less around a new Amazon toy chain and more around selling general Amazon products.

Overstock's Evolution From Furniture To Cryptocurrency

Fad - or future? JL

Ellen Rosen reports in the New York Times:

The company, created almost 20 years ago, has been a pioneer in cryptocurrency. It was the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin and it’s trying very hard right now to make an even bigger bet by selling off its retail arm and concentrating on blockchain technology. It was the first step in seeing what was possible with blockchain technology. Five years later, the company generates from $68,000 to $120,000 in cryptocurrency revenues weekly.

How Artificial Intelligence Might Have Saved a Man Fired by an Automated System

An example in which AI might have actually prevented a mistake driven by mere automation. The question is whether this is the exception that proves the rule. Or not.

Lots of experimentation lies ahead to figure this out, but the evidence suggests that either way, AI will prevail because it is more powerful and nuanced. Assuming the programmers do their job properly. Emphasis on the word 'assuming.'  JL 

Adrian Hopgood reports in The Next Web:

Diallo was sacked because a previous manager hadn’t renewed his contract on the new computer system and automated systems then clicked into action. Managers were powerless to overrule the system. The systems displayed no knowledge-based intelligence, meaning they didn’t they showed no computational intelligence. (He) was fired (by) an old-fashioned and poorly designed system triggered by a human error. AI “fuzzy logic” could interpret situations that aren’t black and white, applying evidence to avoid the kind of stark decision-making that led to Diallo’s dismissal.

How Serverless Computing Could Further Reshape Tech Innovation

A new startup opportunity may emerge as coders focus on what they do best, leaving  infrastructure - and its costs - to those who do that best. JL

Ron Miller reports in Tech Crunch:

Serverless computing offers a way for developers to concentrate on just the code by leaving the infrastructure management to the provider. “If you look at the amazing things cloud computing platforms have done, it has just taken a lot of the expertise and cost that you need to build a scalable service and shifted it to [the cloud provider]." Serverless takes that concept and shifts it even further by allowing developers to concentrate on the user’s needs without having to worry about what it takes to actually run the program.

The Brexit Short: How Hedge Funds' Private Polls Made Them Millions Off the Pound's Collapse

Hedge funds - possibly in collusion with Brexit Leave campaign officials - encouraged the release of polls suggesting the Remain side would win even as their own private polls indicated Leave would do so.

The looming question is whether their behavior was legal - as well as leaving lingering questions about who else has done it - and will do so again. JL


Cam Simpson and colleagues report in Bloomberg:

Relationships between polling firms and hedge funds in the lead-up to the vote, and on the day, created an inherent conflict. Hedge funds were in position to earn fortunes by short selling the British pound. With one hand, pollsters fed the public information that affected the outcome and moved the markets. With the other, they sold data privately to clients betting on market moves created by their public-facing polls. Pollsters believe Brexit yielded one of the most profitable single days in the history of their industry. Some hedge funds that hired them cleared in the hundreds of millions of dollars

Why Creatives Are Making Longer Videos To Cater To YouTube's Algorithm

Who's your daddy? The algorithm's assessment of ads per video...JL

Tim Peterson reports in Digiday:

YouTube stars are increasingly extending the lengths of their videos in order to curry favor with YouTube’s watch-time-minded recommendation algorithm and to be able to feature more ads per video. The move by creators to produce longer videos “is very much correlated to over the last two years when YouTube switched the recommendation engine and search and discovery [to push new channels and creators to viewers].” Viewership retention underpins the trend toward longer videos: viewers were more likely to watch through an ad if it was inserted around the five- or six-minute mark.

High-Skilled White Collar Work? Machines Can Do That Too

STEM skills are no guarantee of future employment security.

But those supposedly 'soft' skills like judgement and taste may come in handy. JL


Noam Scheiber reports in the New York Times:

Even if an algorithm can help buyers make decisions more quickly and accurately, there are limits to the number of supplier relationships they can juggle. Experts say some of these jobs will be automated away. “A much broader set of tasks will be automated or augmented by machines over the coming years.” Machines can intrude even on workers known more for their creativity than for cold empirical judgments.

The Arms Race For Quants Hits Finance Hard

Finance was one of the first industries to recruit quants - and firms in that industry have demonstrated a willingness to pay up.

But the competition for those skills has intensified - and the larger question is whether, if everyone is doing it, how it offers a differentiated edge rather than an undifferentiated risk. JL


Justin Baer reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Traditional stock- and bond-picking firms are paying up to hire mathematical and computer experts. They want to dive into pools of data—and the machine-learning tools that harness that data and other information—in search of trading ideas and blind spots. (But) mindful of the crowds that form around popular ideas, some managers have used data and experts outside of the world of finance for fresh perspectives.“There will be new sources of data and it will help with investment decisions, but the real question is can an asset manager sustain an edge on those kinds of insights.”

Is Your Organizational Culture Really Your Brand?

Because technology and data have given more people outside the organization more insight into how it operates culture is more visible.

And what is going on inside is reflected in what customers experience outside. JL


Knowledge@Wharton interviews Denise Yohn:

You can’t expect your employees to deliver to customers what they don’t experience themselves. Your customers and other people outside have more visibility into your company now. They are starting to question, “What are your values? What distinguishes you?” There has been more fluidity in the workforce, so you don’t have organizational glue. You can’t mandate your culture. But you can set up the environment through organizational design, through employee experience the culture you want. But it’s not going to happen if you don’t take responsibility for it, if you don’t champion it.

IBM's Artificial Intelligence Creates a Formula For Winning An Argument

And learns that logic is not the only variable with which to persuade listeners. JL

Thomas Hornigold reports in Singularity Hub:

To allow an algorithm to debate, IBM had to break the art of debating down into an algorithm. It’s a big leap from a formulaic conversation about restaurant bookings to arguing with a human in order to convince a room full of people.While you can attempt to formalize the rules of debate, a perfectly logical argument may not be the most persuasive. With this in mind, IBM chose to make its AI more sympathetic. The algorithm includes a means of scoring the persuasiveness of its arguments.

Why Can't Europe Create Tech Giants Like the US and China?

While some of the brightest minds in tech have come from Europe, money and culture matter. The US and Asian venture capital networks can raise more money - and are more willing to share it with talent.

Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York offer clustered networks of skilled techies and the mentorship they can provide. Plus, Europe may just not be comfortable creating the kinds of largely unfettered and dominant companies that tech creates. JL


John Detrixhe reports in Quartz:

It’s worth asking whether Europe wants a tech titan. The biggest American and Asian tech firms created since 2000 raised an average of $7.3 billion, while the European equivalent was $1.6 billion: “Without an increase in mega rounds Europe will never catch up with American and Asian competitors.” One of Silicon Valley’s “key ingredients” is employee stock option grants, which help attract top-tier talent. Mentorship and support from veteran tech entrepreneurs is “palpable." (And) Facebook and Google have become surveillance behemoths. The EU is wary of these.

Tasting Tomorrow: How Food Companies Are Transforming the Way We Eat With Artificial Intelligence

The growing demand for more local, better tasting, safer food over mass produced products is increasing supply chain complexity as well as quality assurance challenges.

AI may be the best way to deliver what consumers want while keeping food companies profitable. JL

Marlene Jia reports in Venture Beat via Topbots:

Aside from the challenge of mounting consumer expectations, food and beverage companies are also facing a shift in customer trends away from global conglomerates toward local, artisanal providers. "Investors are expecting a lot in margin while consumers expect more high-quality tailored products … along with better service.” Automation, edge computing, and artificial intelligence reduce human errors, hike quality, and increase sales.

How Smart TVs Track More Than What's On the Screen

In their eagerness to get their new devices up and running, people frequently click agreement to questions on online documents whose implications are not obvious. JL

Sapna Maheshwari reports in the New York Times:

People’s data is being vacuumed right out of their living rooms via their televisions, sometimes without their knowledge. Data companies have harnessed new technology to identify what people are watching on internet-connected TVs, then using that information to send targeted advertisements to other devices in their homes. Marketers, forever hungry to get their products in front of the people most likely to buy them, have eagerly embraced such practices.

The Complexity of Simply Searching For Sound Medical Advice

In a highly politicized environment, even health advice increasingly has a point of view promoted either by passionate amateurs like anti-vaxers or by professionals incentivized financially and emotionally to push opinion over knowledge. 

Since social media and search engines dont want to alienate any of the eyeballs which generate paid advertising, there is no one, at present, to curate content. JL


Renee Diresta reports in Wired:

As we rely on search and social to answer questions that have a profound impact on individuals and society, especially where health is concerned, the difficulty in surfacing, sound science from pseudo-science has consequences. We have to fight the battle of keyword voids at grassroots, wrangling with the asymmetry of passion to find voids and create counter-content. Getting fact-based health information shouldn’t be dependent on the SEO games, or on who has more resources for pay-to-play promotion. It's hard to make corrections go viral. How do we incorporate accuracy into rankings when no one is willing to be the “arbiter of truth.”

Why Amazon Keeps Making Tablets When the Market Is Struggling

Because it can be converted into a portable Echo device with Alexa always recording your becks and calls.

The gadget is meaningless. But the electronic ecosystem into which it feeds the user and her data, is the key to dominance. JL


Hayley Tsukayama reports in the Washington Post:

Sales of tablets will drop 12% this year and revenue for those sales will drop 13%, extending several quarters of steady decline. (But) Amazon has found a way to make Alexa, and your connection to Amazon, mobile. Tablets now have Alexa voice control, allowing you to interact with them as you would with the Echo or Dot. And that mobility is key, since Amazon doesn’t offer a smartphone like Google and Apple. The Alexa integration enables a user to take the tablet between home and work."They're essentially giving them away." With Amazon tablets, you never have to be without Alexa.