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June 1 · Issue #144 · View online
3 Things You Need To Know From The Convergence Ecosystem
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Good news for our readers from London. We’ll be having a token economics meet-up on the 7th of June at the Outlier Ventures office. Book your seats here before they run out. The last issue of the week explores 3 highly interesting, well researched long-forms to dig through over the weekend. We cover Mary Meeker’s report on Internet trends, Google Brain’s inception & the a Time series on drones. |
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1. 2018 Internet Trends
A legend would be an understatement to define an individual that managed to predict the rise of Spotify, Google, Amazon and Uber well before the markets found them. Marry Meeker has been doing precisely that for well over a decade through her annual reports. She released the 2018 version of her Internet Trends report yesterday at a closed-door event and it gives fascinating insights on where tech-driven innovation is headed. For starters, she points out that the percentage of individuals with internet access (51%) has now grown beyond those without access. Therefore, new users may be difficult to attain, but old ones will begin to increasingly experiment with new futures on platforms they are accustomed to. She also speaks about the “privacy paradox” that exists on the web. Individuals are increasingly seeking privacy but are willing to give theirs away for good services. The report goes to a great extent to shed light on critical trends in payments, AI, consumer-tech and data sharing. Run through the numbers on their deck here.
P.s - The report has very little data on crypto currency. Read our State of Blockchains report Q1 2018 for more on that. |
2. The Great A.I. Awakening
As the tech-enabled arms race between the FANGs surged over the years, Google had to double down on its improvements in AI to ensure consumers received the best of experiences through them. Long before Google’s assistant came to the foray, there was Google Translate. A system launched in 2006 to help individuals on the web translate web pages and text blurbs from one language to another. For the perspective of scale - it translates over 150 billion words on a monthly basis for over 500 million users. It was one of the earliest applications of Google’s “brain”. This long-form by the New York Times from 2016 sheds light on the early days of Google’s interest in AI, and the changes that occurred within the organisation as it decided to switch from being an ad-enabled search engine to a serious contender in AI enabled services. Keeping Google Brain at the crux of the story, it is an 8 part narrative that begins with an internal project named Project Marvin and concludes on a celebratory note. A must-read for anyone curious about how innovation and product evolutions occur at organisations the size of Google. Grab it here.
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3. The Drone Age
Last story for the week. We go beyond usual coverage on AI, web-trends and blockchain for this one. Time has published a series of longforms focusing on the rise of drones, and the increasing reliance businesses have on them. Similar to blockchains, we are in the earliest stages of the technology’s utility, and both regulations and use-cases are being drafted for them. Approaches to the national approach to the technology vary between an outright ban to national registries that maintain information on drone owners. In the US alone, over 122,000 people are certified drone flying professionals according to the FAA. Much to the relief of many tech enthusiasts use-cases for them are no longer limited to their war-time utility. On the contrary, they are being poised as a tool to save lives through being first responders in places like Menlo Park California where over 65 individuals have been saved through operations involving usage of drones to find missing hikers. The Times series goes to great depth shedding light on the use of drones to conserve wildlife, protecting conflict zones, Hollywood and disaster relief. Run through the series to have your faith re-instilled on how a new generation of sky borne machines will make matters that were impossible until a decade before, possible.
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“Blockchain-based networks won’t just disrupt particular companies; they go much further, they disrupt a digital norm: the existing assumption that we should be giving away personal data for free. “ @ https://t.co/rNtEamksTA
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