Feb 17, 2021

What do CRA, George Clooney & celebrity chef Guy Fieri have in common? Ask AI... | TechBurst Asia Newsletter Issue #4

By The TechBurst Asia Newsletter from Charles Reed Anderson • Issue #4 • View online

I love emerging tech, but damn it can be brutal - especially facial recognition. I have had two facial recognition systems “recognise” me as a “mid-60s caucasian male”. I’m old, but not that old!

Then, this week, a new app mistook a photo of me for celebrity chef Guy Fieri (see below). And people wonder why I’m concerned about law enforcement using facial recognition to identify suspects…

Welcome back from your Chinese New Year celebrations - here’s some news to get you back up to speed…

NEWS THAT CAUGHT MY EYE: How AI ruined my self esteem, “worst practice” deployment of facial recognition, which country is the most innovative & Bitcoin mining now consumes more energy than Argentina.
GIVE ME DATA! - iSIM, eSIM, we all SIM - plus the latest (lack of) IoT Security survey & new stats on Smart Office implementations
CHART OF THE WEEK: What do employees miss most from the office? (spoiler alert - it’s not the crappy coffee)
CRA RANTS: I debated the future of 5G with M1 & Nokia

If you like the newsletter, please share it with your colleagues & contacts - and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter & LinkedIn.

And now it’s time for the news ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

IF facial recognition IS accurate, I need to make some serious life changes

NEWS THAT CAUGHT MY EYE

How Normal People Deployed Facial Recognition on Capitol Hill Protesters

#AI: Facial Recognition is freely accessible to anyone on PimEyes and was used to identify the Capitol Hill protesters. I tested the PimEyes app & it picked up 77 images of “me” in less than a second. What’s scary is it also “recognised” photos of celeb chef Guy Fieri! People used to say I look like George Clooney 😎 - so this is massive blow to my self esteem🥲. I also found photos of me from a Sumo tournament I attended in Fukuoka in 2008 on a Japanese blog site. Be afraid, be very afraid…

www.vice.com • Share

Live facial recognition is tracking kids suspected of being criminals

#AI #FacialRecognition #SmartCities: Kudos to Buenos Aires for providing a list of what NOT to do if you use facial recognition to identify suspected criminals.

Use a spreadsheet without password protection to track the names, age, ID numbers, etc of people “alleged” to have committed a crime & make it accessible via Google search. ✅
Add children as young as four years old to the list - despite the fact it is illegal to disclose their full names. ✅
Use facial recognition software to notify police when it identifies the child in question - despite the fact facial recognition does not work well with children’s faces. ✅
Become infamous for false arrests. ✅

www.technologyreview.com • Share

5G overshadows wireless operators' IoT businesses

#5G #IoT #Telcos: Mobile operators are making progress with their IoT offerings, but they aren’t making much noise about their progress. Why? Because they realised a low margin business (average ARPU is around USD 1 per year) is not sexy.

www.lightreading.com • Share

South Korea, Singapore lead world in innovation; US drops out of top 10

#Innovation: 🇰🇷South Korea goes top in the latest Bloomberg Innovation Index followed by 🇸🇬Singapore, while the 🇺🇸US dropped out of a top 10. The metric that is causing the US to move down the rankings is its higher education system - which ranks #47 globally.

www.straitstimes.com • Share

Bitcoin Mining Now Uses More Electricity Than Argentina

#Sustainability #Bitcoin: If Bitcoin was a country, it would rank #30 in the world for energy consumption. As Bitcoin’s price nears USD 50k, the mining - and energy consumption - will continue to rise. Who cares about global warming when there’s money to be made…

www.iflscience.com • Share

GIVE ME DATA!

iSIM to outstrip eSIM-based device growth over 2020-25

#eSIM: More than 6 billion eSIM & iSIM capable devices will be shipped cumulatively over 2020-25. Keep an eye 🧐 on the iSIM market - it allows the modem to be integrated with the chipset - meaning any device (e.g. white-goods, laptops) with that chip will be “born connected.”

www.counterpointresearch.com • Share

IoT Security Report 2021 - Bridging the Gap

#IoT #Security: Only 47% of companies carry out a threat analysis during new product development - so expect the number of IoT device breaches to rise. This PSA Certified IoT Security Report 2021 looks at industry perceptions to explore what is needed today to secure tomorrow.

report.psacertified.org • Share

How smart is your office?

#SmartCities #SmartBuildings #PropTech: SmartCitiesWorld research has found employers are turning to smart office tech to safeguard employee wellbeing - but they still lack an integrated strategy, which could lead to more implementation failures.

www.smartcitiesworld.net • Share

CHART OF THE WEEK

#FutureOfWork: We, as employees, are simple people. The fact is we don’t miss the office that much, we miss human contact.

CRA RANTS

DX Leaders Series: Episode 8: 5G: Beyond the Hype

#5G: I joined Nokia‘s Danial Mausoof & M1’s Willis Sim to discuss what it will take to get 5G to move beyond the hype.

THE LATEST TECHBURST ASIA PODCASTS

A New Approach to Smart City Initiatives

#SmartCities: Every now and then, you run into someone who restores your confidence in the Smart Cities industry because they not only possess a realistic vision for the future, but also a clear strategy on how to deliver it.

Guest: Theo Scherman, Chief Strategy Officer - Hitachi Asia

charlesreedanderson.com • Share

What’s in store for Southeast Asia’s Tech & Telecoms Industries in 2021

#DX #5G #DigitalTwins #FinTech: We hit all the major buzzwords and discuss what will & won’t happen in 2021 - and why telcos still struggle to drive innovation.

Guest: PwC Malaysia‘s Chief Digital Officer & TMT Practice Lead of SE Asia Consulting - Mike Graham

charlesreedanderson.com • Share

5G is Dead, Long Live 5G!

#5G #Private5G: We discuss what differentiates 5G from traditional networks & whether 5G will become the tech buzzword that finally lives up to the hype.

Guest: Nokia’s Global Sales Head for Enterprise Services - Danial Mausoof

charlesreedanderson.com • Share

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WHO THE HELL IS CRA?

CRA is one of Asia’s leading technology industry innovators and thought leaders. His in-depth knowledge of emerging technologies, combined with his understanding of the market demand, provides him with a unique ability to separate industry hype from reality.