It's about to get a lot easier to shop on Instagram, with new features that'll allow you to succumb to your impulses with just a few clicks.
Why it matters: The updates could help Instagram gather insights and data to help launch a standalone shopping app, something it's reportedly working on.
Early shudders of AI-driven automation are already palpable in the job market, with work that requires a human touch flourishing and routine jobs slipping away, according to data from LinkedIn.
Why it matters: With significant upheaval still years down the road, as we reported earlier this month, this is the time to prepare for the AI revolution, through retraining and perhaps more radical approaches to ensuring a livable income for the unemployed.
Dismantle an Amazon Echo and you’ll find little more than speakers, microphones, several circuit boards and some fiddly plastic bits. But zoom out — all the way out — and you’ll find something that separates this technology from almost any other.
Why it matters: There’s an odd two-way relationship between Echo owner and Amazon, in which each effectively works for the other — but in the long run, the company comes out ahead.
Amazon is set to release at least eight Alexa-powered devices before the end of the year, including a microwave oven, an amplifier and a receiver, CNBC reports.
Why it matters: Scale matters in the world of voice assistants, writes Axios' Ina Fried. So it pays for Amazon to get Alexa built into as many types of devices as possible as it looks to fend off Google and others. This is also Amazon's first move into the home appliances space, opening it up to competition with companies like Sonos and GE.
Earlier this month the State Department’s unclassified email system was breached exposing some employees' personal identifying information, Politico reports and Axios can confirm. State is now offering free credit monitoring services for three years, a department spokesperson emails.
Why it matters: The agency has recently been under fire for its lax cybersecurity controls. Earlier this month, lawmakers sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo grilling him on why the agency hadn’t adopted multi-factor authentication.
Researchers at Tenable announced Monday a security flaw in the firmware of network video recorders made by NUUO that could allow hackers to delete or modify surveillance videos or turn off surveillance entirely. It is not yet patched, although Tenable claims a patch might be available tomorrow.
Why it matters: NUUO makes hardware that records and manages security camera footage. The company's product integrates with more than 100 different camera brands.
Locked in a bitter legal dispute, Apple and Qualcomm are due to meet in multiple courts around the world this week. First up is a hearing Monday before the U.S. International Trade Commission, which has the power to ban products from being imported into the U.S.
Why it matters: These two giant tech companies are both used to getting their way. Apple is trying its best to get by without Qualcomm's chips, but may not be able to avoid its patents. Meanwhile, Qualcomm has lost a good chunk of business, with Apple going to Intel for modem chips.
In these early stages of development, autonomous vehicles raise pressing questions whenever they crash, especially if the accident involves injury or death. But when the drivers may be either computers or humans, it becomes much harder to determine fault. Accordingly, it's not unusual to see manufacturer’s statements or police reports with conflicting explanations of the cause, even before professional investigators have started their work.
The big picture: Unlike accidents in aviation, rail travel and shipping, AV crashes require investigators to rely on the carmaker and technology provider (usually not the same) for all data from the vehicle’s recording systems and for help interpreting it. Yet in most cases there are no mandates in place that require the AV to record sufficient crash data or compel the manufacturer to turn over any such data.
Base 10 Partners, a new venture capital firm focused on what it calls “automation for the real world,” has raised $137 million for its inaugural fund.
The bottom line: Base 10 co-founder Ade Ajao tells Axios that his firm is focused on companies applying basic automation tech to analog industries like construction, waste management, and logistics.
