Bangkok residents cut out the energy companies and trade energy over the blockchain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the number of small renewable energy installations around the world grow individual communities are increasingly cutting out the energy companies and trading energy directly with one another. Residents in a Bangkok neighbourhood in Thailand are trying out a new blockchain based peer to...
DeepFake busting app spots even a single pixel out of place
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Increasingly most people don’t believe the news they’re seeing is real, this new technology helps news organisations and outlets regain that trust. Falsifying photos and videos used to take a lot of work – either you used CGI to generate photorealistic images from scratch,...
Breakthrough carbon fiber battery could usher in batteryless electric vehicles
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our understanding of how to turn mundane objects and materials into batteries increases in the future anything and everything could be a battery. As I discussed a little while ago Carbon Fiber is going through its own little revolution, firstly it can now...
MIT trained an AI to spot fake and biased news stories
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to detect and weed out fake news is quickly rising up the political agenda, and companies are in an arms race to try to find solutions fast. Any fact-checker who works in the media has a straightforward but challenging job – make...
Breakthrough healthcare test screens for all known diseases at once
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until know hospitals have had to run multiple tests to identify multiple pathogens, which takes time and can cost lives, now they just need one. Imagine being able to use one test to screen for every type of known and unknown human disease...
Futurist in the press: Maximising the AI Opportunity, Microsoft
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI will help organisations and society at large unlock untold new opportunities, in this report Microsoft discusses how to maximise the upsides while minimising the downsides. Firstly, thank you to the team at Microsoft for reaching out and asking me to participate in their...
Futurist Keynote, Dubai: The Future of Urban Mobility 2040, GITEX
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The rate and pace of change is accelerating, and in the next two decades the transportation industry will change more than it has in the past thousand years. Last year I was writing about the goings on and unveilings, for example, of Dubai’s first...
A powerful battery breakthrough from MIT could usher in electric planes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The airline industry is one of the world’s heaviest polluters and it’s getting worse as air travel increases, electric aircraft will reverse that trend. Over the past year or so I’ve been discussing the eventual emergence of fully electric aircraft and sky taxis, such...
Meet the robot surgeon that’s going to be taking aim at your organs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Surgery is getting the robotic treatment, and it could mean better working conditions for doctors, and better outcomes for patients. When Luke Hares met with gynecological surgeon Mark Slack four years ago to talk him through his idea of Versius, the first UK built surgical...
A new blood test can tell what time it is in your body
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Certain drugs have to be delivered at certain times, and as we start to use nanomachines to release drugs telling the time in someone’s body becomes vitally important. Recently I wrote about new simple blood tests that can detect cancer and chronic pain, and now...
PWC program prepares employees for the next generation of jobs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The world is changing faster than ever before, leading to a shortage of talent, meaning companies are being forced to find new ways to adapt and overcome skills shortages. Everyone by now understands that the workplace, and the workforce is changing as a result...
Virgin Orbit strapped a rocket to their 747 to democratise access to space
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many companies are trying to lower the cost of launching goods and people into space, and this is one of the craziest yet, but it’s likely going to work. A number of companies are exploring ways to launch a rocket not from a launchpad,...
Futurist Keynote, Antwerp: Investing in the Future, Infosys Finacle
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the pace of change continues to accelerate many companies find keeping up with it a daunting prospect, and it’s no less of an issue for the financial services community. Firstly, thank you to Bharadwaj and the team for inviting me to be this...
3D printed fashion takes over New York Fashion Week
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printed clothes can be customised and printed on demand using sustainable new materials, giving fashion designers new options and reducing the industry’s environmental impact. Downloadable 3D printed personalised sustainable fashion. I think you’ll agree it’s quite a catchy phrase – or at least...
A portrait created by an AI just sold at Christies for $432,000
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We’re told that machines can’t be creative, at least in the human sense, but nevertheless they can still “create” art – and sell it. A few months ago I wrote an article about a Google backed Artificial Intelligence (AI) based out of Germany that...
A new camera inspired by the Mantis Shrimp is about to make self-driving cars safer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over the past few years people have been killed when their semi-autonomous cars got confused and blinded by the Sun so scientists have turned to biology to solve the problem. A little while ago a man driving a Tesla on autopilot was killed when...
New glasses will beam augmented and virtual reality directly into your eyes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Augmented Reality glasses and Virtual Reality headsets use complex computers and optics to create their effects, researchers believe they can eliminate these overheads by beaming the images directly into your eyes. Researchers have proposed a new way to build Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses...
AI could take your job, but Baidu’s newest AI can also help you find one
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Artificial Intelligence is being used more and more to vet candidates, now it could soon be used to help match them to jobs too. Recently I wrote a report on the Future of Education 2020 to 2070, and there’s been plenty of speculation about...
Singapore, the world leader in education, bans student rankings
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Education that prepares children for the changes in the decades to come is vital, and Singapore have one of the most ambitious education visions of any country. By whatever yard stick you care to measure it by Singapore has one of the highest achieving...
Apple’s eSIM plans would be a death blow to the carriers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Carriers all around the world rely on physical SIMs to keep their customers locked into contracts and make it difficult to change, apple wants to change that. Each new iPhone is usually good news for mobile network operators. The latest Apple device always comes with...
