Brunch Briefing | Vishing
Gorbachev, Drones and Cleverer 8th-Graders
(A collection of the most interesting news, charts, videos, and tweets I discovered over the past 7 days. Designed to enliven your weekend’s conversations.)
🤔 Puzzler
(Questions and riddles.)
Which cell structure do nutrients pass through to enter a cell?
A. Cell membrane
B. Chloroplast
C. Cytoplasm
D. Nucleus
Earlier this week, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence shared Aristo with the world, an AI that is able to pass a multiple-choice 8th grade science test. Even more impressive, it scored above a 90%, and above an 80% on a 12th grade test. Just four years ago, this logical feat was not possible. To go toe-to-toe with the program, NYT has another 4 questions here.
🔭 Monitoring: Drones, Crypto, Deepfakes
(Stories from the worlds of tech, VC, and beyond that I’m keeping an eye on.)
A new cryptocurrency contender. Pac, a coin created by boxer and Filipino Senator Manny Pacquiao, launched this week. The token, which allows fans to interact with the athlete and purchase merchandise, will be traded on Singapore’s Global Crypto Offering Exchange.
+ Though there may be some argument that exposure of this kind benefits the ecosystem, I can’t help thinking it mostly serves to bolster those that argue cryptocurrencies are little more than a toy. In many ways, it’s reminiscent of the KardashianKard. Worse, it may be only the beginning — both Jason DeRulo and Caroline Wozniacki are preparing their own currency launches. Stay up-to-date to purchase some DeRubles (please, god) at launch price.
Drones are returning to earth. Though the industry has attracted $2.6B in investment from 2012 to 2019 (as of June), many companies have failed to gain traction in the face of slow support from regulators, competition from China, and a tendency for potential customers to bring operations in-house. As many as 25 companies have shut-down, with a16z-backed Airware burning upwards of $183MM in the process.
+ Despite the doom-and-gloom, it might, finally, be a good time to invest. The FAA has recently undertaken tests for BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operations with companies like ANRA, Wing and Airmap. From my research, BVLOS is critical to commercialization (allowing pilots to fly a drone beyond their sight), along with permission for one pilot to fly multiple drones, concurrently.
It’s Vishing season. Earlier this week, the WSJ reported on a “voice phising” scam that cost a German company $234K. Using commercially-available software, the scammers replicated the voice of the company’s CEO, ordering an employee to send a wire transfer to a ‘Hungarian supplier.’ This is part of a larger trend with voice fraud rising 350% between 2013-17, bolstered by technological advancements in generative adversarial networks (GANs).
+ We are seeing the early effects of deepfakes on the political, social and commercial fabric of our lives; I expect much worse is ahead. Though I have seen some companies formed to fight the rise of these post-truth artifacts, I am bearish that for-profit firms will be able to keep up with innovative, asymmetric attacks, at least in the short-term. Rather, I imagine we will all have to alter our behavior, whether that involves creating multiple-factor authorization processes for business, or adopting a more skeptical mindset in our social lives.
🖼️ 1000s words
(Something to look at.)
The above graph measures fertility-rate, specifically, the number of children born per woman. Remarkably, the top ten are all in Africa, while many of those in the bottom ten are in Asia.
+ Africa is expected to have 830MM young people by 2030, presenting an enormous opportunity, and liability. A dearth of traditional training options, and the emigration of tech talent has left a significant skills-gap. While Andela has shown how Silicon Valley methodologies can help address the problem, opportunities for training and staffing startups abound. “We need to create more Andelas for different industries…because a lot of [job-seeking] applicants do not have [required] skill sets,” said Career Queen founder, Chika Uwazie.
😱 Signs of the apocalypse
(Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!)
Humanity has created an Internet of Legs. To put a finer point on it: biohackers have created a subdermal device called PegLeg which turns your body into a node in a mesh network (with built-in storage). The result is an open, anonymous wifi network that allows users to upload and download information from/to another person’s body. It poses an interesting ethical dilemma: should individuals be held responsible for the data stored in their bodies?
Have you ever wondered what emojis would look like with human faces? I urge you not to click this.
While the deranged emperor Caligula was said to have sent his troops to attack the sea, Trump inquired about the possibility of nuking a hurricane. This idea goes back as far as the 1960s, though it has been roundly dismissed, as a inviable solution to the problem, and a dangerous way of spreading radioactive material on tradewinds.
Final thoughts
TIL that Gorbachev was once in a Pizza Hut commercial. I look forward to Angela Merkel promoting Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich when she finally steps down.
One final ask. As I continue to write, I’d be very appreciative for any thoughts you all might have. What have you found interesting? What hasn’t clicked? When do you most like to read these emails? What do you think is missing from the conversation at present? Very grateful for any feedback at all. Thank you, and wishing you a lovely Sunday.