The world is more connected than ever, but significant gaps still remain for some consumers—especially those in rural and remote areas.

Satellite broadband, which has grown into a full-fledged industry led by SpaceX’s Starlink, is seeking to fill the spaces that terrestrial, cable, and fiber-based methods currently do not reach.

Zoom in: The rise of the satellite-broadband industry has led many incumbents, like AT&T and Verizon, to adapt their business strategies to collaborate with the new players.

“It’s impossible to cover every square inch of America with any single technology, but we believe we can come really, really close with a combination of terrestrial networks and direct-to-cell satellite networks,” Chris Sambar, president of network at AT&T, said in a December 2022 video about its partnership with satellite provider AST SpaceMobile.

Zoom out: While about 90% of American households had internet services as of December 2022, per Leichtman Research Group, tens of millions of Americans are estimated to still lack broadband access, particularly in rural areas.

There could be a significant opportunity in plugging these connectivity gaps: In 2031, North Sky Research predicts the cumulative revenues for the VSAT and satellite-broadband markets will total more than $135 billion. Read the full piece on how incumbents are embracing the space race.—JM

If you stopped by Google’s booth at NRF’s Big Show earlier this month, you probably had the same experience we did: a space so packed it was hard to get near the shelves! Retailers and reporters () were there to check out Google’s newly unveiled in-store tool: a camera-enabled, AI-powered shelf checker solution.

The retailer-focused AI pulls from Google’s giant database—billions of items—to identify products and shelf space, feeding retailers with real-time visibility into where restocks are needed and what shelves look like.

• If you’re envisioning a retrofitted grocery store with thousands of cameras to make this work, think again. Google says implementation is a light lift, as retailers can use visual inputs from existing ceiling-mounted cameras (such as security cameras) from a mobile phone (operated by an associate) or from a store-roaming robot (...if you have one).

The shelf-checking AI uses two machine-learning models—a product recognizer, and a tag recognizer—to identify products and empty shelf space from “different angles and vantage points,” according to a release. So, yes, it can still identify that knocked-over box of Cheerios. And it knows you put that candy bar back in the wrong spot. Keep reading the story from Retail Brew here.—MA

In last week’s poll, we not only learned the answer to our question—how often do you use mobile payment tools in physical stores—but also what a bimodal distribution looks like.

To wit: Among our ~2,200 respondents, we saw quite the polarization in response to last week’s question on the usage of Apple Pay-style tools.

• The plurality of respondents (38%) said they never use mobile payments in physical stores. Meanwhile, 32% said they use them most of the time.
• Another 16% said they do so sometimes, while 14% said they only do so in a pinch.

Put it in context: According to Loup Ventures data reported by the WSJ, Apple Pay adoption has surged in recent years. In 2016, just 10% of iPhone users had activated Apple Pay, but now, that figure is 75%. Mind you, that is just activation of the digital wallet—not usage—but even still, the direction is hard to argue with.

This week’s poll: This week, de-extinction company Colossal—the same one that plans to resurrect the woolly mammoth—announced it would attempt to bring back the dodo bird. Do you think species de-extinction is a good idea?

Yes
No
IDK

Stat: OpenAI has reportedly hired ~1,000 contractors around the world in the last six months. Most of them are working on data labeling to help train OpenAI’s systems.

Quote: We still can’t fake the human element of it…You still have to get through the five rounds of interviews.”—Eryn Marshall, senior director of global recruiting at the talent enablement platform Oyster, to HR Brew on the challenges ChatGPT could present recruiters

Read: Toyota has a new CEO—and possibly a new EV strategy as well.

Catch up on the top Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Tech hiring has fallen close to pre-pandemic levels
• VC momentum slows for mobility startups
• A tracker of generative AI-related lawsuits