DATA

Life’s Better at the Lake

The data lake just got bigger. 

Data lake, you say?

A few weeks ago, enterprise AI software company C3.ai created the COVID-19 Data Lake, a free resource that unifies multiple datasets, highlights links between the sets, and displays it all on a knowledge graph. Today, C3.ai announced it’s doubling the lake with 11 new COVID-19 datasets.

• The data comes from sources such as Johns Hopkins, the WHO, the NYT, Europe’s CDC, genome sequences, epidemiology reports, and academic journals. 
• Amazon Web Services is donating free cloud computing to the effort. 

C3.ai’s bread and butter is designing and operating “large-scale commercial industrial AI applications” for corporations, founder and CEO Tom Siebel told me. “This is what we do professionally, so it really wasn’t much [additional] work.” 

Use cases

Researchers are using the data lake to: 

• Predict when to scale manufacturing as countries reopen
• Examine disease spread across populations
• Develop pandemic strategies and response scenarios
• Build predictive models of mobility and infection rates
• Support contact tracing
• Understand mortality rates of COVID-19 patients with pre-existing conditions

Reminder: AI is no silver bullet. Take diagnostics, where AI tools have stumbled in transitioning from trials to clinical settings. Researchers recently examined 31 AI prediction models for coronavirus diagnosis and prognosis, and preliminary findings suggest most models “are at high risk of bias…[and] likely to be optimistic and misleading.” 

But more clean, structured, and machine-readable COVID-19 data is flooding in by the day, Siebel said. Even if AI tools cannot accurately replace radiologists, they can quickly analyze population-level data. And AI’s modeling powers only get better with more data.

Bottom line: “As of March 14, 2020, I cannot think of a more important application for AI,” says Siebel. “This is a large, important global issue with enormously consequential social, economic, and public health implications that go way beyond COVID.”

SUPPLY CHAIN

Apple Zigs When Others Zag

If you haven’t reconsidered your supply chain recently, are you even a multinational corporation? 

As other companies consider pulling out of China, Apple is staying the course. The company may be reducing its dependence on main supplier Foxconn, but it’s still sticking with suppliers in China and neighboring Taiwan. Apple is asking Chinese supplier Luxshare, which already assembles AirPods, to invest in iPhone and MacBook metal case manufacturing, Nikkei reported this week. 

• Apple not only needs China for manufacturing, but the country and its 1.3 billion consumers comprise Apple’s second largest consumer market. 

Zoom out

The U.S., Japan, and the EU are actively developing schemes to reshore domestic companies’ manufacturing from China. Case in point: TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, will build an advanced foundry in Arizona. The plant, equipped to manufacture the most advanced chips with 5-nanometer transistors, will be production-ready in 2023 at the earliest. 

+ While we’re here: Yesterday, Apple published its Supplier Responsibility progress report, which includes new practices to protect employees during COVID-19.

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Get the Data on the Data

Consumers are spending more time online than ever, and they aren’t data noobs. They know you (advertisers and publishers) have their data, but does your data tell you what consumers think about websites and apps collecting and sharing their data for advertising purposes?

This IAS study reveals how U.S. consumers feel about data collection and targeted advertising, specifically how they perceive privacy and digital advertising practices amid growing legislation. 

Still following this data circle? 

The ability to collect consumer data online has revolutionized digital advertising (you know this). But do you know what consumers think? Once you do, you’ll be prepared to shift toward innovative advertising strategies to better reach consumers and navigate the consumer privacy landscape. 

Get all your burning consumer data questions answered and download the IAS research today.

EVENT

Live From Zoom, It’s Emerging Tech Brew

A cliché for our times: Years' worth of tech shifts have materialized in a matter of months.

A real-world observation: Real-time biometric surveillance, robot workers, and healthcare transformation will likely accelerate through the pandemic.

At 4 pm ET on Monday, May 18, I'll venture beyond clichés and observations alongside two experts in our first virtual event. Joining me to discuss COVID-19 and the future of AI: Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, who literally wrote the book on our AI future, and Giles Whiting, partner at SoftBank, one of the world's largest investors in AI companies. 

We’ll be chatting about:

—the fate of the “Big Nine” AI giants
—automation and jobs in a post-pandemic world
—corporate investment in AI, machine learning, and automation
—the other players to watch, from startups to governments

...and much more. Send your questions now or chime in during the chat. .

BITS & BYTES

Stat: 38% of Icelanders have downloaded the Rakning C-19 app, per MIT Tech Review. That’s the highest penetration rate for a COVID-19 tracing app in the world. Granted, Iceland only has 364,000 people (~18% of Morning Brew’s population). 

Quote: “Technology is essentially three things: tools (such as pots, pans, and stoves); explicit instructions (such as patents and recipes); and process knowledge, which can also be described as tacit knowledge or technical experience.”—Analyst Dan Wang, writing in Bloomberg Opinion about the U.S. losing its manufacturing luster. 

See: Facebook launched its avatars feature in the U.S., the company’s answer to Apple’s Memoji, Snap’s Bitmoji, and Samsung’s AR Emoji. Expect something more sophisticated from FB down the road: Its research team is developing ultra-realistic VR avatars.

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Graze is coming to mow the world’s lawns. Graze's lean, green, solar-powered mowing machine already has $36.9 million in conditional pre-orders from the industry’s biggest names. Graze can also help you grow some green in your portfolio as they look to disrupt the $53 billion landscaping industry. Invest in Graze .

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Apple officially acquired NextVR, a startup that develops software for VR broadcasts of sporting and entertainment events. 
• Facebook is buying Giphy for around $400 million, Axios reports. 
• Nvidia unveiled the A100 chip, which has 54 billion transistors and can handle 5 petaflops of performance. That’s a 20x increase over the A100’s predecessor. 
• Envoy, which makes office sign-in tools, is launching a new product for secure and safe facilities in the age of COVID-19. 
• Google’s hardware team is getting a shake-up, The Information reports. The Pixel camera division lead left the company in March. 
• Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Steve Daines (R-MT) proposed an amendment to Patriot Act reauthorization legislation that would prevent law enforcement from conducting warrantless digital surveillance of Americans. It failed to pass in the Senate.

GOING PHISHING

It’s time to go phishing in the data lake. Three of the following stories are real; one is fake. Can you spot the odd one out? 

1. Elon Musk won his stand-off with Alameda County, CA, which OK’d the reopening of Tesla’s Fremont-based factory. 
2. The Chainsmokers are creating a $50 million venture fund to invest in startups. 
3. A tech company is paying bonuses to employees who move out of SF and the Valley. 
4. The Boring Company finished digging a second tunnel in Vegas. 

GIVEAWAY

If you've ever wanted to share the Emerging Tech Brew gospel with your e-scooter appreciation club, now's the time. We're giving out AirPods Pro to three readers who refer new friends, coworkers, or CEOs to this newsletter. One referral = one entry to win.

The giveaway runs through midnight ET tonight, so start sharing your link below to win. 

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/emerging-tech/r/?kid=303a04a9

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For seeing how the sausage gets made: Morning Brew’s lead engineer Tyler Denk deconstructs the tech ecosystem powering our content, sales, and web tools. Check it out for a behind-the-scenes look at the tech allowing the Brew to scale successfully and seamlessly. 

For gamers: Epic Games revealed a stunning demonstration of Unreal Engine 5 running on the Playstation 5. Did I mention it was stunning? The PS5 is so advanced, “it’s going to help drive future PCs,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney predicted.

For literature recs: See what books the CEOs of YouTube and Snap are reading.

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

To my knowledge, no tech company is actively paying bonuses to employees who move out of SF and the Valley.