AI

The Machines Are Busy

When it comes to tracking computers that think, our not-so-secret superpower is Stanford’s AI Index Report. The 2021 version is live. Now in its fourth year, this index is one of the best quantitative barometers of AI developments. Meta-metric: This is the third time we’re covering it. 

In the lab and beyond

R&D: The amount of AI journal publications jumped 34.5% from 2019 to 2020, 1.5x more than the ’18–’19 delta. In every major AI-focused country, academic institutions published the most peer-reviewed papers on the subject. The #2 publisher in the US is corporate research labs. In China and the EU, it’s government-affiliated groups. 

Deployment. Natural language processing models are improving so fast, they’re outpacing all the measures we use to judge their performance. Generative models (like GPT-3) are producing ultra-realistic text, audio, and images. This synthetic media is often so convincing that we can’t tell whether a human or algorithm created it. 

Diversity. The AI field still doesn’t have much of it: “In 2019, 45% of new US resident AI PhD graduates were white—by comparison, 2.4% were African American and 3.2% were Hispanic.” Female graduates represent less than 18% of all AI PhDs, according to a 2020 survey. 

Geopolitics: US-China tech competition is a growing theme in the AI index. More broadly, 30+ countries have published national AI strategies.

Migration: Most AI PhD students come from outside the United States, but 4 out of 5 stay in the country after graduating.

In the business world

Commercialization: AI is industrializing fast. “Everyone’s racing, including the research community, to keep up with the pace of commercial deployments,” AI Index Co-Director Jack Clark told VentureBeat.

VC and private investment: The “drugs, cancer, molecular, drug discovery” category of AI startups received the greatest share of investment in 2020, totaling $13.8 billion. That’s 4.5x higher than in 2019. 

Bottom line: While the pandemic may have altered AI’s trajectory, it didn’t halt progress or proliferation. For a deeper dive, check out our Guide to AI. 

PRIVACY

If You Give an Advertiser a Cookie

Last January, Google laid out its plan to phase out support for third-party cookies by 2022. To address skeptics, the search and advertising giant made a new commitment on Wednesday: 

• “Once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”

Google’s new M.O. 

The company says declining consumer trust puts “the future of the free and open web” in jeopardy. But wait, there’s the unspoken part: Three months ago, attorneys general from 10 states hit Google with a lawsuit related to its outsized digital advertising power. 

The alternative: Google is betting on a new ad strategy to kill two birds with one algorithm: Federated Learning of Cohorts (FloC). The basic gist: User data can be "hidden" within large groups of like-minded individuals—and still deliver valuable ad insights. It’s a continuation of a privacy-focused form of machine learning the company introduced in 2017. 

Don’t get too comfortable 

Google may be rolling back some third-party ad capabilities, but it still has loads of first-party data...and more than 70% of its revenue comes from advertising. Though there might be fewer unique identifiers, targeting isn’t going anywhere. 

SPONSORED BY GRAZE

Money May Not Grow on Trees

But it does look like it’s starting to grow aplenty on green fields of grass.

Graze is the fully autonomous, electric-powered commercial lawn mower disrupting a $100+ billion market—one that continues to grow in commercial landscaping ($98.7 billion), as well as the golfing sector ($14.16 billion).

In other words, this investment is looking finer than bermudagrass on a putting green—and it could be your portfolio’s ace in the hole.

So what kind of traction is Graze gaining? 

Well readers, this big, beautiful green machine is currently holding non-binding commercial contracts executed by Mainscape, Sundale Country Club, and Miranda’s Landscape. That’s a total of 215 mowers worth a combined potential value of over $19.35 million.

Sounds like there’s a lot of buzz around this lawn mower.

Invest in Graze today.

RETAIL

Amazon Go(es) to London

Let’s take a 150-word, transatlantic trip: Amazon has opened its first cashierless store outside the US. It’s a Fresh supermarket, supplied by local grocery store chain Morrisons. 

What’s in stock: The same “Just Walk Out” tech you’ll see in US-based Amazon Go stores. Using a combination of technologies—computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning—the store notes who removes which items from a shelf (and the second-guessers who put products back). 

• The AI system keeps track via a virtual cart, and the shopper is charged automatically upon leaving the store. 

What’s not: The computer vision- and AI-equipped Dash Carts used in Amazon’s checkout-free US stores. TBD on whether the company will add that feature in the future. 

Social distancing, contactless commerce, and cashierless stores—the perfect storm for Amazon’s retail expansion. Expect more brick-and-mortar chains to integrate Just Walk Out or their own tech stack, like UK-based Sainsbury’s did in 2019. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: NFT trading volume surpassed $400 million in 30 days, with an average 17,000 daily active traders on the five most popular marketplaces, according to Trading Platforms UK.

Quote: “Bitcoin is going to infinity, the moon, Mars, and eventually it'll be the world's currency."—Jesse Powell, CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, to Bloomberg. 

Watch: We wrote about Microsoft mixed reality on Wednesday—if you want to see it in action, Ryan tweeted two demo videos filmed on the HoloLens 2 headset.

Input: Asana’s Anatomy of Work 2021 report is dropping new stats on the latest work challenges—like how 70% of knowledge workers experienced burnout in the last year. Check out the full report.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

SPONSORED BY IBM

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Honda launched the world’s first Level 3 driving automation vehicle that is commercially available. Caveat: For now, the automaker only plans to lease 100 models in Japan. 
• Brave, the privacy-focused browser, is launching a search engine. 
• WhatsApp added one-to-one voice and video calls to its desktop app. 
• Netflix is getting into the short-form video game. 
• Arizona’s house passed HB2005, a bill that could make Apple and Google allow third-party payment systems in their app stores.
• EU officials are close to bringing antitrust charges against Apple, centered on its management of the App Store, the FT reports. 

GOING PHISHING

Four of the following news stories are true, and one...we made up. Can you spot the odd one out?

1. US states and cities are passing laws that legally classify sidewalk robots as pedestrians. 
2. In a Clubhouse conversation, Oprah Winfrey weighed in on electric vehicles. 
3. A drought in Taiwan poses challenges to already-strained chipmaking plants. 
4. On Wednesday, SpaceX successfully landed the Starship SN10 (and then it blew up). Later that night, SpaceX also launched 60 satellites. 
5. Amazon is in talks to carry “many” NFL games exclusively on Prime Video, the WSJ reports.  

TECH THROWBACK

Twenty years ago, Microsoft debuted the first-ever Xbox gaming console and introduced the Halo franchise to the world. That year, Microsoft's console—and Nintendo’s GameCube, which beat Xbox to launch by exactly three days—topped holiday wish lists everywhere. 

ICYMI

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

• Microsoft’s new central nervous system for mixed-reality apps 
• The UK is launching a new venture fund for emerging tech 
• The US government auctioned off $81 billion in spectrum 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

Oprah didn't go on Clubhouse to talk EVs. But hey, never say never.