AUTOMATION

Stuck in the loop

Last year, Waymo rolled out a truly driverless ride-hailing service in Arizona. This year, the US Air Force flew a fighter jet using AI for the first time. We could give you dispatches from uncrewed vessels on the high seas, but we don’t want to keep you here all day. 

These stories tempt us to think that a full-feature AI system is right around the corner, and that once it shows up on the scene, humans will become unnecessary. 

But...

Mind the fine text. As robots across the spectrum of automation graduate, even the class stars need human minders to debug code, audit errors as they occur, and ensure they’re staying on task in the physical world. And by nearly any insider’s account, humans aren’t leaving the picture anytime soon. 

Case study one: With few exceptions, US regulators require drone pilots today to maintain a visual line-of-sight with their drone. A company needs one human pilot for every drone they’re actively flying.

The bad news for these pilots is that autonomous flight systems can already do nearly all of their job, according to Colin Guinn, the former CEO of DJI North America. As the FAA inches toward relaxing line-of-sight requirements, “These autonomous robots can act as autonomous robots,” Guinn told us.

That could slash demand for drone pilots, but it still won’t make their skillset obsolete. “At no point in the next decade will drones be fully out-of-the-loop systems,” Guinn said.

Case study two: Phantom Auto is a Bay Area-based business that sells software for remote monitoring, assistance, and operation of semi-autonomous vehicles (mostly forklifts). 

Elliot Katz, Phantom’s cofounder and chief business officer, says: “You can never eliminate the human from the loop.” 

Formant, another Bay Area startup, is focused on robotics. Robots are good with precision, repeatability, strength, and endurance. They can lift more than you, and no amount of gym visits will ever change that. But humans are still needed for what they’re good at, “problem-solving, intellect, understanding, and broadcasting intention,” according to Formant CEO Jeff Linnell. 

Big picture: Ultimately, in centralized digital driving centers or in drone dispatch hubs, the operator-machine ratio will evolve from 1-for-1 to 1-to-many. But not 0-to-many.

Click here to read the full piece.—RD 

HEALTH TECH

Medical algorithms

Epic Systems, the country’s leading e-health record company, says an algorithm it developed can accurately flag sepsis in patients 76% of the time. The life-threatening disease, which arises from infections, is a major concern for hospitals: One-third of patients who die in hospitals have sepsis, per the CDC. 

• Generally, the earlier sepsis is diagnosed and treated, the better a patient’s chances of survival—and hundreds of hospitals use Epic Systems’s sepsis prediction model, The Verge reports. 

The problem: According to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine, Epic Systems may have gotten the success rate wrong: The model is only correct 63% of the time—“substantially worse than the performance reported by its developer,” the researchers wrote. 

• Part of the issue can be traced to the algorithm’s development, Stat News reports. It was trained to flag when doctors would submit bills for sepsis treatment—which doesn’t always line up with patients’ first signs of symptoms. 
• “It’s essentially trying to predict what physicians are already doing,” Dr. Karandeep Singh, one of the study’s authors, told Stat News. 

When reached for comment, Epic Systems told us the researchers’ hypothetical scenario lacked “the required validation, analysis, and tuning that organizations need to do before deployment,” adding that the JAMA study’s findings differed from other research. 

Bottom line: Algorithms can augment healthcare, but the life-or-death nature of their use requires serious due diligence.—HF 

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ICYMI: Big Announcements, Celebrity Panels, and More from HPE Discover

Missed HPE Discover live this week? Not to worry, it’s all on-demand.

That means you can still watch executive keynotes, check out all the announcements, and enjoy all-star panel discussions. 

You’ll get to hear from CEOs, technologists, and all-around superstars like General Motors Chair and CEO Mary Barra, F1 Driver and 7x FIA World Champion Lewis Hamilton, and many more.

The best and the brightest will be sharing insights on everything from AI and intelligent edge to how purpose-driven companies are driving a new digital economy. 

Explore HPE Discover’s on-demand sessions here.

CONNECTIVITY

Her Majesty’s underground cellular network

London’s Tube, the world’s oldest subway system, is officially entering the 21st century: It's getting an underground 4G network that will cover its platforms, stations, and tunnels. 

• London struck a $1.4 billion, 20-year agreement with BAI Communications, which will lay over 1,242 miles of fiber starting this year.
• BAI will facilitate access to public and to private providers alike on one network. 

The coverage will roll out at London’s busiest stations in 2022, with full coverage available by the end of 2024. London is one of the last major cities without this kind of connectivity. 

Late adopter, lookin’ ahead

The network will initially be built for 4G, but it’ll be upgradable to 5G as coverage and demand expand.

“We get an extra G every 7 years in the industry, so we may be at 7G by the time we finish the concession,” Paul Osborne, chief commercial officer for UK & Europe at BAI Communications told Emerging Tech Brew. “We are building it with scalability in mind to be able to make those changes.”

The BAI contract also allocated resources to IoT and smart city development, including the installation of 124 miles of core fiber that will eventually connect street lights, bus stops, and traffic signals.

Big picture: As the city and private providers build this network, Roslyn Layton, senior vice president at Strand Consult, told us the work doesn’t end in building the foundation of a smart city network.

“It isn't just enough to have the network; you have to have intelligent decisions or intelligent applications,” Layton said.—JM

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Half the world now owns a smartphone, according to Strategy Analytics. 

Quote: “Innovations such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and the walled garden ecosystems of big techs all tend to work against the public good element that underpins the payment system.”—The Bank for International Settlements

Read: DeepMind is applying its breakthrough protein-folding AI to real-world drug discovery.  

One-stop crypto: Bitwise equips long-term investors with the products, education, and relationships they need to access crypto opportunities. Bitwise’s product suite includes the world’s largest crypto index fund (OTCQX: BITW) and the index behind the first crypto industry ETF. Risk disclosures at bitwiseinvestments.com.*

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Andreessen Horowitz raised a $2.2 billion crypto fund.  
• BMW’s venture arm invested in Kodiak Robotics, an autonomous trucking company. 
• GlobalFoundries, a US semis firm, will spend $4 billion to expand a Singapore plant. 
• Microsoft officially announced Windows 11, which features a new UI inspired by Mac’s OS. 
• The House Judiciary Committee approved six antitrust bills aimed at reining in Big Tech. 

GOING PHISHING

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

1. A pair of South African brothers who ran a crypto exchange have disappeared with $3.6 billion worth of digital assets. 
2. A startup says it successfully tested a space hotel-building robot. 
3. A new TikTok filter that predicts your ideal pet has driven a spike in illegal pet trade.
4. Tripp, a psychedelic VR company, just raised a bunch of cash. 

TECH THROWBACK

Although GPS has technically been around since the late ’70s, until 2008, it was only used in few—and pricey—cases. (Think: expensive cars.) 

But in 2008, its use expanded to more consumer devices: the iPhone 3G, the T-Mobile G1, and even some notebooks. GPS became a more readily available commodity—and Hayden and Ryan celebrated the day they no longer had to ask their parents to print out MapQuest directions. 

ICYMI

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

• The crypto market shed billions in value this week—here’s why
• A Q&A with Twitter's ethical AI lead, Rumman Chowdhury
• Why the US' digital divide is about more than just access

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

There isn’t a new TikTok filter predicticting your ideal pet that’s driven a spike in illegal pet trade.