Morning Brew - ☕ Twins

What’s a digital twin?
Morning Brew December 03, 2021

Emerging Tech Brew

Citrix

Howdy, there are just 10 issues left of Emerging Tech Brew this year. Not that we’re counting.

In today’s edition:
Digital twins
Fusion frenzy
5G update

Jordan McDonald, Dan McCarthy

CONNECTIVITY

Digitally twinning

Abstract image of a virtual data center Blackjack3d/Getty Images

In the 21st century, the concept of a twin need not be confined to fraternal or identical—a twin can be digital too.

Digital twins have caught the eyes of some of the biggest companies in the world—Amazon and Nvidia, for instance, both made announcements about new digital-twin initiatives within the last month—as well as those of specialists like infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems.

  • The concept started gaining traction at the beginning of the century, and picked up steam in the early 2010s when the rise of IoT made digital twins more feasible.
  • As of 2020, it was estimated to be a $3.1 billion market, per Markets and Markets, and projected to grow into a $48.2 billion industry by 2026.

So...what is a digital twin?

Put simply, they’re virtual reconstructions of physical things. They allow everyone from manufacturers to government officials to harness the power of sensors, AI, and connectivity to create real-time replications or simulations of real-world objects, networks, and constructions.

“Digital twins are a digital and dynamic representation of a physical asset in its context,” Nicholas Cumins, chief product officer at Bentley Systems, told us. “The key word is ‘dynamic,’ meaning any change that happens to the physical asset has to be reflected in the digital asset...It allows for better, faster decision-making.”

Digital twins are created from data, and that data can come from a host of sources, whether it’s drones, satellite imagery, train schedules and routes, lidar, or AI and machine learning technologies.

  • Collecting these disparate sources of data under one roof opens the ability to re-create an actual asset like a hydroelectric dam, and then extrapolate it into predictions, inspection, and finally, action.
  • This can help companies rely less on in-person tasks, which can be both resource-intensive and risky (e.g., sending someone up to climb a cell tower).

Major tech companies like General Electric create digital twins of things like jet engines, wind farms, and off-shore oil rigs, while IBM runs a digital-twin exchange to match companies with software they would find useful.

Bentley Systems, for its part, largely creates digital twins for industries like construction, utilities, and city planning. Cumins said the pandemic has increased demand for these solutions, particularly from construction clients, though the company declined to share specific metrics.

“It’s kind of important today, during the days of Covid, because what construction customers want to do is add more and more remote employees. The fewer people they can actually bring to the job site, the safer the job site is,” Rich Humphrey, VP of product management at Bentley Systems, told us. “Now they will visually monitor the job site from their home, in this virtual digital-twin environment.”

Click here to read the full piece.JM

        

ENERGY

Fusion funding record redux

image of commonwealth fusion systems equipment Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a nuclear-fusion startup spun out of MIT, just raised the biggest-ever funding round for a nuclear-fusion company—a financial milestone that it hopes will spark a scientific one.

CFS announced a $1.8 billion round on Wednesday, led by (who else?) Tiger Global Management and Bill Gates. That’s more than 3x bigger than the previous record of $500 million, which was set by Helion…a month ago.

CFS, which has now raised ~$4 billion since its 2018 founding, will use the money to try and build a net-energy-producing demonstration reactor by 2025.

Reminder: Energy-producing nuclear fusion has been an elusive, but captivating, goal since Soviet scientists developed the first fusion device, dubbed a “tokamak,” in the 1950s.

  • In theory, fusion can produce significantly higher quantities of clean energy with far less waste and risk than fission.
  • One problem? No one has been able to produce more energy from a fusion reactor than it takes to create a reaction.

But the record-breaking rounds from CFS and Helion are simply two eye-popping examples of an increasingly energetic nuclear-fusion industry. There are currently 35+ businesses operating in the space, per the Fusion Industry Association, more than double the 15 in 2017. Another fusion company, General Fusion, also raised a $130 million round this week.

Looking ahead: CFS also said it will begin working on a commercial fusion plant that would produce electricity early next decade. Some fusion experts think it’ll take much longer, though: Tony Donné, program manager at research consortium EUROfusion, told the WSJ that fusion power probably won’t make it to the grid for another two or three decades.

Click here to view this story on-site.DM

        

TOGETHER WITH CITRIX

Toodle-loo, Hackers

Citrix

We’ve all received some shoddy spam email full of bold, yet simultaneously misspelled, attempts to snag our credit card info. But with 47% of organizations seeing an increase in cyber attacks this past year (yikes), it seems efforts have gotten smarter than typo-laden spam.

So, do your security measures match up to our new, expanded world of hybrid work? If you’re unsure, know that Citrix’s intelligent, zero-trust approach to security is helping organizations defend against today’s heightened security threats.

Citrix protects users, apps, and data with controlled access, deploys security at the edge of the network, and identifies and stops threats before damage is done

Their comprehensive security solution keeps your organization’s data and apps protected, no matter where that key info resides—or where the work is getting done.

Ahh, the sweet, sweet peace of mind you get with a protected network.

Get started with Citrix here.

5G

5G temp check

5G tower against a blue sky Gea Veenstra/Getty Images

As we enter year three of the 5G era, where does the tech stand?

It stands on pretty firm ground, according to the 10th edition of Swedish telco Ericsson’s Mobility Report. The report claims 5G implementation and adoption has been faster than any previous generation of mobile technology, and that it shows no signs of slowing down.

  • For corroboration’s sake: Gartner has also said 5G is the fastest-growing segment in the wireless-network infrastructure market in 2021.

Over 180 service providers have deployed 5G services globally since the standard’s debut in 2019, and as prices of 5G devices come down, Ericsson forecasts adoption will climb past the current 570 million subscribers into 660 million 5G subscriptions by the end of 2021. There are around 8.1 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide.

The report also predicts by the end of 2027, 5G will make up 49% of all mobile subscriptions and be the dominant mobile-access technology. Over the same time frame, North America is projected to overtake the crown held by northeast Asia and have the highest 5G penetration, at 90%.

And while it might be old news, 4G is not disappearing any time soon. Ericsson’s report claims 4G will reach a projected 4.7 billion subscriptions by the end of 2021.

But, but, but...There might still be some roadblocks to rapid adoption. Recently, Verizon and AT&T committed to limiting their 5G rollout for six months over concerns from the FAA that some towers transmitting a new spectrum could interfere with airplane cockpit-safety devices. And even if cell towers are being built and coverage has improved, that doesn’t mean the high-speed, low-latency 5G future we’ve been promised is any good right now.

Click here to view this story on-site.JM

        

TOGETHER WITH EIGHT SLEEP

Eight Sleep

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BITS AND BYTES

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 with pen and Galaxy Z Flip3 leaned up next to it with a text notification from Samsung that reads, "Hey there!" Samsung

Stat: Foldable-smartphone sales grew 480% year over year in Q3, to 2.6 million units shipped, per DSCC. The research group forecasts total foldable-smartphone sales to hit 17.5 million in 2022. Lots of growth, but bear in mind that there are ~1.5 billion smartphones sold each year.

Quote: “Our goal is EV market leadership.”—GM Executive Vice President Doug Parks, a few weeks after Ford said the same

Read: So, you’re telling me we might actually live in a simulation?

That’s a wrap: Your endless search for the perfect holiday gift is over. Our 2021 Holiday Gift Guide has something for everyone on your nice list. Check it out here.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Timnit Gebru is forming her own research institute focused on the harm AI systems can cause marginalized groups, following her firing from Google last year.
  • Nuro and 7-Eleven are piloting an “autonomous” delivery service in Mountain View, California. Scare quotes because there’s still a safety driver.
  • Meta has picked AWS as its long-term cloud partner, likely to provide the computing power for its metaverse ambitions.
  • Quantinuum is the name of a new 400-person quantum-computing firm formed from the merger of a quantum-computing hardware and software company.
  • Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm hit an FTC–sized bump—the agency is suing to block the deal, following scrutiny from regulators in the UK and EU.

GOING PHISHING

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

  • A cryptocurrency named “Omicron” jumped 900% after the WHO named the new Covid-19 variant.
  • Amazon is helping climate researchers study how to dim the sun.
  • Major banks are selling derivatives backed by metaverse real-estate investments.
  • Tesla is selling an ATV called the “Cyberquad.”

FROM THE ARXIVES

Machine learning algorithms are essentially big loops of complicated math. And now, those big loops of complicated math are helping mathematicians do *very* complicated math.

Hold on, what? A new paper in Nature, written by DeepMind researchers, has proposed a ML framework for mathematicians to use when pondering open questions, and, you know, crafting theorems. As one does.

  • To be clear, this is not the automation of mathematicians, but rather the augmentation of them. The ML framework helps problem solvers identify patterns and propose new potential theorems.
  • In addition to the framework, the paper showed several real-life examples of the algorithm guiding mathematicians to new discoveries on open questions in pure math.

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

We’ve not heard of any major banks creating mortgage-backed securities for the metaverse, but 1) metaverse real-estate investment is very much a real thing and 2) banks are reportedly exploring bitcoin-backed loans.

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Written by Jordan McDonald

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