In other tech news in February 2023, we covered items in technologies and issues of importance in the Asia Pacific and Indo-Pacific contexts including emerging concerns with ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence content-creation services, digital currency developments and issues, cybersecurity concerns around software components in autonomous vehicles, and many more.
Hit the headline links below to read each article, in full.
For ongoing daily and weekly updates, see our other editions including Startup News Asia’s weekly newsletters.
Artificial intelligence as systemic risk in a polycrisis
- The trouble with ChatGPT and its ilk: “It often produces true statements as a side effect of being plausible and persuasive, but that [truth] is not the goal.”
- “A judge in Colombia used ChatGPT to make a court ruling, in what is apparently the first time a legal decision has been made with the help of an AI text generator…”
- NATO Data and AI Review Board to develop AI certification to help industries and institutions in the Alliance ensure AI and data projects are in line with int’l law, and NATO norms and values
- Is AI artwork stealing from artists?: “According to the lawyer behind a new class-action suit, every image that a generative tool produces ‘is an infringing, derivative work.'”
AI in the workplace: “A January survey of 300 human resources leaders at US companies revealed that 98% of them say software and algorithms will help them make layoff decisions this year.”
- A UK digital currency: “While cash is here to stay, a digital pound issued and backed by the Bank of England could be a new way to pay that’s trusted, accessible and easy to use”
- Crypto: A brief look at ‘Ordinals’, a system where image data can be embedded into the Bitcoin blockchain
- Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol startup completes first transaction of a ‘clean bitcoin mining blockchain asset’, aiming to encourage miners to use enviro-friendly energy sources in tokenization
- The Forbes Blockchain 50 for 2023 is online now, providing a brief intro to the major names in the space
- An explainer for asset tokenization, the process of converting physical or digital assets into digital tokens on a distributed ledger or blockchain
ASPI: The case for an Indo-Pacific hybrid threats center
- Five hurdles to minting a CBDC: “…A shiny new digital token is hardly likely to help the unbanked…”
- Global study finds most customers prefer chatbots for automated support but businesses fail to deliver positive experiences; over half of customers see chatbot experiences as overall reflection of a brand
- Google is testing ChatGPT-like products featuring its LaMDA technology, alongside testing new search page designs that integrate chat technology
- Download: ‘Banking on Climate Chaos – Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022’
- UK sets new regulatory regime for crypto industry, bringing rules on issuance, trading and lending of crypto tokens into line with those for traditional assets such as stocks and bonds
“Jurors agreed with Hermès that Rothschild’s NFTs are commercial products subject to intellectual property laws that bar the sale of imitations, and awarded the company $133,000 in damages.”
- Bank for International Settlements to begin work on a tool to monitor stablecoins, aiming to give authorities a clearer understanding of how they work, and how to regulate them in future
- Binance crypto exchange to suspend US dollar transfers via the SWIFT system, providing no reason, with the move reportedly resulting in millions of dollars in outflows to rival platforms
- Visa’s crypto division head’s presentation talks of allowing customers to convert digital assets to fiat, and looking at accepting settlement payments using stablecoins
- Crypto risk: “…’shadow financial’ functions enabled by crypto markets share many of the vulnerabilities of traditional finance. These risks are exacerbated by specific features of crypto…”
- Binance admits to problems with BUSD Peg, as investigation showed the crypto exchange undercollateralized its holdings by *at least* $1 billion on three occasions
Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific: Regional Security Outlook 2023
- “Consumers and businesses alike expect that cars and other products they purchase from reputable providers will not carry risk of harm. The same should be true of technology products.”
- Google to launch ‘prebunking’ ad-based campaign across Europe, using short videos to illustrate how disinformation works and how to identify it
- 4th edition of Zurich Innovation Championship launches in Dubai, an open innovation contest seeking startups and solutions in the insurance sector
“Amazon took a 35.2% cut from the average merchant sale in 2016. The following year it leaped to 40%, and by 2020 it had reached 45.8%. Last year it jumped from 2021’s 48% to 51.8%.”
- Coinbase announces testnet launch of its own Base blockchain, Ethereum Layer 2 network for building decentralized apps on-chain
- Google starts rolling out features for EV drivers in vehicles with Google Maps integration, showing charging station locations, estimated remaining charge and more
SharePass: Secure communications / cybersecurity
- Download: State of SEA Fintech 2022 Report from Singapore’s RoboCash
- Asia-Pacific & alt-proteins: “…year-on-year funding for alternative proteins across Asia Pacific has increased by 43% and shows strong growth across all sector verticals from cultivated to plant-based to fermentation…”
Play-to-earn: “The company is now rethinking blockchain (or Web3) gaming from the perspective that it should…improve on the existing Web2 gaming experience — instead of having a detached economy.”
- Policing the metaverse: “If you look at the definitions of these crimes in physical space, and you try to apply it in the metaverse, there is a difficulty.”
- Online & available to download: 2022 Annual Metaverse Virtual Real Estate Report, from Parcel
- NASA is using generative AI to design mission hardware described as ‘evolved structures’, with algorithms sometimes lightening component weight by a full two-thirds
Accenture: The Pulse of the Semiconductor Industry 2023 (pdf link)
- Superplastic NFT animation firm raised $20M from backers including Amazon, Google, Animoca Brands and Sony Japan, with Amazon Studios partnership on series featuring ‘synthetic celebrities’
- Spotify music streaming giant is testing new ‘token-enabled playlists’, allowing non-fungible token holders to connect wallets and listen to invited projects’ community-curated music
- The English Premier League inks $37M-per-year deal with Sorare, digital trading card and ‘fantasy soccer’ firm, aiming to boost NFT offerings for fans
- Automobili Lamborghini partners VeVe digital collectibles firm for first round of four first-edition NFT collectibles
- Pakistan’s telecoms regulator to block access to Wikipedia if the platform fails to take down content deemed ‘sacrilegious’ within 48 hours
- Pakistan’s NICAT aerospace and deep -tech incubation center opens Cohort-1 Startup Applications for 2023, seeking innovations in aviation and more
- The Quad – India, Australia, Japan and US – announces launch of ‘Quad Cyber Challenge’ campaign to boost public’s cyber security awareness and skills
“Companies like Vector Atomic and Infleqtion are helping the military harness quantum technologies to develop underground sensing, secure communications and alternatives to GPS.”
- Russia & ‘shadow’ oil supply -‘a fifth of the world’s fleet, has exited mainstream operation “ostensibly to do Russian business,” he said. And 200 smaller product tankers, or 7% of that market, have followed suit.’
- “The document, written for Putin’s Presidential Administration, envisages the total incorporation of Belarus into a ‘Union State’ with Russia by 2030.”
- A round-up of the semiconductor space’s funding news from January 2023, with 138 startups raising over $2 billion
- From delivery ‘bots to burger chefs, meet the startups driving the future of foodservice robotics’
Social media platforms: “…first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for business customers; finally, they abuse business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”
- An overview of recent funding moves in quantum computing, worldwide
- Mercedes-Benz partners Google for all-in-one software approach in cars with automated driving sensors, feeling Tesla and China competition
- Abu Dhabi launches $2BN Hub71+ Digital Assets ecosystem initiative to back Web3 and blockchain startups
- UAE central bank to issue ‘digital dirham’ CBDC to push digital payments, one of nine wide-ranging initiatives of the new Financial Infrastructure Transformation Program
- iSeed SEA’s solo founder launches second fund, WV Fund II, backing seed-stage startups
- European Investment Bank and governments of 5 EU countries agree to new €3.75BN fund of funds to invest in VCs that back European scaleups, with expectation of more gov’ts joining
- “Spammers use ChatGPT to create fake websites using natural language processing. It allows malicious actors to quickly generate bogus sites that generate revenue from ads or other malicious content.”
Deloitte: 2023 Semiconductor Industry Outlook
Newsletters in February 2023
- Asia’s tech news, weekly to February 7th 2023:
Thailand insure-tech, Australian hydrogen-diesel engines, Malaysia’s urban farming, Cambodian e-commerce, Singapore-EU digital partnership, Apple and Hong Kong… - Asia’s tech news, weekly to February 14th 2023:
Australia’s TikTok usage, India’s National Payments expansion, South Korea’s niche tasks chips, China’s ‘internet of vehicles’ guidelines, NATO AI certification… - Asia’s tech news, weekly to February 21st 2023:
India & lithium, Korea’s digital assets moves, $1BN China-Saudi fund, Asia-Pac & alt-protein, Taiwan’s cybersec institute, Australia & digital privacy, Thailand’s VC space… - Asia’s tech news, weekly to February 28th 2023:
India & semiconductors, Japan’s Digital Yen, China’s ChatGPT censorship, electric trucks for Australia, genomics in Indonesia, Hong Kong and stablecoins…
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