Top 10 in Tech – June 2022

1. Google has just announced its own text-to-image generator, titled ‘Imagen’.

The company describes it as “a text-to-image diffusion model with an unprecedented degree of photorealism and a deep level of language understanding.” And it simply transforms written phrases and sentences into terrifyingly accurate AI-generated images.

Imagen has not been made available to the public yet, due to the concerns about the potential risk of misuse: “”At this time we have decided not to release code or a public demo. In future work we will explore a framework for responsible externalisation that balances the value of external auditing with the risks of unrestricted open-access.” the company says.

source: The Verge

2. Sagittarius A*:  A Historic Photo of Milky Way’s Black Hole

Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator says: “The Event Horizon Telescope has captured yet another remarkable image, this time of the giant black hole at the centre of our own home galaxy. Looking more comprehensively at this black hole will help us learn more about its cosmic effects on its environment, and exemplifies the international collaboration that will carry us into the future and reveal discoveries we could never have imagined.”

source: NASA

3. Google Maps Has a New Tool. Here’s How It Works

Google rolled out a new feature for its Maps app, called Immersive View which means Street View has a new level. It works by using billions of photos to model buildings and trees in 3D using machine learning. Users will be able to experience what a restaurant, neighbourhood, landmark or popular venue is like as if you’re already there.

source: cnet

4. Scientists Grow Plants in Moon Soil for the First Time

A half-century ago, the scientists planted seeds of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, in small samples of the regolith collected on three different Apollo missions.

Stephen Elardo from the University of Florida said “Lunar soils don’t have a lot of the nutrients that are needed to support plant growth.”

“After two days, they started to sprout. Everything sprouted. I can’t tell you how astonished we were. Every plant — whether in a lunar sample or in a control — looked the same up until about day six.” says Paul, a professor in horticultural sciences at the University of Florida.

source: cnet

5. Google’s AI Is Smart Enough to Understand Your Humour

Google says its AI can now understand jokes.

Normally jokes, sarcasm and humour require understanding the nuance of language and human behaviour.

But Pathways Language Model learned it without being explicitly trained on humour and the logic of jokes. After being fed two jokes, it was able to interpret them and spit out an explanation.

source: cnet

6. Regulators are Getting Nervous about Stablecoins after the Luna Crush

Regulators are getting increasingly worried about stablecoins after the collapse of the controversial cryptocurrency venture Terra.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directly addressed the issue of both UST and tether “breaking the buck”. In a congressional hearing, Yellen said such assets don’t currently pose a systemic risk to financial stability — but suggested they eventually could. The U.K. government is also taking notice. “The government has been clear that certain stablecoins are not suitable for payment purposes as they share characteristics with unbacked cryptoassets,” the spokesperson said.

source: CNBC

7. Starlink Now Available to Ship in 32 Countries

Elon Musk’s space company says they are ready to ship their internet service. Starlink shared a screenshot on Twitter showing the service’s availability map, which shows the service as “available” across most of Europe and North America, as well as parts of South America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Starlink provides high-speed, low-latency broadband internet across the globe. Within each coverage area, orders are fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis.

source: The Verge

8. Apple iPod Creator Warns the Metaverse Will Encourage Trolls

The virtual reality-based metaverse removes the ability “to look into the other person’s face,” Tony Fadell said. “If you put technology between that human connection that’s when the toxicity happens,” he said.

While Mr Fadell said the technology behind the metaverse has merit: “When you’re trying to make social interaction and social connection when you can’t look into the other person’s face, you can’t see their eyes you don’t have real humanistic ways of connecting. It becomes disintermediated and you have the ability at that point to create more trolls, people who hide behind things and then use that to their advantage to get attention.”

source: BBC

9. Spotify Experiments with Musician NFT Galleries

The music streaming platform has rolled out the test for some users on Android in the US and currently includes NFT previews for artists like Steve Aoki and The Wombats.

“Spotify is running a test in which it will help a small group of artists promote their existing third-party NFT offerings via their artist profiles,” a Spotify spokesperson said in a statement to Music Ally. “We routinely conduct a number of tests in an effort to improve artist and fan experiences. Some of those tests end up paving the way for a broader experience and others serve only as an important learning.”

source: The Verge

10. Silicon Valley supply chain fixer Flexport tops the 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50 list

Flexport tops the 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50, one of 10 logistics companies to make the annual list. The freight technology start-up, led by CEO and founder Ryan Petersen, is tackling supply chain issues that are roiling the global economy.

The logistics business is a “massive, massive space with very, very little technology in place,” says David George, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

source: CNBC