Category: TECHNOLOGY
Can proof-of-reserves prevent future crypto exchange collapses?
A number of crypto exchanges are rushing to publish proof-of-reserves in a seeming attempt to reassure investors their funds are safe as fellow exchange FTX melts down.
Proof-of-reserves (PoR) are independent audits by third parties that aim to provide transparency and evidence that a custodian holds the assets it claims to own on behalf of its clients. Auditors then aggregate balances into something called a Merkle tree, which entails all client balances.
FTX exploded this week following a CoinDesk report that showed a June 30 balance sheet of its affiliate trading firm, Alameda Research, was largely made up of FTX’s native token, FTT. This all could have been avoided with PoR, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, said to TechCrunch.
“There was a balance sheet issue and it became known to many depositors all at once,” Nazarov said. “And because it was a surprise, there was a bank run that led to insolvency.”
But imagine if depositors knew what FTX and Alameda Research’s balance sheets were from the beginning.
Can proof-of-reserves prevent future crypto exchange collapses? by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/can-proof-of-reserves-prevent-future-crypto-exchange-collapses/
Musk’s lawyer tells Twitter staff they won’t be liable if company violates FTC consent decree
Following a warning shot from the FTC to Twitter yesterday, TechCrunch has obtained an internal email sent by Elon Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, to all remaining employees — in which he seeks to calm staffers’ concerns by claiming that they do not have individual liability for upholding the requirements of the FTC consent decree.
We’ve reproduced the full text of the email (sic) below — which was sent by Spiro to Twitter staff at 5:21PM, November 10:
Elon – questions have arisen today regarding the consent decree in effect at the time you took over the company.
We have our first upcoming compliance check with the ftc since taking over and we will handle it.
The only party to the decree is Twitter- not individuals who work at Twitter. It is Twitter itself (not individual employees) who is a party and therefore only Twitter the company could be liable.
I understand that there have been employees at Twitter who do not even work on the ftc matter commenting that they could to to jail if we were not in compliance- that is simply not how this works. It is the company’s obligation. It is the company’a burden. It is the company’s liability.
We spoke to the FTC today about our continuing obligations and have a constructive ongoing dialogue.
We will of course remain in compliance with the consent decree and the legal department is handling it and happy to answer any questions
Thanks
Alex
The 2011 consent decree required Twitter to establish and maintain a program to ensure and regularly report that its new features do not further misrepresent “the extent to which it maintains and protects the security, privacy, confidentiality, or integrity of any nonpublic consumer information.”
In a note (first reported by The Verge) posted in Twitter’s internal slack and visible to all employees, a departing internal attorney said that in fact, individual engineers do engender “personal, professional and legal risk,” seemingly in contradiction to what Spiro sent in the above email.
On Thursday, key Twitter executives including the company’s Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, as well as its Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner, Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty and Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran all abruptly departed the company. The FTC noted that they are watching with “deep concern” the ongoing situation at Twitter in light of the consent decree.
The FTC fined Twitter $150 million earlier this year after finding a breach of the settlement related to user data provided for security purposes being used for ad targeting.
We’ve reached out to the FTC for clarification regarding the consent decree and individual employee liability and will update if we receive more information.
Musk’s lawyer tells Twitter staff they won’t be liable if company violates FTC consent decree by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch
Daily Crunch: FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried quits as crypto exchange files for bankruptcy
Stolen-vehicle recovery systems have been available for decades, but a lost pet has higher emotional stakes.
According to Syneroid, a startup that makes smart tags, 10 million pets are lost each year in the United States, but “less than 30% are returned home.”
After raising a $500,000 seed round, the company’s founders shared their 12-slide pitch deck with TechCrunch for a review. According to
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Hoooo boy. As Alex would say: This week has been a long year. You just know it has been a pretty wild ride when Meta can lay off 13% of its staff, and it isn’t even really in the top 10 of crazy things that happened.
Gmail no longer lets you use the old interface, you retro-loving nerd, you. Salesforce did a round of layoffs, the DOJ seized $3.36 billion worth of Silk Road crypto, Binance said it would buy FTX, then backed out, causing Sequoia to write off its entire FTX investment. Theranos’s founder Elizabeth Holmes will find out her lot next week, while Peloton’s founder gave up on exercise equipment and is selling rugs now. Then there was a wall of Twitter drama, including utter chaos with Twitter’s new “verified” system after it laid off half of its staff, before quickly making moves to hire some of them back. Oh, and we’re all #RatVerified 4lyf now, I guess.
May next week be slightly more chill for you. It will be for Haje, who’s buggering off to go do some scuba diving for a week, and possibly trusting Apple with his life in the process. As he left for the day, he could be overheard muttering, “I hope there’s a bit of internet left when I come back.”
Take a breather, you can always implode with stress next week instead. — Christine and Haje.
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Only the beginning, we fear: If you’ve been following the whole FTX company drama, then no doubt you have a take on today’s big story that the crypto exchange founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and also resigned his position. This comes after SBF thought there was a chance to save the company through other methods, like a tie-up with Binance and then some liquidity. This has been so much that Jacquelyn said on CNBC this morning that everyone should put their crypto in their own private keys.
- All that back-and-forth is hurting our neck: We fear that Twitter developers have spent much of their 84-hour workweek flipping the “official badge” switch on and off to appease Elon Musk’s constantly flip-flopping ideas. Natasha L has more on what’s happening.
- Potato, potahto, let’s call the whole thing off (and on again)Ivan has the best headline all week — “Have you tried turning it off and on again, Elon?” We’re still waiting for that answer.
Startups and VC
Our entire news team are flopped over in their respective sofas, slightly shell shocked after one of the wildest news weeks we’ve seen. You know, we’re so exhausted, we’re not even gonna write a proper intro. Here, make yourself a cup of tea and click through these. Or don’t. You’re the master of your own destiny.
- Insuring the doggieMike reports how pet insurance startups chase the market as pet ownership booms among Gen Z and Millennials.
- Sustaining the sustainableMike also writes that Prediction Capital hits first close of €30 million for new fund to back startups addressing UN SDGs.
- Last person out, turn off the lightsRita reports why digital sourcing platform Fictiv stays in China, even when others are getting the hell out of dodge.
- Pass the chipsKate reports that SoftBank, NEC, Sony, Toyota and others team up for Rapidus, Japan’s bid for next-gen chip domination.
- An apple a dayAndrew reports that Even Healthcare lands additional capital to advance primary care adoption in India.
Pitch Deck Teardown: Syneroid’s $500K seed deck
Image Credits: GPC Smart Tags (opens in a new window)
Stolen-vehicle recovery systems have been available for decades, but a lost pet has higher emotional stakes.
According to Syneroid, a startup that makes smart tags, 10 million pets are lost each year in the United States, but “less than 30% are returned home.”
After raising a $500,000 seed round, the company’s founders shared their 12-slide pitch deck with TechCrunch for a review. According to Haje Jan Kamps, “no information has been redacted or omitted.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
- Time to decentralize, maybe?Jacquelyn writes that Framework Ventures co-founder says DeFi gives hope following FTX collapse.
- Who’s buying?: As the economy shifts, what’s the best software customer? wonder Anna and Alex.
- VC is sexy, but you know what’s really hot? Revenues!Miguel Fernandez digs into revenue-based financing, offering a new playbook for startup fundraising.
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Brian visited Amazon’s BOS27 robotics facility and not only watched cute robots line up, but also learned about the delivery giant’s plans for global domination. If you can’t tell by now, it involves robotics and how Amazon aims to improve the world of last-mile delivery.
Need more entertainment? Here’s five more:
- You don’t have to do that: DALL-E 2 is now a part of our lives, but it doesn’t have to be part of yours if you don’t want it to be. DeviantArt is one way for artists to opt out of AI art generators, Kyle reports.
- Taking care of business: Thomson Reuters announced plans to acquire SurePrep, a tax automation company, for $500 million, Paul writes.
- We’ve got our eye on you: In light of some tweets and team departures, the European Union’s data protection watchdog has some new questions for Elon Musk, Natasha L reports.
- We need all the laughs we can get right now: This couldn’t come at a better time. Chris Rock will be the first to perform live on Netflix, Lauren writes.
- Some good earnings newsJaclyn has a look into luxury electric vehicle maker Polestar’s third-quarter earnings, which show a doubling of revenue and narrowed losses.
Daily Crunch: FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried quits as crypto exchange files for bankruptcy by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch
FTX Files for Bankruptcy, CEO Resigns
The bankruptcy will likely wipe out billions of equity value, leaving investors with stiff losses. It will maroon the crypto and cash deposits belonging to a legion of customers. FTX faces investigations or asset freezes from regulators and prosecutors around the world.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftx-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-11668176869?mod=rss_Technology
Engage with Aerospace Corp, Mynaric and Otter at TC Sessions: Space
We’re getting ready to launch our third TC Sessions: Space conference on December 6 in Los Angeles, and we still feel the thrill associated with space technology and the intrepid early-stage startup founders and researchers who dare to explore the possibilities beyond the boundaries of our home planet — and beyond what we thought possible.
If you’ve got rocket fuel running in your veins, don’t miss the chance to learn the latest developments within the space economy — from manned space travel, colonization and communications to earth observation data, manufacturing, and even war, in space.
Countdown to launch: Buy a pass now for just $199 — full price is $495 — and get ready to join the spacefaring ecosystem on December 6.
We’re not quite ready to reveal the full agenda, but we’re thrilled to share that you’ll hear from distinguished experts like Dr. Carolyn Mercer, chief technologist for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate; Peter Beck, the CEO and founder of Rocket Lab; Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisitions; and Amela Wilson, the CEO of Nanoracks, to name but a few.
Like all TechCrunch events, TC Sessions: Space is designed to help founders and early-stage startups build stronger businesses. But it’s not just us — our event partners are equally committed to your success.
TechCrunch partners don’t just cut a check and hand over a logo. They show up, and they deliver a high level of relevant content, educational expertise, resources and connection at the event. Their participation elevates, engages and supports early-stage founders.
We’d like to take a moment to highlight just three of our incredible partners, an, while we don’t have clearance to post their presentation topics just yet, we’ll share more info in the coming weeks.
The Aerospace Corporation is a nonprofit and the only federally funded research and development center for the space enterprise. They will host both a partner session and a smaller roundtable session that allows time for Q&A. You’ll also find them exhibiting on the show floor — the perfect opportunity to connect, network and explore opportunities.
Mynaric develops and builds wireless laser communication systems for air, space and mobile applications. The company, which says its mission is to eliminate global connectivity barriers, will host a partner session. We’ll have more specific info soon.
Otter.ai’s productivity tool records meetings and provides real-time note-taking, transcripts and captioning.
We’ll have more speakers, sessions and partners to announce in the coming weeks, so watch this non-galactic space!
TC Sessions: Space takes place on December 6 in Los Angeles. Buy a pass for $199, and then join us — and our partners — to learn about the latest space tech, network for opportunities and build a stronger startup to the stars.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Space? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.
Engage with Aerospace Corp, Mynaric and Otter at TC Sessions: Space by Lauren Simonds originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/engage-with-aerospace-corp-mynaric-and-otter-at-tc-sessions-space/
Amazon eyes devices group as it undertakes broad cost cutting
The Echo business has always looked like Amazon playing the long game from the outside. Above all, the company’s home consumer hardware is a convenient vessel for getting Alexa into millions of homes. But when a corporation is doing some serious belt tightening amid broader economic headwinds, no divisions are safe from cost cutting — certainly not one that is reportedly operating at a $5 billion a year revenue loss.
The Wall Street Journal this week noted that Amazon’s devices group could be the latest to get hit with cuts as the company braces for further macroeconomic disruption. The paper notes that “Amazon’s leadership is closely evaluating its Alexa business, according to some of the people,” citing internal documents.
Many of the cutbacks thus far have been focused on longer-tail products. Devices is a mature division for the company, however, encompassing a wide range of Echo home devices, Fire tablets and Kindles, among others.
Amazon offered TechCrunch a fairly boilerplate response to the report, while noting that the normal performance review is certainly being impacted by the overall financial climate.
“We remain excited about the future of our larger businesses, as well as newer initiatives like Prime Video, Alexa, Grocery, Kuiper, Zoox, and Healthcare,” the company writes. “Our senior leadership team regularly reviews our investment outlook and financial performance, including as part of our annual operating plan review, which occurs in the fall each year. As part of this year’s review, we’re of course taking into account the current macro-environment and considering opportunities to optimize costs.”
A second comment, meanwhile, highlights Alexa’s overall successes:
Alexa started as an idea on a whiteboard. In less than a decade, it’s turned into an AI service that millions of customers interact with billions of times each week in different languages and cultures around the world. Even in the last year, Alexa interactions have increased by more than 30%. We’re as optimistic about Alexa’s future today as we’ve ever been, and it remains an important business and area of investment for Amazon.
Andy Jassy has been tasked with cutting costs across the firm — not an enviable task in any economy. In his 2021 shareholder letter, the CEO took a trip down memory lane, beginning with the first Kindle in 2007, while highlighting the ups and down of the category, including a little insight into the life (and death) of Fire phone, noting, “The phone was unsuccessful, and though we determined we were probably too late to this party and directed these resources elsewhere, we hired some fantastic long-term builders and learned valuable lessons from this failure that have served us well in devices like Echo and FireTV.”
Jassy also highlighted the division’s evolving future, writing:
Our goal is for Alexa to be the world’s most helpful and resourceful personal assistant, who makes people’s lives meaningfully easier and better. We have a lot more inventing and iterating to go, but customers continue to indicate that we’re on the right path. We have several other devices at varying stages of evolution (e.g. Ring and Blink provide the leading digital home security solutions, Astro is a brand new home robot that we just launched in late 2021), but it’s safe to say that every one of our devices, whether you’re talking about Kindle, FireTV, Alexa/Echo, Ring, Blink, or Astro is an invention-in-process with a lot more coming that will keep improving customers’ lives.
Amazon eyes devices group as it undertakes broad cost cutting by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/amazon-eyes-devices-group-as-it-undertakes-broad-cost-cutting/
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy faces enormous challenges amid falling profits and negative numbers
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is the definition of a company man. In an age when people switch jobs frequently, he has been at Amazon for 25 years, working his way up to president and CEO. But before he reached the corner office, he helped build Amazon Web Services, its cloud arm, into a $60 billion juggernaut.
It wasn’t exactly a rise from the mailroom, but Jassy was there as founder Jeff Bezos’ aide-de-camp when they came up with the idea of AWS in the early 2000s at an executive offsite. He helped build it. He nurtured it. He made it into the crown jewel of the company.
So when Bezos announced he was stepping down early last year, it didn’t take long for the organization to turn to Jassy, whose hard work at AWS and his deep understanding of company culture seemed to make him the perfect heir apparent.
But things haven’t necessarily gone as planned since he took over the leadership role in July 2021. Much of what has happened has been out of his control. Like many chief executives, he inherited the problems left behind by his predecessor.
During the pandemic, Amazon became the general store for the world. People stuck in lockdown turned to Amazon for their goods. The company’s revenues mushroomed and its workforce exploded, with the organization adding an astonishing 800,000 workers, mostly in its warehouses (per The Wall Street Journal). The future was bright, but as Jassy took over last year, people were heading out again.
Suddenly, everyone wasn’t buying everything online anymore. As we headed into 2022, other macroeconomic factors began to affect commerce — online and brick-and-mortar — as inflation soared and consumers’ buying power began to diminish. Add to that the higher cost of energy and persistent supply chain issues, and Amazon was suddenly facing some challenges that were beginning to have a serious impact on earnings.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy faces enormous challenges amid falling profits and negative numbers by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch
Tesla opens its EV connector design to other automakers
Tesla is sharing its EV charging connector design in an effort to encourage network operators and automakers to adopt the technology and help make it the new standard in North America.
Tesla said in a blog post Friday that its design and specification files are available for download. The company said it is “actively working with relevant standards bodies to codify Tesla’s charging connector as a public standard.”
The charging connector in all Tesla vehicles offers AC charging and up to 1 MW DC charging. Its compact design and performance is considered superior to the Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors used by most EVs in North America.
Tesla claims that its charging connector and charge port — which it now calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) — is the most common charging standard in North America. It’s a stat based on Tesla vehicle sales in North America and the number of chargers at its branded Supercharging stations. Tesla has nearly 1,500 Supercharger stations in the United States. Each station has an average of nine chargers.
Tesla didn’t name any automakers or charging infrastructure companies as converts. In this highly competitive environment, in which virtually every automaker is now using the CCS, it’s hard to see GM, Ford and Stellantis switching to Tesla’s technology.
However, at least one company — EV startup Aptera — supports the move. Earlier this year, Aptera called for the U.S. government to adopt Tesla’s Supercharger technology as the standard for all EV charging in the country. And EVGo has added Tesla connectors to some of its charging stations in the United States.
The company said in the blog post that network operators “already have plans in motion” to incorporate NACS at their chargers. If network providers like ChargePoint, EVConnect or Electrify America add NACS, it would allow Tesla owners to charge at these stations without a need for an adapter.
If automakers switch to NACS on its EVs, it would give owners of those vehicles access to Tesla’s North American Supercharging and destination charging networks.
Tesla opens its EV connector design to other automakers by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/tesla-opens-its-ev-connector-design-to-other-automakers/
Sight Tech Global 2022 agenda announced
The third annual Sight Tech Global conference, a virtual, free and highly accessible event on December 7 and 8 convenes some of the world’s top experts working on assistive tech, especially AI, for people who are blind or visually impaired. If you don’t follow this topic, maybe you should, because a lot of cutting-edge tech over the years — think OCR and NLP — was developed at the outset with blind people in mind, and went from there to more mainstream uses. Register today!
At this year’s event we have sessions with the creators of several new devices to assist with vision, and we’ll talk about the technology architecture decisions that went into balancing capability with cost and tapping existing platforms.
We’ll also take our first look at accessibility in VR, which is an area of huge concern because if/when VR takes off in the entertainment and business worlds, it’s vital that people without vision have access, as they do today on smart phones and computers thanks to screenreaders like JAWS, VoiceOver and NVDA.
Our third big slab of programming is about AI itself. There is no shortage of hype as far as AI’s capabilities, and it’s important to push back on that by discussing some serious limitations and deficits in the way today’s AI works for people with disabilities, not to mention humanity in general. At the same time, AI is arguably the best core tech ever for people without sight. Understanding AI is vital to the future of everyone with disabilities for all those reasons. Don’t forget to register today!
And before you browse this awesome agenda: For technologists, designers and product folks working on earthshaking assistive tech, we’re hosting a small, in-person event on December 9 featuring workshops on assistive tech, many run by the same luminaries on the agenda. Interested? Contact us.
Here’s the agenda. To see times and more, go to the Sight Tech Global agenda page.
The Dynamic Tactile Device: That “Holy Braille” for educations is near
Following up on last year’s discussion of the APH and Humanware collaboration to create an education-focused tactile display (see next session), Greg Stilson updates Sight Tech Global on the project’s progress and APH’s work toward an SDK for developers to build on the tactile display. Greg Stilson will also lead a breakout session for attendees who want to go deeper on the Dynamic Tactile Device.
Greg Stilson, Head of Global Innovation, APH
ModeratorDevin Coldewey, Writer & Photographer, TechCrunch
The DOT Pad: How the Bible and smartphone speaker tech inspired a breakthrough
For decades, engineers have worked toward a braille display that can render tactile images and multiline braille. DOT Pad may have cracked the code with an innovative approach to generating dynamic fields of braille pins actuated by smart integrations combined with existing technologies, like Apple’s VoiceOver. Eric Kim and Ki Sung will also lead a breakout session for attendees who want to learn more.
Eric Ju Yoon Kim Co-Founder/CEO DOT
Ki Kwang Sung Co-Founder/CEO DOT
ModeratorDevin Coldewey Writer & Photographer TechCrunch
Virtual Reality and Inclusion: What does non-visual access to the metaverse mean?
People with disabilities and accessibility advocates are working to make sure the metaverse is accessible to everyone. This panel will delve into research on the challenges current virtual and augmented reality tools create for people who are blind or have low vision.The panelists will share their experiences using immersive technologies and explore how these tools can be used to enhance employment opportunities in hybrid and remote workplaces — but only if they are built with inclusion in mind.
Moderator Bill Curtis Davidson Co-Director, Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT)
Alexa Huth, Director Strategic Communications, PEAT
Brandon Keith Biggs, Software Engineer, The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute and CEO XR Navigation
Aaron Gluck, PhD candidate in Human-Centered Computing, Clemson University
Inventing the “screenreader” for VR: Owlchemy Lab’s Cosmonious High
For developers of virtual reality games, there’s every reason to experiment with accessibility from the start, which is what the Owlchemy Labs team did with Cosmonious High, the 2022 release of a fun, first-person game situated in an inter-galactic high school that one reviewer said “has all the charm and cheek of a good Nickelodeon kids show.” And it reveals some of the earliest approaches to accessibility in VR.
Peter Galbraith, Accessibility Engineer II, Owlchemy Labs
Jazmin Cano, Accessibility Product Manager II, Owlchemy Labs
Moderator James Rath, Filmmaker, Accessibility Advocate and Gamer
Audio Description the Pixar Way
AI-driven, synthetic audio description may have a place in some forms of accessible video content, but the artistry of the entirely human-produced audio descriptions Pixar produces for its productions set a creative standard no AI will ever attain, and that’s all for the good. Meet members of the Pixar team behind excellence in audio descriptions.
Eric Pearson, Home Entertainment Supervisor, Pixar
Anna Capezzera, Director, Audio Description Operations, Deluxe
Laura Post, Voice Actress
Christina Stevens, Writing Manager, Deluxe
Moderator Tom Wlodkowski, Vice President, Accessibility, Comcast
Seeing AI and the New AI
Microsoft’s hugely popular Seeing AI is one of the apps that appears to do it all, from reading documents to recognizing people and things. Those services are enabled by Microsoft’s rapidly advancing cloud-based AI systems. How is Seeing AI advancing with those capabilities and what is the future for Seeing AI?
Saqib Shaikh, Co-founder of Seeing AI, Microsoft
Moderator Larry Goldberg, Accessibility Sensei & Technology Consultant
Accessibility Is AI’s Biggest Challenge: How Alexa aims to make it fairer for everyone
Smart home technology, like Alexa, has been one of the biggest boons in recent years for people who are blind, and for people with disabilities altogether. Voice technology and AI help empower people in many ways, but one obstacle stands in its way: making it equitable. In this session, learn from Amazon about how they’re approaching the challenge ahead.
Peter Korn, Director of Accessibility, Devices & Services, Amazon
Josh Miele, Principal Accessibility Researcher, Amazon
Caroline Desrosiers, Founder & CEO, Scribely
Hands on with Seleste
Rapid advances in phones, data networks and hardware miniaturization always seem to be converging on the concept of that super useful, affordable, unobtrusive assistive device. Seleste plans to launch later this year with a pair of tech-enabled glasses that mark an important waypoint on that journey.
Shubh Mittal, Founder, Seleste
Smit Patel, Co-Founder, Seleste
Moderator, Jennison Asuncion, Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism, LinkedIn
Hands on with ARx
Like Seleste, ARx is a recently released device designed to take advantage of the technology tech platforms that surround everyday life with a private, minimally visible, head-mounted device. Both the Seleste and ARx leaders will discuss what they’ve learned in the course of developing and testing their devices.
Charles Leclerq, CEO, ARx Vision
Moderator, Lucy Greco, Electronic accessibility expert and consultant
What’s Next with StellarTrek
Where Seleste and ARx are newcomers to assistive devices, Humanware is a highly respected, established player whose new StellarTrek also takes powerful advantage of technology advances but also parts ways with the newcomers when it comes to technology architecture and form factors.
Louis-Philippe Massé, Vice President of Product Innovation and Technologies, Humanware
Peter Tucic, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Humanware
Moderator, Sam Proulx, Accessibility Evangelist, Fable
The Problems with AI
Despite the stunning advances in AI over the past decade, the so-called “deep learning” AI technology prevalent today has under-appreciated limitations and even poses societal dangers. Our speakers are world-renowned AI experts and AI “dissenters” who believe we need an AI that’s both more accountable and better able to produce common sense results.
David Ferrucci, Founder & CEO, Elemental Cognition
Gary Marcus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Robust AI
Moderator, Ned Desmond, Founder and Executive Producer, Sight Tech Global
Did Computer Vision AI Just Get Worse or Better?
The ability of assistive tech devices to recognize objects, faces and scenes is a type of AI called Computer Vision, which calls for building vast databases on images labeled by humans to train AI algorithms. A new technique called “one-shot learning” learns dramatically faster because the AI trains itself on images across the internet. No human supervision needed. Is that a good idea?
Danna Gurari, Asst. Professor, Founding Director, Image & Video Computing group, University of Colorado Boulder
Moderator, Cecily Morrison, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research Cambridge
What Waymo Learned at the DOT Inclusive Design Challenge
Waymo participated in the U.S. Department of Transportation Inclusive Design Challenge, and emerged with numerous accessibility lessons and features that will help Waymo’s autonomous rides offer people with disabilities better service. Waymo’s team is still processing all they learned.
Lauren Schwendimann, UX Design Lead & Manager, Waymo
Jeffrey Colon, Director of Access Technology, Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Moderator, Mike May, Chief Evangelist, Goodmaps
Don’t forget to register for this free, virtual event.
We’re grateful to current sponsors iSenpai, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, Humanware, Microsoft, Ford, Fable, APH and Waymo. If you would like to sponsor the event, please contact us. All sponsorship revenues go to the nonprofit Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which has been serving the Silicon Valley community for 75 years.
Sight Tech Global 2022 agenda announced by David Riggs originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/sight-tech-global-2022-agenda-announced/
Numerous social apps see gains in wake of Twitter chaos, new data shows
The drama at Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition has seen some users looking for an exit. In recent days, alternative social apps and microblogging platforms have seen strong gains, including, most notably, the open source decentralized Twitter alternative Mastodon. The service’s founder and CEO recently announced Mastodon had topped 1 million monthly active users, after more than half a million users joined the network since the October 27th Twitter deal’s closure. But Mastodon isn’t the only app profiting from Twitter’s upheaval.
In a new report, app intelligence firm Sensor Tower analyzed social app growth after Musk took over.
It noted Mastodon has seen approximately 322,000 new downloads from U.S. app stores in the 12 days following Twitter’s acquisition (October 27 through November 7), which is more than 100x the 3,000 it had seen in the prior 12-day period. Globally, the app grew 657% to 1 million installs during that same October 27-November 7 time frame, up from 15,000 in the 12 days prior.
Other third-party Mastodon clients saw a bump, too, with Metatext and Tootle both growing from less than 1,000 installs to 19,000 and 7,000, respectively, between the two time periods.
But Mastodon isn’t the only network seeing an uptick in app installs, as it turns out.
Tumblr also saw its U.S. app installs grow 96% from 47,000 to 92,000 between the two time periods. Plus, its global installs grew 77% from 170,000 to 301,000.
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
In addition, alternative social app CounterSocial grew 2,300% to 24,000 installs in U.S. app stores in the 12 days following the acquisition, and grew 3,200% globally, with 33,000 installs, the report said.
Another app intelligence firm, data.ai, sliced the data in a slightly different way. It examined various social apps’ worldwide download growth during a seven-day period following the acquisition (October 27 through November 2), then compared that with the prior seven-day period.
Its data, shared exclusively with TechCrunch, also confirmed the sizable gains made by Mastodon and CounterSocial in terms of the growth in global installs between the two time periods. Mastodon’s installs jumped 2,200% and CounterSocial’s grew 1,200% its analysis found.
But Data.ai looked further up and down the apps stores’ charts and found that a number of other social apps were seeing bumps, beyond just direct Twitter alternatives.
These included David’s Disposable (up 83% during the two time periods), nFollowers (up 50%), CocoFun (up 46%), Substack Reader (up 24%), Tribel (up 11%), Tumblr (up 7%) and Pinterest (up 2%). Substack, in particular, has been marketing itself as a social community following the Twitter acquisition, even launching a new discussions feature that allows writers and their audience to engage in threaded chats. Dispo had fun trolling Twitter’s chaos in a couple of tweets and memes, like one that celebrated how Musk doesn’t own the Dispo app.
Image Credits: data.ai
This isn’t to say the drama has been all bad for Twitter. Surprisingly, some people have even newly installed the app since the acquisition, as it turns out.
Data.ai shows Twitter’s app installs jumped 17% after the acquisition, while Sensor Tower’s look at the slightly longer timeframe saw a 21% increase. The latter said Twitter saw 7.6 million global installs and $502,000 in consumer spending in the 12 days after the acquisition, an increase from 6.3 million installs and $303,000 in spending in the prior 12-day period.
These consumer spending numbers, however, should be taken with a grain of salt for now as Twitter Blue’s launch was put on pause after being live for only a couple of days. There’s no reason to believe that these figures indicate, as of yet, a significant increase in demand for the subscription with long-term staying power. That data will come in time. If anything, it shows Musk’s ability to market things to his fanbase and users’ general curiosity about what’s going on with Twitter’s products at present.
Image Credits: Sensor Tower
Though Twitter may have seen slight gains this week, not everyone is happy about the changes. Some angrier Twitter users took out their angst over the acquisition in the Twitter app’s reviews on the App Store.
On November 5, 2022, the app saw a spike in negative ratings as 119 one-star iOS reviews were added — the most it has seen in a single day during this latest surge in negative reviews, also according to data from Sensor Tower.
However, this isn’t the biggest surge of negative reviews Twitter has ever seen, we understand. Other incidents have caused larger bumps. After Trump was banned, for instance, Twitter saw 801 one-star reviews on January 9, 2021. It also saw a surge in March 2022 after the new timeline was rolled out and in April and when Elon Musk said he was buying Twitter.
Its largest spike in negative reviews this year wasn’t even this week — it was on October 28, when Musk’s deal was finalized.
Overall, however, it was the Israel-Palestine crisis in May 2021 that resulted in the highest volume of new negative reviews, followed by the Trump ban.
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Numerous social apps see gains in wake of Twitter chaos, new data shows by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch