Emerging Technologies Highlights: Week of Sept 05, 2023
September 5, 2023
Emerging Technologies Highlights: Week of Sept 05, 2023
This week brings important announcements for both artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto.
In the AI world, a developer built an AI "disinformation machine" using technology like ChatGPT to highlight the dangers of mass-produced AI-powered disinformation. Secondly, researchers managed to create an AI system capable of describing how compounds smell simply by analyzing their molecular structures. Thirdly, universities continue to wrestle with the implications of AI now that ChatGPT-generated essays have been shown to earn good grades. These items show that the AI frenzy continues, with more or less positive implications for the world.
As for crypto, the sector could be heading for a massive boom. A top court in China, which has recently moved to open up bitcoin and crypto trading to the mass market in Hong Kong, has written a report declaring crypto is "legal property and protected by law.This concept is a sea-change in approach that could open up a sizeable new market for the industry. And the good news does not stop there: a court ruling in the District of Columbia legitimized the industry's decade-long effort to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks bitcoin, another potentially substantial opportunity.
Lastly, on a less positive note, the cumulative market cap of four large metaverse projects, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Enjin Coin, and Decentraland, has declined 92% from the $16 billion peak in November 2021. Despite Apple’s Vision Pro launch and Mark Zuckerberg doubling down on his metaverse optimism, the sector failed to sustain the July 2023 resurgence – and a recent lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to have compounded the metaverse woes. None of these financial troubles change the fundamental value-proposition of the sector. But in the short- to medium term, they could well affect the funding available to accelerate the development and adoption of the technology.
The bottom line: A developer has built an AI "disinformation machine" using OpenAI-powered technology like ChatGPT. The project, named CounterCloud, took its creator two months to complete and cost less than $400 a month to operate, highlighting how cheap and simple it can be to create mass propaganda. The creator, who chose to remain anonymous, used the name Nea Paw and claimed to be a cybersecurity professional, Wired reported. In a video posted on YouTube, Paw described how the project was carried out and why they were doing it.
The bottom line: An AI system can describe how compounds smell simply by analyzing their molecular structures — and its descriptions are often similar to those of trained human sniffers. The researchers who designed the system used it to list odors, such as ‘fruity’ or ‘grassy,’ corresponding to hundreds of chemical structures. This odorous guidebook could help researchers design new synthetic scents and provide insights into how the human brain interprets smell.
The bottom line: The cumulative market cap of four large metaverse projects, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity, Enjin Coin, and Decentraland, has declined 92% from the $16 billion peak in November 2021. Despite Apple’s Vision Pro launch and Mark Zuckerberg doubling down on his metaverse optimism, the sector failed to sustain the July 2023 resurgence. A recent lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to have compounded the metaverse woes.
The bottom line: Bitcoin and crypto could be heading into its biggest ever couple of months, with one well-respected investigator predicting September is going to be "crazy." Indeed, a top court in China, which has recently moved to open up bitcoin and crypto trading to the mass market in Hong Kong, has written a report declaring crypto is "legal property and protected by law," according to local media reports.
The bottom line: The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has unveiled a new US Open interactive experience on Roblox, allowing fans to engage in various quests and challenges. ‘Champions of the Court’ offers fans the opportunity to play matches, participate in treasure hunts, and interact with avatars of famous players. Fans can also earn and spend tokens within the experience to purchase items.
The bottom line: With its ability to pump out confident, humanlike prose almost instantaneously, ChatGPT is a valuable cheating tool for students who want to outsource their writing assignments. According to a new study published on Thursday in Scientific Reports, when fed a homework or test question from a college-level course, the generative artificial intelligence program is liable to be graded just as highly, if not better, than a college student. With no reliable tools for distinguishing AI content from human work, educators must rethink how they structure their courses and assess students—and what humans might lose if we never learn how to write for ourselves.
The bottom line: Frozen treat Bomb Pops are often in high demand during a hot summer, but this year, they’re also proving as popular in the metaverse as they are in the real world. The brand is running an activation within Roblox’s restaurant simulation game, Restaurant Tycoon 2, from Aug. 22 to Sept. 5. Since the launch, players have served up 20 million Bomb Pops, smashing the brand’s original goal of selling 10 million virtual treats.
The bottom line: A court ruling siding with Grayscale Investments is a big boost for the cryptocurrency industry's decade-long effort to launch an exchange-traded fund that tracks bitcoin, even if it does not immediately open the floodgates for such products. A three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in Washington on Tuesday ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission was wrong to reject Grayscale's proposed bitcoin ETF without explaining its reasoning in a case that the industry has closely watched.
The bottom line: AI is increasingly being used to create new songs or imitate existing music content. That is why distinguishing human-generated music from AI-generated content is becoming increasingly difficult. Moreover, AI content is often trained on pre existing content, mostly without its original creators’ knowledge or consent, creating several ethical and legal issues for which there are currently no clear-cut solutions, given the technology’s rapid evolution.
The bottom line: An advisory report issued by government agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom warns users to beware of new malware being used to target crypto wallets and exchanges. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is a part of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) collaborated to release a joint report about the malware dubbed the “Infamous Chisel.”