DataObtain: Can Salesforce be the Netflix of content advertising and marketing? A weekly abstract of all issues Media, Data, Emerging Tech View this e mail in your browserSome weeks, the e-newsletter is simple. Other instances it’s onerous. This week it’s difficult. Yes, the Salesforce Netflix-of-biz-content story is fascinating, the creator economic system strikes a twine, and AI Powered Codex is fascinating… however the non-tech information of the world is tough to disregard. Fires burning in California, the hazard of local weather change on our doorstep, and the fast sweep of the Taliban in Afghanistan all overwhelm our newsfeeds. Meanwhile, the resurgence of Covid in its new Delta kind is creating each a medical and political disaster. Which isn’t to say the issues of the Media Lab are irrelevant, removed from it. We all the time say we like huge issues. And sitting right here in the the scorching summer time of 2021, actually we’ve issues to resolve. Reach out with any concepts about how we will do this collectively.Best,SteveSteven [email protected] DirectorThe NYC Media Lab Must-Read Salesforce Wants Salesforce+ to Be the Netflix of Biz ContentHot on the heels of its $28B buy of Slack, Salesforce is sinking its enamel into what TechCrunch calls the “largest content advertising and marketing scheme of all time.” Salesforce+ is a brand new streaming service that goals to “deliver the magic of Dreamforce to viewers throughout the globe with luminary audio system, Trailblazer success tales, and groundbreaking innovation.” Salesforce has demonstrated that there’s substantial curiosity in its content in the actual world — the final Dreamforce convention in 2019 concerned over 100K individuals. But is there a large enough viewers hungry for what TechCrunch describes as “your LinkedIn feed dropped at life, however in video kind”?Salesforce is taken into account the most profitable SaaS firm ever and disclosed virtually $6B in income in Q2 ’21 — up 23% YOY. But provided that Salesforce+ is free, “will it show to be a cash pit, costing buckets of money to provide with restricted returns?” If Salesforce+’s costly try and turn into the Netflix of enterprise content doesn’t repay, how lengthy will shareholders help it?TechCrunch / 4 min learnRead extra The Creator Economy Is in Crisis. Now Let’s Fix it.The creator (or ardour) economic system now contains 50M+ unbiased content creators getting paid for his or her work in the US. It was presupposed to alleviate many of the gig economic system’s issues — comparable to lack of labor protections, earnings instability, and lack of autonomy. In an ideal world, particular person creators would “construct a web-based viewers, domesticate direct person relationships, and monetize abilities/data, content, and different individualized providers” with nothing greater than an web connection and their very own abilities and talents.Passion economic system staff could have extra autonomy than an Uber driver, nevertheless it’s turning into more and more clear that they too are reliant on a handful of platforms that don’t have their greatest pursuits at coronary heart. As platform-meditated work turns into extra prevalent, ardour economic system staff must battle for his or her rights. According to Li Jin: “Creator empowerment will be the product of concerted efforts by founders, buyers, creators, and the broader tech group to craft constructions and platforms that prioritize creator management and possession.”Li’s Newsletter / 20 min learn Read More Tech+Media Facebook Shares Its Time Card Atomic Clock Tech to Speed Internet ServicesTelling time is one thing we take as a right — simply have a look at your telephone. But all of our smartphones and gadgets — to not point out the servers that underpin trendy expertise — depend on 100% correct timekeeping to operate. For years, the reply to “what time is it” was offered by the Network Time Protocol. In a associated TechCrunch article, Oleg Obleukhov, manufacturing engineer at Facebook mentioned: “Almost each single digital machine right this moment makes use of NTP which you might have in your telephone, in your watch, in your laptop computer, in every single place.”NTP depends on specialised time-keeping bins like a Stratum 1, constructed by a handful of firms. Getting new options for these fancy clocks proves tough and, as a result of of their proprietary nature, Facebook couldn’t totally management the bins. Obleukhov and his colleague Ahmad Byagowi got down to construct a greater timepiece. Now Facebook has made the tech open supply. For the value of a $300 PCIe card, now you can have your very personal atomic clock. According to the builders: “Building a tool that could be very exact, cheap, and free from vendor lock was an achievement. [Now] anybody can construct their very own Time Card for a fraction of the value of an everyday time equipment.”CNET / 2 min learn Read More OpenAI Can Translate English Into Code With Its New Machine Learning Software CodexFinal 12 months, GPT-3 struck worry into the hearts of writers and editors in every single place with its uncanny imitations of pure language. Now coders are in the crosshairs. OpenAI’s new machine studying software Codex powers Github Copilot and claims to be proficient in 12+ in style programming languages. In plain English, Codex and Copilot can take plain English and switch it into code. According to Greg Brockman, CTO and co-founder at OpenAI: “It takes people who find themselves already programmers and removes the drudge work.”The Verge says: “[Codex is] not a magic genie that may learn your mind, turning each command into flawless code. [It] received’t flip non-coders into professional programmers in a single day, nevertheless it’s actually way more accessible than some other programming language on the market.”The Verge / 7 min learn Read More Why CAPTCHA Pictures Are So Unbearably DepressingClive Thompson was filling out yet one more irritating CAPTCHA when a thought struck: why are these puzzles such mood-killers? Deconstructing the feeling in his Medium piece, he lists a number of the explanation why CAPTCHAs make us subtly uneasy: the crime-scene aesthetic, the lack of human life or nature, the dreary colours, the medical little grids, however most of all, the undeniable fact that these pictures weren’t taken by or meant for human enjoyment.“What has it performed to humanity, to be compelled us to treat these pictures, for years on finish? Cloudfare just lately calculated that we people collectively spend 500 years, each single day, CAPTCHAs. I’ve typically joked on Twitter about the unusual philosophical ratholes that CAPTCHAs lead me into. (‘Wait, wait, is the pole that helps a cease signal half of the signal?’) And it’s now widespread to chuckle over the deep irony that we’re all compelled by robots to show that we’re human. But these photos? These photos erode the soul.”OneZero / 6 min learnRead More What We’re Watching Should We Be Worried About Technology?“The covid-19 pandemic has bolstered humanity’s dependence on trendy tech, however the similar instruments that allow distant working are additionally getting used to unfold disinformation and perpetuate cybercrime. Ambivalence in direction of expertise is nothing new.”The Economist (YouTube) / 11 min watchWatch Now What We’re Listening To Podcast: Episode 074: Megan O’Neill, Running For Creativity“Megan O’Neill is an Irish Singer-Songwriter whose love of music has led her on quite a few adventures from arriving in Nashville contemporary out of college to acting at non-public Oscars events in L.A. In this episode Megan tells host Matt Pycroft how pushing herself bodily is integral to her songwriting — she is all the time exploring her limits whether or not it’s trial operating or writing her subsequent album. Listen for different journey, operating, and music.”Apple Podcasts / 56 min pay attentionListen Now Virtual Events Paid Event: Early Bird Tix for “Summit 2021: Future Imperfect”Date: October 6–7Our two-day on-line convention will as soon as once more deliver collectively 1,000+ digital attendees from NYC Media Lab’s core group — together with executives, college college, college students, buyers, and entrepreneurs — to discover the future of media and tech in New York City and past. Register Here. Free Event: Building & Creating Trust In DataDate: August 18, 12PM-1PM EDTThis is the fourth of our 2021 IBM CDO/CTO Summit Series, the place main CDOs, CTOs, and CAOs discover the difficult points of these extraordinary instances. Register Here. A Deeper Look This Is All the Connections in a Bit of Mouse Brain the Size of a Grain of SandMice have lengthy been stand-ins for people in medical and scientific experiments — actually because their mind structure is similar to our personal. Now, researchers from the Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS) program have created the most detailed map of a mammalian mind ever. It’s no Jurassic Park (right here’s learn how to use the on-line visualizer), however mapping 200K neurons and 500M neural connections from a dice of mouse mind that matches inside a grain of sand might “revolutionize machine studying by reverse-engineering the algorithms of the mind.”Similar to The Human Genome Project, the map is open supply. According to MiCrONS scientist, Clay Reid: “The information and these AI-powered reconstructions can be used by anybody with an web connection and a pc, to ask a rare vary of questions on the mind.”MIT Technology Review / 3 min learnRead MoreForward this digestTweet it OutShare on LinkedInThis e mail was despatched to <
