๐ก Is 'real' enough? ๐
Welcome to another Pulse!
Itโs been a super-foggy/misty week here in Manchester - and I loved it! Although I did catch a fuckin cold again, which Iโm not the biggest fan of!
Anyways, on the back of my PhD thesis, Iโm working on an app - thatโs all I currently have, but will definitely update you if it moves forward.
Now, before you scroll away, just remember you can support Pulse by becoming a member - or buying me a coffee; or you can just share it with a friend. Youโre smart; you know how to do it. Now, dive in.
- ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช [ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ]
๐ NEWS
Last week, we talked about the EU considering banning facial recognition technology in public areas. This week, the Metropolitan Police has announced it will use live facial recognition cameras operationally for the first time on London streets [BBC] - Hello, Post-EU UK!
YouTube, Facebook, and Twitterโs moderation contractor, Accenture, is covering its ass by making employees sign a statement acknowledging the at the job can cause PTSD [Verge]!
Googleโs 3D map of a fruit fly brain will blow your mind [Futurism] - 25,000 neurones; 20,000,000 synapses; 1 bugโs brain.
Jeff Bezos, the Saudi crown prince, and the alleged phone-hacking plot explained in 3 minutes [Guardian].
Google is backtracking on desktop search redesign which made it hard to distinguish ads from organic results [Verge] - it didnโt look right, did it?
Google says it found five separate flaws in Appleโs Intelligent Tracking Prevention tool for Safari that lets usersโ browsing behaviour be tracked [FT].
๐ง INSIGHTS
Better than Real
A still life painting was supposed to capture a moment in time, something that weโd photograph if only the camera had been invented.
And a sauna was a nordic way to simulate a warm afternoon at the beach.
But an artistic photograph isnโt supposed to simply be a snapshot. It has to add more than that.
And a veggie burger is not simply a pale imitation of a meat burger. It can be something better.
The problem with faux is that itโs not enough.
from Seth Godinโs Blog.
๐ STATISTICS
AI in Numbers - Credit CB Insights
Record funding to AI startups in 2019
Over 4.3K AI startups in 80 countries have raised $83B since 2014. Private companies focused on AI raised a record $26.6 billion across more than 2,200 deals worldwide, per CB Insights. For reference, 2018 saw 1,940 deals totalling $22.1 billion. 2017: 1,711 and $16.8 billion.
The ๐บ๐ธ led with 39% of global AI deal share in 2019, but you can hear footsteps from the rest of the world, especially ๐จ๐ณ & ๐ฌ๐ง.
China accounted for 13% of AI deals last year, but the amount of $$$ dropped to 11% of global investment.
via CBInsights.
Netflix's International Expansion - Credit: Statista
Netflixโs International Expansion
Following the launches of Apple TV+ and Disney+ this fall, Netflixโs subscriber growth was even more closely watched than usual when the company announced its Q4 earnings earlier this week. And while international growth didnโt disappoint, Netflixโs domestic growth appeared to suffer from the intensified competition.
Netflix added just 420,000 paid subscribers on its home turf between October and December, way short of its own guidance of 600,000. International growth exceeded expectations however, coming in at 8.3 million new subscribers vs. 7 million expected.
As the following chart shows, Netflixโs subscriber growth over the past five years has largely been driven by its international expansion. Since the end of 2015, Netflix gained 96.3 million paid subscribers, 78.6 of which came from outside the United States.
via Statista.
Top Social Media Apps Worldwide for December 2019 - Credit: SensorTower
Top Social Media Apps Worldwide for December 2019 by Downloads
TikTok was the most downloaded social media app worldwide for December 2019 with 82.3 million installs, which represented a 13% increase from December 2018. The countries with the most installs of the app during this period were India at 37% of its total downloads and Brazil at 10%.
Read more on SensorTower.
๐ฑ TOOLS & APPS
Gradientify Icons: Interactive free SVG icons you can colorize as you wish
JetBrains Mono: a free new font specifically designed for developers.
Turn your iPhone into a Google security key [via TNW]
๐ง AUDIO STIMULATION
Trillion-dollar companies & tax season; how the "Black List" shapes Hollywoodโs big businessโฆ and is podcasting coming for radio dollars?
Kara talk about Google becoming the worldโs fourth trillion-dollar companyโฆ and who is actually paying taxes on all of it? They discuss world leaders congregating at Davos. Donald Trump will be speaking as the Senate impeachment trial starts.
๐ฆ TWEETS of the WEEK
guys help me which perfume should i get?? im so confused https://t.co/AdsMf6dQdD
Just did my own taxes, I should be in jail by friday
Why did the chickens cross the road? To fight these cows. https://t.co/T8ar82WJM8
๐ FUN STUFF
Adam Savage Tests Boston Dynamics' Spot Robot!
Cool guys don't look at the explosion - Credit: Reddit/u/akashdas323
That's all for this week...
Letโs catch up next week, shall we?
Ciao