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April 27, 2016
Greetings: In this issue: Innovators of artificial intelligence are picking up their pace. What's next for chip giant Intel? Satellite technology for beaming Internet service worldwide. Business uses for chatbots. Virtual reality and roller coasters. New anti-drone technology. Faster, Bolder Artificial IntelligenceEfforts to expand uses for advanced artificial intelligence are shifting into a higher gear. Moreover, more businesses are poised to benefit as falling costs of hardware and software let even small firms run high-tech AI programs. Nvidia, a designer of chips for visual graphics, is leading the way with new, small devices that specialize in powerful AI techniques to mine huge data troves. Big users of these devices will include Google, Facebook, Baidu, IBM and Alibaba. Though Nvidia is known for building chips for video games, its graphical processing units, or GPUs, are incredibly useful for an AI method known as deep learning, which uses brainlike techniques to find patterns in data. "Deep learning is like Thor's hammer, it fell from the sky," Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said at a recent conference. Other firms, such as Intel, AMD and IBM, are racing to build similar AI-inspired chips to tap big markets in autonomous driving, virtual reality, life sciences and social media. Stepped-up innovation will lead to faster, bolder breakthroughs in AI in coming years. Much of AI's computing power will be housed in data centers that companies can tap into via cloud computing. Nvidia's new hardware, for instance, will go into cloud data centers. Internet companies are in an all-out sprint to harness the computing power for smarter apps for consumers and businesses. "In the long run, I think we will evolve in computing from a mobile-first to an AI-first world," said Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, during parent company Alphabet's recent earnings call. That means apps that can automate tasks, give personalized insights and predict the future. (To get a taste of what's possible now, try a new app from Microsoft that uses AI to write photo captions.) (Continues below.)
Look for the car industry to drive development of state-of-the-art AI hardware and software. Future autonomous cars won't always be able to use wireless connectivity to tap into the cloud to help drive, so they'll need a lot of onboard processing power from hardware that is both small and energy-efficient. "We need a lot of computation in cars," said Gill Pratt, Toyota Research CEO, at a recent conference. Deep learning will be a vital problem-solver for driverless cars, he added. Nvidia estimates a $2-billion market in the car industry for digital cockpit computers. "We believe automotive growth will remain strong" for Nvidia, writes Matthew Ramsay, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, in a recent research note. Intel Moves On From PCsThere's ample room for optimism in Intel's future as it turns the page on PCs. The world's largest chip company announced it's laying off 12,000 workers, or 11% of its workforce, in its PC segment as it pours more resources into fast-growing areas such as data centers and the Internet of Things. The shift harkens back to Intel's retreat from the memory business in the 1980s, when Japanese chip makers flooded the market with cheap memory. Intel will still see years of profits from PCs, but the market has been slipping and has yet to hit bottom. Worldwide PC shipments fell 10% in the first quarter of 2016, marking the lowest total since 2007, according to market research firm Gartner. Intel's view of PCs is even gloomier than the rest of the industry's. The company's huge scale and technical expertise will give it an edge in building new chip technology. Intel's ample resources will pay off in the increasingly costly process of designing and manufacturing chips. Its performance has lagged since it missed the boat on mobile devices, failing to profit from smartphones — which have sold like crazy since the iPhone's launch in 2007. But the company believes its chips will be used for all sorts of things in the coming years, including cars, drones and robots. "We are evolving from a PC company to a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart connected and computing devices," CEO Brian Krzanich told analysts last week. Note that Intel is also placing long-term bets on experimental technology that holds huge promise, such as quantum computing. Interview: Daniel Rockberger on Satellite TechnologyDaniel Rockberger is the co-founder and COO of SkyFi, an Israeli-based start-up building expandable satellite antennas. As big tech companies ramp up plans to use small satellites, known as cubesats, to beam Internet coverage globally, there's rising need for cheap antennas that can boost bandwidth. Q: Your antenna would pop out of a small satellite orbiting 600 miles above Earth. What are the challenges? A: We're working on three things: the expandable antenna, the flexible sub reflector and the transceiver. We are also thinking of designing a very low-cost ground antenna and ground station, which is hopefully going to be a $100 system. Our main goal is to prove the antenna opens up and that we can control the shape and the bandwidth. We've proved the technology in a lab. We are going to test it in space in 2017. Q: What types of uses do you expect for this antenna technology? A: The same network can provide different applications. You can do Internet, you can do cellular, you can even make Wi-Fi bubbles that cover tens of kilometers. Our goal is to try to go for one-gigabit-per-second rates, which have never been seen before from a cubesat. It's like 500 times more than any cubesat. Our vision is a constellation of satellites giving global coverage with 60 or more satellites. Q: Some people in the satellite industry think that there isn't enough demand for all of the emerging satellite services. Are you concerned about too much capacity? A: At the end of the day, it's also about cost per bit. We don't feel there's too much capacity. If we're talking about Internet to Africa or some other places, then that final cost to someone is very important. There could be tons of capacity from big satellites, but they cost a lot of money. And they are not feasible for many countries and the 3 billion people that are not connected. The fact is, 60 or 80 cubesats and the launch would cost much less than one big satellite. Tech TidbitsDigital thrills, courtesy of virtual reality technology, await roller coaster riders this summer. Amusement parks, such as Six Flags, are handing out VR glasses on roller coasters so riders can be transported to myriad other worlds while they're being physically spun, dropped and looped. Parks are betting that VR will boost repeat business as thrill-seekers try out different scenarios on the same ride. Facebook's new chat-based messaging tools will catch on with many businesses. "Chatbots" will harness artificial intelligence to respond instantly to users. Messaging a bot is as simple as sending a text to a friend. Chatbots will need some fine-tuning, but will get smarter fast. Companies already on board include 1-800-Flowers and CNN. A new company is rolling out wireless technology to stop drones from hitting airplanes. SkySafe says its system takes control of rogue drones and brings them down to the ground safely. The technology is aimed at areas where drones could be especially dangerous, including near airports, stadiums and critical infrastructure. Anti-drone technology is sure to gain in popularity, but it will need to meet federal and local regulations. 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