Smart Dust

All these movies about robots taking over the planet, might not be as far-fetched as they seem. A technological revolution is on its way, and we're expecting it to disrupt 55% of jobs in the next 20 years. Is your job safe from the inevitable AI takeover? Will this insurgence create the opportunity that over 40% of unhappy workers need to find a new job, new career? Is Quantum computing the answer to finding our inner creative and push us to ditch the menial tasks that drive us crazy. Or will this new way of working turn our way of thinking on its head? Find out this month on Smart Dust.

In this episode, we talk: - eSports, the global gaming competition projected to be worth $3 billion and an Olympic medal event. Forget golf, get those thumbs working! - MIT found a way to read your thoughts, Orwell was ahead of his time with Thoughtcrime and if that's not creepy enough, we discuss if Google's new voice assistant means the demise of voice biometrics. - We lift the lid on the world's smart cities. From South Korea's $40 billion white elephant city to the Alphabet's Sidewalk offering in Toronto and Tencent's City Brain AI solution in China and Malaysia.

GDPR On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation becomes effective, including its penalty of up to 4% of global revenue for non-compliance. We talk about how users of personal information will access it under increasingly stricter regimes. We look at Barbara Streisand's quest to be forgotten. It looks like "memories light the corners" of Barbara's mind but she would prefer us to forget where her Malibu home is located. Traditional Retailers We discuss Nick's recent visit to Amazon in downtown Seattle where it accommodates 45,000 employees, 7,000 of their dogs and a human-less supermarket, where it is impossible to shoplift and somewhat magical. We look at which organisations are playing the "innovation dating game" and an app that enables users to place augmented furniture in their homes. Similarly, we hear about Nick placing himself in augmented reality where he can appear at anytime, anywhere, to explain blockchain. Emotion AI and Robot Love Finally, we discuss how technology is being developed to monetise our emotional state and the concept of "robot love" which may one day result in people discarding human companionship in favour of the robot version that always listens and never argues.

At the Smart Dust podcast, we don't drone on – we talk about them! In this episode, we chat about drones that deliver use cases beyond just pizza delivery, autonomous vehicles, how cryptocurrencies are changing business, and China's use of facial recognition technology to stop jaywalkers in their tracks.