Skip to main content

“Bots will replace people before they replace apps” plus 17 more VentureBeat

“Bots will replace people before they replace apps” plus 17 more VentureBeat


Bots will replace people before they replace apps

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 02:10 PM PST

Look for ways a chatbot can make life easier.

The bot land grab is officially under way and everyone is rushing to recreate successful app ideas in chat interfaces. Somehow the old pitch by analogy — we’re “AirBnB for pets” — has found a way to be even less original. Now any aspiring entrepreneur need only take the name of a successful app and add “as a chatbot” at the end.

Of course, this is nothing new. The exact same thing happened at the start of the mobile revolution. The top tech minds were busy jamming interfaces designed for 18-inch monitors into iPhone screens and calling it good. It was only later that people realized, rather than just cramming successful website ideas onto mobile devices, the real opportunity was in leveraging the fact that these new screens were, in fact, mobile. A taxi-hailing website would have only been minimally useful. Sure, I could order a cab at the beginning of my night, but an app comes into play when I’m out and about. Uber was successful because it leveraged the unique features of a mobile platform.

Similarly, the winners from this next interface revolution will be the startups that leverage the fact that conversational interfaces are, well, conversational. Just like the shift from desktop to mobile didn’t mean everything was necessarily better on mobile, not everything that was great as an app will be great on conversational interfaces. The idea of a “Tinder you talk to” may seem fashionable but ignores the fact that people actually like using Tinder (although few will admit to it). Far from being some arduous chore, Tinder is a game, a delightful distraction from engaging with real-life strangers.

Sometimes visual interfaces are just an inherently better way of solving a user’s problem. A waiter could tell me all of the beer options, but if we were in Portland that monologue might drag on for the better part of an hour. What’s worse is that by the time he got to the end, I would have fully forgotten the first options. Sometimes it’s just easier to look at a beer menu. Furthermore, many of the most successful apps were successful because their interactions worked well on visual interfaces. Trying to recreate it in a voice interface may leave many well-intentioned startup teams ice-skating uphill.

This leads me to my obvious conclusion for what will be the most successful bots. The most successful new ideas will be the ones that leverage the unique feature of conversational interfaces — that is, conversation. The low hanging fruit that so many in the tech world seem content to ignore is in recreating real conversations that people are forced to have, and making them better with bots. In this way, the easy choice for disruption is not replacing apps but replacing people. If you’re looking for a place to start, that’s it.

I can appreciate that anyone who has used one of the early versions of chatbot might balk at the idea that a bot's conversation could outperform a person. After all, even the densest of customer service representatives can generally get the gist of what you are talking about without falling into a “sorry I don’t understand” loop the moment your questions deviate even slightly from their training material.

It is worth remembering that these technologies are still very new. If you look back, it’s not like the apps from 2007 were blowing anyone away either. Also, thanks to the collective training power of neural nets, it is not hard to imagine that these systems will improve at a much faster rate than apps did.

Ignoring the current technical shortcomings, bots also offer many advantages over their current human competitors. Namely, they are hardwired to care, which is far more than I can say for the vast majority of customer service conversations I have with people. A bot doesn’t have a fight with its girlfriend and then vent its frustration on users. A bot isn’t distracted by the nagging feeling that it should have stayed in school to avoid the bleakness of its current reality, in the middle of me talking to it. Users have a bot’s full attention, free of all the bias, pettiness, and forgetfulness that plagues conversations with humans.

Furthermore, it is just easier to replace a conversation with a conversational interface. When tech teams were stuck with the unenviable task of converting from human-to-human interactions to human-to-screen interactions, there was a lot of guesswork that went into figuring out what would work. It was like needing to bike across town with a blindfold on — you had a general sense of what direction you needed to go, but the only way to progress was by hitting a wall.

That’s not the case anymore. Recreating conversations is much easier, although it does involve an underused skill set — e.g., listening. Want to learn how the conversational interface for your paralegal bot should work? Try shadowing a paralegal. They have already spent years developing the perfect conversational interface, and you can just borrow it.

Perhaps the main reason the biggest opportunities in the bot market is in replacing people and not apps is simply a matter of economics. If an app is solving users’ problems, it is likely doing it for virtually nothing, whereas there are endless examples of humans that are being paid huge monthly sums for their half-baked efforts. Even a small increase in inefficiency can save businesses millions of dollars.

In a recent conversation with David Beisel of Nextview Ventures, I was trying to glean some insights on where the real opportunities are for conversational interface technologies. Even though he knows the voice computing startup market, he noted it was still too early to tell who will be the unicorns of bots. His savvy for investing revealed itself when he told me about one of the startups they recently invested in, called Troops.AI, which is a bot that improves the productivity of sales teams. He said, “It was an easy decision because it helps salespeople sell more and do it more easily, and that anything that makes businesses money is bound to do well.”

I would add any startup that saves businesses money is an obvious bet too. Virtually every large company has a dedicated human resources department, with each employee making on average $57,420 (BLS) in exchange for their core skillset of filtering hundreds of resumes to a couple dozen appropriate resumes. The repetitiveness of this job makes it feel like a website should have already replaced this job. However, using any of the websites that have tried to replace HR workers shows why companies still use HR employees. First you upload your resume, then you have to type out everything written in your resume into these obtusely organized text fields that are meant to serve every potential employee from CMO to janitor. Applying for a job online is enough to make a user think being unemployed and living under a bridge might not be such a bad alternative.

It is exponentially easier to apply directly through a conversation that can just ask about your experience as it pertains to the job you are applying for. This is exactly what the conversational AI startup Wade & Wendy created. Instead of sterile, life-draining online forms, their bots ask job seekers to elaborate on specific parts of their job experience to better filter applicants for any given job listing. Since this is the bulk of HR employees’ workload, this can save businesses upwards of 50 percent on their current HR expenses.

Ultimately, trying to make apps more conversational may seem like the obvious answer for entrepreneurs looking to cash in early on this new tech revolution, but the juice may not be worth the squeeze. First off the solution may just be better suited for a visual interface, which could explain why it became such a popular app. Additionally, the efficiency of apps mean they are probably solving any problem for virtually nothing, so saving users $.99 per download is hardly life changing. By comparison, automating half of an entire HR department’s workload is a very big deal for any Fortune 500 company.

Furthermore, you can build a bot that fits so naturally into people’s current workflow that users may not even realize they’re talking with a bot and not a person, much like X.ai was able to do with their call-scheduling bot Amy Ingram. Amy is so good at communicating like a helpful assistant that most people don’t even realize that she’s a bot working for $39 a month and not an executive assistant making $51,725 a year (according to payscale.com). The real winners in the conversational interface revolution will be the ones competing with highly paid employees, not freemium business models.

Double Robotics says it has sold 8,000 robots and generated $20 million in sales since 2013

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 01:30 PM PST

Students use the Double Robotics telepresence robot at Genazzano FCJ College.

Double Robotics says there’s a big audience for its telepresence robots and thinks it has the numbers to prove it. In the past four years, the company said, more than 8,000 of its robots were sold worldwide, generating more than $20 million in sales revenue. With this traction, Double Robotics has plans to raise a series A round of funding this year along with introducing a software subscription plan to help customers get more out of their robots.

“We’ve learned a lot over the last few years to see what it takes to work in office cultures,” remarked company CEO David Cann in an interview with VentureBeat. “When we started, we didn’t know what to expect. We had a crazy concept of putting robots in the office, and no one had done it to the scale that we’ve had.”

Double Robotics is the developer of a telepresence robot that allows users to remotely navigate around the office and engage with colleagues instead of being stationary at a desk or requiring the use of Skype, Google Hangouts, or other web conferencing software. Its main interface is the iPad positioned at its head, so think of this as a very mobile version of FaceTime.

Today, 70 percent of Double Robotics’ customers are in the enterprise space, with 40 of the Fortune 100 companies using its telepresence robot. The remainder is in education and health care. It’s not surprising to see the workplace dominate as the number one sector for these devices, but there are others for which Double Robotics hoped use cases would surface, but never did. Cann cites the elderly care market as one: “We don’t see a huge market there for at least the next couple of years. We didn’t know what to expect, but we’ve learned a lot over the last few years.”

Double Robotics continues to operate as a profitable company and believes it has a leg up on its competitors, which include Suitable Technologies, Anybots, MantaroBot, and Kubi. Cann expressed pride in his company’s $20 million sales revenue figure, saying that it was all done with no marketing dollars. But based on its growth, Double Robotics will reinvest money into its product, which it has done previously by releasing a faster telepresence robot with an attachable camera and other accessories.

Looking deeper at the 8,000 robots sold worldwide, we’re told that many customers only purchase one or two. However, with the changing work landscape, more orders for telepresence robots could be rolling in. Cann said that Double Robotics’ largest customer has 88 robots on-site, and this appeal in the workplace is spurred from a bottom-up decision where workers see the potential and push their bosses to requisition a robot to give them flexibility in where they work from.

In the immediate future, Cann said, his firm will pursue a new round of funding after raising $2 million in 2012 from SK Ventures, Grishin Robotics, Y Combinator, and angel investors. He declined to share how much he’s pursuing, but said that the company will “expand really wide and do marketing to grow the team, while reinvesting in the company and in the future.” On the product side, this quarter, the company will introduce a $99 per unit monthly subscription model that lets IT departments maintain the robots through a fleet management software offering.

Cann recommends other hardware startups think about scalability right from the beginning because it will ensure that their business will stay around for the long term. He offered three strategies that helped Double Robotics get to where it is: Properly estimate the bill of materials so you know how to price your product and ship it; focus on having everything done in-house so you’ll be able to better manage cash flow; and design your product to be extensible, meaning that everything is backwards compatible so customers can maximize their enjoyment of the device.

Valve boss Gabe Newell will hold Reddit AMA this week

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 01:02 PM PST

Valve boss Gabe Newell.

Gamers desperate for news on what Valve could be up to might want to keep an eye on Reddit

Valve cofounder and president Gabe Newell will answer questions in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) at 3 p.m. Pacific on January 17, as PC Gamer first reported. It will take place on the The_Gaben subreddit, which is typically populated by memes deifying the public gaming figure.

AMAs are a popular form of question-and-answer sessions online. Reddit users will be able to reply to the AMA thread with their questions, which Newell can then choose to answer.

Valve is a historic game studio responsible for popular games like Half-Life, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2. While it still supports many of its works with patches and new content, the company hasn’t released a new game (outside of a virtual reality minigame collection, The Lab, which came out in 2016) since Dota 2 in 2013.

Fans could ask Newell if Valve still plans to make new games or if it will focus on VR, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But many questions could focus on Half-Life 3. The fist Half-Life shot Valve into super stardom in 1998 by adding a compelling narrative experience to a shooter, while its 2004 sequel added gravity-based mechanics like a gun that could pick up nearby objects and send them flying. Fans and critics often consider both to be among the greatest games ever made. But we haven’t had a new entry in the series since Half-Life 2: Episode Two came out in 2007, which ended on a cliffhanger.

Valve claimed that it was working on an Episode Three — with the Half-Life 2 expansions originally planned as a trilogy — but that project disappeared. Although Valve never announced a Half-Life 3, many assume at this point that if any new game in the series comes out, it would no longer be a standalone expansion to Half-Life 2 with so much time having passed. But Valve may not have any interest in making a new Half-Life. Valve has shifted much of its focus on non-software related projects, including Steam Machines (gaming computers designed to plug into a TV) and the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. Last week, Game Informer published an interview with an unverified source at Valve that says after many false starts, the developer is not working on Half-Life 3.

Newell will undoubtedly get questions about Half-Life 3 during his AMA. Maybe he’s even doing it so close to this interview because he wants to deny or confirm things said in the Game Informer interview. Or maybe he’ll just ignore any questions about the Half-Life series and focus on VR and other Valve projects.

The delicate app balance: Blending paid features with free without pissing users off (VB Live)

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 11:42 AM PST

texting.mobile game.shutterstock_133835273.jpg.crdownload

Want a lucrative app launch? Freemium is key — but tricky. Learn how to balance free versus paid features without pissing your users off in our latest interactive VB Live event, where industry leaders will take you for a deep dive into best practices for app monetization.

Register here for free.


The trickiest part of a successful app launch, says Eric Shashoua, CEO of Kiwi for Gmail, is nailing the pricing structure. Everyone knows that freemium is often the most lucrative path for productivity and gaming apps — which are also usually the apps with the longest lifetime value for users — but there's a catch, and it's a big one.

“The key thing there is that you have to be really careful about that dividing line between what is free and what is paid,” Shashoua warns. “If you give people too much on the free side, which is very easy to do, you can’t go back from that and roll back those features. And then you have a very big problem later on to try and add more compelling features when you’ve already designed the entirety of the application.”

So what happens if you go too far the other way?

“If you don’t give enough for free, then it’s just not compelling enough for people to even think about paid,” Shashoua says. “Because the key thing here is that people won’t even tend to look at paid very much unless they’re experiencing some challenge or some difficulty on the free side. They won’t even bother to look at the paid side of the application.”

Testing is key to uncovering and maintaining that balance, he adds, because understanding how people are using the application helps you map out typical user journeys and develop a feature hierarchy. But that’s useless unless your app is compelling out of the gate.

“Launching a free version first and then adding the paid features later is a very good way to test that stickiness of the application,” Shashoua says. “One thing that’s very important to understand about the free side in this model is that that’s really part of your marketing funnel.”

Shashoua notes that of course the freemium model won’t work with every application type, but there are other options. “You have to also think about which apps people will only pay for as one-time purchases, and which they find acceptable to pay for as subscriptions,” he says — but luckily millennials, he adds, are (as usual) a special case.

“They view a yearly subscription as the same as a one-time purchase,” he explains. “That is a key distinction for a lot of people. People think of subscriptions as a monthly thing. But if you price your app as a yearly subscription you can actually get a lot of traction there that you can’t otherwise.”

For more insight into why where you launch is key to your monetization success, the key factors behind successful subscription models, launching internationally, and more, don’t miss this interactive VB Live event.


Don’t miss out!

Register here for free.


In this VB Live event, you’ll learn to:

  • Customize your monetization strategy so that it’s scalable
  • Unlock the revenue potential of lower spending users
  • Attract higher-spend users
  • Negotiate monetization strategies without alienating current users

Speakers:

  • Maximo Cavazzani, Founder and CEO, Etermax (Trivia Crack)
  • Eric Shashoua, CEO, Kiwi for Gmail
  • Stewart Rogers, Director of Technology, VentureBeat

Moderator:

  • Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat

ZeniMax doubles-down in statement against Oculus VR as trial begins (update)

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 10:01 AM PST

The Oculus Rift.

One of gaming’s biggest trials in underway, with billions on the line.

ZeniMax, which owns Fallout publisher Bethesda and Doom developer id Software, is reiterating its claim in a statement released today that Oculus stole from it to create the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. ZeniMax is seeking $2 billion in damages. That’s the same amount that Facebook bought Oculus for in 2014. The new VR industry came alive in 2016 with the release of the Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR, but this lawsuit adds drama to the growing to the market.

“With the start of the trial of our case in Federal District Court in Dallas against Defendants Facebook, Oculus and its management, ZeniMax and id Software welcome the opportunity to present substantial evidence of the Defendants’ misappropriation of our Virtual Reality intellectual property,” ZeniMax says in its statement. “That evidence includes the theft of trade secrets and highly confidential information, including computer code. ZeniMax will also present evidence of the Defendants’ intentional destruction of evidence to cover up their wrongdoing. ZeniMax and id Software are the visionary developers of breakthrough VR technology, and look forward to the vindication of our claims.”

Oculus also released a statement countering Zenimax’s claims.

“We’re eager to present our case in court,” the statement reads. “Oculus and its founders have invested a wealth of time and money in VR because we believe it can fundamentally transform the way people interact and communicate. We’re disappointed that another company is using wasteful litigation to attempt to take credit for technology that it did not have the vision, expertise, or patience to build.”

Oculus chief technology officer John Carmack used to be the chief executive at id Software. In 2014, ZeniMax filed a lawsuit against Oculus and its founder Palmer Luckey, saying that Carmack took ZeniMax documents with him to Oculus. ZeniMax also claims that the breakthroughs that allowed for the recent innovation in the VR industry came from it and were stolen by Oculus.

"Oculus used ZeniMax's hardware and software technology to create a software development kit for the Rift and to develop, modify, and tune the Rift hardware," reads the complaint. "Luckey did not have the expertise or knowledge to create a viable SDK for the Rift."

"This complaint filed by ZeniMax is one-sided and conveys only ZeniMax's interpretation of the story,” Oculus told GamesBeat in August 2016. “We continue to believe this case has no merit, and we will address all of ZeniMax's allegations in court."

If the court finds in favor of ZeniMax, Oculus could lose billions of dollars. The trial will see Facebook owner Mark Zuckerburg take the stand on January 17. Luckey will take the stand later in the week.

Update, 12:33 p.m. Pacific time: Oculus provided a statement.

Hypersuit promises to let you fly through virtual reality

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 09:01 AM PST

Hypersuit will let you fly in virtual reality.

Virtual reality may very well take us beyond such input devices as game controllers and joysticks. That’s where Hypersuit comes in.

The Hypersuit is like an exoskeleton, a suit that makes you feel like you’re flying in virtual reality. You lie on it in a flying position, and you can move your arms about in a variety of directions. I saw the Hypersuit at CES 2017, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Hypersuit, which is in a prototype state, is being built by a Paris-based startup by the same name that was started in 2016.

“The difference between a game controller and our project is that with the Hypersuit your all body is the joystick, so you can move freely, like Iron Man, instead of using your thumbs,” said Gregoire Arcache, founder of Hypersuit, in an email.

He said the inspiration came from the “oldest dream of mankind (flying) and the frustration of using VR sitting on a chair.” With Hypersuit, you can be a superhero, an astronaut, a scuba diver, or a wingsuit flyer.

The suit has a number of sensors that enable it to detect your movements. To finish it, the company will have to create both hardware and software.

The company hopes to ship the product in June. The price hasn’t been set yet. Hypersuit has three cofounders and a team of four people. So far, they are self-funded, but they plan to start raising a round of funding next month.

Does it sound crazy? It probably is, said Arcache. But it could also be a lot of fun.

Rivals include Icaros.

Hypersuit

Above: Hypersuit

Image Credit: Hypersuit

Nix Hydra launches TyTyMoji emoji stickers for Tyra Banks

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 08:00 AM PST

Tyra Banks' TyTyMoji

Mobile game maker Nix Hydra has branched out by creating TyTyMoji, the official emoji sticker set of Tyra Banks.

The sticker pack is aimed at millennials and fans of America’s Next Top Model, which Banks hosted for 22 seasons until its cancellation in October 2015.

Normally, Nix Hydra makes games. But the company is “ultimately interested in making anything entertaining and tech-related for women, said Lina Chen, cofounder of Nix Hydra, in an email. “We became particularly interested in the new iMessage platform when it came out last fall and have been experimenting with various small products on it. Tyra’s brand is an extremely good fit with ours (magical, colorful, bold), so it was a no-brainer. All the stickers are stickers we wanted to use ourselves.”

Nix Hydra collaborated with Banks to create the emoji. There are more than 65 fierce, fun, and witty stickers in the set, which includes everything from iconic Banks moments like “I was rooting for you!!” to Tyra's famous “booty tooch” pose to sad violins, receipts, and sassy magic eightballs.

The app is available in the iMessage store for 99 cents. Los Angeles-based Nix Hydra has made a number of mobile games and apps, such as Egg!, Hot Guy Alarm Clock, and Egg Baby. Those apps have been downloaded more than 20 million times.

Nix Hydra is committed to representing the female voice in the male-dominated tech and gaming industry. Chen said that the project is cool and unusual because it was made by an all-female team. Also, Allison Harvard, a two-time runner-up on America’s Next Top Model, works at Nix Hydra and was the project manager on TyTyMoji. She has a sticker in the app.

The app launched on January 12 and was featured by Apple. It hit No. 1 in the top paid section of the iMessage App Store. Chen said that the company is still working on other mobile games. It has 23 employees.

TyTyMoji lets you express your Tyra side.

Above: TyTyMoji lets you express your Tyra side.

Image Credit: Nix Hydra

The State of Hearthstone: How Mean Streets of Gadgetzan changed everything — and where it goes next

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 07:32 AM PST

Hearthstone: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, the latest expansion for Blizzard digital card game leader Hearthstone, has now been out over a month, and it has brought big changes to what had been a rather stale late 2016.

Many of the 132 new cards have helped create new, powerful decks (hello Pirate Warrior) in the most popular mode, Standard  — the mode that bans cards from older expansions and adventures. But a few players are critical about of some of new cards, worried that they’re too powerful or have created a reliance on certain archetypes.

GamesBeat interviewed senior game designer Peter Whalen about how Blizzard created some of Gadgetzan’s new cards and concepts, changes that may be coming to the Arena deck-drafting mode, and what Blizzard thinks about some the sets most popular (and maybe too powerful) cards.

I am scummy Pirate Warrior.

Above: Pirate Warrior in action.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

GamesBeat: We're reaching the end of this first Standard cycle with Year of the Kraken. Do you think the Standard year — which will be the same length of an actual year if the next expansions comes in April — is too long?

Whalen: I don't think so. This is where we were expecting Standard to be. This is the most sets we've ever had in the Standard environment. It's been interesting to see a lot of new decks come together. There have been pieces throughout the Standard season. We had the dragons in Blackrock Mountain, and now Dragon Priest is a pretty big force on the ladder. It's been cool to see that deck evolve over time. The Reno decks that were introduced with League of Explorers have been very powerful. With Mean Streets they got a bunch of new cards. It's been cool to see how, with so many cards in the metagame right now, those decks can really thrive.

Patches.

Above: Patches.

Image Credit: Hearthpwn

GamesBeat: Are you surprised by how popular Patches has become? Did you think that pirate decks would become this big?

Whalen: He's in charge now. [Laughs] It's cool to see Patches and pirates do well. They've been one of the tribes, the minion types, that people have been excited to see do things in Hearthstone as time's gone on. They haven't been as well-represented. Murlocs had their time to shine. Dragons had their time to shine. Now it's a chance for pirates.

It's been cool to see people using that package in different decks to drive archetypes that had gone a bit dormant. Miracle Rogue was a bit weaker in the previous metagame, and now it's had more of a chance to do well with the Patches package. That said, it's true that the Patches package is going in a lot of different decks, more than we had anticipated. We're watching it, definitely, and we're trying to make sure that the metagame going forward has a lot of different viable archetypes. The Patches and Small Time Buccaneer is something we're watching.

GamesBeat: Talking about Small Time Buccaneer, Hearthstone has seen 1 mana minions grow in power since the original set. Do you think Small Time Buccaneer is too powerful?

Whalen: It's definitely powerful. It's a build-around in the sense that you change what cards are in your deck to support it. You play more cheap weapons in Shaman and Warrior. Rogue gets a cheap weapon for free, so [Small Time Buccaneer] doesn't need to do much work. You put things like Patches in your deck, other pirate synergies, especially in the Warrior archetype.

But yeah, powerful 1-drops — we're keeping a very close eye on. Our philosophy has been that having powerful 1 drops in the metagame allows us to drive decks and keep interesting things happening in the early game. It allows us to have powerful aggro archetypes, and it also to allow decks to combat powerful aggro archetypes. But it's something that, going forward, we'll pull back on a bit.

With the new Standard rotation, Tunnel Trogg, one of the most powerful 1 drops we've ever made, will move into Wild. In the near future we're going to try and make fewer powerful 1 drops, especially ones that tend to snowball. If they sit on the board for a long time, they continue to become more powerful. In the classic set we had Mana Wyrm and Flame Imp, which are also very strong. But going forward we'll try and look for more 1 drops like Zombie Chow or Swashburglar or Babbling Book that have powerful effects, but it's OK if they sit on the board for three or four turns. They don't immediately drive the game toward a conclusion.

GamesBeat: As more cards become available in Arena with every expansion, do you think there's a point where there are too many in the draft pool?

Whalen: We've been talking about Arena a ton. We say that a lot … we want to find ways to make it better. One of the things we're talking about is finding a way to limit the cards that can show up. Maybe one month it's different from the next. Maybe we go for a Standard solution that matches the ranked play experience as well. Maybe the most recent set is 10 times as likely to show up as others. Maybe spells are more likely to show up. Maybe it's something we change every month to keep Arena more fresh. All these things are on the table.

We just got some new technology to allow design to have more fine-tuned control over the Arena experience. We're going to take advantage of that and figure out what are the best things we can do to make Arena a good experience for both newer players and the very experienced players who've played thousands of Arena games.

GamesBeat: What's this new technology you're talking about?

Whalen: Before, in order to make Arena changes, we had to do a lot of engineering and code base manipulation. An engineer had to spend a lot of time on it. We've gotten a tool that, going forward, will let designers make changes to specific arena environments. An individual card can show up less or more. If we wanted to make Flamestrike show up 10 times as often, because we really want to buff Mage in Arena, we could do that. Or on the flip side, we could make minions show up less or more. We can curate a very specific arena experience if that's something we're interested in. We just got that tool, so now we're trying to figure out the best ways to make use of it.

GamesBeat: So a card’s rarity wouldn’t matter as much.

Whalen: Exactly. We can have mixed rarity picks. If we say, OK, Firelands Portal is a powerful card so we want it to show up as often as a rare or epic, that's something we can do.

Murloc Warleader.

Above: Murloc Warleader.

Image Credit: Hearthpwn

GamesBeat: So instead of rarity, there can be tiers of cards: really powerful, pretty powerful, weaker, and so on.

Whalen: Yeah, that's definitely something we could do. Or if we wanted Murlocs to show up more often, we could do that. You get Murloc Warleader, and now your deck is more likely to come together. We have a lot of crazy ideas in that space. We don't have anything to announce right now, but that's an area we're exploring. We're excited about it.

GamesBeat: Is Blizzard surprised by that Arena is so popular?

Whalen: Not really. Arena is super-important, at least to me personally. If you look at the main login screen for Hearthstone, you come in and there's the box that says ranked, casual, Arena, tavern brawl, solo adventures. These are our game modes. These are the ways you play Hearthstone. They're all super-important.

GamesBeat: Why is there always that two-day break in Tavern Brawl? Why not just make the one available a bit longer, right up until the new one's out?

Whalen: That's a possibility. It's one thing we talked about at the beginning, when we were putting in Tavern Brawl. One of the main reasons we wanted to have a break is to separate the Tavern Brawls a bit, to let you have a bit of a cleanser in your mind between — all right, there was this Tavern Brawl, and now it's going to be the next one. It gives you a bit of time to go do the other game modes if you're interested, to go play ranked or Arena. Having that break gives you a pause that lets the Tavern Brawls breathe a bit more, which I think is kind of nice.

GamesBeat: You recently had that Diablo-themed Tavern Brawl. Is that something we might see more of, these Tavern Brawls that are themed with other Blizzard properties?

Whalen: I think that'd be awesome. I love the other Blizzard games. We've gotten things like the Overwatch card back in Hearthstone and this Diablo-themed Tavern Brawl. That's a lot of fun. Being able to draw inspiration from things that aren't just Warcraft, being able to find a Hearthstone way to do them.

GamesBeat: So I can still hold out hope for something like a Lost Vikings Tavern Brawl someday?

Whalen: [Laughs] That'd be a pretty sweet Tavern Brawl.

Continue Reading ...

Flying car prototype ready by end of 2017, says Airbus CEO

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 06:08 AM PST

Personal air vehicle flying above a solar-powered city: Flying car of the future, 3D concept

(Reuters) – Airbus Group plans to test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car as a way of avoiding gridlock on city roads by the end of the year, the aerospace group’s chief executive said on Monday.

Airbus last year formed a division called Urban Air Mobility that is exploring concepts such as a vehicle to transport individuals or a helicopter-style vehicle that can carry multiple riders. The aim would be for people to book the vehicle using an app, similar to car-sharing schemes.

“One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich, adding he hoped the Airbus could fly a demonstration vehicle for single-person transport by the end of the year.

“We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously,” he said, adding that Airbus recognized such technologies would have to be clean to avoid further polluting congested cities.

He said using the skies could also reduce costs for city infrastructure planners. “With flying, you don’t need to pour billions into concrete bridges and roads,” he said.

Enders said Airbus, as the world’s largest maker of commercial helicopters, wanted to invest to make the most of new technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, to usher in what amounts to an era of flying cars.

“If we ignore these developments, we will be pushed out of important segments of the business,” he said.

A spokesman for Airbus declined to say how much the company was investing in urban mobility.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Writing by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Why Los Angeles made an Alexa skill, and what the city wants to do with it

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 05:23 AM PST

A water fountain shines shades of blue and red near Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles appears to be one of the first major cities in the United States with its own Alexa skill. Cortana skills and Google Assistant actions may be on the way in the future.

The City of Los Angeles Alexa skill launched last month with basic information about holiday events around L.A. Next month, it will grow to include information about reading times at local libraries and information about city council members and upcoming council sessions.

The Alexa skill was made by the Los Angeles Information Technology Agency, and its creators want to explore ways a virtual assistant can prompt participation in democratic processes and deliver government services.

“We have a tremendous knowledge base online and on the web and we're in the process of coding those aspects so that you can access it through a virtual assistant,” Los Angeles Information Technology Agency CIO Ted Ross told VentureBeat in a phone interview.

At a date to be announced, the city plans to bring 311, a service to connect people with essential city services, to Alexa.

In Los Angeles, you can call 311 to schedule a building inspection, request graffiti removal, locate non-emergency police services, or report the location of a dangerous beehive. Currently, 311 services are available by phone, as well as through a website and app.

The Los Angeles ITA also wants to use voice-enabled assistants like Alexa to collect information from city residents and to allow them to complete city services like the kind found on 311. The staff is in the process of shortlisting the kinds of skills that can be completed quickly and that make sense when using voice as a user interface.

"Some things are very detail-oriented. We don't want to have any eight-minute conversation with Alexa to make a request for something."

In addition to using Alexa to deliver city services, ITA workers may consider the incorporation of datasets and provide another avenue for democratic processes, Ross said.

The Los Angeles open data portal provides access to more than 500 sets of raw data related to things like public safety, the economy, and government spending.

"Sometimes that data can be quite large, and we got a lot of data hawks that want large tabular data to work with. But from the perspective of the average citizen, they may want to know basic questions regarding our budget or where taxes go or how spending is done," Ross said.

In the future, Ross believes an Alexa skill can bring people into democratic processes who would not have otherwise been exposed to city services and connect them with the services they need or resources they need to improve their community or help their neighbors.

"There's just a really long list of benefits when it comes to civic engagement. And digital is the platform in 2017, and specifically…virtual assistants are becoming a platform,” he said.

Indeed, more and more governments are using virtual assistants or bots to provide services.

Last week, for example, National Health Service in the U.K. began to deliver services with a chatbot, and last summer, a London neighborhood began to offer services with Amelia, a virtual assistant made by IPSoft.

Quercus Realises More Than a 9% Return on the Disposal of Its Stake in ForVEI, a Renewable Energy Private Equity Joint Venture

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 04:36 AM PST

BusinessWire_FeaturedImage

MILAN & LONDON & DUBAI, United Arab Emirates–(BUSINESS WIRE)–January 16, 2017–

Quercus Assets Selection, which specialises in renewable infrastructure investments announces, from the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, that the Quercus Renewable Energy Fund, has completed the sale of its stake in ForVEI, a joint venture comprising Quercus Renewable Energy, VEI Capital, Foresight Solar VCT and Adenium Solar Energy. ForVEI operates in the Private Equity as well as in the infrastructure and energy sectors in Italy.

Quercus initially invested €8 million in ForVEI in 2011, and at the time of its disposal late in December 2016, owned a stake close to 10% in the joint venture. The sale generated an IRR of higher than 9% for Quercus and it represents the first disposal by the Quercus Renewable Energy Fund (QRE), which was launched in 2010. The funds raised from the sale will result in a dividend distribution to investors in the first quarter of this year. The QRE fund seeks to exit investments within a 5-7-year investment period and it is intended that the fund will liquidate by the end of 2018.

Diego Biasi, Co-Founder and CEO of Quercus: “The ForVEI vehicle has been a very good and stable investment for Quercus and we are delighted to exit with an attractive IRR. The Italian renewable energy sector operates against the backdrop of a stable regulatory environment. However, as relative early entrants into the market, when the regulatory environment was less predictable, the Quercus investment approach managed to invest effectively and with a clear set of long term objectives in mind. The QRE portfolio has been optimised over the years and is set to meet investors’ long term expectations.”

The disposal of ForVEI follows recent news of the €150 million first close of a series of three renewable infrastructure funds that are seeking to raise a combined €500 million by December 2018. The three new funds are targeting an annual dividend yield of 6%, distributed semi-annually and an IRR above 11%. These funds will place Quercus among the top three renewable energy infrastructure funds in Europe.

The Company also announced in December the distribution of its first special dividend, equating to approximately 20%, from its Italian Solar Fund, and a new bond issue amounting to approximately €125m at a coupon rate close to 3% with an expiration date of 20 years. The Company is now looking further afield for investors and investment opportunities as it looks to roll out its investment strategy in new jurisdictions.

Instinctif Partners
Mark Walter
George Yeomans
Тel:+44 (0)20 7457 2020
E-mail: Quercus@instinctif.com

D.light raises another $10.5 million to grow its solar-powered products for off-grid communities

Posted: 16 Jan 2017 03:00 AM PST

D.light technology in the wild

D.light, a for-profit social enterprise that makes solar-powered products for “off-grid” communities, has raised another $10.5 million in funding, taking its total financing to more than $40 million over the past quarter.

Founded out of Grand Cayman, Midland in 2007, D.light manufactures a range of solar lighting goods, including the D30 bundle, which consists of a solar panel, battery-charging pack, lights, switches, FM radio, and a torch, all powered by D.light's pay-as-you-go platform. The company claims distribution hubs spanning the U.S., East Africa, West Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

Back in September, the company announced a $22.5 million raise, constituting $15 million from a number of VC firms, including Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The remainder of the funding came via a $5 million grant and $2.5 million in debt funding. A month later, D.light announced another $7.5 million in debt funding and revealed plans to produce a solar-powered TV.

This latest $10.5 million tranche comes in the form of $5 million from new investor Norfund and $5.5 million in grant funding from Beyond the Grid and Shell Foundation. It takes the company’s total funding past the $60 million mark, including all grants and equity / debt funding.

The announcement comes as D.light cofounder and CEO Ned Tozun is scheduled to speak at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, where he will be discussing the “progress of decentralized energy systems for those living at the bottom of the pyramid,” which he says is part of the impending “fourth industrial revolution.”

“Progress in energy access through off-grid solar can catalyze a chain of events that move the developing world into new forms of financial inclusion and internet connectivity, which will in turn significantly increase GDP," said Tozun. “Growing these sectors requires massive support.”

Sign up for Funding Daily: Get the latest news in your inbox every weekday.

Angry Birds maker Rovio opens new game studio in London

Posted: 15 Jan 2017 10:00 PM PST

Angry Birds Action.

Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, has opened a new game studio in London with a focus on mobile massively multiplayer online games (MMOs).

The move strengthens the Espoo, Finland-based company to expand its in-house development capacity. It will focus on new intellectual properties that go beyond the Angry Birds universe, which is about eight years old now.

Rovio’s Angry Birds movie debuted in 2016 and generated more than $350 million in revenues worldwide. And the company’s Angry Birds games have been downloaded three billion times since 2009. The company has had more than 500 million additional downloads of other games, but Rovio clearly needs to diversify and come up with more hits.

"Our business is profitably growing, and the time has come for us to grow in numbers too," says Antti Viitanen, senior vice president of studios, in a statement. "London is the most logical place for us to found a new studio that will complement our overall global mix of internal and external developers. London is also a fantastically diverse talent magnet that has already paid Rovio dividends, as our local consumer products team that is based there has shown."

The London studio joins four other Rovio in-house studios, which includes three in Finland and one in Stockholm, Sweden. Rovio also works with a number of external studios.

"We believe that the best game experiences are those that you share with other people," adds Mark Sorrell, head of studio, in a statement. "So we're starting a studio to do exactly this. We look forward to bringing a diverse team together to deliver unique MMOs that are creative, inclusive, and delightful."

Over the next two years, Rovio London will be building a collaborative team of some 20 members. In the first year, it is targeting hiring eight people. Rovio is making the announcement at the Pocket Gamer Connects event in London.

Asked whether Brexit, or the United Kingdom’s vote to exit the European Union, made any difference, Sorrell said in an email, “As we expand our development studio presence out of the Nordics, London seemed the logical choice. The breadth and depth of talent in London is incredible; its position as a world cultural [center] is unquestionable; and we don’t see Brexit significantly changing either of those things. We already have premises here thanks to our consumer products team, so it really was the obvious choice.”

Samsung vice chairman targeted for arrest in South Korea’s corruption scandal

Posted: 15 Jan 2017 09:25 PM PST

The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, July 4, 2016.

A special prosecutor in South Korea is seeking the arrest of Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung, in a corruption scandal that previously led to the impeachment of the country’s president.

The New York Times reported that the special prosecutor alleges Lee was part of a scheme to bribe President Park Geun-hye.

Jay Y. Lee is the defacto head of the conglomerate, as he is the only son of chairman Lee Kun-hee, who is incapacitated. The prosecutor alleges that Jay Y. Lee instructed Samsung subsidiaries to make multimillion-dollar donations to the family of Park’s confidante, Choi Soon-sil, and two foundations that Choi controlled. In exchange, Park allegedly gave government favors.

Jay Y. Lee was questioned by police for more than 20 hours last week. The corruption scandal is attacking the cozy relationship between the family-run chaebol, or business conglomerates, and the government. That relationship has been so tight that the elder Lee was convicted in 1996 of bribery and again of tax evasion in 2009. In both cases, he was not arrested and was later pardoned.

Samsung generated $229 billion in revenue in 2016, and Samsung Electronics accounts for 20 percent of South Korea’s exports.

Samsung probe reportedly will list battery as main cause of Note7 fires

Posted: 15 Jan 2017 09:13 PM PST

Samsung Galaxy Note7

(Reuters) — Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s investigation into what caused some Galaxy Note 7s to catch fire has concluded that the battery was the main reason, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The world’s biggest smartphone maker will likely announce the results of the investigation on Jan. 23, a day before it announces detailed fourth-quarter earnings results, said the person who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and declined to be identified.

The firm will also announce new measures it is taking to avoid a repeat of the product safety failures in its future devices, the person said.

A Samsung spokesman declined to comment.

After the one of the biggest product safety failures in tech history, the company is keen to reassure that its devices are safe ahead of the launch of flagship Galaxy S8 smartphones expected sometime in the first half of this year.

Investors and analysts say it is critical for Samsung to provide a detailed, convincing explanation on what went wrong with the Note 7 phones and how it will prevent such problems from recurring.

The source told Reuters that Samsung was able to replicate the fires during its investigation and that the cause for the fires could not be explained by hardware design or software-related matters.

Samsung was forced to scrap the Note 7 smartphones in October after failing to fix the problems following an initial recall, dealing a 6.1 trillion won ($5.2 billion) blow to its operating profit over three quarters.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Edwina Gibbs)

Spaces gets another $6.5 million for its VR theme park dreams

Posted: 15 Jan 2017 07:17 PM PST

spaces-parks-attractions-featured-image-1000x625

Getting VR headsets into the casual user's hands and households is one of the ongoing struggles of the industry. Other than the mobile solutions, additional peripherals are not at consumer friendly price points yet and likely won't be for a while, but there are events being held around the world and even some advertising and marketing opportunities that give people the chance to check things out.

Despite that reality, there's one industry that has dabbled in VR for a long time and remains unafraid to invest in the technology as it evolves: theme parks. We previously reported on a growing VR theme park initiative when Spaces Inc partnered with Songcheng Performance Development for a $30 million venture, and that mission is being furthered in a big way with additional funding.

Announced via press release, Spaces Inc has acquired a significant sum in additional funding led by Songcheng with help from Comcast Ventures. The $6.5 million also includes contributions from companies like Boost VC, The Venture Reality Fund, and others that were part of the previous funding for Spaces so it's clear that they continue to believe that a SPACES Inc-powered VR theme park will be a profitable idea.

"Through our Spaces Parks & Attractions division, we're fundamentally re-imagining the theme park experience with stunning advances in VR technology," says SPACES cofounder and CEO Shiraz Akmal in the prepared statement. "Together with our Songcheng joint venture, this new capital expands our efforts to create entirely new kinds of VR-enabled destinations."

There aren't any details available to the public yet about what extent theme parks will be weaving virtual and mixed reality into attractions, but one of the new additions to the Spaces Inc board of directors paints an interesting picture for this program's potential. In addition to Michael Yang of Comcast and Songcheng's Ethan Wang, Spaces Inc will be welcoming DreamWorks Animation CFO Fazal Merchant to the board. Having a stronger relationship with the animators responsible for Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, and Kung-Fu Panda doesn't guarantee that licensed content from the production company will appear as part of VR attractions, but it could be a hint of them heading that direction.

This story originally appeared on Uploadvr.com. Copyright 2017

How to make sure the future connected car is secure

Posted: 15 Jan 2017 06:10 PM PST

This photo shows that cars have joined the Internet of Things.

Often dubbed a "data center on wheels," the connected car is one of the fastest-growing markets in the ecosystem that makes up the Internet of Things (IoT). The convergence of IoT and in-vehicle technologies, like remote diagnostics, on-board GPS, collision avoidance systems, and 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspots, has paved the road for new and exciting opportunities in this industry. In fact, the connected car market is expected to reach $155 billion by 2022, while 75 percent of the estimated 92 million cars shipped globally in 2020 will be built with internet connectivity.

As the market grows, the biggest opportunity for profit comes from the ongoing services that can be offered and the ongoing revenue that subscriptions to these services can create. Although this is where the value lies, many consumers who purchase connected cars have been hesitant to "turn on" their connected services. Recent statistics tell the story. A 2016 Spireon survey showed that consumers are interested in connected cars (especially those with safety features), but 54 percent said they have not actually used connected car features. Similarly, Kelly Blue Book found that 42 percent of consumers support cars becoming more connected, while 62 percent said they fear that cars in the future will be easily hacked.

Are connected cars secure?

While there is evidence that the adoption rate for connected services is growing (willingness to pay for connected services went from 21 percent in 2014 to 32 percent in 2015), many consumers still have lingering concerns over the security of these vehicles. It doesn't help that connected cars have received some negative press. In 2015, Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles after hackers demonstrated to WIRED that they could remotely hijack (and crash) a Jeep. Then, in March 2016, the FBI, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a public service announcement warning consumers about potential cybersecurity threats to connected cars.

Yet consumers may not realize that security is not solely a connected car issue — it is an inherent concern with IoT, given the copious amount of data collected and shared between devices. When it comes to IoT, people fear not knowing what devices are doing and what they are actually capable of doing. The reality is that today's networks were not built for the tsunami of devices coming online, including the millions of connected cars. As networks evolve to better meet the needs of IoT devices and connected cars, automakers must take extra measures to ensure appropriate levels of connectivity at each step of the vehicle's life cycle.

Securing the connected car at each step of the vehicle's life cycle

Security must be a top priority — from designing the vehicle to the moment the driver takes the wheel and beyond – if automakers are to improve adoption rates and drive profits. The key to securing the connected car's potential "attack surface" is enabling the right levels of connectivity at the right times. In addition to knowing when connectivity should be on or off, it's also critical to know what a vehicle should be allowed to do with that connectivity at different stages throughout its life cycle. Automating this knowledge and ensuring proper connectivity to match each vehicle state is crucial to end-to-end security. It also eliminates the need to manually track and monitor connectivity — a complex task when you're shipping millions of vehicles around the world. Let's take a look at the role of connectivity in securing each step of the Connected Car's life cycle.

  • Vehicle design: Auto manufacturers must ensure that the right technologies — such as in-vehicle routing, security, IoT connectivity, and more — are designed into the vehicle from day one. OEMs must consider the types of services they want to enable throughout the life of the car, choose the right connectivity partner and management platform, and design features into the vehicle accordingly. If these features aren't designed and integrated into the vehicle correctly, there is a greater risk of security issues later on down the road. For example, some manufacturers are designing connected cars with in-vehicle video capture capabilities and even the ability to measure biometrics, with the intention of using the collected data to improve and personalize the customer experience (if the user opts in). If a competitor or a malicious user hacks into these data streams, a great deal of information about the manufacturer's fleet and customers is exposed.
  • Manufacturing: Connectivity and security need to be engrained in the manufacturing process itself. Auto manufacturers must have converged networking and IoT solutions to automate manufacturing operations, mitigate risk, and maximize uptime on the factory floor. Connectivity of mission-critical machines can enable zero downtime (which is vital when every minute of downtime on the factory floor costs $20,000) and therefore, enable more efficient manufacturing of connected cars. Further, OEMs can tap into data they collect to improve quality and produce a more reliable vehicle. There is also a safety aspect here, as manufacturers can use smart, real-time sensing and analytics to address safety and security concerns on the plant floor. They can even use IoT and wearables to monitor employees’ health and track their locations. Of course, access to this information must be limited to authorized personnel.
  • Testing: The ability to verify that connected services are working before the vehicle leaves the factory (and then turn those connected services off during shipping) is necessary in order to reduce the number of defective vehicles delivered. During this stage, manufacturers must test each individual service before shipment, paying extra attention to services that deliver real-time updates to the driver, such as 3D maps, traffic, and weather applications. If any of these is hacked or sabotaged during the car's life cycle, it can jeopardize the driver's safety and even lead to an accident.
  • Shipping: Once testing is complete and the vehicle is ready for shipment, the ability to automate connectivity is essential. While vehicles are in shipping containers, manufacturers must be able to automatically disable connected services, while maintaining the ability to track vehicles during their journey. This prevents the abuse of connected services while vehicles are en route to the dealership. Remember: If a hacker can sabotage the vehicle during shipment from the OEM to the dealer, they could potentially plant a back door and obtain access to sensitive data during the car's life. For example, the SIM card in the car’s telematics system is especially vulnerable during shipment, and, if tampered with, can open up a whole list of security issues. While some automakers physically protect the SIM card, it is more efficient to protect it via automated rules. The OEM can apply a rule that when the vehicle is in transport, communications are completely shut off — thereby preventing illicit use of the car's connection and deterring on-board hackers.
  • Demoing: Once the vehicle arrives at the dealership, it is time to turn connectivity back on. Again, an automated system allows OEMs to safely resume connection so that salespeople can demonstrate all the services and devices to potential buyers. During this time, security measures are needed to prevent theft, hijacking, or illicit remote control of vehicles. For example, the VIN is used to register the vehicle to a new owner's mobile app. If security is weak, anyone who could have recorded that VIN while visiting the showroom could later use it to control or possibly even steal the vehicle. Proper certificate-based security architecture can help prevent this situation.
  • Post-purchase maintenance and aftermarket: Connected cars allow for proactive, predictive maintenance based on real-time data. Over-the-air (OTA) software updates help secure this information and provide patches and bug fixes to prevent data breaches. Moreover, the connected car is opening up new opportunities for aftermarket sales as companies move to leverage the vehicle's connectivity to deliver their own connected services. Undoubtedly, the growth of aftermarket connected services is stirring up additional security concerns, so creating the right security standards and partnering with aftermarket solution providers and third-party security experts will be key in keeping vehicles safe.

Enhancing the driver's experience, and ongoing monetization

The connected car's devices and services can provide value long after the customer has driven off the dealership lot. Once the vehicle is sold, manufacturers must be able to automate the transfer of billing for connectivity to the owner, while maintaining the ability to provide free trials of certain services for defined periods of time (which are billed to either the manufacturer or third-party content/service providers). This requires a platform that can enable split billing, while also allowing the OEM to consistently push new services to connected cars throughout the life of the vehicle to enhance the driver's experiences and create new, ongoing revenue streams. These new services must undergo the same security considerations as those that were designed for the vehicle from the start.

As the opportunities for new subscription-based services and connections with external networks continue to grow, security will remain top of mind. In the near future, we will see smart drive-thrus, in which fast food restaurants can connect with customers' vehicles and use GPS coordinates to predict ETAs for even faster, fresher service. We will see gas pumps equipped with sensors that automate payments upon a vehicle's arrival, without the need to swipe a credit card. We already see cars connecting with social gaming platforms with in-app purchases to entertain passengers on long road trips. Everything from entertainment to automated payments to micro-transactions that take place between the vehicle and other infrastructures must be secured so that they are widely adopted, and in turn, drive profits for OEMs and aftermarket providers alike.

The future of the connected car

The connected car is no longer science fiction — it is here today and can provide consumers with a secure, safe, reliable, and enriched driving experience. However, to do so requires paying close attention to security and connectivity at each step of the vehicle's life cycle. Ultimately, the ability to secure data that a vehicle generates comes down to constantly identifying and monitoring how that data should be used. To streamline these efforts, automakers should partner with security experts and invest in IoT connectivity management platforms that are capable of automating how and when a vehicle connects and what the vehicle is allowed to do with that connection. Automated connectivity management platforms enable manufacturers to identify what vehicles are allowed to do with their connectivity. If they do anything else, the platform can detect that anomalous behavior and automatically shut off the connectivity, preventing illicit activity that could compromise the vehicle's security and safety.

While IoT platforms and partnerships can help assuage security concerns and position automakers for success, there is an entire ecosystem of responsibility for the connected car. With new devices, connections, and data points arising every day, no single party is 100-percent responsible for connected car security. Everyone — from the OEM to the dealership to the bank that enables automated payments to the developers of aftermarket services — must do their part to keep cars safe, consumers happy, and our "data centers on wheels" rolling securely.

How I built and launched a personal finance chatbot in 6 months

Posted: 15 Jan 2017 02:33 PM PST

mobile banking

This is a write-up covering the development of my startup, Teller, and the launch of our first pilot program with Brooklyn Cooperative.

Although I don't love the name “chatbot,” it is the easiest way to refer to a conversational messaging agent. There are several different levels of chatbots, from simple fraud alert messages, where you respond with a “yes” or “no,” to sophisticated agents that can hold entire conversations. I imagined that the service I am building (Teller) would fall somewhere in the middle, and I aimed to just do one thing very well: help banks answer customer questions automatically.

I started building a chatbot back in January, with the goal of developing something like a WebMD for personal finance questions. My vision was to create a database of well-researched answers and advice so that anyone could ask a question about saving, budgeting, credit, etc. and get an immediate response.

At that time, I ran a Google survey to see where people got help with personal finance questions. The top two results were as expected: Google, and friends and family. I figured both of those sources worked well enough, but could potentially be time-consuming (Google) or inaccurate (friends). I started putting together a database of questions, definitions, and explanations for basic personal finance topics and made them accessible via a text-messaging interface. My fiancé helped me come up with the name Teller.

In the bot, I’m running a Node.js server that connects the Twilio text messaging API to API.ai for natural language understanding. I store messaging data and history in a MondoDB database. I wrote the code for the Node.js server myself in order to perform backend calculations, send picture and infographic messages, and use other custom functions before responding to a user. I chose to write most of the code myself and run my own server because I found limitations in many of the off-the-shelf “chatbot builders.”

After a brief attempt at marketing my bot directly to users (B2C), I decided to change my focus a little. If I could partner with a bank or credit union, I would get access to a large group of users who would benefit from using my messaging service. Adapting Teller for a bank or credit union would require a lot of work: a new server, new content, new script, and new branding. It would also change the primary focus from finance education to banking customer service. But it would get me to market faster, and at the same time potentially establish a path to making money in the future (thanks business school!).

Pilot program

After spending a considerable amount of time searching for a partner, I found a credit union in Brooklyn that decided to sign on. Brooklyn Cooperative is one of the most innovative and customer-focused banks in NYC. They have a very strong focus on community banking and truly care about educating and empowering their members. It is clear in the numerous meetings we had at their branches that they take their responsibility in providing financial products, loans, and mortgages very seriously.

Last week, we launched a pilot that will allow Brooklyn Cooperative members to start communicating with the bank through text messaging. Customers are now able to ask standard customer service questions about bank policies, instructions on how to open and close accounts, hours and directions, and how to use features like automatic payments. They will also get access to the educational material that I originally developed to ask questions about building a budget, getting out of debt, and improving credit.

For this pilot, I see three main parties involved:

  • Brooklyn Cooperative Members: Members get instant answers to customer service questions and potentially discover a place to ask other personal finance questions they didn't know who to ask before.
  • Brooklyn Cooperative: The credit union is able to automate simple questions and provide an additional (and more scalable) resource for personal finance education.
  • Teller: We are able to facilitate and track the types of questions people are asking and build a more robust database and script for the future.

One thing I took away from my time working at Facebook was the “rapid-testing” approach to product development. I am excited about this pilot because it will take this project that has been living on my computer and expose it to the real world with real users and real edge cases.

Details on Pilot Program: www.textteller.com/brooklyn-coop

Future

Going forward, I plan to devote my full energy to ensuring the pilot runs smoothly and building a great experience for those who use it. At the same time, I've operationalized a lot of the processes and would be happy to discuss partnerships with other banks, credit unions, and financial literacy organizations.

loading...

Lexo edhe:

Postimet e fundit






Popular posts from this blog

Trajta e shquar dhe e pashquar e emrit

  Trajta e shquar dhe e pashquar e emrit Trajta themelore e emrit është rasa emërore e pashquar.  Nga trajta themelore ose parësore i fitojmë format e tjera gramatikore të emrit (trajtat). Emrat , si në njëjës ashtu edhe në shumës, përdoren në dy trajta: a) në trajtë të pashquar dhe b) në trajtë të shquar shquar. Emri në trajtën e pashquar tregon qenie, sende ose dukuri në përgjithësi, në mënyrë të papërcaktuar. P.sh.: një nxënës, një punëtor, një mendim , një mace, një laps etj. Emri në trajtën e shquar tregon qenie, sende ose dukuri të tjera, të veçuara nga gjërat e tjera të llojit të vet. P.sh.: nxënësi, punëtori, mendimi, macja, lapsi etj.   Formë përfaqësuese (bazë) e emrit është trajta e pashquar, numri njëjës, rasa emërore : djalë, vajzë, shkollë, lule, letër, njeri, kompjuter, lepur, qen, piano etj. Trajta e shquar e emrit formohet duke i pasvendosur formës përfaqësuese nyjën shquese, përkatësisht mbaresën: a) për emrat e gjin

Ese të ndryshme shqip

Ese dhe Hartime '' Ese dhe hartime të ndryshme shqip dhe anglisht '' Ndalohet rreptësisht kopjimi dhe postimi në një faqe tjetër.  Redaksia Rapitful ka lexuar disa ankesa në emailin e saj të bëra nga disa arsimtarë dhe profesorë ku janë ankuar se nxënësit po i kopjojnë esetë dhe hartimet nga faqja Rapitful dhe me ato ese apo shkrime po prezantohen gjatë shkrimit të eseve dhe hartimeve. Pra redaksia Rapitful kërkon nga nxënësit që të mos kopjojnë esetë dhe hartimet dhe me to të prezantohen para mësimdhënësve por le të jenë këto ese vetëm si një udhërrëfyes se si duhet të shkruhet një ese apo hartim dhe asesi të kopjohen. Ju faleminderit për mirëkuptim. Ese dhe hartime do te shtohen vazhdimisht keshtuqe na vizitoni prap. Nëse dëshironi Analiza letrare të veprave të ndryshme kliko mbi Analiza Letrare Kliko mbi titullin që ju intereson Ese për Diturinë   Për Mjekët! Fakultetet e sotme po kryhen me teste 6 arsye për të mos studiuar mjekësinë P

Tekste shqip: ““Ah Kjo Rruga E Gurbetit” - Shaqir Cërvadiku & Fatjon Dervishi” plus 21 more

Tekste shqip: ““Ah Kjo Rruga E Gurbetit” - Shaqir Cërvadiku & Fatjon Dervishi” plus 21 more “Ah Kjo Rruga E Gurbetit” - Shaqir Cërvadiku & Fatjon Dervishi “Du Me T'pa” - Gjyle Qollaku Nora Istrefi “Kercejna” - Sabiani Feat. Denis Taraj Getoar Selimi “Du Me T'pa” - Lori Bora Zemani “Million” - Melissa
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Labels

Show more