Online reviews


Lots of food content this week. Not sure why. Maybe I was hungry.


Review Response


| User goals | Incentives |
| Web 2.0 |
| Food and drink, restaurants, meal delivery |


A discussion of how restaurants should approach online reviews. Read more...


  • Is there a better outlet for retaliatory reviews?
  • Is there a growing or diminishing dependence on online reviews?
  • How should a restaurant maintain an online personality?


Cultivated Meatballs


| Public trust | Consumer trends |
| Agtech and cultured food |
| Food and drink, restaurants, meal delivery |


Re:meat, a Swedish cultivated meat startup, unveils world's first cultivated Swedish meatballs. Read more...


  • Is there something special about meatballs when compared to other meat based dishes that might lower friction?
  • Is the idea of making analogues of existing foods the right approach?
  • Do cultivated meats have their own drawbacks when produced at scale?


Cloud Excel


| Adoption | Friction |
| Cloud computing | Web 2.0 |
| Enterprise software, B2B software, SAAS |


Sourcetable raises $3M to build the future of spreadsheets by offering a feature-rich and innovative alternative to giants like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Read more...


  • What's the greatest pain point of such software?
  • How do pain points differ between power users and infrequent users?
  • How does Sourcetable tackle the distribution advantage of Microsoft?


Bangladesh Security Breach


| Public trust | Cybersecurity |
| Cloud computing | Other |
| Data protection and cybersecurity | Government, defense, policing, law |


The Bangladeshi government takes swift action to address a major data breach, exposing the personal information of millions of citizens through a vulnerable government website. Read more...


  • Are expectations higher for the government than the private sector when it comes to data stewardship?
  • Can citizens opt out of having their data hosted on the government's cloud or systems?
  • What does accountability look like for the government versus the private sector?


AI Oncology Assistant


| Algorithmic bias | Data applicability | Data quality |
| Artificial Intelligence | Pharmaceutics, therapeutics |
| Healthcare, Medicine, Digital Health |


Tempus introduces Tempus One, an AI assistant that provides easier access to patient data for oncologists. Read more...


  • Is this tool guaranteed to save the oncologist time or make them better?
  • What is the benchmark from which to assess personalized care?
  • Are there any incentives which are not aligned with the patient care journey?


AI Fire alarm


| Environmental impact | Alarm fatigue |
| Artificial Intelligence |
| Energy, green tech, utilities | Government, defense, policing, law |


Wildfire detection startup Pano AI secures $17M funding extension, revolutionizing fire detection with its AI-powered cameras, saving lives faster. Read more...


  • How might the model affect the prioritization of resources?
  • Is wildfire management gaining importance?
  • Are there any surveillance aspects of this technology that might be troubling?


Plastic Pollution


| Environmental impact | Incentives | Regulatory |
| Agtech and cultured food | Clean Tech |
| Food and drink, restaurants, meal delivery |


This opinion piece lays out the case for the food industry giants to take immediate action and be held accountable for their contribution to the plastic pollution crisis. Read more...


  • What can we learn from the ban of plastic straws?
  • What can individuals do?
  • How can incentives be better aligned?


Syapse Secures Funding


| Data applicability | Data noise | Lumberjack effect |
| Pharmaceutics, therapeutics | Big Data |
| Healthcare, Medicine, Digital Health |


Syapse established as one of the largest repositories of human genome and clinical data, enabling the processing of over 3,000 human genomes per quarter. Read more...


  • Is there a race to establish market dominance?
  • How does a company weigh its acquisition of data versus its development of models.
  • Will consumers be beholden to those who have access to the data?


Bio Scaling


| Legacy infrastructure | Physical reliability | Dependability |
| Synthetic biology |
| Manufacturing |


Biomanufacturing scaling with free TEA tool, Scaler. Read more...


  • What unexpected consequences might arise from making biomanufacturing more accessible?
  • Do tools like this generalize to existing and future commercial scale operations?
  • What implications might the incorporation of more technologies and molecule types into Scaler have for the future?


Yeast Barcodes


| Legacy infrastructure | Regulatory |
| Agtech and cultured food |
| Agriculture | Food and drink, restaurants, meal delivery |


Index Biosystems utilizes baker's yeast to create invisible barcodes that enable precise food tracking throughout the supply chain. Read more...


  • Are consumers concerned about food fraud and food safety in the same way?
  • Could food manufacturers demand this from their suppliers?
  • How could this benefit the sustainable production of food?


The Crossfactors Newsletter

Read more from The Crossfactors Newsletter
white piglet chewing hay

Each week we look at 10 new uses of technologies from any of the 30+ industries and the 25+ technology domains we watch. Get smart about the tech you bring into your products, your organization and your life. Pig hearts | Ethics | Adoption | | Medical and biotech | | Healthcare, Medicine, Digital Health | Company pioneers gene-edited pig heart transplants, conducting trials on baboons as a potential solution for babies with severe heart defects. Read more... How can parents in a position to...

shallow focus photography of white feather dropping in person's hand

Each week we look at 10 new uses of technologies from any of the 30+ industries and the 25+ technology domains we watch. Get smart about the tech you bring into your products, your organization and your life. Metaverse Guardians | User trust | User safety | | Web 2.0 | VR | | Data protection and cybersecurity | Social Media | Undercover content moderators play a big role in ensuring safety and protecting users within the metaverse. Read more... Where does the balance lie between safety and...

the open ai logo is displayed on a computer screen

Each week we look at 10 new uses of technologies from any of the 30+ industries and the 25+ technology domains we watch. Get smart about the tech you bring into your products, your organization and your life. OpenAI's Marketplace | Data applicability | Data bias | User goals | | Artificial Intelligence | | Enterprise software, B2B software, SAAS | Banking and Financial | OpenAI plans to launch an AI marketplace for developers to sell what they've built on top of their technology. Read more......