Pig hearts for babies
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 benefit from this technology be helped in assessing their options in a time of distress?
- What happens if the success of this procedure exacerbates organ shortages?
- Are the human ethics discussed well ahead of animal trials?
New tape
| Environment/Climate change | Physical reliability | Costs |
| Materials | Clean Tech |
| Energy, green tech, utilities | Manufacturing |
Superconducting tape is revolutionizing fusion reactor design, enabling smaller and more cost-effective tokamaks. Read more...
- What examples exist of small innovations with large impacts?
- How can material science be better leveraged to impact multiple sectors with each innovation?
- What flops from materials science could we learn from?
Tax data sharing
| Privacy | Organizational trust |
| Web 2.0 |
| Government, defense, policing, law | Enterprise software, B2B software, SAAS |
Sensitive tax data shared: Tech companies access, privacy risks exposed, legal consequences possible. Read more...
- Do users care too little about their information?
- Are we approaching a point where it's impossible to opt out from having your data shared?
- How can software companies empower users with their own data and privacy?
Synthesized breast milk
| Mental health | Adoption | Environmental impact |
| Agtech and cultured food |
| Food and drink, restaurants, meal delivery |
Startups race to replicate human breast milk in the lab, revolutionizing infant nutrition with innovative bio-formula. Read more...
- Would this new option for parents face existing stigmas?
- Should regulatory considerations be tailored given the ultimate end-user?
- What challenges do these startups face in terms of marketing and distribution?
Autocado
| Labour | Partial automation | Skill decay (individual) |
| Robotics, drones |
| Food and drink, restaurants, meal delivery |
Vebu Labs steals the spotlight with their avocado-peeling 'Autocado' innovation, bringing bespoke automation to the restaurant industry. Read more...
- Do such robots only succeed by becoming an attraction?
- Could guacamole, as a condiment, lose popularity?
- Could the reliability of the machine become a factor?
Clothing repair
| Right to repair | Physical reliability | Incentives |
| Other |
| Consumer goods |
France introduces subsidies for clothing and shoe repairs to promote a circular economy and reduce waste in the textile industry. Read more...
- Is fast fashion in part responsible, as a backlash?
- What other consumer goods may be next to benefit from such incentives?
- How will manufacturers and brands react to these new incentives?
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Soaring drones
| Legacy technologies | Regulatory | Physical reliability |
| Robotics, drones |
| Aerospace and Aviation | Government, defense, policing, law |
Military and commercial drones are pushing the limits of altitude and endurance as they compete to reach higher and stay aloft for longer periods. Read more...
- What logistics or other services could such drones render obsolete?
- Will legacy aviation, as the steward of airspace currently, slow down progress deliberately?
- What other stakeholders may benefit or lose out from drones with such capabilities?
TapOnit insights
| Legacy infrastructure | Legacy technologies | Privacy |
| Web 2.0 |
| Advertising and marketing |
TapOnIt Insights provides exclusive analysis on the latest developments in AI startups and technologies, offering valuable insights for industry professionals. Read more...
- Will some consumers consider outreach by text message intrusive?
- Are some channels considered more personal than others?
- How do phone numbers change compared to email addresses or social media accounts?
AI hiring regs
| Labour | Ethics | Algorithmic bias |
| Artificial Intelligence |
| Government, defense, policing, law |
State legislators face challenges as they attempt to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in the hiring process, as AI becomes increasingly prevalent but rules remain limited. Read more...
- Are regulations enforceable?
- Is there a data set good enough to create a bias-free algorithm?
- What backlash might occur from seeking protections that cover too much ground?
MoveIt hack
| User goals | Organizational trust |
| Web 2.0 |
| Government, defense, policing, law | Data protection and cybersecurity |
Multiple US government agencies, including the Department of Energy, fell victim to a global hacking campaign exploiting a security flaw in MoveIt Transfer software, allegedly linked to a Russia-affiliated criminal group. Read more...
- Should widely used software in government be held to a higher standard than consumer software?
- When the bad actors are state-sponsored, what effect does it have on the targeting of the attacks?
- Would a wide-ranging vulnerability bounty program prevent such exploits?
The Crossfactors Newsletter
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...
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...
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......