Close-up of the base of an Amazon Echo smart speaker using the Alexa service, with Amazon logo … [+]
Here are five technology things that happened in the past week and how they’re impacting your business. Did you miss them?
1— Amazon is adding new features to Alexa to make things easier for users.
Lots of changes are coming for Alexa by Amazon, and the biggest one is how Alexa softens individual routines. Amazon will also make these new features more user-friendly by making Alexa’s voice activation a virtual command to help with urgent needs. This new Alexa is still in the development process. (Source: The edge)
Why this is important for your business:
Keep an eye on Alexa for Business at. Amazon is quietly building tools based on Alexa’s technology so employees can get things done with voice commands. Send an invoice to a customer. Generating a report for a manager. Initiate a return claim. Onboarding a new employee. There are endless ways that speech technology can increase productivity in an office…and it’s all to come.
2-Cyberhackers use ‘Deepfakes’ to attack organizations.
Deepfakes are AI-generated images to depict fake people or to cosplay as real people. The cyber attackers have used this technology to get through security checks to collect information from large companies. The emergence of these specific attacks has been triggered by the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. The hackers use this type of cyber attack to collect ransom money in exchange for recovering the victim’s personal information. (Source: Silicon Republic)
Why this is important for your business:
Deepfake technology is becoming more common – as predicted – and it will be important for business owners and their employees to be even more aware of scams being built on this new type of technology. It’s not just video, it’s voice — as one bank executive found out after a $35 million loss. Get an education.
3—The text-to-image AI system—DALL-E 2—has been released to the public.
It’s only been a few weeks since OpenAI released the DALL-E 2 system and people have noticed a few kinks. The system allows both businesses and customers to search for items and have a computer generate an image to match the description. However, there is still a lack of volume licensing and some instability within the human models. While this system isn’t perfect, many companies like Heinz have taken it as a way to creatively market their products. The leaders of this product see a world of possibilities for DALL-E 2 and other AI systems. (Source: Tech Crunch )
Why this is important for your business:
According to to OpenAI, E 2 is a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from natural language description. concepts, attributes and styles. DALL-E 2 can make realistic edits to existing images of a natural language caption. If your business is in the art or printing industry, this can be a powerful way to create new products. Or, like Heinzit could be an innovative way to create marketing materials.
4-15five receives funding for more people-oriented talent management.
Software company 15five has received $52 million in Series C funding to create innovative ways for workplaces to increase employee productivity using human resources. What they hope is to incentivize managers to enforce a space where workers can achieve their greatest post-pandemic success. (Source: 15five)
Why this is important for your business:
According to their blog, the company will use the new funding round “to invest in research and development to further connect the ability to measure performance (via engagement surveys, performance reviews and OKRs) and accelerate the integration of software with coaching. The goal is that every manager can influence team performance more effectively and efficiently.” 15five is one of many HR tools to create more productivity and employee satisfaction.
5 – Google Meet is upping the ante with new features amid their merger with Duo.
Google Meet is now partnering with Duo to release several new applications. This is all partly to keep up with other streaming services like Zoom that have been excelling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new services that would come out of this merger would be access to Spotify, YouTube and even games like UNO. However, these apps are not displayed directly in the video call, but through a separate app that is only available for Android. (Source: XDA Developers)
Why this is important for your business:
If Google writes on his blog, the company has upgraded the Google Duo experience “to include all Google Meet features and bring our two video calling services together in one solution. Launched this summer, this upgrade gives everyone access to new features such as scheduling and join meetings, virtual wallpapers, in-meeting chat and more, in addition to current video calling features.” If your business works with these applications, it may be worth understanding the new features.
