Author name: Rejus Almole

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Ukraine has become the world’s testing ground for military robots

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The war in Ukraine has become the largest testing ground for artificial intelligence-powered autonomous and uncrewed vehicles in history. While the use of military robots is nothing new — World War II saw the birth of remote-controlled war machines and the US has deployed fully-autonomous assault drones as recently as 2020 — what we’re seeing in Ukraine is the proliferation of a new class of combat vehicle. 

This article discusses the “killer robot” technology being used by both sides in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Our main takeaway is that the “killer” part of “killer robots” doesn’t apply here. Read on to find out why. 

Uncrewed versus autonomous

This war represents the first usage of the modern class of uncrewed vehicles and automated weapons platforms in a protracted invasion involving forces with relatively similar tech. While Russia’s military appears, on paper, to be superior to Ukraine’s, the two sides have fielded forces with similar capabilities. Compared to forces Russia faced during its involvement in the Syrian civil war or, for example, those faced by the US during the Iraq and Afghanistan engagements, what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine right now demonstrates a more paralleled engagement theater. 

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It’s important, however, to mention that this is not a war being fought by machines. It’s unlikely that autonomous or uncrewed weapons and vehicles will have much impact in the war, simply because they’re untested and, currently, unreliable. 

Uncrewed vehicles and autonomous vehicles aren’t necessarily the same thing. While almost all autonomous vehicles — those which can operate without human intervention — are uncrewed, many uncrewed vehicles can only be operated remotely by humans. Perhaps most importantly, many of these vehicles have never been tested in combat. This means that they’re more likely to be used in “support” roles than as autonomous combat vehicles, even if that’s what they were designed to do. 

But, before we get into the how’s and why’s behind the usage of military robots in modern warfare, we need to explain what kind of vehicles are currently in use. There are no “killer robots” in warfare. That’s a catch-all term used to describe military vehicles both autonomous and uncrewed.

These include uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs), and uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs, another term for uncrewed maritime or water-based vehicles).

So, the first question we have to answer is: why not just turn the robots into killers and let them fight the war for us? You might be surprised to learn that the answer has very little to do with regulations or rules regarding the use of “killer robots.” 

To put it simply: militaries have better things to do with their robots than just sending fire downrange. That doesn’t mean they won’t be tested that way, there’s already evidence that’s happened. 

A British “Harrier” USV, credit: Wikicommons

However, we’ve seen all that before. The use of “killer robots” in warfare is old hat now. The US deployed drones in Iraq and Afghanistan and, as we reported here at TNW, it even sent a Predator drone to autonomously assassinate an Iranian general.

What’s different in this war is the proliferation of UAVs and UGVs in combat support roles. We’ve seen drones and autonomous land vehicles in war before, but never at this scale. Both forces are using uncrewed vehicles to perform tasks that, traditionally, either couldn’t be done or require extra humanpower. It does also bear mentioning that they’re using gear that’s relatively untested, which explains why we’re not seeing either country deploying these units enmasse.

A developmental crucible

Developing wartime technology is a tricky gambit. Despite the best assurances of the manufacturers, there’s simply no way to know what could possibly go wrong until a given tech sees actual field use.

In the Vietnam war, we saw a prime example of this paradigm in the debut of the M-16 rifle. It was supposed to replace the trusty old M-14. But, as the first soldiers to use the new weapon tragically found out, it wasn’t suitable for use in the jungle environment without modifications to its design and special training for the soldiers who’d use it. A lot of soldiers died as a result.

A US Marine cleaning their M16 during the US-Vietnam War, credit: Wikicommons

That’s one of the many reasons why a number of nations who’ve so far refused any direct involvement in the war are eager to send cutting-edge robots and weapons to the Ukrainian government in hopes of testing out their tech’s capabilities without risking their own soldiers’ skin. 

TNW spoke with Alex Stronell, a Land Platforms Analyst and UGV lead at Janes, the defense intelligence provider. They explained that one of the more interesting things to note about the use of UGVs, in particular, in the war in Ukraine, is the absence of certain designs we might have otherwise expected.

“For example, an awful lot of attention has been paid inside and outside of Russia to the Uran-9 … It certainly looks like a menacing vehicle, and it has been touted as the world’s most advanced combat UGV,” Stronell told us, before adding “however, I have not seen any evidence that the Russians have used the Uran-9 in Ukraine, and this could be because it still requires further development.”

Uran-9 armed combat robot UGV Unmanned Ground Vehicle Rosboronexport Russia Russian Defense Industry – YouTube

On the other side, Stronell previously wrote that Ukrainian forces will soon wield the world’s largest complement of THeMIS UGVs (see the video below). That’s exceptional when you consider that the nation’s arsenal is mostly lend-leased from other countries. 

Milrem, the company that makes the THeMIS UGV, recently announced that the German Ministry of Defence ordered 14 of its vehicles to be sent to the Ukrainian forces for immediate use. According to Stronell, these vehicles will not be armed. They’re equipped for casualty evacuation, and for finding and removing landmines and similar devices. 

Milrem Robotics’ THeMIS UGVs used in a live-fire manned-unmanned teaming exercise – YouTube

But it’s also safe to say that the troops on the ground will find other uses for them. As anyone who’s ever deployed to a combat zone can tell you, space is at a premium and there’s no point in bringing more than you can carry.

The THeMIS, however, is outfitted with Milrem’s “Intelligence Function Kit,” which includes the “follow me” ability. This means that it would make for an excellent battle mule to haul ammo and other gear. And there’s certainly nothing stopping anyone from rekitting the THeMIS with combat modules or simply strapping a homemade autonomous weapon system to the top of it.

D.I.Y. Scrap Metal Auto-Turret (RaspberryPi Auto-Tracking Airsoft Sentry?!) – YouTube

On-the-job training

As much as the world fears the dawning of the age of killer robots in warfare, the current technology just simply isn’t there yet. Stronell waved off the idea that a dozen or so UGVs could, for example, be outfitted as killer guard robots that could be deployed in the defense of strategic points. Instead, he described a hybrid human/machine paradigm referred to as “manned-unmanned teaming, or M-UMT,” where-in, as described above, unmounted infantry address the battlefield with machine support. 

In the time since the M-16 was mass-adopted during an ongoing conflict, the world’s militaries have refined the methodology they use to deploy new technologies. Currently, the war in Ukraine is teaching us that autonomous vehicles are useful in support roles.

The simple fact of the matter is that we’re already exceptionally good at killing each other when it comes to war. And it’s still cheaper to train a human to do everything a soldier needs to do than it is to build massive weapons platforms for every bullet we want to send downrange. The actual military need for “killer robots” is likely much lower than the average civilian might expect. 

However, AI’s gifts when it comes to finding needles in haystacks, for example, make it the perfect recon unit, but soldiers have to do a lot more than just identify the enemy and pull a trigger.

However, that’s something that will surely change as AI technology matures. Which is why, Stronell told us, other European countries are either currently in the process of adopting autonomous weaponry or already have. 

In the Netherlands, for example, the Royal Army has engaged in training ops in Lithuania to test their own complement of THeMIS units in what they’re referring to as a “pseudo-operational” theater. Due to the closeness of the war in Ukraine and its ongoing nature, nearby nations are able to run analogous military training operations based on up-to-the-minute intel of the ongoing conflict. In essence, the rest of Europe’s watching what Ukraine and Russia do with their robots and simulating the war at home. 

Soldiers in the Netherlands Royal Army in front of a Netherlands Royal Air Force AH-64 Apache helicopter, credit: Wikicommons

This represents an intel bonanza for the related technologies and there’s no telling how much this period of warfare will advance things. We could see innumerable breakthroughs in both military and civilian artificial intelligence technology as the lessons learned from this war begin to filter out. 

To illustrate this point, it bears mention that Russia’s put out a one million ruble bounty (about €15,000) to anyone who captures a Milrem THeMIS unit from the battlefield in Ukraine. These types of bounties aren’t exactly unusual during war times, but the fact that this particular one was so publicized is a testament to how desperate Russia is to get its hands on the technology. 

An eye toward the future

It’s clear that not only is the war in Ukraine not a place where we’ll see “killer robots” deployed enmasse to overwhelm their fragile, human, enemy soldier counterparts, but that such a scenario is highly unlikely in any form of modern warfare.

However, when it comes to augmenting our current forces with UGVs or replacing crewed aerial and surface recon vehicles with robots, military leaders are excited about AI’s potential usefulness. And what we’re seeing right now in the war in Ukraine is the most likely path forward for the technology. 

That’s not to say that the world shouldn’t be worried about killer robots or their development and proliferation through wartime usage. We absolutely should be worried, because Russia’s war in Ukraine has almost certainly lowered the world’s inhibitions surrounding the development of autonomous weapons. 

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UC Berkeley Releases Report on Safety in Social VR

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We’d all like to be safe in social VR experiences. Barring the human race one day waking up and unanimously deciding to be decent to one another, how might this future come about? One potential solution is robust, clear, accessible community guidelines from platforms. But, what might those look like?

VR researcher Rafi Lazerson recently published a paper with the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cyber Security, titled  “A Secure and Equitable Metaverse: Designing Effective Community Guidelines for Social VR.” The paper breaks down what harms can look like in social VR environments as well as what shape community guidelines for those environments should look like to prevent and address those harms.

Learning From the Past?

The paper’s introduction presents a provocative question:

“Will social VR platforms proactively develop clear community guidelines at this early stage of user adoption, or will their process follow the slow, opaque, and reactive trajectories that were typical of 2D social media platforms?”

Secure Equitable Metaverse - Report - safety in social VR

The paper draws on industry and academic research, academic literature, media reports, and the existing community guidelines of both 2D and VR social platforms. It takes a particularly close look at Meta’s guidelines for both its 2D and its social VR experiences. This is a handy example but it also comes with a message to Meta:

“Well-funded corporations have a disproportionate impact on the formation of the metaverse and on norms within social VR, and therefore have a responsibility to lead the industry in developing responsible policies and practices.”

Harms in Social VR

“Embodiment removes the sense of separation and distinction between the user and the avatar, contributing to interactions between the users that feel real and present,” wrote Lazerson. “To the user, any VR world, even the fantastical, can feel real and present due to avatar embodiment, world-immersion, and synchronous conduct-based interactions.”

This won’t present an entirely new idea to most readers, but it is central to this work in particular and to this whole body of work. It means that misconduct can be more difficult to identify because it might not be recorded in the way that most social media interactions are. It also means that the interactions are worth taking seriously even though they happen in a “game.”

“Experiences of harassment in VR have been described as comparable to in-person harassment,” wrote Lazerson. “As haptic gloves, suits, and other VR immersion hardware become a common part of VR use, experiences of harassment may feel increasingly indistinguishable from in-person harassment.”

What’s more than that, many of the forms of harassment that we know and hate from traditional social media – based on race, religion, gender, and other factors – are already being reported in VR even to such a degree that some users report hiding aspects of their identities in order to avoid it. The problem compounds as immersive tech is increasingly used for work and wellness.

“The inability of some users to present as themselves in or even enter into social VR without fear could have severe health and economic ramifications,” wrote Lazerson.

So, how do we preserve these environments as safe spaces for everyone?

Effective Community Guidelines

According to Lazerson, effective community safety practices consist of three main components:

  • Policy
    • External communication of expectations to users;
    • Internal communication of policies to moderators;
  • Product
    • User tools;
    • Moderator tools;
    • Educational tools;
    • Invisible safety tools (age-gating of select experiences, etc.).
  • Operations
    • The means by which policy is enforced through product.

It can be difficult for anyone other than a platform maintainer or moderator to see all of these pieces working together or to gauge how effective they are. However, one item on that list, outward-facing policy, is easy to see. So, how do Meta’s community guidelines work as a model for social VR experiences generally?

Are Meta’s Social VR Guidelines Sufficient?

A theme throughout this paper – and the realm of metaverse safety generally – is that immersive platforms can learn from conventional social media while recognizing that immersive content is different and accommodating those differences. According to Lazerson, one of Meta’s biggest problems may be that its immersive policies don’t come with Facebook’s existing safeguards.

“There is no single list of public-facing community guidelines for users to follow in Meta’s social VR. There are at least two, perhaps three: the Horizon Policy, the Conduct in VR Policy, and possibly the Facebook Community Standards,” Lazerson wrote. “There is a significant amount of ambiguity regarding where each of the aforementioned Meta community guidelines applies in VR.”

Lazerson isn’t only here to criticize. He closes the paper with recommendations to all immersive platforms. These include accessible, transparent, specific, and comprehensive guidelines using existing social media guidelines as a “baseline.” He also recommends platforms work with each other on policy “to ensure that no forms of harm are overlooked.”

For full recommendations, find the full report available for free here.

Be Good

It’s unfortunate that we need things like community guidelines – long documents detailing ways that people aren’t allowed to be mean to each other. Ideally, immersive worlds would play out like the world that we live in – in which most people are just impulsively decent to one another.

But, for whatever reason, social VR can be an uncomfortable space. It also has great beauty and can be a place where we share knowledge, experience, and just have fun. It’s up to each of us to help bring out the best in this medium. So read the guidelines, follow them, encourage others to follow them, and encourage your favorite platform to use them well.

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Adobe’s VR 3D Modeling Tool Now Available on New Headsets, Quest Support Planned

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Adobe’s VR modeling tool, Substance 3D Modeler, is now available on Steam, bringing with it support for Valve’s Index headset and possibly others.

Adobe released 3D Modeler as part of its ‘Substance’ suite of applications last year. The application supports VR and non-VR modes. In VR, users can intuitively ‘sculpt’ 3D models to their liking, then pull them into the 2D mode for refinements and use with the rest of the Substance suite (or vice versa).

When the app first launched it only supported Meta VR headsets through the Oculus PC software. Now Substance 3D Modeler has launched on Steam, bringing official support for Valve Index and its controllers for the first time.

Ostensibly the app should work just fine through Steam on Meta headsets as well, and other SteamVR headsets may work with the app too, assuming users can create the correct bindings for their controllers (though Adobe is not claiming official support for any other headsets at this time). Sources tell us that official support for Vive wands could be coming in the future.

Unlike Substance 3D Modeler bought through Adobe’s Creative Cloud platform (which is only offered as a subscription) the Steam version is a one-time purchase with updates promised through the end of 2023. Though priced regularly at $150, the Adobe is offering a limited time ‘introductory offer’ of $100 (30% discount) on Steam for the next two days.

As announced previously Adobe still expects to bring Substance 3D Modeler to Quest as a standalone application next year.

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Psst, automating these 3 parts of your business is the best thing you can do right now

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Content provided by IBM and TNW

Thanks to the convergence of several trends and changes across different markets and industries, automation is becoming a critical factor in the success of businesses and products. Advances in artificial intelligence, in parallel with the accelerating digitization of all aspects of business, are creating plenty of opportunities to automate operations, reduce waste, and increase efficiency.

From managing your Information Technology (IT) bill to finding bottlenecks in your business processes and taking control of your own network operations, here are three areas where companies can gain from applying automation.

1. IT automation

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Practically every large organization has IT. Even small companies that don’t have in-house IT staff may pay for another company to do it for them. The growing demand for IT can put extra strain on professionals who must deal with the ever-expanding and changing landscape of application and compute platforms.

“I’ve never met an IT person or CIO who said they have so much time and budget that they can do everything the business asks and more. There’s always a shortage of ability to drive projects through IT,” says Bill Lobig, Vice President of IBM Automation Product Management.

The talent shortage is highlighting the need to provide automation tools to IT staff so they can manage application uptime and keep IT operations stable.

Fortunately, advances in artificial intelligence are helping companies move toward smart automation by gathering and processing all sorts of structured and unstructured data.

“We’re seeing companies have more confidence in applying AI to a broader set of data, including log files and metrics and information that are spinning off of the systems that are running in your business (databases, app servers, Kubernetes, VMs),” Lobig says.

Previously, IT experts may have optimized their infrastructure through informed judgments and overprovisioning their resources. Now, they can take the guesswork out of their decisions by using AI to analyze the data of the IT infrastructure, find patterns, estimate usage, and optimize their resources.

For example, J.B. Hunt, a logistics and transportation company, uses IBM Turbonomic software to automate the scaling of its cloud and on-premise resources. For their on-premises environment, J.B. Hunt is automating all non-disruptive actions 24×7 and scaling non-production actions during a nightly maintenance window.

“Workloads scale and spike—it’s not static. No matter how much performance testing and capacity you put into sizing an application deployment, it’s a guess, albeit an educated one. You don’t really know how your customers’ workloads are going to vary across different times,” Lobig says.

In their public cloud environment, the J.B. Hunt team has been using a combination of recommendations and automated actions to manage their resources. Over the course of 12 months, Turbonomic executed nearly 2,000 resizing actions which—assuming manual intervention requires 20 minutes per action—freed up over 650 hours of the team’s time to focus on strategic initiatives.

2. Business processes

Business processes are another area that can gain from advances in AI and automation. The previous wave of automation in business processes was mostly driven by robotic process automation (RPA). While RPA has had a tremendous effect on productivity, like other solutions, it has limits too.

RPA only addresses tasks that you think need automation. It can automate a poorly designed process but can’t optimize it. It also can’t handle tasks that can’t be defined through deterministic rules. This is where “process and task mining” enter the picture. According to Lobig:

RPA executes scripts to automate what you tell it to do. It’s very deterministic and rigid in what it can do, automating highly repeatable tasks. Process and task mining find inefficiencies you can’t see.

Process and task mining can answer questions such as, is your business really running the way you think it is? Is everyone completing processes in the same way? What should you optimize first? It helps you get past the low-hanging fruit and find the hidden inefficiencies of your business that can also be addressed with automation.

3. Networking

In the past, networking was a specialized hardware-based discipline largely controlled by big telecommunications companies. Today, the networking ecosystem is more complex as enterprises now require ubiquitous application distribution in a hybrid multi-cloud environment, from customer prem, to edge, to private and public clouds.

The challenge is deploying and connecting all application endpoints at scale. Networks must be agile and dynamic to maintain application performance, availability, security and user experience. Today’s networks, however, face unprecedented challenges that can render them unresponsive and unadaptable to change. Enterprise and service providers can address those needs, delivering custom enterprise network value with self-service enterprise control.

Organizations can now own and manage their networking functions and end-to-end connectivity without being experts in switches, routers, radio-access networks, and other hardware.

“Networking has become just another part of the application supply chain (like databases, VMs, and containers) that companies are already running. Why not have your network be part of your full IT landscape so that you can apply AI to optimize it?” Lobig says.

For example, consider a large multinational bank that provides its customers access to their accounts overseas through ATM machines. The company previously outsourced network connectivity to a big telco. When the telco faced an outage in one country where the bank provided service, the customers could not access their funds. Although the bank didn’t have control over the networking service, it was fined for the outage.

Now, thanks to software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and automation and orchestration tools such as IBM’s AIOps solutions and IBM SevOne Network Performance Management, the bank can assume control of its own software-defined network, instead of shifting such an important responsibility to another company. New application-centric network connectivity can enhance those capabilities. This can drive enhanced security, intelligent observability, and service assurance, while providing a common way to manage networks across the diversity of infrastructure, tools, and security constructs.

Another area of networking that will provide new opportunities for automation is 5G.

“A lot of people think about 5G as a faster networking technology. But 5G is going to transform and disrupt B2B use cases. It can really bring edge computing to the forefront,” Lobig says.

There’s an opportunity for organizations to leverage software-defined networking and 5G to unlock new business models where high-bandwidth, low latency, and local connectivity is crucial.

An example is DISH Wireless, a company that’s working with IBM to automate the first greenfield cloud-native 5G network in the US. DISH Wireless is using IBM’s network orchestration software and services to bring 5G network orchestration to its business and operations platforms. One application they’re working on is enabling logistics companies to track package locations down to the centimeter, thanks to edge connectivity, RFID tags, and network management software.

“We’re helping them do this with our telco and network computing automation, edge computing automation, and enabling them to set up state-of-the-art orchestration for their customers. These unexpected industries can use 5G to really transform how business gets done across different areas,” Lobig says.

Where is the industry headed?

Automation is quickly evolving and we’re bound to see many new applications in the coming months and years. For companies that are at the beginning of their automation journey, Lobig has a few tips.

In the business automation space, look at process and task mining. Do you really know where the time is being spent in your enterprise? Do you know how work is getting done? If you use this technology, you’ll be able to identify the patterns and sequence of events that go into good outcomes and those that go into bad outcomes. Armed with these insights, you can redesign and automate the processes that have the biggest impact upon your business.

Lobig also believes that IT automation will be a bigger theme in 2023 as the world faces an energy crisis and electricity costs potentially become an escalating problem. IT automation can help organizations to use the capacity they need, which may translate into savings.

IT automation can also be important in tackling the climate change crisis.

“These days, you can tell whether your organization’s data center or workload is running on a renewable energy source,” Lobig says. “With that data, IT automation has the potential to automatically move workloads from cloud to on-prem and back and across hyper-scalers to optimize for costs and efficiencies.”

As for the future, Lobig believes that low-code/no-code application platforms will play an important role in automation by enabling more employees to build the automations that can enhance productivity.

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Perkins Coie Releases 6th Annual Industry Report on Immersive Technology

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The sixth annual Perkins Coie XR Report is out. The theme: “The Rise of Web3 Technologies to Accelerate XR.” While some people are skeptical of some of the goings-on in Web3, new ideas about connecting people are putting immersive technology into a context that highlights its value.

Is Web3 the Same as the Metaverse?

So far, ARPost has been largely silent on the idea of “Web3” because it brings in a lot of ideas that aren’t really central to immersive technology while not necessarily bringing in the immersive technology itself. For a quick and dirty shortcut, some people define the metaverse as “the next generation of the internet” and that’s exactly what Web3 means.

However, the metaverse movement is more focused on spatial computing while the Web3 movement is more focused on the mechanics of publication and ownership. So, the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but they are also not exactly the same thing. This issue was addressed in the report’s executive statement both as it benefits and potentially harms XR:

“Accelerated by . . . the emergence of NextGen technologies like Web3 and the metaverse, XR has hit the mainstream. Yet, new audiences, technologies, and products bring new challenges. When we add in the economic volatility that has at least temporarily affected many in the tech industry, the question becomes: What does the future have in store for XR?”

Overall, almost all of the respondents (significantly more than last year) expect to see growth in the immersive technology market, but the growth that they expect to see is more modest. Just under half of all respondents expect widespread adoption of the metaverse and Web3 in the next five years.

Insights on Investment

More people talking at a more reasonable volume was a trend in this year’s report. For example, 70% of respondents said that they would increase spending on XR for remote collaboration and training “to a moderate extent.” Last year, 51% said that they would increase this category of spending “to a large extent.”

Another 36% of respondents said that they expected the pace of investment to be “slightly higher” this year, while 32% percent expected that it would stay the same. This is significantly lower than the numbers for a similar question in last year’s survey.

Given otherwise growing positive sentiment, this might be less a reflection on immersive technology and more a reflection on the current state of the economy. Not only is the enterprise world increasingly returning to something like normal in terms of how internal communication happens, but rising costs in other sectors may lead to decreasing experimental budgets.

There are also remaining barriers to adoption of immersive technology.

Barriers to Adopting Immersive Technology

“Roughly half of respondents named user experience (e.g. bulky headwear and technical glitches) and content offering (e.g. lack of quality content) as barriers to mass adoption,” says the report. “Respondents expressed less concern on these fronts than they did in 2021, indicating that they perceive that the industry is making substantial progress.”

Respondents also said that improving data security, improving infrastructure, and improving affordability could all help to attract more consumers. Respondents also revisited one of the most interesting portions of last year’s report: the question of whether consumers or developers have a better understanding of compelling content when it comes to immersive technology.

This year, 43% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that developers “do not yet understand what makes compelling content from a consumer standpoint” while 46% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that consumers don’t understand where or how to find compelling content. Both of these numbers are down from last year.

“Respondents’ top recommendations [for improving immersive technology content] were the same as in 2021: Produce more interactive and immersive content (52%), as well as content that is compatible across platforms (49%).”

Who Benefits (Really)?

One of the biggest questions around emerging technology is who stands to benefit the most. At least right now, when we’re still early and a lot of buy-in is relatively high, it stands to reason that “high-income individuals” are most likely to benefit. This was the top answer (58%) when respondents were polled about who benefits the most from XR and NextGen technology.

While a handful of tech companies are wooing consumers, a great deal of the energy in the space is directed toward enterprise. Desk workers are having meetings in VR, deskless workers are benefiting from AR-enabled remote assistance. So, it may not be surprising that half of the respondents listed working professionals as among those most likely to benefit.

So, we have an understanding of who is benefiting. But, who is really benefiting? Many in the emerging technology space are concerned that the market may be perpetuating some classic workplace problems, like the exclusion of women and marginalized racial or ethnic groups. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Just over half of the 150 respondents identified as being from minority/female-owned organizations. Of those respondents, nearly 80% agreed or strongly agreed that “funding for such founders is proportional to their white male peers.”

More People Talking

For much of XR’s history, a lot of the most meaningful sentiment has come from a fairly small number of people with particularly strong feelings.

One of the key takeaways of this report was that, while the immersive technology space still has its zealots, more people are warming up to the technology. This is potentially a huge sign of market maturity, even if it’s not the most exciting headline.

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Metaverse Safety Week 2022

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Last week saw the XR Safety Initiative’s third annual Metaverse Safety Week (formerly known as XR Safety Week). As ever, the week started on International Human Rights Day, December 10, and was followed by five days packed full of panels and talks, with each day having a different theme relating to safety in immersive environments.

We couldn’t attend all of the Metaverse Safety Week sessions live or watch the feeds fast enough to keep up with everything. But, this article presents some highlights of the event.

Kavya Pearlman’s Welcome to Metaverse Safety Week

Of course, the event started with an introduction by XRSI founder Kavya Pearlman. Pearlman addressed the audience through her AltspaceVR avatar in the virtual model of the Taj Mahal custom-made for the event by the design studio Chicken Waffle.

“On the seventy-fourth Human Rights Day, we’ve assembled world leaders, technology professionals, global regulators, policy experts, ethicists, ethics organizations, researchers, and under-represented voices,” said Pearlman. “Metaverse Safety Week is so important as a point of reflection for all of us. We’re bringing the world together to safeguard the metaverse.”

The “Pong” Version of the Metaverse

The first topic of discussion was Dr. Louis Rosenberg’s video on the metaverse for More Perfect Union. Following the video, Rosenberg appeared on stage to further address some of the key topics in metaverse safety.

“When thinking about human rights for the metaverse, I think it’s useful to just set the context a little bit into the future – think about the 2030s. I say that because the work we do today is really preparing us for the future,” said Rosenberg. “Today is really the ‘Pong’ version of the metaverse.”

A little later in the day, HTC’s China President and Global VP of Corporate Development, Alvin Wang Graylin, took the stage. Graylin’s presentation focused on lessons learned of immersive technology. According to Graylin, today’s excitement is the result of related technologies developing together – a condition which creates opportunities for good and bad.

“As an industry, we need to make sure to educate the world as well as watch out for bad actors and keep them from doing the wrong things,” said Graylin. “Instead of trying to create a closed world and take value off the table, we really need to work together to create open worlds that are interoperable.”

This same day saw the announcement of the XR 2030 Policy Fund from the Minderoo Foundation. The program “will award funding to researchers and civil society leaders who are advancing the next generation of digital media ecosystems to prioritize public interest values.”

Building a “Super World”

Day two opened with a discussion led by SuperWorld’s Hrish Lotlikar. Lotlikar told ARPost last summer that he wants the platform to be “the gateway” between the physical and the virtual worlds. At Metaverse Safety Week, he was addressing how emerging technologies can work together to make individuals feel more attached to the world around them.

“The importance of decentralization is that it allows us all to become stakeholders in the environments that we’re playing in, that we’re working in, that we’re building together,” said Lotlikar. “At SuperWorld, our vision is to enhance society and build a better world – and we can do that with these technologies.”

That morning also saw the launch of the “Metaverse for All” certificate program. Launching next year, the program will provide “An informative and enlightening course to shed light on the many ways in which the metaverse will change the world.”

How the Metaverse Will Impact the Young

Day three was all about metaverse safety for children and it kicked off with a talk by Representative Lori Trahan. Despite it being her first time in AltspaceVR, Trahan’s talk was moving.

XRSI- metaverse safety week - lori trahan

“Whenever we access the metaverse, data about ourselves can be stored, accessed, and used by people who will pay for our data to influence and manipulate us in real time. And, as we all know by now, it could even be shared with third parties and governments without our knowledge,” said Trahan. “That’s why we must pass comprehensive privacy legislation.”

Trahan pointed out that, while data is a common metaverse safety concern in the immersive technology community, it is an issue largely outside of the experiences themselves. We also need to be mindful of interactions within the immersive experiences as they occur.

“The high levels of harassment in social media and in video games have already become prevalent in the metaverse,” said Trahan. “In fact, the harms we know all too well from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat can often be seen in the metaverse where immersion and a sense of physical presence can make these negative experiences even more visceral.”

And the Young Said…

Later that same day, a “Youth Panel” took the stage. The panel consisted of five members of the International Child Art Foundation (ICAF) between the ages of 13 and 23, and was moderated by the Foundation’s founder Ashfaq M. Ishaq. The panel presented a rare opportunity to hear young people speak for themselves on metaverse safety issues like the efficacy of age restrictions.

One speaker pointed out that, in her experience, VR motion sickness went away as she got older – so not exposing children to VR too young might help to give them a positive first impression. Another pointed out that age restrictions might be less helpful than a system of content warnings for VR experiences similar to those for films and television programs.

Perhaps the most engaging takeaway was that the metaverse might be about games or work for most people reading this but, for a growing number of young people, it’s also about socialization. That can introduce potential metaverse safety issues without immediate solutions.

“Not forming relationships through the metaverse is no longer an option. We have to rely on these new connections that we’re making to be able to reach out,” said ICAF member Alaalitya Acharya. “When you’re interacting with somebody through an avatar, what are some of the signs that you need to look out for in the same way as when you meet someone face-to-face?”

So. Much. Content.

We tried to bring you just about as much as possible from Metaverse Safety Week. And there’s so much more that would have been worth presenting. But alas, five days of sessions averaging about eight hours each doesn’t really fit into an article. If you want to explore it yourself, you can find the recordings on XRSI’s YouTube channel.

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5 job hunting tips to get your dream role in 2023

Design & Dev, House of Talent, Tech / /

As the new year approaches, many of us are thinking of moving into a new role or career in 2023. It’s an exciting time to try something new. But, don’t let the labor shortage fool you, the job market is more competitive than ever.

While there are plenty of opportunities out there, particularly in the tech sector, the rise of remote working also means that job seekers in 2023 will be competing against a global talent pool.

Two candidates may be equally qualified, but one will have the edge over the other because they know how to present that experience in the most effective––and relevant––way. Along with nailing the perfect CV, there are lots of steps you can take to maximize your employment chances.

Here are five tricks to help you land your dream job.

1. Get to grips with ATS keywords

While it might not be true that recruiters only look at a CV for six seconds, there are other challenges to getting your application noticed. Enter: Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

Businesses are using this software to filter or rank applications (99% of Fortune 500 Companies are believed to use ATS) and, if your application doesn’t contain the right search terms, it may not be picked up.

ATS keywords are specific words or phrases that employers have identified as requirements for a role. Keep them in mind as you tailor your application to each job you apply for. Match keywords and job titles from the job listing and keep the formatting of your CV simple and clear.

2. Focus on specifics

Whether it’s on a CV, an application, or in an interview, get specific about your achievements. Identify the headlines, as it were, of your job experience. It could be that successful project, that key client win, or that growth in revenue that helps you stand out.

You don’t have to embellish what you’ve achieved, this is about contextualizing it for potential new employers. Having topline stats, achievements, or successes to share can also highlight your transferable skills if you’re hoping to move into a new area.

3. Update your online presence

Your online presence can have a bigger impact than you may think. Considering how you represent “Brand You” online can provide new opportunities to showcase why you’re the best person for the job.

Update your LinkedIn profile to full effect. Recruiters scout for talent on LinkedIn, so make sure you have an up-to-date work history, achievements, and other relevant information. Share your work and successes on your Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms.

4. Network for the long term

Networking doesn’t have to be as blunt as trying to land a new job through someone directly. Consider it an exercise in making connections, and don’t forget about mutually beneficial networking. Perhaps you can connect two people who can help each other out? Developing a good reputation and a professional network of contacts can only be a good thing.

If you’re trying to break into a new area, ask to meet a mentor or someone you admire for a coffee. Make it clear it’s just a chat and you don’t expect anything. You may pick up some valuable advice, and they may remember you if an opportunity does arise.

5. Keep track of opportunities

Job boards are a fantastic place to begin your job search. Sign up to mailing lists and join online groups related to the areas you’re interested in. Follow key people on social media and keep an eye on what they share and post.

While there may not be actual job listings, it’s good research and will keep you up-to-date on your industry. You never know when the ideal opportunity might pop up. And when it comes to job sites, bookmark them and commit time to checking them regularly for new postings and insights into potential employers.

If you’re considering a move in the new year, there are three interesting job opportunities below. Be sure to check out the House of Talent Job Board for thousands of available job openings.

Data Science Lead, Accenture, Dublin

Accenture is a global professional services company working across disciplines including digital, cloud, and security. This role sits within The Dock’s Havoc team, which is made up of 60 entrepreneurial problem solvers and based in Dublin, Ireland. You’ll own, drive, and execute the team’s data science strategy, and work to identify data science opportunities within client projects. You should have strong academic qualifications in a relevant field and experience in data science applications is also a must. Looking for a different opportunity? Check out further roles with Accenture here.

Software Asset Manager, WPP, London

WPP is a creative transformation company and offers clients a range of communications, experience, commerce, and technology services. In this London-based role you’ll be responsible for operating the Software Asset Management (SAM) practice to optimise WPP’s asset base and manage/reduce risk. The successful applicant will need to have experience working in an IT asset management role and in working with ITAM or CMDB tools. Expertise in end-to-end SAM ownership for vendors such as IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, and VMware is also a must. WPP is also hiring for a number of other roles, which you can find here.

Backend Engineer, Purchase Risk Management, Zalando, Berlin

Ecommerce fashion platform Zalando connects customers, brands, and partners across 23 markets. This backend engineer position sits within a dynamic and diverse group of engineers and applied scientists. The role offers the opportunity to work on cutting edge projects, improve Zalando’s operational excellence and shape the team’s way of working. You’ll need up to three years experience as a backend engineer for cloud-based technologies––preferably on AWS––and knowledge of object oriented programming such as Java and Python. Zalando has even more opportunities here.

To find your next career adventure and discover even more exciting job opportunities browse The House of Talent Job Board today

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Europe’s first-ever exascale supercomputer will launch in Germany next year

Next Featured, Tech / /
Europe’s first-ever exascale supercomputer will launch in Germany next year

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Story by

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives. Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives.

JUPITER is set to become the first European supercomputer to make the leap into the exascale era. This means, it’ll be capable of performing more than an exaflop (or 1 quintillion) operations per second. In other words, the device’s computing power will surpass that of 5 million laptops or PCs combined.

The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), which is being behind the project, has now signed a hosting agreement with the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) in Germany, where JUPITER will be located.

Under the terms of the agreement, JUPITER (which stands for “Joint Undertaking Pioneer for Innovative and Transformative Exascale Research”) will be installed on the campus of the Forschungszentrum Jülich research institute in 2023. The machine will be operated by the JSC.

This new supercomputer will be backed by a €500million budget, split equally between the EuroHPC JU and German federal and state sources.

JUWELS supercomputer Germany
Germany’s fastest supercomputer, JUWELS. Credit: Forschungszentrum Jülich / Sascha Kreklau

A major technological milestone for Europe

JUPITER’s remarkable power will support the development of high-precision models of complex systems. The machine will be used to analyse key societal issues in Europe, such as health, biology, climate, energy, security, and materials. It will also support intensive use of AI and analysis of enormous data volumes.

Experts expect the computer to improve research quality (while reducing costs), and integrate future technologies such as quantum computing.  The device will be available to a wide range of European users in the scientific community, industry, and public sector.

Along with its outstanding computing power, JUPITER will feature a dynamic, modular architecture, which will enable optimal use of the various computing modules used during complex simulations. Notably, JUPITER has been designed as a “green” supercomputer and will be powered by green electricity, supported by a warm water cooling system. At the same time, its average power consumption is anticipated to be up to 15 megawatts — approximately six megawatts less than the US Frontier exascale supercomputer.

Upon completion, JUPITER will become the ninth (and best) supercomputer the EuroHPC JU has provided to Europe. Three are expected to be available shortly, and five are already operational. Among them is LUMI, which has been ranked the fastest in the EU and third fastest in the world.

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GraphQL could be the key to taming the API explosion

Apps, Design & Dev, Future of Work, Tech / /

Application development has a long history of quick evolution and transformation, perhaps faster than any other industry. The tools we use to create and host our applications are constantly changing.

The fast developments in programming tools provide plenty of opportunities to create software for companies of different sizes, industries, and budgets. However, the added flexibility and diversity of tools — as well as the constantly changing landscape — also introduce their own set of challenges.

Developers must be able to create their apps in ways that can adapt to the scale and changes that their organization, customers, and infrastructure undergo. Fortunately, with the shift toward graph-based programming, companies will be much better equipped to maintain their agility as they continuously grow and adapt to the needs of their customers.

The challenges of modern application development

One of the blessings — and curses — of modern application development is the many options you have.

You can choose between running your application on your own servers, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model. You can use a serverless model, where a cloud provider manages your server in the background and you focus on functionality, or choose a containerized model, where your application is packaged into a docker file. You can choose between different models of data hosting and storage, including data warehouses and data lakes. And you can make these and many other choices for each component of your application.

The benefit of this powerful variety of computing and storage platforms is that you can adjust your application according to the needs of your customers and your organization. However, the downside is the added complexity that comes with communicating with the many different service APIs that support your application.

GraphQL helps developers communicate with APIs through flexible and structured data queries.

“Many applications must communicate with dozens, even hundreds of services during runtime. In some cases, every application update (mobile, web, etc.) requires hundreds of API calls to different services,” says Peggy Rayzis, Sr. Director of Developer Experience at Apollo Graph, Inc. “This requires a huge and complicated effort by developers, who must ensure all these different services are compatible and can interoperate.”

The added complexity also makes it difficult to iterate, add or modify features, or change the underlying infrastructure. In each case, redundant implementations and inconsistencies between services force developers to go through intensive changes in their code to connect all the old and new services.

Graph-based programming to the rescue

One of the trends helping developers tackle the complexity of the application ecosystem is graph-based programming. Graph-based programming enables developers to add a data schema layer between their application and the API services that run behind the scenes. This layer of abstraction decouples these parts and enables them to evolve without causing major disruptions in each other.

“Basically, the idea is that you add an intermediate layer that enables your application to interact with your data entities by querying a graph,” Rayzis says. “The graph layer is uniform and flexible, regardless of what kind of infrastructure is working behind the scenes, whether it’s an on-prem server, a cloud VM, a REST API, a data warehouse, or a serverless function such as AWS Lambda.”

Graph-based programming was popularized by GraphQL, a data-query language introduced by Facebook in 2015. GraphQL helps developers communicate with APIs through flexible and structured data queries. This makes it easier for the developer to focus on the data schema and logic of the application and also maintain the stability of the application as the APIs evolve and change.

We’re seeing 30% of fortune 500 companies building their apps on the supergraph.

Companies and applications of different sizes can benefit from graph-based programming. Rayzis says:

Regardless of size and structure, every application can benefit from graph-based development. As your app grows or your data infrastructure changes, your graph remains consistent and remains tied to the logic of your app.

For example, Walmart used GraphQL to create a federated schema of different entities used across their different applications and services offered on web and mobile. With GraphQL, they could remove a lot of the code being replicated across their APIs, unify their applications, and become much more agile in rolling out features and improving the user experience.

The next generation of graph-based tools

“What we found over our six-plus years working with developers implementing GraphQL at scale is that its flexibility is its greatest strength, but it can also lead to some negative consequences if it isn’t implemented in a principled way,” Rayzis says.

These limitations led to the idea of the supergraph, Apollo’s special implementation of GraphQL. The supergraph goes beyond the basic benefits of GraphQL, which are to replace data-fetching and backend for frontend (BFF) code with schema and queries. It brings together a company’s data, microservices, and digital capabilities, creating a unified composition layer for the whole organization. The supergraph architecture is built on Apollo’s open technology, Apollo Federation. Apollo also provides GraphOS, a cloud-based platform of tools with an edge runtime and schema delivery pipeline for the supergraph. According to Rayzis:

The supergraph allows you to distribute the graph schema across different teams and different services, but then unify it together into one interface for the client. It’s about solving real customer problems. It’s based on our years of experience, helping customers implement GraphQL. And really, the main principles are that it’s one unified layer, built-in modules that you can evolve over time.

One of the companies that have benefited from the supergraph is Booking.com, one of the world’s largest online travel agencies. Booking.com has been around since 1996 and is thus running a lot of legacy code and infrastructure. This makes it very challenging to change the software architecture, especially as the company employs thousands of engineers and needs to make sure they can collaborate safely.

Thanks to the flexibility and versatility of the supergraph, Booking.com was able to make a phased transition to GraphQL without breaking any of their services. As they gradually rolled out the supergraph across the organization, the engineers and managers realized its benefits and helped accelerate the transition. The full adoption of the supergraph has enabled Booking.com to ship 40% faster, sometimes doubling the speed at which they’re releasing features. At the same time, they’ve managed to considerably reduce mistakes and breaking changes.

“We’re seeing 30% of fortune 500 companies building their apps on the supergraph. And I think that number is only going to increase in the years to come,” Rayzis says.

It’s going to dramatically lower the barrier for app development and make it so that more developers can create apps. It’s going to continue to reduce the time needed to create those apps. And so by making it more approachable, and reducing that time, you’re going to see even more innovation.

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European startups in residential solar have raised over €500 million in 2022

Next Featured, Tech / /

Over the past year, the skyrocketing fuel prices across Europe have increased consumer interest in alternative sources of energy, such as solar power. And as demand has been on the rise, 2022 was a good funding year for startups focusing on providing photovoltaic (PV) technology to residential customers.

Specifically, European startups in the sector have raised over €488 million — and that’s excluding the €855-million debt funding round attracted by Berlin-based unicorn Enpal.

Notably, 86.4% of the amount has been injected in German-based startups, including 1Komma5°, Zolar, Sunhero, Enpal, Einhundert, and Sunvigo.

1Komma5° has received the highest funding throughout the year at €200 million. Founded in 2021, the company has secured high-tier investors such as Porsche and is introducing an interesting business strategy: aggregating individual companies that offer solar services and bundling them together.

Beyond Germany, residential solar tech companies that have seen an increase in capital are also active in Spain (Samara), Sweden (Sunroof), Norway (Otovo), Estonia (Solarstone), and the UK (Naked Energy, Solivus).

Among them, Spain-based Samara offers another interesting case. Founded in the summer of 2022, the startup has managed to raise €6.4 million within six months.

The company uses software to develop a comprehensive, customer-centered solution, ranging from the installation of solar panels to EV chargers. The technology enables users to preview solar panel installation through a 3D model, estimate energy savings, and calculate their positive environmental impact through a decrease in CO2 emissions.

What all the companies have in common is the aim to enable the transition to solar energy by focusing on affordability and convenience: from easy installation practices and maintenance services to customizable options and energy monitoring tools.

Overall, 2022 has enabled startups in the space to attract even more capital, demonstrating their potential to provide better services to consumers, and in turn, promote further the switch to solar power.

And as Europe is pushing for the adoption of sustainable forms of energy, we can expect that solar tech startups will see higher investment in the coming year.

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Riga Metacity: A State-Supported Initiative Set to Become One of Europe’s Largest Metaverse Projects

featured, metaverse, News / /

With the increasing interest in the concept of “Metacity” across the globe, it is clear that the metaverse is shaping the cities of the future. The United States, China, Singapore, Japan, and other countries are developing Metacities where immersive technologies are integrated into how cities work and the way people live.

While Europe struggles to establish itself as a leader in emerging technologies, it is fast gaining ground in helping shape the future of virtual worlds.

In a letter of intent by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU specifies a Europe fit for the digital age as one of its key initiatives for 2023. It notes that initiatives on virtual worlds, such as the metaverse, are among its priorities next year.

Aside from this, a more concrete action toward building Europe’s Metacities is already underway in Latvia.

Riga, Latvia, Chosen as the Bed of Metacity Development in Europe

Based on a study by Cambridge Executive MBA students, the capital city of Latvia has the potential to become the next successful Megacity in Europe. The city was chosen based on its existing connectivity infrastructure, partners, innovators, and political will.

With 5G base stations across the region, Riga boasts a strong cellular network ranked 5th in Europe in terms of internet speed. It’s also well-connected within the Baltics, making it easily accessible to other cities and countries.

Aside from the solid infrastructure, the city also has a strong technical university that has become a hotbed for innovators. Along with local technology companies and a well-connected community, Riga becomes an ideal setting for metaverse deployment and adoption.

Riga Signs a Memorandum With Industry Partners at 5G Techritory Forum

Earlier this year, Riga launched a state-supported initiative to develop its own metaverse. It is set to undertake the immense challenge of creating a city-level testbed of Metaverse applications with practical use cases that benefit citizens and enterprises.

To put the Riga Metacity initiative into action, Riga signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 5G Techritory Forum. Twenty-two industry partners signed the MoU to mark their commitment to the metaverse project.

“I congratulate us that, with our signatures, we have now expressed our willingness and readiness to be not just talkers, but also doers,” said Neils Kalniņš, 5G Techritory Program Director. “Already this January, we will come together to discuss how we can create practical applications for the Metaverse. A safe and green future of the Metaverse will be Latvia’s contribution to the world, and I look forward to it.”

Riga Metacity - Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 5G Techritory Forum

The key aim of this memorandum is to establish a central authority on XR that will coordinate the development of the Metacity. After which, all other activities and procedural steps will be decided and undertaken including the platform regulations, sourcing of funds, coordinating development, and much more.

Riga Metacity: Driving Forward the Future of XR in Europe

The Riga Metacity initiative is one of the first and largest Metaverse projects in Europe. It is expected to attract a sizeable share of the estimated $1,500 billion market size by 2030 which will greatly benefit the local community and government.

However, the benefits go far beyond the city. With this initiative, Riga drives forward extended reality research, technology, and applications across Europe. The regional initiative and development are also expected to accelerate the overall competitiveness of the European Union. It opens an opportunity to develop capabilities to maintain high economic growth and drive the future of XR forward.

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