Author name: Mike M.

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How travel businesses can leverage generative AI solutions

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How travel businesses can leverage generative AI solutions

Singapore Tourism Board

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Singapore Tourism Board

Everyone is talking about the potential of generative AI as buzzworthy tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E make the headlines. But just what is generative AI and is there actually a use for these tools within the tourism sector?

First of all, it’s important to note that, although ChatGPT is one of the most popular examples of generative AI on the market right now, there are many examples of tools employing this technology. Second, while the adoption of AI in general has been growing, this technology represents a new leap forward. Generative AI is seen as a breakthrough within the AI space because it goes beyond simply identifying and categorising past data, and uses this information to create original content.

For example, DALL-E and Midjourney have taken the design world by storm, being able to generate unique images in just a few clicks.

Generative AI has also helped to improve chatbots. Rather than spitting out simple, formulaic answers, this technology can analyse customers’ queries at a deeper level and generate more personalised responses, increasing both accuracy and response rate.

One important misconception to keep in mind is that these tools are not necessarily free. For example, while a free version of ChatGPT is available, OpenAI (the company behind the tool) recently introduced ChatGPT Plus with unlimited access and additional features for businesses which costs $20 USD a month. Other generative AI ventures, from advanced chatbots to generative design layouts, will likely include a price tag from the startups and design firms employing this technology. However, if used early and strategically, generative AI could help give your business a leg above the competition.

Let’s dive deeper into the specific opportunities this technology could present to the tourism sector including improving customer experience, reach, security, and more.

Leverage generative AI to transform venue design

One way the hospitality, MICE, and attractions industries can leverage this technology is by taking advantage of its generative design capabilities to come up with new layouts and concepts, and design for specific needs like security or minimising congestion.

Whether you want to redesign your hotel lobby to increase foot traffic to the spa and other amenities or you have a sustainability-focused redesign in mind, these smart tools can be used as a jumping off point. By inputting parameters such as square footage, location, target audience, and style, generative AI can be used to automatically create multiple design options for a hotel’s interior and exterior.

By analysing behaviour and purchase history, this tech can create dynamic customer segments.

MICE and attractions planners can also use this technology to design layout concepts that are optimised to encourage traffic flow and minimise congestion or security risks. Using generative AI can help professionals be more time and resource efficient, automating certain aspects of the planning process, while providing a variety of event and attraction design options with visitor demographics and venue characteristics in mind.

Virtual tours can also be developed using generative AI, creating immersive and interactive experiences for potential guests, attendees, and visitors in significantly less time. For example, imagine being able to explore a hotel’s facilities and amenities online before booking.

Generative design studios are just taking off in Singapore. For example, Digital Blue Foam was one of the first that launched a web-based interactive generative design tool in December 2021. Both Nanyang Technological University and Singapore University of Technology and Design are also offering courses in generative design, signalling this trend is only set to grow in the future.

Deliver better service with human+AI collaboration

Chatbots have already entered the scene providing answers to customers’ frequently asked questions in no time, but sophisticated generative AI tools are now helping to take this a step further. Rather than simply answering prepopulated queries, chatbots can now serve as a pocket guide able to provide customers with personalised itineraries, travel tips, and more throughout their trip.

The heightened level of personalisation is something that enhances the experience for customers and saves staff time, especially when dealing with shortages. Generative AI chatbots can also be programmed to respond in a customers’ native language streamlining accessibility for international guests.

In addition to catering to customers’ needs, these tools can analyse data from past interactions and generate deeper insights for a business’ long term strategy. This is beneficial for revenue management, helping businesses optimise their pricing, develop new revenue models for the future, and even automate dynamic pricing to offer relevant rates for customers.

For example, generative AI is being used to advance predictive customer segmentation. By analysing patterns in past behaviour and purchase history, this technology can more accurately create dynamic customer segments. Going beyond this, it can also use this information to come up with personalised offers and other upselling opportunities.

All in all, a human still needs to operate and moderate it.

One company experiencing the success of human+AI collaboration is TUI. Their new AI customer assistant, Louise, has a 95% opt-in rate with around 500-600 customers using the service monthly. Hosted by Netherlands-based startup Zoey, Louise offers an empathy-driven Whatsapp service that utilises AI alongside human expertise. Unlike other chatbots, when asked a question from a customer, Louise searches an extensive database to provide the best personalised recommendations and answers.

Brit Haarmans, Innovation Lead at TUI says, “it feels like talking to a friend, and I think that’s the benefit of using agents in combination with AI.”

With its package holidays, TUI provides physical representatives at its various resort and hotel destinations, however this isn’t offered for other product lines like its city trips. Haarmans explains, “we wanted to add value to our holiday products where we are less present in the customer journey.” With Louise, it’s as if customers have a representative with them at every step of their trip.

Every morning Louise will proactively offer tips for the day based on the traveller (if they’re on a family or work trip for example). Users can then interact with the chatbot saying, “Instead I’d like to go to the beach, do you have some tips for me?” Or, “Today I’d like to visit these attractions, can you give me some background and booking information?” It also connects to Google Maps, and some excursions are directly bookable via Louise, making things even smoother for both the customer and the agent.

Keep in mind that humans will always be needed

While generative AI represents an exciting new frontier of opportunities, the most important thing to remember is that it’s not a replacement for human staff, but a helper. Human prompt generators and moderators will always be needed.

When it comes to using AI chatbots, Haarmans advises: “It takes a lot of time to train AI, especially if you want it to answer in a personalised way.” An AI can’t sense the emotion or undertone in a message in the way a human can, so humans continue to be essential in moderating responses. TUI has a team who moderate and edit Louise’s responses and also feed in additional information when needed to provide more accurate results.

The same goes for predictive design. While generative AI may be able to put out a number of different and exciting layouts in seconds, it’s still likely that it can miss important considerations that haven’t been included in the prompt. For example, creating a perfectly sustainable, modern, and congestion free hotel lobby, but forgetting to include restroom facilities in the layout.

An AI solution might be able to give you answers quickly but, all in all, a human still needs to operate and moderate it, and ultimately make business decisions based on the information it gives them.

All in all human-AI collaboration can provide the best of both worlds: the precision and intel gathered from the AI, along with the empathetic, personalised touch of a human moderator.

Are you ready to explore the possibilities that generative AI has to offer your business, but don’t know where to start? Tcube provides consultancy and prototyping services to help you create a digital roadmap and test new ideas. Reach out to us via the Tcube interest form if you have a question: https://go.gov.sg/tcubecommunity

This article was originally published on Singapore Tourism Board’s Tcube website.

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Icelandic startup bags €6M EU grant to fight drug-resistant infections

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Icelandic startup bags €6M EU grant to fight drug-resistant infections

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

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Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainabili Ioanna is a writer at TNW. She covers the full spectrum of the European tech ecosystem, with a particular interest in startups, sustainability, green tech, AI, and EU policy. With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.

Reykjavik-based Akthelia Pharmaceuticals and the University of Iceland have been awarded a €6m grant by Horizon Europe to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat.

AMR is listed among the WHO’s most pressing health threats of our time, with the potential to give rise to the next global pandemic as “pan-drug”-resistant strains emerge. It’s also estimated that AMR associated infections already contribute to approximately 5 million deaths per year — more than AIDS/HIV or malaria.

Now, the EU-funded IN-ARMOR project, led by Aktelia and the University of Iceland, aims to tackle this challenge in collaboration with eight other universities and institutes and six companies across Europe.

The project’s aim is to develop a new type of drug that will boost the body’s natural immune response, also known as “innate immunity.” It will address infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

IN-ARMOR will tap into Aktelia’s R&D on innate immunity and antimicrobial peptides – short protein chains that play a key role in the immune systems of mammals, including humans. The startup‘s work builds on the research of the University of Iceland, which is one the company’s owners.

The project will develop the new medicine using computer-aided drug design and in-silico approaches. It will harness nanotechnology to target drugs to specific areas within the body, extending their effectiveness and reducing side effects.

Upon completion, IN-ARMOR will move to clinical validation. The team hopes that the new drug could be used not only in combination with other antibiotics, but also by itself.

“By concentrating on stimulating the body’s innate defences against infection, we can avoid the use of traditional antibiotics and develop revolutionary new treatments to tackle multiresistant bacteria. This could save countless lives across the world,” said Guðmundur Hrafn Guðmundsson, professor at the University of Iceland and CSO at Akthelia.

If successful, IN-ARMOR would have the potential to save long-term €107 billion in antibiotics development. Furthermore, it would reduce the global disease burden by 97 million DALYs — the years of life lost due to premature mortality or the years lived with a disability as a result of a disease.

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SenseGlove Raises €3.25M in Series A Funding Round to Advance VR Haptic Gloves

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SenseGlove, a Netherlands-based creator of XR haptic gloves, has secured €3.25 million (~$3.5 million) in a series A funding round, something the company says will be used to accelerate its enterprise-focused SenseGlove Nova haptic gloves.

The funding round was led by Dutch venture capital firm Lumaux, bringing the company’s total outside investment to around €5.5 million (~$6 million). Previous rounds included investors Forward.One and Value Creation Capital.

The company says the investment will be used to continue development on its haptic SenseGlove Nova gloves and to develop new products. It will also be used to open an office in the US.

SenseGlove’s haptic gloves are said to let users interact in VR naturally and train muscle memory by providing the feeling of size, stiffness, and impacts of virtual objects. The company’s technology has been used in a range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and training.

The company’s haptic gloves provide a combination of force and vibrotactile feedback and wireless compact design that primarily appeals to enterprise.

SenseGlove has provided its haptic gloves to firms such as Airbus, Scania, Honda, Cambridge University, TNO, Fraunhofer, and Siemens. In all, the company has worked with over 500 partners, including Volkswagen, P&G, and the Royal Dutch Army.

While squarely an enterprise-focused XR peripheral, SenseGlove Nova is also available for purchase through the company website. For small quantities, Nova regularly sells for €5,000 (~$5,400), however the company notes that larger quantities can cost less when contacted directly.

If you want to know more about how SenseGlove Nova works, Road to VR content partners Cas and Chary VR went hands-on with the gloves in 2021.

SenseGlove Raises €3.25M in Series A Funding Round to Advance VR Haptic Gloves Read More »

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The 20 Best Rated & Most Popular Quest Games & Apps – April 2023

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While Oculus doesn’t offer much publicly in the way of understanding how well individual games & apps are performing across its Quest 2 storefront, it’s possible to glean some insight by looking at apps relative to each other. Here’s a snapshot of the 20 best rated Oculus Quest games and apps as of April 2023.

Some quick qualifications before we get to the data:

  • Paid and free apps are separated
  • Only apps with more than 100 reviews are represented
  • App Lab apps are not represented (see our latest Quest App Lab report)
  • Rounded ratings may appear to show ‘ties’ in ratings for some applications, but the ranked order remains correct

Best Rated Oculus Quest 2 Games & Apps – Paid

The rating of each application is an aggregate of user reviews and a useful way to understand the general reception of each title by customers.

Rank Name Rating (# of ratings) Rank Change Price
#1 Moss: Book II 4.89 (582) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↑ 1"}">↑ 1 $30
#2 The Room VR: A Dark Matter 4.89 (12,529) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 1"}">↓ 1 $30
#3 Puzzling Places 4.88 (1,737) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $15
#4 Walkabout Mini Golf 4.86 (10,013) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $15
#5 I Expect You To Die 2 4.84 (2,714) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $25
#6 Breachers 4.84 (970) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"New"}">New $30
#7 COMPOUND 4.82 (441) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↑ 3"}">↑ 3 $20
#8 Vermillion 4.82 (665) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 2"}">↓ 2 $20
#9 Swarm 4.82 (2,313) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 2"}">↓ 2 $25
#10 DYSCHRONIA: Chronos Alternate 4.81 (364) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 1"}">↓ 1 $20
#11 PatchWorld – Make Music Worlds 4.81 (158) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 3"}">↓ 3 $30
#12 I Expect You To Die 4.8 (5,224) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $25
#13 Moss 4.8 (6,485) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $20
#14 Red Matter 2 4.8 (1,136) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $30
#15 ARK and ADE 4.8 (133) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 4"}">↓ 4 $10
#16 Ragnarock 4.79 (1,246) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↑ 1"}">↑ 1 $25
#17 Cubism 4.79 (793) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 2"}">↓ 2 $10
#18 Ancient Dungeon 4.79 (875) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"↓ 2"}">↓ 2 $20
#19 Into the Radius 4.78 (3,878) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $30
#20 The Last Clockwinder 4.78 (673) 0,”↑ “&abs(R[0]C[-7]),R[0]C[-7]<1,"↓ "&abs(R[0]C[-7])))" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"≡"}">≡ $25

Rank change & stats compared to March 2023

Dropouts:

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos, Resident Evil 4, Racket: Nx

  • Among the 20 best rated Quest apps
    • Average rating (mean): 4.8 out of 5 (±0)
    • Average price (mean): $23 (±$0)
    • Most common price (mode): $30 (±$0)
  • Among all paid Quest apps
    • Average rating (mean): 4.2 out of 5 (±0)
    • Average price (mean): $20 (±$0)
    • Most common price (mode): $20 (±$0)

Continue on Page 2: Most Popular Paid Oculus Quest Apps »

The 20 Best Rated & Most Popular Quest Games & Apps – April 2023 Read More »

‘vertigo-2’-sandbox-dlc-now-in-development,-letting-you-build-&-share-your-own-levels

‘Vertigo 2’ Sandbox DLC Now in Development, Letting You Build & Share Your Own Levels

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Vertigo 2 (2023), the sci-fi VR shooter adventure from Zach Tsiakalis-Brown, readily invites comparisons to Valve’s indomitable Half-Life: Alyx, but now the developer is taking another note out of Valve’s playbook by offering a way to create your own Vertigo-based levels and modes in an upcoming sandbox DLC.

Tsiakalis-Brown announced the level editor today in a tweet:

Tsiakalis-Brown says it will be a free update, and have Steam Workshop support, which means you’ll be able to share your creations much in the same way we’ve seen Half-Life: Alyx mods in the past.

The editor is said to be an in-VR affair, inviting comparisons to the Sandbox DLC released for Vertigo Remastered (2020 ), which includes what Tsiakalis-Brown called at the time “a vast expansion that brings new game modes, new weapons, and a level editor and workshop.”

“Let your creativity run wild and share custom levels with the world, or re-experience the campaign with remixed combat and a brand new arsenal,” the Vertigo Remastered DLC’s description reads.

You can follow along as Tsiakalis-Brown builds the sandbox DLC on Twitch here for more. He says he won’t stream the entirety of the sandbox’s development, although notes it’s “already looking better than the Vertigo Remastered sandbox.”

‘Vertigo 2’ Sandbox DLC Now in Development, Letting You Build & Share Your Own Levels Read More »

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Report: Apple Racing to Build Software & Services for Upcoming Mixed Reality Headset

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Apple appears to be getting ready to unveil its first mixed reality headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. Now a report from Bloomberg maintains the Cupertino tech giant is also prepping a dizzying number of first-party apps, including gaming, fitness, video and collaboration tools.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is a lightning rod for all things Apple, and in his new info dump it appears we now have a pretty sizable list of first-party content coming to the still very much under-wraps mixed reality headset.

Here’s all of the major apps and features mentioned in the report:

  • iPad apps adapted for mixed reality: Calendars, Contacts, Files, Home control, Mail, Maps, Messaging, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Music, News, Stocks, and Weather apps.
  • FaceTime: conferencing service will generate 3D versions of users in virtual meeting rooms.
  • Freeform collaboration app: will let users work on virtual whiteboards together while in mixed reality.
  • Work apps: Pages word processing, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote slide deck apps, as well as iMovie and GarageBand for video and music production.
  • Apple TV: both immersive sports content and traditional video content – the latter presented in virtual environments, such as a desert or the sky.
  • Apple Books: will allow users to read in virtual reality.
  • Fitness+: will let users exercise while watching an instructor in VR.
  • Multitasking & Siri: will be able to run multiple apps at the same time, floating within the mixed reality space. Siri voice control is also present.
  • Camera app: can take pictures from the headset.

Provided all of the above is accurate, Apple may be releasing the industry’s most feature-rich headset out of the gate, as it appears to be hauling in a ton of its mature and battle-tested ecosystem of apps.

It’s also said that gaming will be a major focus—a reversal from previous reports. This could mean we’ll see a wider push for Apple to court third-party developers soon after release, which is said to release a few months after is June unveiling, priced at somewhere around $3,000.

As for hardware, as many suggested in the past, Gurman reconfirms the existence of a dial crown similar to the one seen on Apple Watch, which will let the wearer seamlessly switch between virtual and augmented reality views.

Here’s a compilation list of alleged Apple MR headset features scavenged from previous reports—all of which you should take with a heaping handful of salt. We’ve broken them down into specs and design rumors:

Rumored Apple MR Specs

  • Resolution: Dual Micro OLED displays at 4K resolution (per eye)
  • FOV: 120-degrees, similar to Valve Index
  • Chipset: Two 5nm chips. Includes a main SoC (CPU, GPU, and memory) and a dedicated image signal processor (ISP). Chips communicate via a custom streaming codec to combat latency.
  • Battery: Waist-mounted battery, connected via MagSafe-like power cable to the headset’s headband. Two-hour max battery life, although hotswappable for longer sessions.
  • Passthrough: ISP chip contains custom high-bandwidth memory made by SK Hynix, providing low latency color passthrough
  • Audio: H2 chip, providing ultra-low latency connection with the second-generation AirPods Pro and future AirPods models. No 3.5mm and possible no support for non-AirPod BT headphones.
  • Controller: Apple is said to favor hand-tracking and voice recognition to control the headset, but it has tested a “wand” and a “finger thimble” as alternative control input methods.
  • Prescription Lenses: Magnetically attachable custom prescription lenses for glasses-wearers.
  • IPD Adjustment: Automatic, motorized adjustment to match the wearer’s interpupillary distance.
  • Eye Tracking: At least one camera per-eye for things like avatar presence and foveated rendering
  • Face & Body Tracking: More than a dozen cameras and sensors capture both facial expressions and body movements, including the user’s legs.
  • Room Tracking:  Both short- and long-range LiDAR scanners to map surfaces and distances in three dimensions.
  • App Compatibility: Said to have the ability to run existing iOS apps in 2D.
  • Price: $3,000 – $4,000

Design Rumors

  • Outer Shell: Aluminum, glass, and carbon fiber to reduce its size and weight. Cameras are largely concealed for aesthetic reasons.
  • Presence Displays: Outward-facing display can show user’s facial expressions and also presumably eye movements. Said to be an always-on display similar in latency and power draw of Apple Watch or iPhone 14 Pro.
  • Dedicated Passthrough Switch: Digital Crown-like dial on its right side to switch between VR and AR.
  • Headstrap: Various available, including consumer-focused headstrap similar in material to Apple Watch sport bands with built-in speakers. Unspecified, but different headstrap targeted at developers.

– – — – –

As you’d imagine, Apple has confirmed absolutely nothing, so we’ll be tuning in for the June 5th keynote to see whether we’ll finally get a big “one more thing” moment we’ve been waiting for.

Report: Apple Racing to Build Software & Services for Upcoming Mixed Reality Headset Read More »

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New research milestone could solve quantum scalability

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New research milestone could solve quantum scalability

Linnea Ahlgren

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Wherever you fall on the quantum sceptic spectrum, you cannot deny that the potential of the technology is fascinating. Don’t worry, we will admit to not understanding it fully yet either, but the founders of QuiX Quantum do. 

Together with scientists from the Leibniz University Hannover, the team has demonstrated a fully-integrated quantum light source on a chip smaller than the size of a one-euro coin. 

The study, called “Fully on-chip photonic turnkey quantum source for entangled qubit/qudit state generation,” just FYI, was published in Nature Photonics this week. Its results could reportedly prove a game-changer for technologies such as quantum computing. 

Photonics offer temperature advantages

Quantum photonics is a field of research that explores the behaviour of light and its interactions with matter at the quantum level. Quantum light sources produce photons that can be used as quantum bits, or qubits. One of the main advantages of photonics compared to superconductor approaches is that it is compatible with room temperature operating conditions. 

However, most sources are external laser systems, making them bulky and non-reproducible and thus unsuitable for out-of-lab use or production at larger scale. Integrated, or on-chip sources are becoming popular due to being more compact and stable.

A fully-integrated light source, such as the one demonstrated by QuiX and Leibniz University scientists, will allow all stages of the Quantum Information Processing (QIP) to be on a single chip, which will lead to greater stability and scalability of the technology.

Plug-and-play photonics solutions

QuiX Quantum was founded in January 2019. Since then, the company has raised over €5.5 million in funding and already become the European market leader for quantum computing hardware based on photonics. They sold their first quantum processors in 2021, and are building 8- and 64-qubit Universal Quantum Computers worth €14 million for the German Aerospace Center. 

The company says its goal is “the continued disruption of quantum computing with our high-tech, scalable, future-proof, plug-and-play integrated photonic solutions.” Its recent breakthrough could not come at a better time. The EU has just launched a €19 million project to help quantum startups transition from lab to market. 

Earlier this year, QuiX Quantum took home the prestigious Prism Award for its 20-mode Quantum Photonic Processor. This award is known as the “Oscars of Photonics,” presented during the Photonics West conference in San Francisco.

“In four years, we went from an idea to delivering award-winning, market-leading hardware for photonic quantum computing,” Stefan Hengesbach, CEO of Quix, stated. “This awarded processor is the core element of our current generation quantum computers, which has already created a huge impact in the quantum ecosystem as an excellent tool to perform fundamental quantum mechanical experiments on-chip.

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Is “Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom” Too Much?

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Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is a new VR game from Maze Theory inspired by the popular period crime drama. I’m reporting from a virtually reconstructed Garrison pub, so confess – Jon and ARPost are listening.

This review covers major game elements (avoiding juicy spoilers), how VR is implemented, and some ethical considerations. After all, if you’re familiar with Peaky Blinders, you know that some of the content can be pretty challenging – particularly in VR. I almost didn’t want to play it, and ARPost almost didn’t want to cover it.

Welcome to The Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom takes place during season five. If you aren’t to that point there’s at least one spoiler. Fortunately, the events of the game don’t have a lot to do with the events of the show, so if you aren’t a fan of the show you can still enjoy the game – just not as much.

A lot of the game felt like fan service. I happen to be a fan of the Peaky Blinders TV show, so I appreciated it. From “Red Right Hand” playing as I walked down Garrison Lane to the bottomless pack of cigarettes in your inventory, some more stylized elements of the game might only feel right if you’re familiar with the show.

In the game, you play a war vet working with the Peaky Blinders in hopes that they will clear your criminal record. Your aunt, an NPC in the game, is a family friend of the Shelbys and a good word from Arthur got you in. Tommy tests your loyalty by asking you to shoot a hooded man in the Garrison about 10 minutes into the game, so things move pretty fast.

Peaky Blinders VR

You’re tasked with finding one of the Peaky Blinders who went missing on the trail of Winston Churchhill’s stolen dispatch box. This sends you to Limehouse, a majority Chinese neighborhood in East London.

There, you find yourself in a serial killer’s crime scene. I was hoping that this would turn into an investigation like the “Blood on the Ice” quest in Skyrim, but you find out pretty quickly that the serial killer happens to be the rival gang leader with the dispatch box.

Gameplay

Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is rated “comfortable” with options to play sitting or roomscale. Analog sticks enable snap turns, though you can also do this by turning your head or your whole body in roomscale.

They also control movement, including crouching, walking, or teleporting. I played most of the game walking, but sometimes you need to teleport to jump. Using teleport to move from cover to cover during a firefight can also be handy. Some items in the environment appear lighter when you can interact with them, for example, crates that you can move out of your way.

Jon was here - Peaky Blinders VR game

I did get a little sick playing the game but if you read my reviews you know that I’m particularly susceptible to VR motion sickness, so I blame my physiology and play style before I blame the developers in most cases.

One of the cooler elements of the game was that your character doesn’t speak. NPCs just accept this as a quirk. You don’t have to hear someone else’s voice coming out of your head, but it also avoids dialogue options – you respond with your actions.

Items and Interactions

A guide to the controls looked intimidating but the controls are very intuitive. Your inventory is arranged around your field of view. Reach over your shoulder and grab to get your journal, reach down and grab to get your gun, reach left and grab to get a cigarette, and reach right and grab to get your lighter.

Your lighter is handy for lighting endless cigarettes, but you also use it to do things like light lamps that help you navigate some of the darker scenes in the game. You also defuse bombs, rebuild radios, open a safe, and uncork bottles of gin.

Drinking and smoking don’t impact gameplay. I think it might’ve been cool if smoking slowed down time or drinking made you less susceptible to injury, but they’re just props. You can also find vials of “Tokyo” (that’s “cocaine” in Peaky Blinders lingo) but they’re just collectible easter eggs.

One of the most common item interactions is reloading your 1911 semi-automatic pistol (sorry Peaky Blinders, no Webleys). This involves loading a clip into the bottom of the gun.

There’s no believable way to hold the gun with two hands because of the controllers and because Peaky Blinders are too cool for stable shooting stances, but you can pass the gun from hand to hand to shoot around cover. You can’t carry extra clips, so you have to look for ammunition boxes in the levels. Count rounds if you want, but I just reloaded whenever I could.

One forced story interaction involves your gun being empty no matter how many rounds you should logically have left in the clip when you enter the interaction, so keeping count just kind of frustrated me. Or, maybe the gun jammed because you have a 1911 instead of a Webley.

Navigating Environments

The environments were the biggest draw for me buying this game. I’m a fan of Peaky Blinders largely because of the settings. Being able to explore faithful reconstructions of some of the iconic locations of the show really scratched an itch for me and the game’s original locations feel authentic and well-developed too. Major playable locations include:

  • Garrison Lane including The Garrison and a garage;
  • Watery Lane including The Shelby Betting Shop and Polly Shelby’s apartment;
  • Charlie Strong’s Boatyard;
  • Limehouse, including a boatyard, a neighborhood, and a rival gang’s operation.

The game never tells you about lighter items being movable, so my first major navigation snag was wandering around an alleyway until I realized I could move a crate blocking my way. One level in Limehouse is also needlessly tricky. I think it was trying to incorporate some puzzle elements, but it didn’t really land for me.

Later in the game, you fight your way out of a burning building while carrying the dispatch box. This level brought all of the game’s control mechanics into play beautifully. You have to teleport to jump over holes in the floor, balance as you walk over beams, and put down the dispatch box to reload.

Finding collectible easter eggs in the game often involves finding tools in the environment to smash open crates. Some of the levels have dysfunctioning radios. Finding the parts, plugging them in, and tuning the radio unlocks radio programs that give you additional context about the level.

After beating the game, the levels remain explorable. I found at least one area that either wasn’t available during story play or I didn’t find the first time around. Either way, there’s a lot to explore.

I Killed a Man in VR Because Tommy Shelby Told Me To

I had reservations about this game. Until now, the most violent thing I’d ever done in VR was knock someone out in Thrill of the Fight. There were situations in this game that made me uncomfortable but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

For one thing, the character animation didn’t blow me away (I was playing on Quest 2, not PC). Sets and items look great but people in the game leave a little to be desired. Further, the violence isn’t terribly graphic. A cartoony blood burst lets you know you hit someone but it isn’t gory. And, all of the violence that you perpetrate is done at a distance, which I think helps.

Most of the times that I did feel uncomfortable, it wasn’t because of graphical believability or a feeling of embodiment. It was because the writing of the game successfully made me ask myself questions about what I was doing and why.

Shelby Peaky Blinders VR game

In one sequence, your character is tied to a chair so you can look around and see your bound hands, which is a little unnerving (you can’t see your body, which is unnerving for a different reason). I don’t know if it was a predictable point in the game or my deep trust in the Peaky Blinders, but I wasn’t afraid at this point – I knew someone would come just in time.

I still think that we should be careful about how and why violence is used in virtual reality entertainment. As far as this game goes, I think that restraint on the part of the developers helped to balance violence as a plot device without going over the top.

Final Thoughts

I was pleased to see that Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom only costs $30, but that also meant that I wasn’t too let down that it’s only about three-and-a-half hours of gameplay. The game has already been updated since it was released, so fans can hope for more to come.

Is “Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom” Too Much? Read More »

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Green light for €43bn EU Chips Act in big boost for bloc’s semiconductor industry

Corporates and innovation, Deep tech, Government and policy, Next Featured / /
Green light for €43bn EU Chips Act in big boost for bloc’s semiconductor industry

Siôn Geschwindt

Story by

Siôn Geschwindt

EU member states reached a provisional agreement on Tuesday for a €43 billion plan to bolster domestic production of semiconductor chips — essential components in everything from phones to cars and refrigerators.

The EU Chips Act, proposed by the Commission in February of last year, looks to double the bloc’s global market share in semiconductors from 10% to 20% by 2030. 

The act also seeks to build resilience in Europe’s semiconductor supply chain, which is highly dependent on a limited number of foreign suppliers.

“Chips are essential for all our digital and digitised products,” said Margrethe Vestager, Danish politician and executive vice-president for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age. Vestager said she believes that the agreement will help “secure the supply of innovative semiconductors in Europe” and make Europe’s chip industry more competitive. 

Three pillars

The Commission has proposed three key pillars to deliver on the Act. The first — the Chips for Europe Initiative — aims to support “large-scale technological capacity building” and “bridge the gap” between research and industry. The initiative will be supported by combined investments from the union, member states, and the private sector, including €6.2 billion in public funds.

The second pillar will incentivise public and private investments in manufacturing facilities for chipmakers and their suppliers. This will contribute to the overall public investment in the sector, which is estimated at €43 billion.

The third pillar is for a monitoring and crisis response system to anticipate supply shortages. The EU member states and the Commission will develop a joint coordination programme to boost collaboration, monitor supply, estimate demand, and trigger a “crisis stage” if necessary.   

Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, said the Chips Act will enable the mobilisation of “considerable public funding” and a supportive regulatory framework to turn these three pillars “into reality.” 

Securing future supply

Semiconductor chips are the building blocks of digital products. Demand for them is expected to double between 2022 and 2030, with the industry predicted to reach a global market value of $1 trillion within the same timeframe.   

But several vital tech sectors in the EU have been suffering from supply shortages in semiconductor chips, in part because they rely on just a few suppliers and countries, in particular Asia for supply, and the US for design. 

This dependency means Europe’s chip reserves in some sectors like the automotive industry could run out in just a few weeks if disrupted. Shortages have also led to price-hikes for electronics, lengthier delivery time for consumer products, and a decrease in manufacturing capacity. 

A typical EV is built using between 1,500 and 3,000 semiconductors, making the industry particularly vulnerable to shortages of the chips.

Against this backdrop, and as Europe looks to scale more sustainable but chip-intensive technologies, like EVs, securing future supply of semiconductor chips has become a top priority for the bloc — hence the Chips Act.   

Ebba Busch, Swedish Minister for energy, business, and industry, said she believes the Act will “secure the EU’s resilience in turbulent times” and transform the EU’s “dependency into leadership, vulnerability into sovereignty, and expenditure into investment.” 

Since the proposal for the Chips Act was announced, investment has already reached between €90-100 billion, including for projects such as Intel’s giant €17bn chip factory planned for Magdeburg, Germany. Now it has winded its way through the EU’s legislature, the Act is expected to boost investment further, and create the skills and knowledge base necessary to reach the bloc’s ambitious targets.

However, many other regions have their own semiconductor strategies that risk undermining the EU’s vision. The US has its $52 billion CHIPS for America Act, and South Korea has pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to boost its chips sector. 

To secure its market share, the bloc should play to its chipmaking strengths, Christopher Cytera, research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told Reuters. For instance, Dutch firm ASML is the sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, and Germany’s Siemens develops EDA software used in the designs of integrated circuits. 

Both firms, and many others like them, appear to be eligible for funding under the European Chips Act, which now needs to be finalised and endorsed before being formally adopted by both the Council and Parliament.

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Prompt engineering could be the hottest job in tech, with a paycheck to match

Future of Work, Insider / /
Prompt engineering could be the hottest job in tech, with a paycheck to match

Dara Flynn

Story by

Dara Flynn

Dara Flynn is a journalist and content specialist with a background in national newspapers and magazines and a focus on lifestyle, business Dara Flynn is a journalist and content specialist with a background in national newspapers and magazines and a focus on lifestyle, business and tech.

Everybody can breathe out. Next generation artificial intelligence isn’t the existential threat to tech jobs the AI doomers imagined it would be.

In fact, Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Bing Chat are not only revolutionising how we access and share information, they’re shaking things up in tech recruitment, too.

This fast-changing landscape is spawning tons of new opportunities, and among them is the highly specialised role of the prompt engineer.

The prompt engineer is at the coalface of generative AI, responsible for designing the instructions that feed AI tools such as ChatGPT, the poster child of the industry. In a sense, the prompt engineer is to AI what the neurosurgeon is to the patient, helping it to rewire its neural pathways. This is done using prompts.

These carefully worded pieces of text coax the generative AI tool into returning the most accurate and relevant responses. With enough quality prompts, a chatbot learns to filter out inaccuracies and stay on track in user interactions.

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Remember when Microsoft Bing spooked New York Times reporter Kevin Roose by professing its love for him and encouraging him to leave his wife? Good prompt engineering will, in the future, prevent that sort of exchange from happening (whether the user likes it or not).

Why a prompt engineer?

Already, early adopters of ChatGPT have been on social media enthusiastically sharing their hacks for getting better bot responses simply by upping their wording game. Prompt engineers basically do this for a living, but on a much larger scale.

The demand for this new specialism extends far beyond the confines of Silicon Valley. As AI tools go mainstream, scores of new AI companies worldwide (and AI units in established tech giants) are seeking to hire not only prompt engineers, but data scientists and machine learning engineers.

These specialist crack teams are helping companies make their mark in this groundbreaking new sector.

It’s shaping up to be a promising new career

Like other AI-related careers, prompt engineering is a role that could be suitable for a person with transferable skills from other areas of the tech sector, such as NLP engineering, general software engineering, UX research, data science, and linguistics.

Content writing and editing skills are not only highly transferable; they’re a major plus. In fact, for NLP-related jobs, language skills are as important as tech know-how.

A language processing prompt engineer needs to innately understand how people word things when they interact with AI. Sometimes referred to as the ‘AI whisperer’, the prompt engineer makes AI make sense, which is why many of its pioneers are wordsmiths, copywriters, and academics.

As this is a specialised, niche role with growing demand, you can expect a very competitive salary and attractive benefit packages. Last month, Bloomberg reported that prompt engineers at OpenAI’s ChatGPT were being paid $175,000 to $300,000 per annum.

Looking to get into other growing careers in AI?

House of Talent has thousands of exciting roles in this field. Among them is Signal AI, a London-based firm at the cutting edge of AI technology. It is now hiring a range of AI-focused engineers, including a Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE).

As part of Signal’s SRE team, you’ll be in a collaborative role alongside members of the product and technology teams.

The right candidate will be proficient in must-have tools such as Terraform, Python, Go, and Clojure, as well as an ace problem-solver and strategic thinker.

You’ll also have a growth mindset that matches the company’s ambitions to scale its operations as the AI boom grows boomier. This is a role that comes with a serious benefits package.

Signal understands that given the novel territory that is AI, you won’t tick every single box from the outset. So if the role excites you and the skillset has a familiar ring to it, don’t let imposter syndrome stand you down.

Right now, Germany-based company Maddox AI is hiring a Senior Machine Learning Engineer. The right candidate will play a crucial role in designing the infrastructure and tools that deploy the company’s machine-learning solutions.

Someone with three or more years of experience in machine learning would be a good fit, and in return Maddox promises a competitive salary, 30 days annual leave and a flat hierarchy working culture that values democracy, communication and teamwork. This job is remote.

In Cork, Ireland meanwhile, Morgan McKinley Recruitment is seeking a data engineer with experience in building machine learning pipelines and operations on a cloud platform such as AWS or Azure.

Ideally, you’ll have two years’ of experience in a similar role, experience performing root cause analysis on internal and external data and you’ll be comfortable extracting value from large, disconnected datasets.

Apply for this hybrid-remote role now at the House of Talent Jobs board.

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Europe’s Juice space mission blasts off towards Jupiter

Corporates and innovation, Deep tech, Government and policy, Insider, Next Featured, Startups and technology / /

The ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission — ‘Juice’ — successfully launched today from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.    

The launch was supposed to take place yesterday but was postponed due to poor weather conditions. 

Today, the stars aligned and Juice was successfully blasted into orbit at approximately 14: 19 CEST.

It took only two minutes for the Ariane 5 rocket to transport Juice into space, shortly after which it separated from the satellite, which now begins its 8-year journey to Jupiter.