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When will AGI arrive? Here’s what our tech lords predict

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When will AGI arrive? Here’s what our tech lords predict

Thomas Macaulay

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Thomas Macaulay

Senior reporter

Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy. Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on deeptech, startups, and government policy.

Every tech baron worth their Patagonia vest is talking about AGI these days — albeit with mixed feelings. Some await our robot overlords with rapturous excitement; others anticipate a digital apocalypse.

The divergence stems from varied motivations: personal perspectives, vested interests, and the ambiguity of what exactly constitutes artificial general intelligence.

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis defines it as “human-level cognition” — and his opinion carries weight. Hassabis has made the London-based DeepMind one of the world’s leading AI labs, with building AGI as its core mission.

“The progress has been pretty incredible.

This week, the former chess prodigy and video game pioneer revealed his own expectations on AGI’s arrival.

“The progress in the last few years has been pretty incredible,” Hassabis said on Tuesday at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival. “I don’t see any reason why that progress is going to slow down. I think it may even accelerate. So I think we could be just a few years, maybe within a decade away.”

He’s left some wiggle room, yet clearly doesn’t consider AGI a distant prospect. But what about his fellow tech luminaries? Here’s what they predict.

Geoffrey Hinton — Turing Award-winner and ex-Googler

Geoffrey Hinton is so concerned about AI that he quit Google to warn about the field’s risks. In the wake of his departure, Hinton made a fresh prediction on when AI will surpass human intelligence. Ominously, the deep learning legend dramatically accelerated his original forecast of 30-50 years.

“I now predict five to 20 years but without much confidence,” he said on Twitter. “We live in very uncertain times. It’s possible that I am totally wrong about digital intelligence overtaking us. Nobody really knows which is why we should worry now.”

I now predict 5 to 20 years but without much confidence. We live in very uncertain times. It’s possible that I am totally wrong about digital intelligence overtaking us. Nobody really knows which is why we should worry now.

— Geoffrey Hinton (@geoffreyhinton) May 3, 2023

Ray Kurzweil — author, inventor, executive, and futurist

Ray Kurzweil, a fabled futurist, loves making predictions — and they’re admirably precise. At the 2017 SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas, Kurzweil gave a typically pinpoint prediction.

“By 2029, computers will have human-level intelligence,” he said. “That leads to computers having human intelligence, our putting them inside our brains, connecting them to the cloud, expanding who we are. Today, that’s not just a future scenario. It’s here, in part, and it’s going to accelerate.”

Ben Goertzel — CEO at SingularityNET and chief scientist at Hanson Robotics

A divisive figure in tech circles, Ben Goertzel helped popularise the term AGI. He’s also prone to bold pronouncements about technology’s future. At a conference in 2018, he added a couple more.

“I don’t think we need fundamentally new algorithms,” he said. “I think we do need to connect our algorithms in different ways than we do now. If I’m right, then we already have the core algorithms that we need… I believe we are less than ten years from creating human-level AI.

Before you flee to the bomb shelter, it’s worth noting that Goertzel isn’t the most sincere forecaster. “It will occur on December 8, 2026, which will be my 60th birthday,” he added. “I will delay it until then just to have a great birthday party.”

Goertzel (right) is best-known for co-creating Sophia the robot
Goertzel (right) is best-known for co-creating Sophia the robot. Credit: Web Summit

Jürgen Schmidhuber — co-founder of NNAISENSE and Director of IDSIA

Often described as the “father of AI,” Jürgen Schmidhuber is notorious for making outlandish claims.

When it comes to tech predictions, Schmidhuber is looking beyond AGI and towards “the singularity.” Broadly, this refers to a time when AI becomes so uncontrollably advanced that it irreversibly changes humanity. What could possibly go wrong?

“[The Singularity] is just 30 years away, if the trend doesn’t break, and there will be rather cheap computational devices that have as many connections as your brain but are much faster,” he told Futurism in 2018.

Yoshua Bengio — professor of computer science at the University of Montreal

Like his friend and fellow Turing Award-winner Yann LeCunn, Bengio prefers the term “human-level intelligence” to “AGI.” Regardless, he’s sceptical about predictions for its advent.

“I don’t think it’s plausible that we could really know when, how many years, how many decades, it will take to reach human-level AI,” Bengio told Professor Toshie Takahashi.

Herbert A. Simon — AI pioneer

A founding father of AI, Herbert A. Simon has the earliest forecast on our list. The Nobel Prize-winner once went so far as to estimate that AGI would arrive by 1985. In fairness, he did make that guess back in 1965. “Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do,” Simon said. 

Simon’s guess shows what a fickle game tech predictions can be. If you think you could do better, let us know via the usual channels — but do it soon, because the clock is ticking down quickly. Possibly.

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This AI-powered exoskeleton does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to

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This AI-powered exoskeleton does the heavy lifting so you don’t have to

Siôn Geschwindt

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Siôn Geschwindt

Move over Tony Stark, there’s a new player in town. Augsburg-based startup German Bionic has developed wearable exoskeletons that endow superhuman strength — although they are a little more modest than Iron Man’s.

Founded in 2017, the startup is one of several companies around the world developing exoskeletons to make physically demanding jobs easier. Whether for warehouse staff, elderly care professionals, or construction workers, “everyone can benefit from a little added support,” Norma Steller, CPO at German Bionic, tells TNW. 

Germanic Bionic’s two commercially available exoskeletons — the Cray X and the recently launched Apogee (pictured) — are worn like a backpack. They are powered by electric motors, and sense when a user is moving, providing up to 30 kg of extra force to your back, core, and legs, when and where you need it.  

“When you put on the device it can feel strange and heavy at first,” says Steller — the exoskeletons themselves weigh around 7kg. “But once the motors kick in it feels amazing. You feel strong, tall, and capable — it gives you this kind of feeling,” she said.

norma-steller-german-bionic-CPO-exoskeleton
Norma Steller, CPO at German Bionic (supplied)

These are active exoskeletons: they use battery-powered motors and advanced control systems to enhance human strength, which differs from passive versions that provide purely mechanical support. While active systems are more complicated and expensive — $9,995 a pop for the latest Apogee model — they provide additional support to the lower back, the part of the body that generally takes the most strain from heavy lifting, says Steller.

The units also collect data and alert users to behaviours that increase the risk of injury, such as excessive repetition and improper lifting or twisting movements. Powered by AI, the suits learn your unique individual movement patterns, “supporting you how you need to be supported,” says Steller.  

German Bionic has raised almost €45m in funding to date, more than any other European exoskeleton company. The startup predicts that the tech will be used for all manner of applications in just a few years’ time, and could even help the aged or disabled to regain mobility. The Cray X has already been trialled at a hospital in Berlin to help Sara Vaz Contreiraz, a nursing ward supervisor, in her physically intense work in the geriatric ward. “I’ve tried it and I must say I am extremely impressed,” she said.   

Sara Vaz Contreiraz, a nursing ward supervisor at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, helps an elderly woman stand using the Cray X exoskeleton. Credit: German Bionic.

There are an estimated 2.7 billion ‘deskless’ workers globally, with many working physically demanding jobs that put the body under serious strain and increase the risk of injury. A comprehensive EU-wide study found that three in five workers experience musculoskeletal disorders, the most common of which is back pain. 

The EU workforce is also ageing and grappling with labour shortages, meaning there are more older people in physically demanding jobs and fewer people overall to spread the load — literally. In response, companies are looking for new ways to do more with less and increase the well-being of their workers, with some turning to exoskeletons as a potential solution. But why don’t they just invest in robots instead?  

“10 years ago people believed that automation and robotics were a panacea for the labour crisis, but it hasn’t turned out that way,” Steller told TNW. “The reality is that automated solutions are still far more expensive than human labour, and are often inappropriate: most people would not want their elderly parent to be cared for by a robot or for a robot to replace a surgeon, for instance. These physically demanding jobs could, however, be assisted by robotic exoskeletons.”  

german-bionics-logistics-exoskeleton
German Bionic’s Cray X in use at Stuttgart Airport, Germany (supplied).

Last year, UK tech retailer Currys invested over £250,000 in a fleet of German Bionic’s Cray X exoskeletons to assist warehouse workers, while in 2021, the UK’s National Health Service purchased 127 units of lower back exoskeletons to help nurses with patient care. German parcel delivery service DPD also uses the Cray X at some of its sites. 

“First and foremost, the exoskeletons serve to protect the health of our employees,” says Ville Heimgartner, senior innovation project and sustainability manager at DPD. By protecting their workforce and preventing injury, logistics companies are also expected to see long-term cost savings from reduced claims.  

In 2022, there were around 93,000 exoskeletons in use at workplaces across the world, and this number is expected to increase sevenfold by 2030. Despite currently high entry costs, the market is estimated to be growing at 41.3% a year, which will make it a nearly $2bn industry by 2025. By 2030, the revenue from sales of active exoskeletons is predicted to surpass $5bn, nearly twice as much as passive versions.

And there are an increasing number of companies cashing in on this emerging industry. US-based Ekso Bionics has developed an exoskeleton for construction workers focused on supporting the shoulders. French startup Wundercraft has developed a lower body exoskeleton to help patients recover from spinal cord injuries, and Spain’s Marsi Bionics has launched a gait exoskeleton for children with neuromuscular diseases.  

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Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered bike lane unveiled in Germany

Europe, Next Featured, Tech / /
Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered bike lane unveiled in Germany

Linnea Ahlgren

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Linnea Ahlgren

At the beginning of the year, news readers were treated to images of German police forcefully removing climate activists from the village of Lützerath to make way for an open-air coal mine. Indeed, Germany may have averted a looming energy crisis this past winter by upping its coal consumption.

While prioritising energy independence may have caused a detour from the transition to renewables, the country’s goal is to reach climate neutrality by 2045: five years ahead of the EU target. A small step on the way but a step nonetheless is Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered cycling path which opened this week in the city of Freiburg, about a two-hour drive south of Stuttgart.  

The photovoltaic (PV) pilot project consists of a 300-metre-long installation featuring over 900 translucent glass solar panels, and will generate around 280 MWh of solar power per year. Solarwatt, the producer of the panels covering the path, says they are particularly durable as the solar cells are enclosed on the front and back by robust glass panes. 

Existing infrastructure has increasing role to play

The cleantech company now has three decades of experience creating solar panels and currently employs over 800 people across Europe. In 2022, it acquired Utrecht-based battery-storage specialist REConvert for an undisclosed amount, establishing a Dutch subsidiary. 

Solarwatt’s CEO Detlef Neuhaus believes rethinking photovoltaics will be essential for Germany’s transition to clean energy, and sees an untapped potential in already existing infrastructure. 

“Already sealed areas such as parking lots, paths and roads are playing an increasingly important role,” Neuhaus said. “We are proud that we could contribute our part to the success of this innovative pilot project.”

Woman riding bicycle under solar powered roof
Credit: Badenova AG & CO

The modules used in the bike lane project have general technical approval from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt). This means that they can be used without any restriction for both private and public projects, without the need for case-by-case testing. 

Solar-powered neighbour stadium

Meanwhile, the pilot bicycle lane is situated close to the SC Freiburg football stadium. The arena is already equipped with a 2.4MW solar panel roof, courtesy of around 6,000 heterojunction solar modules from Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger.

This makes it the third-largest solar panel installation on any stadium in the world. (The largest belongs to Turkish Süper Lig football club Galatasaray’s home arena Nef Stadium, which comprises more than 10,000 panels.) 

The potential for much longer PV-roofed paths

This may be Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered bicycle path (excluding several projects where the path itself has been covered with PV panels). However, since 2014, South Korea boasts a 9 kmbicycle lane covered by a roof made of solar panels. 

This 4-metre wide lane runs in the middle of an eight-lane highway, and connects the cities of Daejeon and Sejong. Its 7,502 solar panels are capable of producing 2,200MWh per year – the equivalent of powering around 600 households, according to the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Several other Korean cities have implemented the technology, but this remains the longest and most power-generating project to date.

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Visually Stunning Adventure ‘Hubris’ is Coming to PSVR 2 Soon, Promising Much Needed Improvements

hubris, hubris psvr 2, hubris vr, News, VR Game / /

Cyborn is bringing Hubris (2022), the sci-fi adventure for PC VR headsets, to PSVR 2 this month, promising a host of improvements we hope will buff out more than a few dull spots in the otherwise visually impressive game.

There’s no precise release date yet; Cyborn says in a PS blog post that Hubris will land on PSVR 2 at some point in May, notably bringing along with it “enhanced graphics and gameplay.”

This includes foveated rendering for sharper resolution, haptics & adaptive triggers for swimming and shooting, revamped reloading and aiming, new enemy variations, refined difficulty levels, and 3D audio.

Many of the things above were sorely lacking from the game when we reviewed the game at launch in late 2022, cementing it as a visually stunning, but ultimately pretty flawed shooter from the get-go.

Some of those improvements will eventually be added to the PC VR version, but “probably not on the same day as the PS VR 2 release as it requires a lot more testing on different headsets when it is stable enough,” the studio says in the game’s official Discord. Cyborn has also confirmed Hubris will also launch on Quest 2 at some point, although the studio hasn’t mentioned specifics.

Visually Stunning Adventure ‘Hubris’ is Coming to PSVR 2 Soon, Promising Much Needed Improvements Read More »

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Popular Quest 2 PC Streaming Software Adds ‘Super Resolution’ Feature for Enhanced Visuals

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Virtual Desktop has collaborated with Qualcomm to integrate the company’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, a software enhancement squarely targeted at increasing the wireless streaming quality and latency of PC visuals to Quest 2 and Pico devices.

Virtual Desktop is a great tool not only because it provides standalone headset users wireless access to their computers, but because its developer, Guy Godin, is constantly adding in new features to tempt users away from using built-in solutions, e.g. Air Link.

That’s a tall order since built-in stuff like Air Link are typically free and usually pretty great, letting Quest and Pico users connect to their VR-ready PCs to play games like Half-Life: Alyx, but Virtual Desktop goes a few steps further. With its PC native application developed for high quality wireless streaming, you can do things like cycle through multiple physical monitors and even connect to up to four separate computers—a feature set you probably won’t see on the Air Link change log.

Now Godin has worked with Qualcomm to integrate the company’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution for built-in upscaling, essentially creating higher resolution images from lower resolution inputs so it can be served up to standalone headsets in higher fidelity. Check out the results below:

Because producing clearer visuals with fewer resources is the name of the game, Qualcomm says in a blog post that its techniques can also reduce wireless bandwidth, system pressure, memory, and provide power requirements.

Godin says in a Reddit post that the new upscaling works with “Potato, Low, Medium quality (up to 120fps) and High (up to 90fps), and it upscales to Ultra resolution under the hood. It can work with SSW enabled as well and doesn’t introduce any additional latency.”

You can get Virtual Desktop on Quest over at the Quest Store, priced at $20. It’s also available on Pico Neo 3 and Pico 4, and will also soon arrive on Vive Focus 3 and XR Elite too, Godin says.

Update (10: 30 ET): Guy Godin reached out to Road to VR to correct that the new Snapdragon Game Super Resolution is available on Quest, Pico, and will soon come to Vive Focus 3 and XR Elite. We’ve included that in the body of the article.

Popular Quest 2 PC Streaming Software Adds ‘Super Resolution’ Feature for Enhanced Visuals Read More »

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Can plant-based meats be healthy? This foodtech startup says yes

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Can plant-based meats be healthy? This foodtech startup says yes

Linnea Ahlgren

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Linnea Ahlgren

Barcelona’s food tech startup Heura has unveiled its new patent-pending technology aimed at producing meat substitutes without the lengthy and sometimes off-putting ingredients list. The company says it is the first scalable technology of its kind to add “superior” nutritional value to plant-based foods. 

The data is abundantly clear – if we are to have any chance at halting global warming, we need to revolutionise our food systems. Approximately 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases come from the raising of livestock.

Furthermore, research has shown processed red meats to be carcinogenic. This means that what we choose to put on our plates matters, for the health of both the collective and the individual. 

However, the initial enthusiasm for vegan meat alternatives has waned somewhat, with shares in one of the most eponymous alternatives, Beyond Meat, losing over 60% of their value over the past year alone. 

Often, companies behind the fake meat revolution are criticised for relying too heavily on artificial additives, with long lists of unpronounceable ingredients. Furthermore, the ultra-processed products are often devoid of essential nutrients. 

“I think that the worst enemy of the category are bad products,” said Heura’s co-founder Marc Coloma. “We see that there has been kind of a gold rush in this category where a lot of products had been launched super fast to the market without meeting consumer expectations.”

Patent-pending thermomechanical technology

Most approaches to creating vegan meat substitutes are sort of trial and error. Producers experiment with different blends of binders and additives as well as vegetable proteins to see what works. 

Enter Heura’s patent-pending technology. The thermomechanical technique uses heat and mechanical energy to shape or modify a material’s properties. This, Heura says, allows it to create plant-based meat substitutes with higher quality inputs and a shorter ingredients list. 

Día histórico en Heura: hoy presentamos nuestra primera patente (de muchas que vendrán) y no podemos estar más felices. #Sucesores pic.twitter.com/1mwG7VbOK8

— Heura Foods #FoodActivists (@HeuraFoods) April 25, 2023

We haven’t been able to glean the exact details about the actual breakthrough. However, during the launch of the project platform, named Good Rebel Tech, last year, the company’s Science and Technology director Isabelle Férnandez, stated that,

“Instead of focusing on extracting and isolating proteins from legume seeds, we are researching ways to leverage the functionality of whole plants in their naturally occurring structures.” 

For now, focus will be on products in the deli, cheese and whole meats. And as anyone who has ever dined in Spain can attest, these are far more popular categories than the most commonly substituted burger patty.

But, protein?

The company has already developed two products using the technology: a frankfurter-style sausage and ham-style slices, both made from soy protein. The frankfurters have a protein density of 72%, and the “ham” 70%. Heura is hoping to have both products hit store shelves by the end of Q4 2023. 

List of ingredients for the frankfurter? Water, soy protein isolate, extra virgin olive oil, radish, carrot and paprika flavour concentrates, lemon juice from concentrate and vitamin B12.

You may have noticed it does not, like so many fake meat products, contain coconut oil. This is due to another milestone reached by Heura’s R&D department last year, where it managed to replace the saturated fat alternative with a 100% olive-oil-based analogue. 

Successful equity crowdfunding

Heura Foods was founded in 2017, in a co-working office in the centre of Barcelona. Its first customer was a small, local business in the Poble-sec neighbourhood. The startup has raised €36 million to date – including an equity crowdfunding campaign which landed it €4 million in just 12 hours. In 2022, the company secured a turnover of €31.4 million, and in 2023, it grew 44% in Q1 compared to the same quarter the year before. 

Furthermore, Heura has tripled its market share in Spain over the past three years, and has agreements with retailer groups in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK.

Could the possession of a patent in an otherwise quite wild west low barrier-to-entry plant-based meats industry lure more investors to Heura’s cause? We will enjoy a cruelty-free frankfurter (or two) while we wait to find out, thank you very much. 

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Scania and Northvolt develop battery for electric trucks with 1.5 million km lifespan

Corporates and innovation, Investors and funding, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Scania and Northvolt develop battery for electric trucks with 1.5 million km lifespan

Siôn Geschwindt

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Siôn Geschwindt

Heavy truck manufacturer Scania and emerging EV battery powerhouse Northvolt have developed a battery for electric trucks that they say will last as long as the vehicles themselves — about 1.5 million kilometres.

The lithium-ion battery is the product of a five-year partnership between the two Swedish companies that began in 2017. ​​At the time, Scania was on the lookout for more robust, cost-efficient, and sustainable battery cells for its heavy-duty trucks and buses — and Northvolt was poised to deliver. 

“Northvolt’s mission to build the world’s greenest batteries perfectly matched Scania’s purpose to drive the shift towards sustainable transport,” said Scania’s CEO Christian Levin in a statement.

The lithium-ion cell was produced at Northvolt’s Ett gigafactory in north Sweden, which opened last year and runs entirely on renewable hydro and wind power. As a result, the partners estimate the battery has a carbon footprint of approximately one-third that of a comparative industry equivalent.  

The cell’s long lifespan also makes it one of the most durable and long-lasting batteries in the electric vehicle industry. Most EV batteries on the market today are only estimated to last between 150,000-300,000 km. 

“At the outset of this partnership, Northvolt and Scania agreed to an ambitious timeline for the development of a high-performance battery cell which would enable their plans for electrifying heavy transport,” said Peter Carlsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Northvolt. “To have proceeded through extensive development and validation phases, and now be delivering cells from Northvolt Ett which exceed our initial expectations in terms of performance is a tremendous accomplishment for everyone involved.” 

northvolt-ett-gigafactory-sweden
Northvolt’s Ett gigafactory in Sweden’s icy north made Europe’s first ever domestically produced lithium-ion battery in 2022. The factory, which employees around 500 people, covers an area three times the size of the iconic Pentagon building in the US. Credit: Northvolt

Northvolt will start mass production of the truck batteries at its Ett gigafactory imminently. Over the next few years, Northvolt aims to increase capacity at Ett to 60 GWh to supply clients like Volkswagen, BMW, Volvo and, of course, Scania. 

In addition, Scania will open a new battery factory in Södertälje, Sweden, next year, where Northvolt’s battery cells will be assembled into battery packs for the start of production of heavy-duty electric trucks. Developing long-lasting batteries is seen as an important milestone on the company’s electrification roadmap, which aims for electric vehicles to make up 50% of sales by 2030. 

Other automakers in the EV heavy vehicle space include Tesla, which is developing an electric semi truck imaginatively dubbed ‘Tesla Semi’, and Volvo, which is already distributing its electric trucks to customers throughout Europe. Swedish startup Einride, considered a competitor to the Tesla Semi, is taking the tech a step further with its plans to roll out fully autonomous electric trucks. 

While electric heavy vehicles only made up 0.6% of sales in Europe last year, accounting firm PWC predicts that they will account for one-third of all truck sales in Europe by 2030, and 70% by 2035,  due to tightening regulations on fossil fuel-powered vehicles and the falling costs of cleaner alternatives. 

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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.

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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 »

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