The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the US actors’ union with 160,000 members has gone on strike mainly over fears that AI will reduce earnings and damage their profession.

New Agreement Needed 

One of the Union’s main roles is negotiating terms between actors and the studios, and the last agreement expired on 30 June (and was extended to 12 July), meaning negotiations were needed which have led to a disagreement and the strike. This is the first time the actors and writers have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild.

Reasons 

In addition to negotiating ‘residuals’, the payments performers receive for repeat showings of films or TV shows (which has been complicated by streaming), who owns their likeness if reproduced by AI has now become a serious issue and a major sticking point.

The Screen Actors Guild union’s membership isn’t only actors in film and TV shows, it’s also made up video game performers, radio presenters, models,  YouTube influencers, and more, and although the union is in the US, its reach, influence, and acts of solidarity with its members are global, meaning the strike is causing major disruption to the whole industry.

How Could AI Negatively Affect Actors And The Profession? 

A recent proposal by The AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), which represents studio bosses reportedly suggested that background performers could simply be scanned and paid one day’s pay, while their scanned image is then owned by film companies who can use the person’s image or likeness (reproduced with AI) for unlimited projects in the future without the performer’s consent and without compensation. It has been noted that this proposal resembles the plot of an episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror (a Netflix Sci-Fi series). As the SAG-AFTRA union president Fran Drescher said in a recent press conference, the fear from performers is, “We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines.”

Stars Out 

The SAG-AFTRA union has many well-known celebrities, many of whom have come out very publicly in support of the strike, for example, Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron, Jamie Lee Curtis, Olivia Wilde, Ewan McGregor, and George Clooney who said that change was required for “our industry to survive”. The fact that SAG-AFTRA has some very famous members is a source of power and leverage in the argument.

Equity In The UK 

Comments by Liam Budd, of UK acting union Equity, have shed more light on the extent to which AI could threaten the pay and jobs of actors and performers. Mr Budd recently outlined how AI is being used for automated audiobooks, synthesised voiceover work, digital avatars for corporate videos, and how AI deepfakes are being used in films, all which have led to “fear circulating” amongst the Equity members.

Writers’ Concerns 

The trade union representing writers for TV, film, theatre, books and video games in the UK, The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has also expressed concerns about the encroachment of AI, such as:

– AI developers using writers’ work without permission, infringing writers’ copyright.

– AI tools don’t clearly show where AI has been used to create content.

– Increased AI will reduce the number of job opportunities for writers and reduce the level of writers’ pay.

– The contributions made by the creative industry to the UK economy and national identity could be diluted by AI.

That said, on the point about whether AI could replace writers, the WGGB says “AI systems are not yet sophisticated enough to produce works which accurately mimic the standard of writing produced by professional writers” and “the WGGB does not believe that AI will be able to replicate the originality, authenticity, enthusiasm and humanity that professional writers put into their storytelling.” The union does, however, accept that AI systems could be able to mimic writes’ work in the future.

What have The Studios Said?

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ union (AMPTP), which represents the studios and their interests, issued a statement highlighting the positive aspects of its proposal such as “historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contribution” and saying that “A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life.” 

With regards to AI and using images and likeness of actors, the AMPTP has said that it has proposed measures to protect actors’ digital likenesses which include securing an actor’s consent to create and use a digital likeness or to digitally alter their performance, and that the use of digital replicas will be restricted to the specific motion picture for which the actor is employed. Also, it says any additional use would require that actor’s consent and further negotiation.

What Does The Strike Mean For The Entertainment Industry? 

In summary, the results of calling the strike means:

– All production under the SAG-AFTRA TV and film contract being halted immediately, thereby bringing projects to a standstill both in the U.S. and around the globe.

– In the UK, with solidarity from the Equity union (and those who have joint cards), many members will stop work and be reluctant to accept work that would have been offered to striking colleagues. Also, co-productions of films and TV shows (US/UK) will be put on hold.

– Actors will no longer be able to promote shows and films they have already made, and this will extend to use of social media for promotion.

– Chat shows may be short of high-profile celebrities for the time being.

Ownership of Likeness 

Ways in which famous actors normally protect their image in likeness, in addition to protection offered by union deals, can include:

– Right of Publicity – the main legal doctrine that celebrities use to control the commercial use of their name, image, voice, or persona.

– Trademark Law – registering their name, image, or signature as trademarks.

– Contract Law – when entering contracts with studios or other entities, actors may have contracts often include detailed provisions about how and when their image can be used.

– Copyright Law – to protect creative works that feature a person’s image.

– Defamation Law – to stop someone falsely uses a celebrity’s image in a way that harms their reputation.

– Privacy Law – used (in some jurisdictions) to protect against intrusive or misleading uses of a person’s image.

However, the rapid evolution of AI and AI tools has led to a blurring of the lines around ownership. For example, when an AI image generator like DALL-E has a likeness added to it to make an image, the new image is in public domain, free to use by anyone, and not protected by copyright law.

This, and the many arguments of the acting and writers’ unions point to the need for new regulations that address these many evolving issues.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The actors argue that AI gives studios the chance to slash costs and are clearly afraid that AI could be used replace them and their skills, could reduce pay, could lead to fewer acting jobs and job losses, could damage their industry, and devalue their profession and status. They also argue that there are serious issues to be addressed around the use of image and likeness and over matters of consent for the use of these and ownership. For the studios, film and program makers, plus their customers, the strike is likely to be costly, disruptive and damaging. Unfortunately, although AI can be used to help enhance film and programme making, the nature of the business lends itself well to automation. For example, actors images, voices and places can all be easily copied by AI tools (although still not perfectly), and generative AI tools can even be used to write scripts (albeit poorly according to Charlie Brooker, writer of Black Mirror). Of course, this is all part of negotiation between unions and studios that also covers other matters, e.g. the effects of streaming. However, it highlights much of the fear around AI and what many see as the alarming pace of development and the need for new regulation to keep up, how automation by AI could destroy jobs and for some, and even how AI could pose a threat to humanity itself.

It also highlights how generative AI tools are blurring hitherto clearer legal boundaries and how quickly AI can disrupt businesses and industries creating both opportunities and threats for those in them. Many will watch with interest how the dispute unfolds and how similar issues will affect/are affecting related industries going forward e.g., music and art.

In this tech insight, we look at what ‘zero-day’ attacks are, then look at some recent high-profile examples and ultimately at what businesses can do to protect themselves from zero-day attacks.

Sophisticated Attacks That Highlight Vulnerabilities 

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital threats and cyber warfare, one term often sends chills down the spines of cybersecurity professionals: Zero-Day Attacks. These sophisticated and stealthy cyber-attacks represent a significant challenge in today’s interconnected business world. They symbolise not just the advancement of cybercriminals’ tactics but also highlight the vulnerabilities that exist within our most trusted digital infrastructures.

Exploiting Zero-Day Vulnerabilities 

Zero-day attacks are attacks by threat actors that exploit zero-day vulnerabilities. These are undisclosed software vulnerabilities (unknown to vendor or victims) that hackers can exploit to adversely affect computer programs, data, additional computers, or a network.

Vulnerabilities targeted in zero-day attacks can be found in operating systems, web browsers, Office applications, open-source components, hardware and firmware, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Why “Zero-Day”? 

The term “zero-day” comes from the fact that software developers and those in charge of digital security have zero days to fix the vulnerability because it is simply not known to them until the first attack. This means that attackers can exploit the vulnerabilities before developers become aware and are able to issue any patches or remediations.

How Big Is The Problem? 

Although zero-day vulnerabilities fell by almost a third in 2022, it was still the second highest year on record (Mandiant research) with 55 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited and products from the three largest vendors (Microsoft, Google, and Apple) were the most commonly exploited (for the third year in a row).

What Can Happen? 

Zero-day attacks commonly result in unauthorised data access, data theft, or service disruptions. These, in turn, can result in reputational damage, lost customers, fines (e.g. legal action by those affected an/or ICO fines), plus possibly the loss of the business itself if the attack is serious enough. Secondary attacks on the business and those affected by data theft could also come from the first attack,.e.g. malware, ransomware, phishing, social engineering attacks, and more.

Cybersecurity experts, therefore, continually work to discover these types of vulnerabilities before hackers do, to try and prevent potential attacks.

Vulnerabilities, Exploits, Then Attacks 

After threat actors have discovered a zero-day vulnerability, the next stage is ‘zero-day exploits’ – the blueprints that outline how these hidden flaws can be taken advantage of, often traded on the dark web. The zero-day attack itself is, therefore, the act of exploiting the flaw/vulnerability, using the guidance of the exploit, before a patch can be rolled out, leaving a digital system scrambling in the wake of the unforeseen breach.

Who? 

These under-the-radar strikes are often orchestrated by advanced cyber criminals, state-sponsored hacking groups, or unscrupulous entities with nefarious motives. The objectives are as varied as the threat actors themselves. For some, it’s about monetary gains whereas for others, it’s a tool for intellectual property theft, infiltrating state secrets, or merely sowing seeds of chaos. Corporate espionage and political machinations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reasons behind these attacks.

Recent High-Profile Examples 

Some recent, high-profile examples of Zero-Day attacks include:

– In 2023, a critical vulnerability was uncovered in the secure managed file transfer (MFT) service provided by MOVEit, a transfer platform widely used by large companies in a variety of sectors including healthcare, government, finance, and aviation. The Russian-based Clop Ransomware group exploited the vulnerability and were able to steal data from eight UK organisations including BBC, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Boots.

– In 2022 the CVE-2022-30190, a.k.a. Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Diagnostics Tool (MDST), was exploited and victims were persuaded to open Word documents which enabled attackers to execute arbitrary code. The government of the Philippines, business service providers in South Asia, and organisations in Belarus and Russia were all subject to the same zero-day attack.

– The notorious Microsoft Exchange Server hack in early 2021, widely believed to have been sponsored by a nation-state, exploited several previously unknown vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s email server software. The damage was widespread and profound, with tens of thousands of organisations worldwide left grappling with the aftermath before a security patch could be rolled out.

– Google’s Chrome suffered a series of zero-day threats in 2021, causing Chrome to issue updates. The vulnerability was a bug in the V8 JavaScript engine used in the web browser.

– A zero-day attack on video conferencing platform Zoom in 2020 where hackers accessed a user’s PC remotely if they were running an older version of Windows. The hackers targeted the administrator, allowing them to completely take over their machine and access all files.

– In 2020, the Apple iOS was attacked twice with zero-day vulnerabilities and one zero-day bug allowed attackers to compromise iPhones remotely.

How Businesses Can Protect Themselves 

So, how can businesses protect themselves against the threat of zero-day attacks? Given their nature, these attacks pose a formidable challenge, but protective measures that can be taken include:

– Regularly updating software updates and staying up to date with patching.

– Employing advanced threat detection tools that utilise behaviour-based detection techniques to pinpoint anomalies and unusual activity in network traffic (often the first sign of a zero-day attack).

– Conducting regular penetration tests and vulnerability assessments. These proactive practices can unearth previously unknown vulnerabilities within systems, allowing businesses to patch them before they are exploited. Following the principle of least privilege – limiting user access rights to the bare minimum needed for their work – can also help reduce the extent of potential damage should an attack occur.

– Beyond technological defences, investing in comprehensive cybersecurity awareness training for employees is crucial. An informed team acts as the human firewall against cyber threats, understanding the risks, recognising signs of possible attacks, and knowing how to respond swiftly and effectively.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

In the face of the ominous threat of zero-day attacks, businesses must adopt a proactive and comprehensive approach to digital security. A robust defence strategy isn’t a luxury but an absolute necessity in today’s digital age. It involves a constant balancing act of risk management, regular system updates, advanced threat detection, routine penetration testing, and vulnerability assessments, regular system audits, and maintaining a culture of security vigilance throughout the organisation.

A multi-layered security approach and a zero-trust model could, therefore, provide a solid foundation for defence although, because some vulnerabilities may still not be known until it’s too late, zero-day attacks remain an ever-present threat.

The potential devastation of zero-day attacks and their aftermath is unquestionable, but it is not an insurmountable challenge. By being as vigilant and proactive in defence measures as is realistically possible, businesses can steer through the murky waters of the cyber threat landscape, securing their digital assets, and upholding the trust of their customers and partners. The world of cybersecurity may be akin to a never-ending arms race, but with the right preparation and resilience, staying one step ahead must be an achievable goal.

London and San Francisco–based startup Stability AI has announced the launch of ‘Stable Doodle’, a sketch-to-image AI-based tool that converts a simple drawing into a dynamic image.

Creates An Image From A Simple Doodle and Text Description 

The new tool from Clipdrop by Stability AI, creates images from a simple doodle (sketched with a mouse) coupled with a text description and a choice of art style, all added through a user-friendly interface.

The 14 styles available in Stable Doodle range from realistic (photography) to cinematic to creative (fantasy art and origami).

How Does It Work?

Stable Doodle uses algorithms to analyse the outline of an image to help generate a coherent result.

The AI technology behind it is a combination of the advanced image-generating technology of Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion XL (an image generation model) with the T2I-Adapter, a condition control solution (by Tencent ARC) that gives more precise AI image generation. The addition of trainable parameters to existing large diffusion models, and the T2I-Adapter enabling inclusion of additional input conditions, such as sketches, segmentation maps, or key poses are what help to create the impressive and flexible image outputs of Stable Doodle.

Who? 

Stable Doodle is aimed at both professionals and novices, regardless of their familiarity with AI tools, and is available to try for free on the Clipdrop by Stability AI website here (https://clipdrop.co/stable-doodle) and as an app (iOS and Google Play). Users can begin experimenting with the tool without a login, subject to daily limits.

Benefits 

Stability AI says that Stable Doodle can enables designers, illustrators, and other professionals to free up valuable time and maximise efficiency. Also, ideas drawn as simple sketches (provided there’s a good accompanying description), can now be immediately implemented into works to create designs for clients, material for presentation decks and websites, or even create logos. This enables time and cost savings and gives those with few or no design skills and experience the ability to create professional visual results.

Not The Only AI Image Generator 

Stable Doodle is by no means the only AI image generator available. Others include DALL-E 2, Jasper, NightCafe, AutoDraw (a similar doodle to image setup), Midjourney, Designs.ai, and more.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The big benefits of Stable Doodle appear to be its simplicity for the users – just a doodle and a description – and the scope and quality of the outputs due to power what the tool has under the bonnet (i.e. the Stable Diffusion XL model and T2I-Adapter). Also, it can be tried-out for free, while the Pro version is only £5 per month.

AI image generators (also known as GANs) like Stable Doodle offer many advantages to businesses. The ability to instantly create quality, designer-style images of any kind using just simple inputs like doodles and text descriptions enhances efficiency and time savings and allows any business with no in-house design skills to create tailored, quality images aligned with brand identity and/or customer preferences.

AI image generators thereby contribute to cost reduction by eliminating the need for hiring professional designers or photographers for routine or repetitive tasks. They also enable scalability without increasing workforce and can foster creativity and inspiration by producing novel and unique images that can serve as a source of ideas and exploration for designers and artists.

Businesses of all sizes and types, thanks to AI image generators, can now also ensure visual consistency across various marketing materials and branding efforts, aligning with established style guides or brand guidelines. AI image generators can also facilitate rapid prototyping and design iteration so businesses can iterate and refine designs efficiently.

All that said, at their present level, AI image generators should be seen as tools that complement human creativity and expertise, rather than as substitutes for them, plus very real concerns have been raised by artists whose work may have been used without their consent to train the models behind the image generators and could appear as styles and in outputs.

There’s nothing like setting the bar high and Elon Musk recently announced in a Twitter Spaces audio chat that the purpose of his new AI company, xAI, will be to “understand the universe”.

What Is xAI? 

xAI is Elon Musk’s new startup that aims to build a kind of ‘good’ AI system that will lead to an “age of plenty” where there’s no shortage of goods and services, as opposed to the dark, terminator-style future where AI could wipe out humanity. Musk said he wants xAI to be a “good AI” alternative to Microsoft, Google and OpenAI (ChatGPT’s makers). Elon Musk was famously one of the high-profile signatories (there were 1800) of the open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of AI systems “more powerful” than that of GPT-4 which stated systems with “human-competitive intelligence” poses profound risks to humanity.

Musk said: “If I could press pause on AI or really advanced AI digital superintelligence I would. It doesn’t seem like that is realistic so xAI is essentially going to build an AI … in a good way, sort of hopefully”.

Who’s Involved? 

With Musk as the sole director, others involved in the xAI project include Jared Birchall (secretary), Dan Hendrycks (director of the Center for AI Safety), Igor Babuschkin (a former DeepMind engineer), Tony Wu (formerly of Google), Christian Szegedy (formerly Google – research), and Greg Yang (formerly of Microsoft).

What’s Going On? 

In Musk’s 90-minute-long chat, he jokingly remarked that the mission of xAI will be to find out “what the hell is really going on” in terms of creating “a maximally curious AI” that is trying to “understand the true nature of the universe” in a “pro-humanity” way.

Realised Pause Is Not Realistic 

In Musk’s Twitter chat, he acknowledged (as many critics of the open letter’s demands had previously pointed out) that a pause/moratorium in the development of AI systems is not realistic and that the best course of action is to create a friendly alternative.

‘Terminator’ Style Fate May Be Closer Than You Think 

During his chat, Musk said of the predictions of human-level intelligence AI’s potential to turn against and wipe out humans: “It’s actually important for us to worry about a Terminator future in order to avoid a Terminator future.” He suggested that the superintelligent AI (more intelligent than humans) could be only five or six years away.

Working With Tesla & Twitter – Twitter Data To Train 

The xAI website states that: “We are a separate company from X Corp, but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission.”  Musk has been very vocal about (and threatened lawsuits for) those allegedly using Twitter’s data.

Criticism 

Musk is also facing criticism in the news at the moment over his apparently personal fight with Mark Zuckerberg over allegations that Twitter data may have been used to develop Meta’s ‘Threads’ (which already has 100 million+ users, many from Twitter, plus the fact that after $44 billion and eight months on from taking over Twitter, the social network appears to be teetering on the edge of going under.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Many critics blame Musk’s behaviour in taking over Twitter – aggressive cost-cutting, the Blue Tick system, the sackings, advertisers leaving, and still a negative cashflow, 50 per cent drop in advertising revenue, and a heavy debt load (and more). While Musk may choose to blame Zuckerberg and Meta e.g., for scraping Twitter data, many see the apparent fast decline of Twitter that created the right circumstances for a serious competitor like Meta’s ‘Threads’ to gain massive and instant traction and mass as something Musk could blame on himself. Many may, therefore, see a move to launch yet another company as a rival to AI, which is advancing at a pace anyway, and accepting that getting xAI to the level of Google’s DeepMind and OpenAI could take a long time, as another high risk move by Musk. Using Twitter and Tesla to help get xAI off the ground may also make investors nervous, especially looking at the trajectory of Twitter. Many may see valid points in Musk’s arguments about needing to ensure that AI’s growth is at least made as safe as possible, but apparently swimming against a strong tide with a reputation that has taken a bit of a battering may make many doubt whether xAI will seriously be able, even with all the experts on board, to create another kind of safer AI. The battle of formats in many other tech markets springs to mind, but the events at Twitter may overshadow xAI’s development.

A group of solar panel startups is producing panels that enhance the look of buildings by combing them with art or making them as coloured cladding, facades, or roof tiles.

Solar Panels That Blend In 

A group of Dutch startups is creating innovative solar panels that not only generate electricity but fit in well with (and enhance) the appearance of buildings in urban areas and business districts.

Funding 

The Dutch government’s recent decision to ringfence up to €412mn in funding for next-generation solar technologies such as solar facades, solar glass, and building-integrated photovoltaics has meant funds being directed toward many of the kind of solar startups like those in the Dutch SolarNL consortium.

With investment in European solar startups up nearly 400 per cent on last year, the future is bright in solar PV manufacturing.

Examples 

Some examples of how some of the new crop of solar PV startups are changing the way solar panels look and are used include:

– Zigzagsolar makes attractive building facades that are made of a combination of a hidden PV systems tilted towards the sun and decorative panels facing the urban surroundings. The company says the tilting of the panels on the side of buildings (made to look like coloured panels and murals) makes them far more efficient (126 per cent) than flat-on-the-wall or standard roof panels. The Zigzagsolar system involves making a whole building façade from a number of prefabricated, single full-operational cassettes, which can be linked together allowing the creation of one coherent look for the exterior of buildings such as an office block. The company describes the facades, which can be customised with any murals or colours as “Art combined with technology in urban areas”. 

– Solar Visuals in Roosendaal produces SunEwat photovoltaics-embedded opaque glass panels that are fully customisable, e.g. coloured or contain designs and can be used for building facades. The company says the panels enable “architects and designers to take an artistic approach to the vision glass elements” of buildings and that visually “Anything is possible: a specific colour, an abstract pattern or even the image of a painting or photograph”. Their products have already been deployed in projects in France (Paris), South Korea, and across the Netherlands.

– Solarix uses ceramic colouring techniques to make solar facade panels that match with other building materials, such as stone, composite wood or aluminium. The panels which have integrated solar cells can, therefore, be used to blend in with familiar building components such as roof tiles or facades whilst generating electricity at the same time, i.e. they can be used to make buildings create rather than just consume energy.

– Exasun, in The Hague, produces in-roof solar systems in the form of PV roof tiles (the X-Tile) that look like and can be blended in with normal roof tiles, or a complete PV roof (the X-Roof) without the use of roof tiles. The company says the individual X-Tile roof tiles are strong, look great, can deliver electricity for 30 years, and their smaller size means that just an area of a roof can be covered in them, or an entire roof can be fitted with panels for maximum power.

Other Companies  

There are now many other companies around the world making innovative solar panels that can integrated into urban environments. For example:

– Hungarian company Platio makes solar pavers that can be placed on terraces, driveways, walkways, or on other sunny, flat surfaces, giving a way to “provide clean energy for cities, buildings, homes and marinas”.

– US and South Korea-based SolarWindow makes transparent, electricity-generating glass and plastics that allow the windows on buildings to be turned into solar panels.

– German company Sono Motors makes retrofit solar panels that can be integrated into the exterior of third-party vehicles like busses, lorries, refrigerated vehicles, recreational vehicles and more, to effectively make them solar-powered. The company says this addresses challenges like range and charging limitations for electric buses, increasing energy prices for both power from the grid and diesel, and reduces urban emissions, extends battery lifetime, allows longer operating hours, and means fewer charging cycles.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Advances in solar technology, investment, innovative startups, and the sheer range and scope of solar PV products means that all parts of previously wasted space (in energy terms) in urban areas can now be turned into clean, sustainable energy generating spaces, e.g. all parts of building exteriors, pavements, vehicles and more. Not only that, but advances in technology also mean that solar panels can be made in different shapes and sizes, incorporate custom designs, patterns, and artwork so that they can blend in, enhance the appearance of budlings, and even stand out as urban artworks to be enjoyed. While climate-change challenges are serious, innovative new solar panel products prove that green energy production doesn’t have to be dull but can also be very flexible and beautiful, thereby delivering additional benefits on other levels.

July 1940 : “We Saw Them Coming”….

In July 1940, a Bristol Blenheim like this one was the first aircraft to successfully use radar to detect enemy aircraft, proving that radar could help provide an effective electronic defence whilst being deployed in the air.

It’s often been said that Britain would have lost the Battle of Britain had it not been for RADAR. Yet (like many things in the business world) it’s useless without an integrated system to make the data actionable!

It’s worth visiting Bentley Priory in London where the “Dowding System” was developed and implemented. This incredible system was pioneered by Chief Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding and involved a network of radar stations located along the coast of southern and eastern England. These radar stations were equipped with early warning radar systems that detected and tracked enemy aircraft approaching from across the English Channel.

The information gathered by the radar stations was then transmitted to a centralised operations centre, known as the “Filter Room”. The Filter Room served as the nerve centre of the Dowding system. It received the radar reports, processed the information, and coordinated the air defence response. You’ll doubtless have seen films with ladies using sticks to push wooden aircraft-symbols around a room-sized map – that’s what it looked like and you can still see it – incredible stuff!

From those early days, radar has found itself in countless applications from its early military applications but just looking at technology closer to home (possibly on the way to work today), radar is used in automotive radar systems (Automotive Radar for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems – ADAS) for collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, and parking assistance.

Well over half of new cars are fitted with radar and the market for them for the next decade is growing with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) at over 9%, which is not only an interesting trend but something potentially worth investing in, if you’re so inclined.

So, the next time you’re you hear your car beeping when it’s warning you that you’re a bit ‘too close’ just think about what it would have been like for those fantastic pilots having to deal with incoming enemy aircraft in the Battle of Britain!

The next time you’re you hear your car beeping when it’s warning you that you’re a bit ‘too close’ just think about what it would have been like for those fantastic pilots having to deal with incoming enemy aircraft in the Battle of Britain!

Wordfence warned that large-scale attacks are under way against a vulnerability (CVE-2023-28121) in the in the WooCommerce Payments WordPress plugin.

The flaw in the plugin, which is installed on over 600,000 sites, gives attackers authentication bypass so they can impersonate arbitrary users, and perform some actions, including as an administrator, potentially leading to site takeover.

Wordfence says patches for the bug were released by WooCommerce in March 2023, and WordPress has issued auto-updates to sites using affected versions of the plugin.

If you’d like a really fast way to find and use particular emojis on a Windows PC, here’s how:

– For example, in Microsoft Word, Press the Windows key + the full stop symbol on the keyboard.

– Keep typing the word that describes the emoji you’re looking for, (e.g. laughter) and the automatically loaded emoji window will show the emojis that match your description.

– Click in the emoji you require from that selection.

Following the release of Meta’s alternative platform to Twitter called ‘Threads’, Meta’s head, Mark Zuckerberg, reports 100 million signups to the new platform in its first five days.

What Is Threads? 

The Threads app, launched by Meta on 6 June, is a “text-based conversation app” that is a direct competitor to Twitter – it looks remarkably similar to Twitter and functions in a very similar way.

Threads – Available Via Instagram Login 

The fact that the app is from Meta and available via Instagram (and was developed by the Instagram team) which has over a billion users means that it has instantly become a serious competitor to the troubled Twitter.

To use Threads, Instagram users use their normal Instagram account to log in and their Instagram username and verification is carried over, with the option to customise their profile after specifically for Threads. The app is available for iOS and Android and can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

In what appears to be a little swipe at Twitter, Meta says Threads will “enable positive, productive conversations” and posts can be up to 500 characters long and include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes in length. Users can share a Threads post to their Instagram story or share their post as a link on any other platform they choose.

Available in 100+ Countries But Not In The EU 

Threads has been launched in 100+ countries but Meta has decided not to make it available in EU countries due to what it describes as the “complexities” of trying to comply with new laws coming in next year. This appears to be a reference to the Digital Markets Act.

30+ Million In The First Day  

Meta’s head, Mark Zuckerberg reported that more than 10 million users had signed up to the Threads “initial version” within the first seven hours of its release, more than 30 million had signed up before the end of the first day, and a staggering 100 million had signed up in the first five days! (a faster sign-up rate that ChatGPT).

Zuckerberg has great ambitions for the app which he sees as a “friendly” alternative to Twitter, stating that it could become a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it and that “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

Launched As Twitter Is Struggling 

Seen a as part of the latest rivalry between Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter owner Elon Musk (in June, Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg on social media to “a cage match” fight), the Threads app has been launched at a time when Twitter is seen by many to be in a weakened position.

Why Is Twitter Looking Weak? 

Since Musk took over Twitter and tried to produce more revenue streams from it than just advertising, avoid bankruptcy (something Musk said publicly could happen), and turn Twitter into a ‘super-app’, several events, and comments have led to bad publicity and appeared to be unpopular with Twitter users and advertisers. For example:

– Musk’s $44 billion takeover led to ultimatum’s being given to staff over committing to new working conditions, mass job cuts – Twitter slashed roughly 50 per cent of its workforce (reports showed Musk’s leadership sacking an estimated 80 per cent of contract employees without formal notice).

– Twitter top executives getting sacked, e.g. Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadd.

– Fears that Twitter could change for the worse under Musk’s ownership, i.e. reinstating unpopular banned users and controversial figures and allowing the wrong kind of ‘free speech’ (former US President Trump, who’d been previously banned was invited back – an offer he declined).

– Thousands of (outsourced) content moderators were dropped, leading to fears of a drop in quality and possible rise of misinformation.

– The Blue service/Blue Tick service, a way to generate new revenue and tackle the problem of fake / bot accounts, and parody accounts led to a wave of blue tick verified (yet fake) accounts impersonating influential brands and celebrities tweeting fake news plus having to be suspended and removed. Also, there was confusion over the introduction of new grey “official” badges instead of blue ticks on some high-profile accounts, which were then suddenly scrapped, also reports that US far-right activists have been able to purchase Twitter blue ticks.

– Elon Musk announcing that all but “exceptional” Twitter employees need to come back to working in the office for at least 40 hours per week or their resignation would be accepted.

– Twitter users leaving the platform in protest over Musk’s ownership and moving to competing, and decentralised social network ‘Mastodon’, Donald Trumps ‘Truth Social’, Discord, Hive Social, and Post.

– America’s Federal Trade Commission warning that “no chief executive or company is above the law,” fears over Twitter’s approach to security, and questions about this in relation to possible Saudi involvement in the Twitter takeover.

– Reports of Apple and Google threatening to drop Twitter from their app stores (denied by Musk).

– Apple and Amazon (major sources of advertising revenue for Twitter) stopping (which some deny about Amazon) and then resuming advertising on Twitter following a reported meeting between Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple HQ over the “misunderstanding.”

– Twitter losing more than 50 per cent of its advertising partners and a number of large companies pausing advertising on Twitter since Musk’s takeover, e.g. General Mills Inc, Audi, Volkswagen, General Motors, and more.

– Reports (Mikmak) of Twitter suffering a massive 68 per cent drop in media traffic (the number of times people click on an ad).

– Many high-profile celebrities publicly leaving/announcing they were leaving Twitter since Musk’s takeover, e.g. Elton John, Jim Carrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and more.

– A storm of criticism following Elon Musk’s threatening to turn off SMS 2FA after 20 March 2023 unless users paid for Blue Tick.

– Microsoft dropping Twitter from its advertising platform following Twitter’s announcement that it would charge a minimum of $42,000 per month to enterprise users of its API.

– Following a vote by Twitter users for him to resign, Elon Musk saying he may step down as head of Twitter the end of this year.

Most Recently…. 

Some other controversial moves very recently include:

– In response to alleged “data scraping” (perhaps a reference to Microsoft allegedly using Twitter’s data), and “system manipulation”, Twitter is limiting how many tweets users can read daily – verified 6,000 posts, unverified 600. In contrast, Meta has said there are no restrictions on how many posts users of Threads can see. The restrictions on how many posts Twitter users could read led to problems as angry TweetDeck users reported issues such as notifications and entire columns failing to load.

– As part of a “temporary emergency measure” against data scraping by companies (e.g. perhaps OpenAI using Twitter data to train), anyone wanting to view any Twitter content will need a login or will need to sign up, which could be inconvenient to web users and could affect search engine results.

Meta Not Without Its Own Bad Publicity 

That said, although Twitter doesn’t appear to be having its finest hour, in the interest of fairness it’s worth remembering that Meta/Facebook has faced its own worries with users such as trust issues over data sharing with Cambridge Analytica, Facebook being used to spread disinformation in the US election and UK Brexit campaigns, plus issues about user safety on its platform (hate speech, damaging content, and more).

Twitter Threatens Legal Action 

Towards the end of the first day of the release of Threads, Twitter threatened to take legal action against Meta with Twitter’s attorney Alex Spiro sending a letter to Mark Zuckerberg accusing Meta of “systematic, wilful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property” in the creation of Threads. Musk said, “competition is fine, cheating is not”. Meta denied any wrongdoing and denied claims that ex-Twitter staff helped create the rival app.

Big Plans – Striking While The Iron’s Hot 

Meta clearly plans to push forward more and give the Threads app maximum reach and clout, saying that it is working to make Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks – making it “compatible with ActivityPub, the open social networking protocol” (from the W3C). This could also make Threads interoperable with other ActivityPub-supporting apps like Mastodon and WordPress, and Tumblr in the future.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Meta seems to have chosen the right moment and used the huge leverage and reach it has (via Instagram) to launch an app to compete head-on, and perhaps with more success than others, with Twitter. The fact that Twitter is undergoing a crisis of funding and unhappiness among many customers and continuing issues under Musk, who also appears to be involved in personal rivalry with Meta’s head Mark Zuckerberg, while there have been 30+ million plus sign-ups in one day and 100 million sign-ups in just five days could mean that Twitter is now facing a very serious extra challenge from a credible, strong competitor. With Instagram having an estimated 1.3 billion users worldwide and Twitter having 353 million users, if even one-third of Instagram users signed up to Threads it would dwarf Twitter (10 per cent of the number of Twitter users signed up to Threads in the first day!) and some are predicting that Threads could even kill off Twitter.

Musk’s language lately has contained many references to suing people who take things from Twitter, e.g. data, and his public rivalry with Zuckerberg has intensified, and one could be forgiven for thinking that Musk may have got wind of what was coming with Threads. In the legal letter from Twitter to Zuckerberg, the accusation that ex-Twitter staff worked on Threads is interesting because there may well have been many disgruntled Twitter staff who were ousted unceremoniously when Musk took over and it’s conceivable that they could have gone across to Meta.

For users, the fact that Threads is from Meta, is easy to sign up to, and free, doesn’t have some of the limitations and restrictions of Twitter, appears to be making it look like a viable alternative. This is also unwelcome news for other Twitter alternative platforms, e.g. Mastodon, Discord, Hive Social, and more who will also see Threads as a serious competitor. For business advertisers, Threads may provide another good opportunity to reach customers, plus advertisers, celebrities, and influencers may also value the chance to use another platform that gives them the reach while escaping any negative connotations of things Musk may have said, done, or introduced, e.g. problems over the Blue Tick scheme or sharing a platform with those whose ‘free speech’ may not be compatible with their thinking and brand image. Signing up to (and switching across to) Threads may also simply give many people an opportunity to feel that they’re ‘sticking it’ to Musk – who many see as a controversial figure.

In this tech insight, we take a look at what Microsoft 365 Copilot is, how it is being used, and how it can help your business.

What Is Copilot? 

Introduced in March 2023, Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI assistant that’s embedded within the Microsoft 365 apps and services to help users save time and increase productivity. Copilot, created using ChatGPT version 4 and Microsoft Graph (an API developer platform that connects multiple services and devices) and, like ChatGPT, is essentially a natural language conversational chatbot that can give human-like responses to questions and link aspects of all the 365 apps together in a new and more productive way.

Improves Productivity, Creativity, & Upskilling 

Microsoft says that Copilot can increase your employee’s productivity by as much as 50 per cent. In general, whereas the ‘average person’ uses 10 per cent of what Microsoft 365 apps can do, Microsoft says Copilot can unlock the other 90 per cent, thereby improving productivity, creativity, upskilling, and maximising use of business tech resources.

Embedded In Popular Apps

The Copilot AI assistant has been embedded in popular Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, so that it can be used to help users to use 365 apps more creatively, productively, and in a way that can “uplevel skill”, that means (as Microsoft says) it can make you “better at what you’re good at and lets you quickly master what you’ve yet to learn”.

Business Chat   

Copilot is operated in Microsoft 365 by ‘Business chat’, which is the field (like that in ChatGPT) where you ask the chatbot questions and give it instructions using normal language. For example, to generate a status-update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads, type in “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy”.  

How Have Businesses Said They’re Using Copilot? 

A few examples online of where businesses written about how they are using Copilot or have been reported to be using Copilot include:

– Baker Hughes, an energy technology company, using GitHub Copilot to help their developers write code faster and with fewer errors.

– The New York Times is reported to use GitHub Copilot to help their developers write code for their internal tools.

– Spotify uses GitHub Copilot to help their developers write code for their music streaming service.

– Airbnb uses GitHub Copilot to help their developers write code for their home rental service.

All of these businesses have discovered that Copilot can be particularly useful for generating code for new features and for automating repetitive tasks.

How Is Copilot Being Used In Different Industries?  

Here are some examples of ways that Microsoft 365 Copilot is being used in different industries:

– In the legal profession, law firms have been using Copilot to streamline their legal document creation process. The AI-powered assistant helps them draft legal documents, contracts and letters more efficiently. It also assists in proofreading and editing these documents, ensuring they are free of errors and are professionally written. This has significantly reduced the time lawyers spend on document creation, allowing them to focus more on their clients.

– Large retailers have been using Copilot to manage their internal and external communications. The AI assistant helps draft emails, create presentations and generate reports, thereby saving employees significant time. It also assists in scheduling meetings and managing tasks, improving overall productivity.

– In healthcare, private health companies / healthcare groups have used Copilot to manage their vast amount of healthcare data. The AI assistant helps them organise and analyse data, generate reports, and create presentations. Healthcare companies have found that it improves their decision-making process and has made their operations more efficient.

– Manufacturing companies have used Copilot to help manage their supply chain. The AI assistant helps them track inventory, schedule deliveries, and manage orders. This has improved their supply chain efficiency and has reduced operational costs.

– In the education sector, universities have found that Copilot can help manage their academic and administrative tasks. The AI assistant helps them schedule classes, manage student data, and create academic reports. This has improved their administrative efficiency and has made academic management easier.

What Are IT and Tech Companies Saying About Copilot? 

Many different technology consulting firms, IT support and managed service providers, and cloud solutions providers have published online examples of how Copilot can be used by businesses. For example:

– Using Copilot to streamline internal operations, e.g. using it to automate repetitive tasks, such as scheduling meetings and managing project timelines with the benefits of increased efficiency and productivity, allowing staff to focus on more strategic tasks.

– Copilot being used by businesses to enhance their customer service. For example, integrating it into a customer support system can provide instant responses to customer queries, reducing the workload on a customer service team and improving customer satisfaction.

– Using Copilot can be used to improve project management by automating the process of tracking project progress and managing project resources, resulting in improved project delivery times and reduced project costs.

– Copilot being used in conjunction with Microsoft Power Platform to enhance business processes, e.g. using it to build professional websites, process invoices, enhance chat experiences, analyse documents, and develop automated workflows.

– Using Copilot to automate workflows can reduce costly error rates.

Microsoft Says… 

Microsoft’s examples of how Copilot can be used in its 365 apps to help your business include:

– If using Microsoft Word, Copilot can save hours in writing, sourcing, and editing by being able to write a first draft, to edit and shorten it, rewrite it, or give feedback as required, in the same way as you might write a piece using ChatGPT.

– In Microsoft Teams, Copilot could save time and effort and make meetings more productive by being used to make a summary of key discussion points of meetings, including who said what, where people are aligned and where they disagree, and suggest action items, all in real-time during a meeting. It can also recap meetings for you and send you the notes afterwards.

– In PowerPoint, Copilot can create whole presentations from a simple text prompt and add any relevant content from a document you made, again saving time and effort. It can also improve creativity in PowerPoint and other apps, improving the quality of work and making it more interesting and engaging. This could be useful, for example, when pitching for business or conducting training.

– In Microsoft Excel, Copilot can instantly analyse trends and create insightful summaries and graphs of data, all done in seconds from simple text prompts. This could improve decision making and uncover new business insights and opportunities that may not have been possible, certainly not as quickly, just through normal human efforts.

– Email is an important communications channel for most businesses, and in Outlook, Copilot can save time by clearing an inbox in minutes, not hours, e.g., by drafting emails for you and analysing long email threads in seconds. This saves time, simplifies the process, and could help businesses to free up time to be used elsewhere in the business.

– Using Power Platform, Copilot can be also used to automate repetitive tasks, even creating chatbots, and can enable a fast transition from idea to working app in minutes. This gives developers a powerful time-saving tool that can increase their productivity.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?  

The power and versatility of AI natural language chatbots, which many people first experienced through ChatGPT, has seen them quickly adopted by businesses because of the value they add by saving time and boosting productivity in a user-friendly way. Embedding Copilot in 365’s apps has, therefore, given businesses an instant, flexible, and effective way to get much more out the most popular apps in Microsoft 365. As well as being a competitive advantage for Microsoft and for businesses, Copilot, therefore, offers businesses an easy-to-use way to save time, be more creative with IT, boost productivity, upskill staff in IT (without spending on training), and get greater and perhaps new insights into their own business and operations. As the examples in this article show, Microsoft 365 Copilot is adaptable, can be used in a wide variety of industries and can handle a range of tasks, making it a potentially valuable tool for any business that can improve efficiency and productivity and feed into improving the bottom line.