AI TECHNOLOGY THAT KNOWS YOUR SKIN FOR THE PERFECT SKIN CARE SOLUTION

A new beauty startup, Proven, is using artificial intelligence to determine the best skincare routines for people based on their skin type and needs, and all of the products will be made in-house.

Amy Yuan, one of Proven’s co-founders, uses her computational physics background to build an “AI engine” that pores through reviews of various skincare products, reports TechCrunch. Proven claims the machine has analyzed 8 million reviews, 20,000 ingredients, and 100,000 products using fraud-detection algorithms to rule out fake reviews. By looking through a massive quantity of data, the machine can then determine trends and general patterns in what products are suitable for particular skin types.

Proven suggests a skincare routine for you via a considerably detailed quiz that asks questions like where you live, whether your skin is oily or dry, and what skincare products you can’t live without.In the end, the results categorize what kind of skin you have and offer Proven’s custom skincare products, such as toners, serums, and a non-optional skin report, all of which you can buy as a bundle through a subscription that charges you $120 every two months. The startup appears to be aimed at women, the largest consumer group for the skincare industry, though the quiz does offer the option to identify as male.

Proven is not the first beauty startup to use big data to support and market its product strategy. HelloAva launched a chatbot last year that recommends skincare products that contain safer ingredients. The function of Beauty, a Y Combinator-backed company, also uses algorithms to make custom shampoos and conditioners. Function of Beauty doesn’t claim to use deep learning and machine learning like Proven does, but it does have a detailed quiz and in-house products.

Skincare can be an even tougher field than hair care. The skincare industry is filled with a myriad of products, and everyone’s skin is different, with different skin conditions like eczema and rosacea. Notably, Proven’s quiz fails to ask whether you have these aforementioned conditions. After I took the Proven quiz, it gave me the result of Trouble Skin, probably because I answered “Not Sure” on a question about skin allergies, and listed mild dryness, acne, and oiliness as problems. AI may be useful for Proven’s chemist to figure out the best formula for common skin problems, but from the user end, it doesn’t yet seem personal enough.

Sources:
https://goo.gl/HWKF28

INSTAGRAM AND SNAPCHAT ARE FIGHTING FOR SPECIAL TYPE OF USERS, THE CHOSEN FEW

 Parent company Snap on Wednesday announced it will give users such as celebrities and so-called social media influencers more data about how their posts are performing.Snapchat is finally sharing analytics with its most high-profile users as it steps up efforts to compete with Instagram.

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The data will include total Story views and the time Snapchat users spent watching posts. Snapchat will also provide gender and geographic breakdowns.

Previously, celebrities and influencers could only see total views for a current Story on Snapchat, a metric to which all users have access. Stories are photos and videos shared by users that disappear after 24 hours.

Brands are less likely to partner with influencers on campaigns if they don't have access to detailed data. Without such information, brands can only know how many people their messages have reached, but not whether they've been seen by the kinds of people they're targeting. For instance, a makeup company looking to add younger customers will want to know that when they pay a particular celebrity to promote their makeup, millenial women see the Story.

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has offered data -- similar to what Snapchat will now provide -- to businesses and accounts with high levels of engagement since May 2016.

The move is likely an effort by Snapchat to appeal to social media stars who have migrated to Instagram.

"This is all part of a broader strategy to take dead aim at Instagram in hopes of gaining market and mind share with the celebrity and their heavy [amount of] followers," said Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer and head of technology research at GBH Insights.

Top creators posted more content to Instagram Stories than Snapchat Stories during the fourth quarter, according to a report from social media analytics platform Captiv8.

Snapchat's move "levels the playing field," said Ryan Detert, the CEO of Influential, an AI-enabled influencer marketing platform.

"If the individual creators are not monetizing their time and efforts, they'll go to different platforms, Detert said.

Snapchat also recently unveiled a redesign of its platform that has sparked criticism from many users.

The app, which is popular with teens and millenials, previously featured content from friends, publishers and celebrities all on one page. Now, there's a designated page for friends and a separate page for publishers.

Ives believes the redesign was necessary to attract more users and advertisers. The app was previously criticized for being too difficult to use.

"Snapchat is trying to pivot," Ives said. "The app redesign, celebrity metrics transparency and a myriad of other engagement and advertising initiatives are key to the turnaround story being successful."

Sources
https://goo.gl/NFQRd5

WOMEN FIRST OVER MEN,TINDER INTRODUCES NEW FEATURE TO LET WOMEN PREVENT MEN FROM MESSAGING THEM FIRST

Tinder plans to give women more power in its online-dating app by adding a setting similar to a key feature for younger rival Bumble. Tinder will let female users choose whether they want to initiate all conversations with future matches.It will soon let women decide whether they want to prevent men from sending the first message, MarketWatch reports. “Often, women don’t really want the pressure of kicking off the conversation, but if they want it, that’s great,” Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg told the publication.

Women can choose whether they want this feature on or off, and it seems to be only for heterosexual women. This, and other features in the works are an attempt to “curtail bad behavior, any negative behavior or advances, and inappropriate communication,” Ginsberg says. This all makes sense to me. As much as women might not like sending the first message, they also might want more control over who can reach out to them.

Tinder users of either gender can make the first move now, but a future update—Tinder did not provide a targeted launch date—will let women choose to receive messages only from men they choose. “Often, women don’t really want the pressure of kicking off the conversation, but if they want it, that’s great,” said Ginsberg, who took over the top role last month at Match Group. 

“Giving people the choice versus telling people how to engage is the big difference.” The women-talk-first setting is the cornerstone of Bumble’s dating app, which also has other features meant to give women more control over the online-dating experience. Bumble was launched by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who left the company and sued for sexual harassment and discrimination, reportedly receiving a $1 million settlement.

Match reportedly tried to acquire Bumble at a valuation of more than $1 billion, as the younger app was estimated to top 20 million users. Ginsberg said that the company doesn’t comment on acquisition rumors and is “in a very unique position where we’re seeing such strong business growth that we don’t feel the need to go buy anything.” Tinder’s new option will be different from Bumble because it allows female users to opt in to start the conversation instead of making it the standard, Ginsberg noted. “The feedback that we’ve heard is that women don’t always want to be forced to make a move, so we want to give people the ability to choose,” Ginsberg said. 

In response to a request for comment, Bumble pointed to a statement Wolfe Herd gave TechCrunch about this MarketWatch story. “We applaud any company making business decisions that empower women,” she said. Ginsberg emphasized that Match is trying to “curtail bad behavior, any negative behavior or advances, and inappropriate communication” across its various dating properties. Also, she noted Match can roll out similar female-focused features globally on other brands, and has already done so at properties like Meetic, a European service that awards a “gentleman’s badge” to its most respectful users. 

Tinder is the financial star for Match Group. It accounted for about 30% of the company’s revenue last year, after doubling on an annual basis. Match has said that Tinder has more than 3 million paying subscribers, with a growing new subscription service called Tinder Gold that allows users to see who has already liked their profile.

It's unclear when the Tinder feature will roll out, but it could potentially appear within other Match Group portfolio companies, according to the company. This includes brands such as OKCupid, Plenty of Fish and Match.com.

Sources:

https://goo.gl/GVokPR

PEOPLE ARE NOW FLYING AROUND INSIDE DRONES,AND IT'S CHEAPER THAN A PLANE😃

They're giant, people-carrying versions of the small remote-controlled drones that have become hugely popular with consumers around the world which is preferred rather than traditional gas-driven engines and large propellers or rotors for forward and vertical flight, new designs spread out the work across many small electric motors.


The drone can carry a single passenger weighing up to 220 pounds and a small suitcase for 30 minutes. 

The traveler climbs into the drone and inputs a destination within 31 miles, then takes to the sky at a speed of 62 mph, according to the AP. The drone is monitored via a control room.

The drone takes off from and lands at predetermined points and uses a camera to ensure a safe landing, according to EHang’s website. If the drone malfunctions or disconnects from 4G mobile service, it promises to land immediately at the nearest safe location, the company says.


Chinese company Ehang offered a glimpse this week of what could lieahead,releasing its first video of passengers climbing aboard its autonomous drones and taking off with the push of a button. (...) Ehang says it first managed to carry passengers in its drones back in 2015 and has since racked up at least 40 successful journeys. It hadn't shared footage of the flights publicly until this week.

Ehang is attempting to confound the naysayers by releasing the first ever footage showing the 184 whisking actual human beings into the great blue yonder. Some 40 "passengers" were filmed enjoying their aerial excursions, including the deputy mayor of Guangzhou as well as (putting his courage where his money is) Ehang founder and CEO Huazhi Hu.

Though the footage shows the drone coping with clear and foggy conditions during flight, according to the manufacturer the 184 series is "capable of carrying a single person at up to 130km/h and in force 7 typhoon conditions".

Sources:
https://goo.gl/SxgfNm

AI TECHNOLOGY BEING USED TO CREATE PORK MIRACLE AND RAISE BETTER PIGS IN CHINA

China now has some 700 million pigs, half of the world population, most on huge farms. To manage such huge numbers China is turning to new technology including artificial intelligence (AI)

The Chinese tech giant Alibaba has signed a deal with the pig feed manufacturer Tequ Group and Chinese farming corporation Dekon Group worth tens of millions of dollarsAlibaba Group Holdiings Limited is a huge Chinese multinational e-commerce, retail, Internet, AI and technology conglomerate. As of January 2018, the market cap of Alibaba was $527 billion US. It is one of the 10 most valuable companies in the world.

The aim of the project is to develop a pig-tracking system powered by AI. At present RFID wireless radio frequency tags are used but they are expensive and time-consuming to manage. Each RFID has to be fitted to each pig and scanned individually to track them.

Tequ Group's chief information officer Zhang Haifeng said: “If you have 10 million pigs to raise, you can barely count how many piglets were born on a daily basis when the due date comes.” The existing system causes real bottlenecks.

The AI solution

Machine vision technology is used to identify numbers tattooed onto the pigs' bodies using overhead cameras. The system will be able to count pigs and piglets but it is hoped to also provide more sophisticated analysis.

The system will be able to combine temperature readings from infrared cameras with data on how much each pig moves every day. This will enable the system to estimate the health of each animal.

 There will be voice recognition as well which can monitor such sounds as pigs coughing.Zhang Sheng of Alibaba said:“On one hand, we hope to bring down husbandry costs and achieve agricultural reform. On the other hand, we’d like to translate AI technology into safe, tasty pork.”

As the Chinese population demands more and more pork, pig farming will need to become more automated and efficient. AI could be a crucial part of this process. The appended video shows a Chinese pig farm.

Sources
https://goo.gl/XgFvDy

MORE THAN ONE MILLION SIGN A PETITION AGAINST SNAPCHAT

More than a million people have signed an online petition calling on Snapchat to reverse its controversial redesign.

The company rolled out a fundamental overhaul of its app last month that aimed to separate the “social from the media”.

Yet the redesign, which was partially geared towards making Snapchat more accessible and attractive to new users, has led to complaints it has become “more difficult” to navigate.

The Change.org petition, started by Australian Snapchat user Nic Rumsey four weeks ago, said that many users were now resorting to “risky” methods to try and reverse the update or reinstall older versions of the app.

A statement on the petition said: “With the release of the new Snapchat update, many users have found that it has not made the app easier to use, but has in fact made many features more difficult.”In the past Snapchat users would swipe left from the camera home screen so see all their direct messages, or right to see the 24-hour stories posted by friends, celebrities and brands they followed.

They could then swipe right a second time to see a Discover page that had curated content from media sites.Under the new redesign Snapchat has combined stories and messages from friends on the left screen and then collated stories from celebrities and brands as well as curated media content in one panel on the right.

This has led to complaints from users that it is now more difficult for them to find new stories and messages from people they interact with the most.The redesign has been so unpopular it has seen some users delete the app and attempt to reinstall the old version.

YouTube star and tech blogger Marques Brownlee also cited the redesign as one of the reasons he was quitting the platform, alongside the greater reach similar features such as Instagram Stories afforded him.Snapchat indicated on Thursday that it did not intend to reverse the redesign. In a statement the company said: “Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.”

sources:

https://goo.gl/owQRru

DON'T USE HUAWEI PHONES,WARNS SECURITY INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES

The heads of six major US intelligence agencies have warned that American citizens shouldn’t use products and services made by Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE. According to a report from CNBC, the intelligence chiefs made the recommendation during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday. The group included the heads of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the director of national intelligence.

This was announced at a Senate Intelligence Committee,The intelligence agencies that have warned USA citizens against using of Huawei Phones include FBI, The CIA, The NSA, the director of National Intelligence and other leading intelligence authorities.The USA intelligence agencies believe that Chinese government is spying on USA people via these phones. Thus to safeguard USA’s national security the warning is given to avoid using Chinese manufactured phones.In 2014 US did officially banned Huawei Products but Huawei decided to launch its mate-10 pro phone in collaboration with AT&T. The deal was withdrawn because of immense government pressure.

The director of FBI Chris Wray said, “The government was deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share . But the USA officials feel that it is unsafe to use it. A USA congressman has given a suggestion to pass a bill to officially ban Huawei for government workers.Huawei and ZTE are successfully running its business in China and Europe but USA intelligence feels that phones by these companies are “effectively an arm of the Chinese Government”.

But the company has never been able to make inroads in the lucrative American market, a failure which is in part due to hostility from the US government. Last month, Huawei planned to launch its new Mate 10 Pro flagship in the US through AT&T, but the carrier pulled out of the deal at the last minute, reportedly due to political pressure. The decision prompted Huawei’s CEO Richard Yu to go off-script during a speech at CES, describing the move as a “big loss” for the company, but a bigger loss for consumers.

Huawei is still trying to sell the Mate 10 Pro unlocked in the US, but this effort seems to have pushed the company to desperate measures — including getting users to write fake reviews for the handset.

In response to these comments, a spokesperson for Huawei told CNBC: ”Huawei is aware of a range of U.S. government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huawei’s business in the U.S. market. Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.”

Sources:
https://goo.gl/gUjMiw