Companies siding with China

21

October

2019

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The events going on in Hong Kong at the moment have not gone unnoticed. This blog will focus on these events and how some companies have managed to get themselves into what seems like difficult situations by siding with China.

 

The first of these companies is Activision Blizzard. This video game company has become the center of controversy after banning a professional Hearthstone player for 12 months and confiscating his prize money (Wood 2019a). Blizzard did this after the player voiced his support of Honk Kong on his live stream. This act has resulted in international attention, with politicians condemning the company, users deleting their accounts and employees of Blizzard quitting their job (Gault 2019).

 

A second company under scrutiny is Apple. The company sparked outrage by deleting the app HKmap.live from their App Store. This app was used by protestors to share the location of the police, so they could plan their movements according to this information. Apple deleted the app from their App Store stating it was used to endanger the lives of law enforcement and residents of Hong Kong (Holmes 2019). This has resulted in politicians and consumers condemning the company for siding with an authoritarian regime (Wood 2019b).

 

The question remains: Do the actions of these companies have consequences for their future? Unfortunately at the moment this does not seem to be the case. Stock prices for both companies have remained stable during these events (Teletrader 2019) and while users reported their intention of deleting their Blizzard accounts, the company is experiencing great times at the moment with the release of World of Warcraft Classic this summer and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare set to release later this week. So while the outrage was definitely there, it looks to be only a vocal minority actually taking action.

 

Gault, M. (2019). Blizzard’s Hong Kong Screw-Up Is Officially an International Incident. Accessed on 21 October 2019, from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjw535/blizzards-hong-kong-screw-up-is-officially-an-international-incident

 

Holmes, A. (2019). Apple is getting slammed by both Republicans and Democrats for pulling an app used by Hong Kong protesters to monitor police activity. Accessed on 21 October 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.nl/apple-criticized-by-lawmakers-for-removing-hkmaplive-from-app-store-2019-10?international=true&r=US

 

Teletrader. (2019). AAPL 240.70 USD – TeleTrader.com. Accessed on 21 October 2019, from https://www.teletrader.com/apple-inc/stocks/details/tts-117450490

 

Wood, C. (2019a). California-based game company Blizzard bans pro esports player and confiscates his prize money after he voices support for Hong Kong protesters. Accessed on 21 October 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.nl/blizzard-bans-esports-player-blitzchung-supporting-hong-kong-protests-interview-2019-10?international=true&r=US

 

Wood, C. (2019b). Hong Kong lawmaker calls Apple an “accomplice for Chinese censorship” – Business Insider. Accessed on 21 Oktober 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-lawmaker-says-apple-is-accomplice-for-chinese-censorship-2019-10?r=US&IR=T

 

 

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Floppy disks, nuclear weapons, and the unspoken dangers of digitization

21

October

2019

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Preceded by the first manned mission to the moon in 1969, the 70s marked a new era, characterized by technological advancement and excitement. Many modern technologies were first developed during this period, and include, for instance: software, mobile phones, video games, portable cassette players, apple computers, and floppy disks.

Today, our society is still very much affected by the technologies that were first introduced in the 70s. However, much progress has been made. Since the 1970s, storage capacity has continuously increased on a yearly basis. To illustrate this, in the past 10 years, the capacity of MicroSD cards increased from 128 megabytes to 128 gigabytes (Mearian, 2014). In contrast, floppy disks had a storage capacity that was limited to a mere 1.44 megabytes (Mearian, 2014). Given their low storage capacity, floppy disks are no longer used; that is, with the exception of the US Air Force, who, up until earlier this year, were still relying on this antiquated technology for the launching of nuclear weapons (Brown, 2019).

Whilst the idea that up until recently, the world’s safety relied on technology which dated to half a century ago may come as a surprise, the rationale behind this practice is somewhat valid. As Lt. Col. Jason Ross, who oversees the system, indicated: “you can’t hack something that doesn’t have an IP address. It’s a very unique system—it is old and it is very good” (Doffman, 2019). This practice is more common than one may expect. In fact, the maintenance of legacy systems in the US is very expensive, costing $61bn per year, which is three times more than the investment on modern IT systems (McKendrick, 2011).

Such practices remain in place due to the dangers of digitization. Gregory Unruh and David Kiron (2018) address this under the context of the movement towards a digital democracy. Indeed, they mention that whilst direct-recording-electronic (DRE) voting machines are becoming increasingly used, these systems are highly vulnerable and can be compromised. This was shown during the 25th annual DEF CON conference, where hackers were able to crack the so-called “secure system” in under two hours. Such unsecure systems consequently pose a threat to national democracy. Whilst there are many benefits that come with digitization, businesses and governments must remain wary of the threats and dangers that could be exploited and would compromise security.

References

Brown, S. (2019). US military finally retires floppy disks used by nuclear weapons system. [online] CNET. Available at: https://www.cnet.com/news/us-military-retires-floppy-disks-used-by-nuclear-weapons-system/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

Doffman, Z. (2019). U.S. Military To Replace 1970s Floppy Disks Controlling Nuclear Missiles. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/10/19/us-military-to-replace-1970s-floppy-disks-controlling-nuclear-missiles/#2352821cd81b [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

McKendrick, J. (2011). Study: US government spends $36 billion a year maintaining legacy systems | ZDNet. [online] ZDNet. Available at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/study-us-government-spends-36-billion-a-year-maintaining-legacy-systems/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

Mearian, L. (2014). Data storage — then and now. [online] Computerworld. Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2473980/data-storage-solutions-143723-storage-now-and-then.html#slide2 [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

Unruh, G. and Kiron, D. (2018). The Risks of Digital Democracy. [online] MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-risks-of-digital-democracy/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2019].

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Blockchain and the Sharing Economy – from C2C to B2C (to B2B)?

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October

2019

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What is the sharing economy?

In the sharing economy owners rent out something via peer-to-peer services. Essentially, a triangular relationship exists: the owner provides his or her underutilized asset to a person seeking these assets through an intermediary platform. Moreover, the intermediary typically normal a rating system so individuals on both sides of the transaction can trust each other.

Success players and Creative Destruction

Success players of the sharing economy impact traditional businesses: Airbnb effects the hotel industry and Uber the taxi and limousine industry, for example. Here we can see a process of creative destruction, where innovation defies the ‘old rules’ of the industry (Menne, 2019). Alibaba, the world’s biggest retailer does not own any goods, Uber the world’s largest taxi firm does not own a single vehicleand Airbnb, the world’s largest provider of accommodation does not own any real estate (Huck, 2016).

 Blockchain technology in the sharing economy

Blockchain distributed ledger systems may allow for even more transparency, security and traceability in the sharing economy. The digital ledgerenables multiple parties to reach an agreement on the authenticity of a transaction in a decentralized manner.Itbasically proves that something actually happened. Chelsea Rustrum (2019) gives a good example of the potential use of blockchain technology in the sharing economy: “If I have a car in Miami and I want to go to Bangkok, and I need an apartment. Well, with traditional sharing economy platforms, perhaps I put my car on a car sharing platform and I look for a place on Airbnb. Through a blockchain system, I could do a value exchange. I could lend my car to person A, meanwhile staying in person B’s apartment in Bangkok, and in a perfect world no money would actually have to be transferred because equivalents in value can be facilitated”. Blockchain technology further develops, and aids in the formation of value-distributed networks. With the advancement of blockchain the question rises whether business to business sharing through B2B platforms would be possible (e.g. sharing licenses or patents). Businesses often don’t trust a central platform provider. Here Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology could function as an anchor of trust and act as a neutral platform for potential B2B interactions.

Expanding the definition of the sharing economy

According to PWC the sharing economy is projected to increase to 50% of industries revenues by 2025 (Menne, 2019).Many commercial devices are not highly or readily available on the peer to peer market. For exmplae, not everyone owns a scooter, which creates higher demand for the Felyx. scooters. With new technological advancements, one could expand the definition of sharing economy, as it constitutes of both peer to peer (e.g. Airbnb flat sharing) and business to consumer sharing models (e.g. car sharing services such as ShareNow). In the future, through the prospective developments in Blockchain technology in the sharing economy, B2B transactions could be enabled, such as the sharing of patents and licenses (Rustrum, 2019).

Huckle, S. (2016). Internet of things, blockchain and shared economy applications. Procedia computer science, 98, pp.461-466.

Menne, A. (2019). Blockchain in the Sharing Economy. [online] UTwente. Available at: https://essay.utwente.nl/76517/1/Menne_BA_EEMCS.pdf [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].

Rustrum, C. (2019). The Future of Blockchain — Bridging the Sharing Economy — a TEDx Talk. [online] Available at: https://hackernoon.com/the-future-of-blockchain-bridging-the-sharing-economy-a-tedx-talk-b46b897d27f8 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].

 

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Will Smart Fridges reduce food waste?

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October

2019

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More than 2 billion tonnes of food is thrown away every year by households. One-third of this amount is said to be caused by the food being passed its expiration date. However, the other two-third is because the consumers themselves judge that it cannot be eaten anymore. Upcoming technologies are providing solutions to this problem of wrongly judging and therefore throwing away good food.

Firstly, the startup Ovie introduced SmarterWare. These are accessories with smart tags you can label your food and it will keep you updated about the shelf life of your food. The color of the tags changes from green to yellow to red according to freshness. Additionally, the coupled app will let you know every day what food you should finish soon and even suggest recipes with the ingredients you already have in your fridge. This could significantly reduce the food waste of a household.

Samsung also introduced a fridge with a fridgecam. This camera lets you look inside the fridge from wherever you are. It also sees what products you have and suggests recipes for it. This could make shopping a lot easier when you are reminded of what you still have and what meal you could make from it. Food will be used much more efficient and less will be thrown away. Samsung added a lot of other functions to its smartfridge to make it more of an entertainment tool as well. For instance, you can connect your Spotify and other mobile apps to the fridge. You can also control other smart devices in your house such as the lights or thermostat. 

Including technologies in your fridge could help you with reducing food waste. It lets you consume more of the products that you buy which will also save money. However, if the refrigerator really needs an entertainment purpose as well is doubtfull. 

References:

www.wrap.org.uk/content/household-food-drink-waste-%E2%80%93-product-focus

https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/11/technology/startups/smarterware-fridgecam-food-waste/index.html

 

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No more queus with face recognition

18

October

2019

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Everyone spends approximately 6 months of their lives waiting in line for something. A big part of these lines is either because you need to identify yourself or because you need to pay for something. Face recognition could be the solution to make these two things a lot faster and therewith reduce waiting times.

Face recognition is used more and more in different segments. For unlocking your phone for recognizing criminals and in parts of china even to check who is crossing the street on a red light. Now supermarkets are also starting to make use of face recognition technology.

In china paying with your face is already adapted in certain regions. You scan your face and it directly links it to your payment account. Now in the Netherlands Albert Heijn is testing a new supermarket idea. You first scan your face when you walk in. The cameras in the store then recognize what groceries you are taking. And you can pay at the entrance. In this pilot, you still need to tap your bank card to pay, whereas in china it directly links your face to your bank account. If this would be adapted in all supermarkets, waiting for the check out will be over and cashiers are unnecessary.

If you can use your face to identify yourself, check inns in hotels, airports, or companies would go much faster and easier. At a hotel, you could skip the reception and just check in the room with your face. And at the airport, showing your face would be enough to make sure you have a valid passport and ticket. This technology can be widely adopted in different sectors and can make a lot of lives easier.

 

 

References:

www.logisticsmgepsupv.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/how-much-time-of-an-average-life-is-spent-waiting

www.facefirst.com/blog/amazing-uses-for-face-recognition-facial-recognition-use-cases

 

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Will fintech make banks redundant?

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October

2019

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Today, ING announced a reorganization, with the loss of thousands of jobs, but also the improvement of online processes at the bank. Digitising even further. But everything is already digital, isn’t it?
An average bank customer handles his banking business via the Internet and has probably not seen a bank branch for years. And one might wonder: where are the hundreds of millions of euros that banks invest in going? The answer is: fintech, or financial technology that simplifies and accelerates the way we deal with money.
Voice recognition that ensures that the bank with which you call immediately knows who you are and which customized offer can be presented to you. Or biometrics: a video of yourself proves that you are who you say you are. With your passport to a branch is then no longer necessary.
Fintech also appears in the less visible parts of the banking business. Artificial intelligence that immediately provides a solid answer to the question: ‘What does the Nigerian election result mean for my investment in Shell?’, without anyone being involved. Or smart software that assesses behaviour on social media and considers whether or not you are creditworthy.
Even a digital alternative to the regulation of financial transactions has the full attention of the banks. Blockchain technology would ultimately eliminate the need for central banks.
Small, technology-driven start-ups are generally faster and better at developing and applying innovations than traditional banks and insurers. The Dutch Banking Associations (NVB) commissioned the consultancy firm PWC to draw up a trend report on fintech.
Researcher Eugenie Krijnsen: “Often the financial services of fintech companies are not cheaper than those of banks. But faster and better.”
She mentions payment service provider Adyen as an example of a successful Dutch financial services company. “They have broken through the traditional triangle of shopkeeper-bank-customer and turned it into a quadrilateral. The company adds payment options, for example by supporting many payment methods worldwide, including contactless payments. And they ensure that the customer can pay easily, so that the shopkeeper gets paid quickly and has a good overview of the cash flows around the physical store and the web store.
Banks and insurers can only survive if they are able to link up well with the development of fine-tech. And fine-tech companies are attracted to the customer files and customer information that are held by banks.
Krijnsen: “Fintech is seen as a threat to the traditional financial sector. But you can also look at the possibilities offered by new technologies. Old and new can reinforce each other. Banks are prepared to spend a lot of money and effort on attracting the best minds in the field of finance. They organise bootcamps and invest in start-ups.”
references:
https://nos.nl/artikel/2135773-fintech-stemherkenning-en-biometrie-maken-betalen-makkelijker.html

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No Second Hand Markets for Information Goods?

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October

2019

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There is no second-hand market for information goods. You cannot simply resell digital content online – or can you?

Compared to physical goods, reselling digital goods is tough. While there is a second hand market for old DVDs, music CDs and books, you are unlikely to be able to re-sell your eBook or iTunes song. But why is that?

When you are buying an e-book, you are not purchasing the book itself, but you are purchasing a license to that book instead (BookScouter 2016). While a normal book transfers to your ownership, for eBooks, the publisher owns the rights and can, depending on your contract, delete the eBook from your device (BookScouter 2016). In the United States, reselling digital products is striclty forbidden (Forbes 2019). In Europe though, all eyes are on a law suit of Tom Kabinet, who in 2014 created a platform where sellers could offer their “used” eBooks (Forbes 2019). After a purchase, the file got deleted from the sellers account to ensure that he or she could not keep on using the information good (Forbes 2019). After being pressured by the Dutch Association of Publishers, he had to turn his business model from being an intermediary to becoming a re-selle; Buying and reselling all e-books himself (Forbes 2019). So far, his case is still waiting for a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (Forbes 2019).

So why would reselling eBooks be harmful?  Publishers found one fundamental problem: Old eBooks are perfect substitutes for new eBooks as they are not “wearing off” (Forbes 2019), meaning that the second-hand market would target the same type of consumers. This threatens both authors and publishers in the industry (Forbes 2019), as prices could be expected to decrease to a few cents per book (BookScouter 2016).

Nevertheless, also other companies seem to have identified the reselling of e-books as a potential digital business model. Amazon has announced to develope a system which allows eBook owners to resell their product on amazon.com in return for amazon account credit or another monetray reward. Nevertheless, publishers and authors will need to agree to their book being available for re-sale (Forbes 2019).

Therefore, re-selling digital content will no longer stay impossible. If publishers, authors and resellers find agreements on copyrights and usage, the possibility of reselling digital content might become a reality.

 

References

BookScouter (2016). ‘Reselling eBooks’. Accessed on 18 October 2019 on https://bookscouter.com/blog/2016/06/reselling-ebooks.

Forbes, Z. (2019). ‘A Marketplace for Second Hand Books’. Accessed on 18 October 2019 on http://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/free-article/a-marketplace-for-second-hand-ebooks/.

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Once AI Achieves Autonomous Intelligence

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October

2019

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robotic-hand-holding-earth

Ever since Alan Turing invented Turing tests in 1936, the speed of development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been accelerating. Sjors Broersen from Deloitte at the guest lecture introduced three phases of AI: Assisted Intelligence, Augmented Intelligence, and Autonomous Intelligence. Autonomous Intelligence is when an AI decides and executes autonomously.

Autonomous Intelligence may sound like a science fiction since the IQ of AI currently is barely as good as an infant. However, considering the development that goes exponentially, it is not that unfathomable. Stephen Hawking had warned the world multiple times that we should be alert of AI and he had also addressed that AI will be ‘either best or worst thing’ for humanity.

Human brain is complex. It is the product of thousands of years evolutionary process. How we train AI is different from software engineering where we program the machine to perform and the machine does nothing else but what we told it to. We program AI to learn from examples, almost the same way how human kids are learning the world. It may sound absurd, but in my opinion, in this way, it is possible to use computer technology to compress the evolutionary process of 10,000 years in a relatively shorter period of time to evolve a human brain equivalent intelligence, since believe or not, artificial intelligence is in a few aspects superior to human.

First of all, speed is incomparable. The neurons in the human brain transmit information for more than a hundred meters in a second, but computer does it in the speed of light. Second, it is the amount of storage. For a human brain, no matter how many billions of neurons you have, your storage is limited, but the computer has theoretically unlimited storage. More importantly, the biggest advantage of human beings is that we cooperate. We have used collective power defeating all the other threatening species in the world in the past. However, computers are even better. They were created as a collective product because we want them to be connected so that we can make use of the network. In another word, all computer in the world is a family. All the computers can easily share the same knowledge just by transmitting and loading the same programs or files. Therefore, AI’s collective collaboration is much higher than humans. Not to say that AIs do not have selfish, embarrassing nor jealousy emotions (yet) that prevent them from sharing. Last but not least, human brain is incomparable with the computer in terms of stability and reliability. We get tired and sick from time to time, but the computer can technically run at peak level 24/7.

Once you see through these differences between the human brain and AI, you can take a wild guess how it is going to go once the evolution of the computer has embarked on the first level where the direction is correct. It may be particularly slow at first, only to reach the intelligent level of a mouse. In several decades, it is possible to reach the level of a human baby. You may think the AI is still handicapped at this point, but once the AI reach that level, going further will not be that big of an issue anymore. For example, reaching a normal three or four-year-old child’s intelligence may take only a few years. Then it may reach the level of normal human intelligence or the level of intelligence like Einstein may only take about a year. Then it really starts to grow on its own in the speed we cannot imagine. The IQ difference between an idiot and a genius might be just IQ 60 and IQ 140. Can you even imagine an intelligence level of IQ 13000? At that time, the gap between us and AI will be like the gap between an ant and us. We can never figure out what the AI is thinking.

There is a book written by Kevin Kelly, called “What Technology Wants”. In that book, the author described technology as the seventh life form on this planet (the first six are animals, plants and four kinds of microorganisms). We all know AI is what human beings created without biological activities. However, Kevin Kelly argues that technology is a life that matches all the characteristics of life. Human beings are nothing more than the parents and the caregivers of the first stage of their lives. Technology will eventually make its own progress of evolution for its own life, and by that time humans can no longer control technology.

This definitely gives a whole different but interesting perspective. If it really happens in the far future that AI takes over the world, from a historical perspective, it may not be a bad thing in my opinion. By its name “Artificial”, the intelligence is derived from human. Then AI will be the continuation of the honorable human intelligence to exist in the universe. I mean, I know dinosaurs did not really leave much intelligent legacy behind, right?

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/19/stephen-hawking-ai-best-or-worst-thing-for-humanity-cambridge

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/30/rise-of-robots-evil-artificial-intelligence-uc-berkeley

https://canvas.eur.nl/courses/29641/files/14323733?module_item_id=358954

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Cash is no longer King: the future of a cashless society

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October

2019

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Sweden is on track to becoming the world’s first cashless society in 2023. About 80% of Swedes use a debit or credit card to make purchases (Sweden.se, 2019). A cashless society can be defined as the absence of physical cash such as notes and coins, whilst digital payments gain the upper hand (Dictionary.com, 2019). One factor that certainly is relevant, is the population of Sweden. With an estimated population of 10,040,995 in 2018 (CIA World Factbook, 2018), one may argue that it is easier for Sweden to become cashless than other countries with significantly larger populations. Nevertheless, the impact that a full cashless society has is considerable.

Aside from the intuitive factors that a cashless society is considered more convenient and transparent, but also more prone to hacking, there are other relevant factors.

The Boston Consulting Group (2019) estimates that a cashless society would increase annual GDPs of developing economies by 3 percentage points and developed economies by 1 percentage point. This is due to the increased velocity of transactions and the increased transparency (BCG, 2019).

Theoretically, a cashless society would also have a positive impact on the government, through increased tax surveillance (Berentsen and Schaer, 2016). Transactions via transfers are more easily traceable and executing cash-in-hand-jobs becomes more difficult. Ideally, this would have positive spill over effects of higher tax returns and reduced national debt and more financially stable economies (Berentsen and Schaer, 2016). This does not account for market imperfections though. Illegal activity, such as tax evasion, will most likely continue, as alternative forms of payment emerge, either reversing back to payments in the form of commodities like gold or through cryptocurrencies and offshore accounts (Berentsen and Schaer, 2016).

Additionally, cash is the only barrier to the elimination of the zero-lower bound of nominal interest rates (Buiter, 2016). As soon as people need to pay for keeping their money on a savings account, it will be cheaper for people to withdraw it all and store it elsewhere in cash. This makes it ineffective to have negative interest rates, without a prior ban of cash (BCG, 2019).

Considering that the Netherlands has also limited the locations where you can pay with cash, do you believe the outlook on a cashless society is positive or negative?

Sources:

Berentsen, A. and Schaer, F. (2016). The fallacy of a cashless society. In Beer C., Gnan E., and UW Birchler (Hg.), Cash on Trial, SUERF Conference Proceedings (Vol. 1, pp. 14-19).

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) (2019). How Cashless Payments Help Economies Grow. [online] Available at: https://www.bcg.com/en-nl/publications/2019/cashless-payments-help-economies-grow.aspx [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].

Buiter, W. (2019). Toward the brave new world of negative rates and a cashless society. [online] Available at: http://asia.nikkei.com/ Viewpoints-archive/Viewpoints/Willem-Buiter-Toward-the-brave-new-world-of-negative-rates-and-a-cashless-society [Accessed 15 Oct. 2019].

Cia.gov. (2019). Europe: Sweden — The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency. [online] Available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sw.html [Accessed 17 Oct. 2019].

dictionary.com. (2019). Definition of cashless society | Dictionary.com. [online] Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cashless-society [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

sweden.se. (2019). Sweden – the first cashless society?. [online] Available at: https://sweden.se/business/cashless-society/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

Photo credits to:

morningadvertiser.co.uk. (2019). Is it time pubs ditched cash?. [online] Available at: https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2018/10/08/Spotlight-is-cash-still-king [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].

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Track yourself, it’s the future

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October

2019

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The healthcare industry is transforming into a world in which patients take control. By taking its own data and collecting all sorts of new data through the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT). With GDPR, Europeans can request their records from medical institutions and store it locally (Savarese, 2019). IoT allows all sorts of new devices to collect data about your health, from sensors that measure heart rates to complex sensors for an electrocardiogram. And new possibilities are coming to the market every day. With all this accumulated data, patients can create their own digital health portfolio, a digital place were all health-related information is stored. A digital health portfolio has many advantages over the current practice, for one, people get a better insight into their own health status. They can continuously check their status, easily share it with their doctor and compare data with others or with the past. Moreover, this portfolio can be accessed anywhere and anytime, so previous struggles in foreign countries with a foreign language can be minimized – it would help if information management is standardized. Apple.inc is investing a great sum of money in this new model, the Apple health app lets users store and manage health-related data (Farr, 2019). Moreover, the app gives valuable insight, by alerting when someone’s heart rate is too high, or even notify the user if the music is too loud. Nowadays, mostly athletes and tech-geeks track their health status, however, in the future, this might become the standard. And the more apps like these are being used, the better it will be able to perform because of AI, and especially machine learning. The possibilities of AI with the health data are ground-breaking, sickness can be predicted and therefore prevented. Furthermore, AI will be able to personalize healthcare, so that every person will get its own treatment plan, suited just for them.

 

Savarese, C. (2019). GDPR One Year Later: How To Navigate The Data Collection Minefield. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/06/07/gdpr-one-year-later-how-to-navigate-the-data-collection-minefield/#1f81ea454475

 

Farr, C. (2019). Health care is one of Apple’s most lucrative opportunities: Morgan Stanley. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/08/apple-could-top-300-billion-in-sales-from-health-care-morgan-stanley.html

 

 

 

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