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We all know how Dall-E is transforming the art industry whilst criticism has risen among the people. But what about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the music industry? Firstly, AI was more a complementary tool for artists to overcome the creativity block. While musician Grimes is excited about the technology, she also fears that one day “AI will make musicians obsolete”.

Every year, countries over the world compete each other at the AI Song Contest which looks like Eurovision but with AI as addition by putting a lot of music in the neural networks where patterns will be learnt in the computer. These neural networks get bigger and more complex by day to understand and to interpret what they are doing in details. Besides, to train AI for the analysis of music and to generate a new song create the downside of an environmental impact when it comes to overusing electricity.

According to Professor Nick-Bryan-Kinns from Queen Mary University of London, scepticism will stay for a while regarding to what extent AI will completely take over the music industry. The computer can easily make a lot of tracks, but a human still needs to select parts for editing to decide which one is nice or which part the AI needs to work on. From this perspective, humans train the AI to make music what other humans like. But we do not know what computers like. It would be creepy and astonishing at the same time if computers listen to their kind of music among them.

Like every nightmare when people say that AI will take over the jobs, musicians should not fear for new technology into music. As the invention of the gramophone was introduced, the only change it made was how music was consumed differently. Besides, AI can be a big contributor of creating new music genres e.g., the content of one single music can be put in another style of music while three or more various genres can be explored at once. Real musicians experience these kind of mash ups as difficult in a studio while AI operates the combining with a lot of genres as a piece of cake.

If we look at the sunny side of AI in the music industry, it allows us to make music easily. Nowadays, you can use your phone to make professional sounds compared to twenty years ago. For now, we use AI as a tool but who knows, next year as your fellow partner in creating music. It could suggest you some guitar riffs or recommend lyrics for a certain genre. Since AI can interact with real-time data, we might enjoy bands consisting of humans and robots, or only robots?

References

Ling, T. (2021). AI is about to shake up music forever – but not in the way you think. [online] BBC Science Focus Magazine. Available at: https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/ai-music-future/.

Singh, A. (n.d.). How Is Artificial Intelligence Transforming The Music Industry. [online] Available at: https://www.globaltechcouncil.org/artificial-intelligence/how-is-artificial-intelligence-transforming-the-music-industry/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2022].

‌Dazed (2020). Grimes says she worries AI will one day ‘make musicians obsolete’. [online] Dazed. Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/51378/1/grimes-says-she-worries-ai-will-one-day-make-musicians-obsolete-web-summit.

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So, I was a bit lost on which subject to write about. When I asked a close friend of mine if he could throw some inspirations to my head, well there was one subject that caught my attention: Digital Twins, an interactive technology between the real and virtual worlds which Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality are indicators in web 3.0.

The application of digital twins was originally from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1970 when the spacecraft launched into space, the oxygen tank exploded all of sudden which leads to a critical situation for the astronauts. NASA used the digital model of Apollo 13 to simulate it and sent the oxygen tank to the astronauts in the spacecraft to save them.

Nowadays, the buzzword ‘digital twins’ is loosely used by people in the business world while its clear definition is missing. Kimberly Borden and Anna Herlt, McKinsey Operations Practice partners, describe the ‘true twin’ as that often involves numerous physical models and simultaneously process real-time data in present time. Essentially, the digital twin has to be linked with real data sources from the environment and is capable to update the ‘real time twin’. Take Google Maps for example, it links your real-time data on traffic while optimizing your directions or driving routes.

When you think about human twins which can be divided in identical and non-identical, digital twins also have archetypes: product twin (represents a product), production plant (an entire manufacturing facility), network twin (procurement/supply chain), and infrastructure twin (bridges/traffic). The challenge of implementing these archetypes lies in the digital maturity. The need of data infrastructures such as product lifecycle management, product data management and access to high-quality data from testing as well as real-time data environment is one of the key elements to gain insights into the ever-changing preferences, customization and experiences of customers.

What other benefits can companies get from digital twins? Take Tesla for example, each vehicle has an embedded sensor which constantly gather its digital twin performance and environmental data while the artificial intelligence analysis optimizes its utmost best in different climates. As a result, visits of customers has increasingly reduced Tesla’s service center. Another one is General Electric company (GE) which provides engines for 70% of planes in the entire world. Meaning, GE is responsible for the safety of millions passengers. A digital twin is developed for its GE90 machine, integrated in the Boeing 777 aircraft, to predict the degradation of the engine . The Middle East region in particular has a high damage rate of the engine’s fan blade but before any problem occurs, the digital twin is there to rescue. In other words, to schedule proper maintenance before the engines’ damage.

As other leading technology companies adopt digital twins to strengthen their businesses, the challenges will arise without any regulations and essential guidelines. Considering Artificial Intelligence ethics can be a popular culprit, what other challenges can you think of?

References

‌Borden, K., & Herlt, A. (2022, October 3). Digital twins: What could they do for your business? (C. Johnson, Interviewer)

Guo, J., Lv, Z. Application of Digital Twins in multiple fields. Multimed Tools Appl 81, 26941–26967 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-12536-5

Preface (2022). What is ‘Digital Twin’? An introduction to the NASA technology. [online] Preface. Available at: https://www.preface.ai/blog/tech/digital-twin-technology/ [Accessed 7 Oct. 2022].

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Do you know what is annoying about shopping? Having different sizes from each brand. For example, Nike: shoe size 36.5 and Adidas: shoe size 37. Or Zara: size M and H&M: size S. When it comes to online shopping, I must be ‘lucky’ that clothes and shoes fit me. Until the future of fashion includes 3D body scanning that also improves the shopping experiences.

Nowadays, the global fashion industry is worth over $212 billion dollars. The possibilities are highly estimated that 3D body scanning revolutionises the industry with its data. This technology allows the capture and analysis of the human body using methods without physical contact. Its usage made it possible to capture large datasets and to make comparisons with population groups.

Virtual tailoring has been a subject that is talked about for a long time and is still an ongoing industry goal. So, is 3D body scanning reliable enough to be a tool that we can use to make virtual tailoring happen? Research has found that reliability is not universal, but measurement dependent (Parker et al., 2017).

Fashion retailers started with commercial 3D body scanning booths in retail stores since 2010. These booths scan individuals and make them aware of their body size to make ‘right’ decisions during the purchase. Besides, the location of the sizing date is an important factor to track the most favourable garment sizes. By doing this, these garment sizes can be made on time which is in favour for the efficient inventory management. SizeStream is one of the major supplier who provides its 3D body scanners and software solutions in the fashion industry, but also in health and fitness tracking.

Body Labs dug further with 3D body scanning by using human-aware Artificial Intelligence (AI). The company launched SOMA Shape API (programmatic interface) for 3D model and measurement predictions where third party applications can connect easily to their SOMA backend, the software that uses AI. For example, SOMA Shape API can accurately predict and measure the 3D shape of customers by using a single image. With this technology fashion e-commerce retailers are able to offer sizing recommendations for their customers. A few years ago, Amazon has acquired Body Labs for $50 – $70 million dollars to grow its own private label fashion brands and services (Amazon Prime Wardrobe). This allows Amazon to offer sizing predictions for its customers and help shrinking returns from clothes that do not fit. Amaz(on)ing solution, isn’t it?

References:

C. J. Parker et al., “3D Body Scanning has Suitable Reliability: An Anthropometric Investigation for Garment Construction”, in Proc. of 3DBODY.TECH 2017 – 8th Int. Conf. and Exh. on 3D Body Scanning and Processing Technologies, Montreal QC, Canada, 11-12 Oct. 2017, pp. 298-305.

https://www.onlineclothingstudy.com/2020/09/what-is-mobile-3d-scanning-technology.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/amazon-bought-body-labs-for-at-least-50-million-report-says.html

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Phishing mails in the junk of my mailbox is ‘quite’ normal. Sometimes they end up in your inbox. For some people it is easier to fish out the real ones than for the other when such is addressed to you personally or the company you work for. Last year, webshop Bol.com received a short email written in Dutch from Brabantia. At least that was what Bol.com thought. The message was filled with typos and grammatical errors while the lay out looked professional. It stated that the money must be transferred to Brabantia’s bank account in Spain. Unfortunately, employees of Bol.com fell for it and deposited around 750,000 euros to the scammers (Mous, 2021).

Phishing and online scams as effective threats are just the tip of the iceberg to enable other types of cybercrime, e.g., disruptive malware (DDoS and ransomware), data harvesting malware, malicious domains, fake news and misinformation (Interpol, 2020). The persistence of cybercrime-as-a-service continues to ensure that less skilled criminals can also carry out cyber-attacks (Bijzonder Strafrecht, 2021). Cybercrime cannot or can hardly be solved with investigation. In general, controlling this form of crime rests with the users of the internet.

According to the Cyber Security Council, companies tend to think that no one is deliberately targeting them. They assume that there is only a small chance of becoming a victim. A fundamental fallacy. “You may not be a conscious target, but distance and time do not play a role on the internet,” says Pim Takkenberg of security company Northwave. Criminals search the internet for victims. “So if you don’t take care of your security, you can become a victim, even though no one is deliberately targeting you” (Schellevis & Andringa, 2021).

Ransomware attacks on large companies and institutions are an increasing threat to economic and social security. A part of the ransom money received by hackers is directly invested in new attacks, according to the Dutch police (Bijzonder Strafrecht, 2021). Ransomware is also increasingly being combined with the publishing or resale of information during the attack.

Data has globally become a new natural resource which creates new opportunities for innovation in our digitized economy but also unforeseen malice. Cyber threats are expanding from networks, computers, and smartphones to railways, power grids, cars, hospitals, people and anything with an electronic pulse or a heartbeat (Morgan, 2020). Many ‘Things’ are connected to corporate network to some extent which will further complicating cybersecurity.  

This may sound a bit daunting, but when COVID-19 is slowly out of sight, I think that the world will be down for a moment (again) if cybercrime takes over. Especially when the government pays little attention to this matter.

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Bijzonder Strafrecht, 2021. Aanpak cybercrime: capaciteit OM blijft achter. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bijzonderstrafrecht.nl/home/aanpak-cybercrime-capaciteit-om-blijft-achter

Interpol, 2020. INTERPOL report shows alarming rate of cyberattacks during COVID-19. [Online]
Available at: https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2020/INTERPOL-report-shows-alarming-rate-of-cyberattacks-during-COVID-19

Morgan, S., 2020. Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025. [Online]
Available at: https://cybersecurityventures.com/hackerpocalypse-cybercrime-report-2016/

Mous, A., 2021. Phishingmail kost Bol.com 750.000 euro. [Online]
Available at: https://www.vpngids.nl/nieuws/phishingmail-kost-bol-com-750-000-euro/

Schellevis, J. & Andringa, R., 2021. Digitale deuren staan soms wagenwijd open, ‘situatie is alarmerend’. [Online]
Available at: https://nos.nl/artikel/2375676-digitale-deuren-staan-soms-wagenwijd-open-situatie-is-alarmerend