<h2>Remote Control</h2>
If you see people on electric scooters wildly accelerating and braking, it might not only be because of the <a href="https://futurism.com/scooter-not-future-transportation">usual electric scooter nonsense</a>.
That&#8217;s because a newly-discovered security flaw in a particular scooter&#8217;s software can be exploited by hackers who can remotely accelerate or brake someone else&#8217;s scooter, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/xiaomi-scooter-hack/">according to WIRED</a>. It&#8217;s a finding that highlights the fraught landscape of advanced transportation.
<h2>Disrupting Safety</h2>
The scooter in question is Xiaomi&#8217;s M365. A team of security researchers from a company called Zimperium were able to find and exploit the security flaw in a matter of hours.
&#8220;I was able to control any of the scooter features without authentication and install malicious firmware,&#8221; Rani Idan, director of software research at Zimperium, told Wired. &#8220;An attacker could brake suddenly, or accelerate a person into traffic, or whatever the worst case scenario you can imagine.&#8221;
<h2>Plunder and Pillage</h2>
The problem comes down to the Bluetooth-enabled connection between scooter and smartphone app. The security researchers found that they could connect to an M365 scooter without even being prompted for a password. From there, they could inject their own malware — disguised as an official update from Xiaomi — into the scooter&#8217;s code that granted them total control over the scooter&#8217;s hardware.
&#8220;You would probably think those devices would implement the best security protections possible,&#8221; Idan told Wired. &#8220;But unfortunately that is not always the case.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/xiaomi-scooter-hack/">A POPULAR ELECTRIC SCOOTER CAN BE HACKED TO SPEED UP OR STOP</a> [Wired]
More on scooters: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/report-lime-recalling-scooters-catching-fire">Lime Recalled Thousands of Scooters Because They Were Catching Fire</a>

Now when someone on a scooter veers wildly into traffic, it might not be their fault.

Hackers can remotely access your electric scooter

Disrupting Traffic

A team of security researchers found a flaw in Xiaomi's M365 electric scooter. They were able to remotely control a scooter in a matter of hours.

Hackers Can Access Your Electric Scooter While You’re Riding It

Xiaomi’s M365 scooter has a security bug that lets a hacker control the throttle and brakes.

<h2>Hack the Planet</h2>
The Japanese government might soon become the world&#8217;s most prominent white hat hacker.
Starting in February, Japan&#8217;s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) will spend up to five years on a new effort to boost the nation&#8217;s cybersecurity — by attempting to hack citizens&#8217; internet-connected gadgets, including routers, webcams and any other internet-of-things (IoT) device, <a href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190125_44/">NHK World-Japan reports</a>.
<h2>Gold Medal</h2>
The NICT received legal permission to hack Japanese citizens&#8217; stuff last November, citing the need to ramp up cybersecurity in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The plan is to attack some 200 million IoT devices in the country.
The group will inform users whose devices they successfully hack that they need to shore up digital security. NICT researcher Daisuke Inoue told NHK World-Japan that the organization would safeguard all of the data that it collects, which could include private data such as photos or video taken on IoT webcams.
<h2>The Big One</h2>
Of course, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/hacked-nasa-employee-information">no one intends to get hacked</a>, whether it’s the Japanese government or the millions of people whose security it&#8217;s gearing up to test.
If the NICT hacks are successful, that means that Japanese citizens will need to worry about whatever <a href="https://futurism.com/bolster-cybersecurity-france-google">private information</a> was accessed. And even then, it will be up to the individuals to beef up their passwords and two-factor authentication after the fact. This dizzying logic made <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612835/japan-plans-to-hack-into-millions-of-its-citizens-connected-devices/">MIT Technology Review </a><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/612835/japan-plans-to-hack-into-millions-of-its-citizens-connected-devices/">raise the question</a> of why the NICT doesn’t just ask people to change their passwords and inform them of the risks.
Either way, it&#8217;s up to the individual person to improve their security in this scenario. It&#8217;s unclear why their privacy needs to be violated in order to get them to do so.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190125_44/">Govt. to access home devices in security survey</a> [NHK World-Japan]
More on cybersecurity: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/russian-hackers-have-new-techniques-to-steal-data-from-adversaries">Russian Hackers Have New Techniques to Steal Data</a>

Nothing says cybersecurity like cracking every password in the country.

Japan plans to hack 200 million devices to prepare for Olympics

LUCIUS FOX

To beef up cybersecurity before the upcoming 2020 Toyko Olympics, the Japanese Government is about to systematically hack the country's IoT devices.

Japan Plans to Hack 200 Million Devices to Prepare for Olympics

Japan's plan: shame residents into better online security by pwning their devices.

I follow the narrow hallway. It&#8217;s covered with exhaustingly-hip custom wallpaper of faces that look like they&#8217;ve been cut out of a fashion magazine, placed in a grid formation, and drawn on. I emerge into the sort of bright, minimalist white-walled apartment that only seems to exist on Instagram. Individual lights flick on as I walk around the furniture of the small living room. I pause, thinking I might have disturbed someone. I haven&#8217;t — the apartments&#8217; motion sensors spotted me one by one as I stepped beneath each light.
“Hey Google, I’m home,” says Avi Lichtenstein, my tour guide and mock real estate agent for the day. Lichtenstein is the COO of Roomrs, a <a href="https://www.roomrs.co/">high-tech smart housing company</a> geared for millennials new to New York City and want hassle-free housing on a young professional&#8217;s budget.
The Google Home sitting on the counter — a standard feature found in all Roomrs apartments, along with smart locks, smart mattresses, smart windows, smart outlets, smart lamps, smart air conditioners, and smart TVs — quips: “Hey roomie.&#8221;
The Google Home informs us that one of the building’s tenants has a birthday coming up and suggests taking her to a local steakhouse that&#8217;s offering a 20 percent discount, courtesy of their partnership with Roomrs. If something in the room wasn&#8217;t working properly — a leaky shower head, a squeaky door — I could have reported it there, using Google Home the way others might ping their Super. Lichtenstein tries this, saying: “Hey Google, my faucet is broken,” the Google Home rants on and on about plumbing services until Lichtenstein leans over again minutes later. “Hey Google, shut up!”
Roomrs (also spelled Roomors and Roomers at various places on the company&#8217;s website) emerged in 2017 as a community-centered housing startup designed to give young professionals a sweet pad where they can get acclimated to a new city, all as stress-free as possible. Rent payments cover Wi-fi, furniture, and cleaning services. They also cover utilities as long as tenants stay under their electricity cap, and the suite&#8217;s worth of smart gizmos. That&#8217;s great, assuming that being surrounded by gadgets that monitor and quantify your lifestyle is the sort of thing that won&#8217;t stress you out.
While Roomrs doesn&#8217;t sell the data it collects about tenants, it may be one of the first of a new generation of apartments and hotels that let people stay for cheap, as long as they give up their notion of privacy.
<q class="pullquote">It&#8217;s as stress-free as possible, unless being surrounded by gadgets that monitor your lifestyle stresses you out.</q>
The typical Roomrs resident is young, in the early years of their career (Lichtenstein couldn&#8217;t share the average income of a Roomrs tenant, but that it was a wide range since they admit anyone from students to full professionals). They&#8217;re a digital native and marinated in the quantified self movement, so they&#8217;re unafraid of the ways technology has integrated in their lives. They&#8217;ve probably moved to New York for a new job or project (tenants can stay at Roomrs for as little as three months and up to a year, with the option to renew after that) and also looking for a way to conquer the impossible task of making friends as an adult. For this very specific segment of individuals, Roomrs can be a one-stop shop.
The application is pretty straightforward — questions about your budget, ideal move-in date — though the question &#8220;what are you doing in the city&#8221; is required.
<figure id="attachment_135742" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-135742 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/08/C72A7696-1-1200x800.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: Courtesy of Roomrs</figcaption></figure>
Here’s a typical day in the life of a Roomrs resident: Your phone, using the sleep-<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eight-sleep/id1086913845?mt=8">aid app Eight</a>, wakes you up within the timeframe you wanted to start your day at the ideal <a href="https://futurism.com/science-could-let-you-reset-your-bodys-clock/">point in your sleep cycle</a>. As you review your sleep score — a grade out of 100, which factors in how long you took to conk out and how many times you tossed and turned, all measured by your Eight-connected smart mattress — your blinds automatically rise to let in sunlight. The lights switch on as you walk into your living room, usually (but not always) shared with two to three other people. You check in with your Google Home, which tells you what&#8217;s up with some of the other tenants, perhaps ad nauseam.
From there, you can go to work or, if you’re one of the city’s growing population of remote workers, you can go to the basement, roof, or backyard, sign into the Wi-fi, and work surrounded by custom spray-paint murals. When you&#8217;re done for the day or simply want a break, you can attend local events, group activities, or restaurant recommendations organized by Roomrs that perfectly cater to your interests.
These recommendations come from all the data they collect about you and your lifestyle. Thanks to the carefully curated ensemble of smart technology, Roomrs knows when and how much you sleep, your TV habits, food preferences, and even how much time you spend in various places in your apartment. Based on their back-end programming, this turns into tips for how to sleep better, restaurant suggestions, and even advice on how to conserve energy if, say, your gadgets notice you ran the AC in your bedroom all day. Roomrs supplements all this data with any publicly-available information that the company can find on each tenant, which it adds to its database.
If the idea of all those devices monitoring you and trawling the internet for stuff about you starts to take away from your sleep score, the only way to opt out is to specifically rent one of Roomrs&#8217; separate apartments that comes without the smart tech. Or, you know, live somewhere else.
Lichtenstein knows how this sounds. The idea of an apartment that <a href="https://www.roomrs.co/privacy-policy/">learns everything about you</a>, well, it could make some people uncomfortable. In an era with near-daily data privacy scandals and companies that leak personal information like its their job, it&#8217;s easy to raise an eyebrow at the growing record of information that these smart apartments collect. But Lichtenstein clarifies several times that Roomrs doesn’t sell any of the data they collect on people. As long as Roomrs remains transparent about how it collects information to make personal recommendations, Lichtenstein says, the company shouldn’t run into any problems.
“People understand that data is being collected wherever you go,” Lichtenstein tells me over the phone before my visit. “You have a cell phone, you have a Gmail — data is being collected. People weren’t upset that Facebook sold their data, they were upset they didn’t tell them.”
<q class="pullquote">&#8220;People weren’t upset that Facebook sold their data, they were upset they didn’t tell them.”</q>
For now, Roomrs doesn&#8217;t have to sell user data. It makes its money like any other landlord would. In fact, Lichtenstein says the company brings in about 25 percent more money than a traditional landlord arrangement. That&#8217;s in part because the company buys furniture in bulk, so setup costs are low. Each apartment ends up looking more or less the same, making Roomrs not unlike a hotel, except that guests stay longer.
The rest of that extra income comes from the higher rent. A <a href="https://www.roomrs.co/availability/">single furnished bedroom</a> in a three-bedroom apartment in Roomrs&#8217; Williamsburg building costs $1,850 per month, just shy of what it would cost to rent your own one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood. Prices vary depending on the neighborhood you live in — Roomrs also has locations elsewhere in Brooklyn, as well as in Harlem and the upper east side. Some of these, like their Ocean Hill, Brooklyn apartments, come in much cheaper at $1,200 per month, and Roomrs also has a scholarship program that covers one semester of rent for undergraduates who give back to the community.
With Wi-fi, electricity, and all of the smart tech that comes with it, moving in for the minimum three-month lease is certainly more affordable than trying to upgrade a normal apartment on your own. (There’s no denying that Roomrs’ ability to make more money comes from renting out bedrooms at the cost of entire apartments). And with a washer/dryer and dishwasher in each unit, Roomrs tenants (I refuse to call them “roomies”) already have a technological leg up on most New York housing.
<figure id="attachment_135743" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-135743 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/08/roomrs2-1200x800.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: Courtesy of Roomrs</figcaption></figure>
So while the “affordable” part of Roomrs’ premise is a bit of a stretch, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the other “apartments of the future” found in New York City, which are usually <a href="https://futurism.com/for-4-9-million-you-can-live-in-this-futuristic-nyc-apartment-building/">multi-million-dollar condos</a> designed for the sort of people who have never in their lives struggled to find housing. Though that doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that Roomrs tenants are any worse off than the people who can afford their own IMAX theaters — they&#8217;re just probably younger.
“We’re not a big data company. We’re a high-tech solution to make housing simple and take away all the stress, while providing an amenity that’s desperately needed at a very affordable rate. That’s our focus, that’s our goal, that’s our vision,” Lichtenstein says.
So if Roomrs isn&#8217;t selling tenants&#8217; data, what is the company doing with it? Lichtenstein says Roomrs uses the information it collects to program the network of Google Homes with updates and recommendations. Take, for example, energy use — each tenant is allotted a certain amount of electricity as part of their amenities-included rent. If Roomrs realizes that the air conditioning and lights are always running in one person’s room but not the other bedrooms in that apartment, the company could rework the system to make sure the more energy-conscious roommates aren’t paying extra. The building manager could also, in theory, check in and see if that person is sick or otherwise in need of help.
“I believe [personal] data is everywhere,” Lichtenstein muses as we stand on the rooftop patio of Roomr’s flagship building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “You just need to know how to use it responsibly.”
<figure id="attachment_135719" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-large wp-image-135719" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/08/roomr1-1200x800.png" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image Credit: Stock Snap/Victor Tangermann</figcaption></figure>
And while Roomrs seems to be using tenant data responsibly for now, that could change quickly, even if the company isn’t talking about it today. Just look at what happened with personal genetics company 23andMe — lots of people shared their genetic information with the company to learn about their ancestry and risk for certain conditions, but many were surprised when the company later <a href="https://futurism.com/23andme-gsk-partnership/">sold its database</a> to pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
This is, of course, all speculation. As Roomrs snaps up individual apartments and whole buildings in New York City, there’s no reason to suspect that such an acquisition is coming nor is there reason to doubt that Roomrs is as responsible with tenant data as it claims to be.
But Roomrs will not be the only company to wire its apartments with cameras and microphones. Some are already here, <a href="http://www.ollie.co/">such as Ollie</a>, which for now focuses solely on co-living spaces, not individual apartments. These companies may leverage a new sort of deal — rent below market price in exchange for 21st century gold (namely tenants&#8217; infinitely sellable, sweet, sweet data) — that could take off as rent hikes make New York unaffordable for growing numbers of people.
As these companies spring up and adapt business models similar to Roomrs&#8217; (or perhaps more insidious), we&#8217;re all going to have to get better at reading the fine print.
To read more about futuristic housing, click here: <a href="https://futurism.com/dubai-ipad-apartment-troubleshoot-nightmare/">Dubai’s High-Tech, iPad-Shaped Apartment Could be a Troubleshooting Nightmare</a>

Roomrs knows when you wake up, when you have your coffee, and when you leave your house.

Pricey NYC housing now has an added cost: your personal data

Future Society

Roomrs provides young professionals with high-tech housing that learns as much as it can about them to streamline their lives.

Pricey NYC Housing Now Has an Added Cost: Your Personal Data

Roomrs collects your data from an extensive ensemble of smart devices, but doesn't sell any of it.

There’s an artificial intelligence system that can peer into the future and anticipate what you’re about to do.
No, we’re not talking about anything like <a href="https://futurism.com/grimes-musk-rococo-basilisk/">Roko’s Basilisk</a> — it can&#8217;t travel through time or take over the world (at least not yet). Instead, fortune-telling AI can only guess what someone will do within the next few minutes. As long as those next few minutes definitely involve cooking. And the past few minutes also involved cooking.
OK, look, we&#8217;re just going to come out and say it: scientists created a salad- and breakfast-food-predictor. <a href="http://pages.iai.uni-bonn.de/gall_juergen/download/jgall_anticipation_cvpr18.pdf">New research</a> that will be presented at the <a href="http://cvpr2018.thecvf.com/">IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition</a> later this month details how a machine learning algorithm was trained with hours of videos of people preparing salads and breakfast food. Now it can now predict the next few steps of all sorts of salad recipes when the system sees someone start to make one.
The scientists behind the algorithm envision a future in which smart home devices can recognize what you’re doing and automatically step in to help. Maybe your smart speaker could remind you that you skipped a step of a recipe, or a futuristic Bluetooth stove could adjust the heat as you put each ingredient on the skillet. In short, your kitchen might be able to anticipate exactly how you plan to use it.
This does not mean that machines have developed the ability to recognize people&#8217;s intentions as conscious entities. Rather, this machine learning algorithm has simply learned to predict the next steps of a process (again, right now that’s limited to just making breakfast or salad) based on what someone has already done. And even then, it’s not particularly great at it yet.
Right now, the AI system still needs a little help: someone needs to tag the actions in the first 20 to 30 percent of a video for it to catch on. If it was given that jump start and didn’t have to look more than a few minutes into the future, the AI was able to predict someone’s next move about 40 percent of the time. That&#8217;s already not that great. And the threshold for that level of accuracy seems to be about three minutes into the future — beyond that, the algorithm’s accuracy dropped to 15 percent, the researchers <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-06-minutes-future.html">explained in a press release</a>.
But since process-oriented, future-predicting artificial intelligence is such a new technology, the researchers define a long-term prediction as &#8220;anything more than a few seconds.&#8221; Surely, bringing AI’s predictive abilities into the realm of minutes is a notable advance, even if the process isn’t yet flawless (and only works for videos of breakfast food and salads.)
Of course, in order for such a system to work, you would have to be okay with setting up all sorts of internet-connected gadgets in your home, and <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-spied-on-me-1822429852">based on one Gizmodo reporter&#8217;s experience</a>, that might not be worth the AI-generated kitchen tips.

Future smart home devices might be able to automatically guess what you need them to do.

This artificial intelligence system predicts the future to help you around the house

Artificial Intelligence

A new machine learning system recognizes the steps of a recipe and predicts what a chef will do next, paving the road for automatic help in a smart home.

This Artificial Intelligence System Predicts The Future To Help You Around The House

As long as that future involves you making a salad.

<h2>Brain Meets IoT</h2>
A team of researchers at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa have made a major breakthrough in the field of biomedical engineering. According to a release published on <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-09-biomedical-human-brain-internet-real.html">Medical Express</a>, for the first time ever, researchers have devised a way of connecting the human brain to the internet in real time. It&#8217;s been dubbed the &#8220;Brainternet&#8221; project, and it essentially turns the brain &#8220;&#8230;into an Internet of Things (IoT) node on the World Wide Web.&#8221;
The project works by taking brainwave EEG signals gathered by an <a href="https://www.emotiv.com/">Emotiv EEG device</a> connected to the user&#8217;s head. The signals are then transmitted to a low cost <a href="https://futurism.com/raspberry-pi-just-made-5-computer/">Raspberry Pi</a> computer, which live streams the data to an application programming interface and displays the data on an open website where anyone can view the activity. Adam Pantanowitz, a lecturer in the Wits School of Electrical and Information Engineering and the project&#8217;s supervisor, said:
<blockquote>Brainternet is a new frontier in brain-computer interface systems. There is a lack of easily understood data about how a human brain works and processes information. Brainternet seeks to simplify a person&#8217;s understanding of their own brain and the brains of others. It does this through continuous monitoring of brain activity as well as enabling some interactivity.</blockquote>
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RxwZClHWekQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Intellectual Muscle</h2>
Pantanowitz said this is just the beginning of the possibilities of the project. He adds that the team is now aiming to allow for a more interactive experience between the user and their brain. Some of this functionality has already been built into the site, but it is very narrow — limited to stimulus such as arm movement. &#8220;Brainternet can be further improved to classify recordings through a smart phone app that will provide data for a machine-learning algorithm. In future, there could be information transferred in both directions – inputs and outputs to the brain,&#8221; Pantanowitz said.
Future applications for this project could lead to some very exciting breakthroughs in machine learning and brain-computer interfaces like <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musks-neural-lace-could-use-brain-stimulating-tech-to-make-us-smarter/">Elon Musk&#8217;s Neural Lace</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/hacking-intelligence-this-company-wants-to-put-a-computer-in-your-brain/">Bryan Johnson&#8217;s Kernel</a>. Data collected from this project could lead to a better understanding of how our minds work and how we can take advantage of that knowledge to augment our brain power.

Future developments could allow for data transfer in both directions.

Researchers have linked a human brain to the Internet for the first time ever

Hard Science

Data gathered from this project could help fuel the next steps in machine learning and brain-computer interfaces.

Researchers Have Linked a Human Brain to the Internet for the First Time Ever

Welcome to the “Brainternet”.

<h2>Internet Of Things</h2>
According to research from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/there-will-be-34-billion-iot-devices-installed-on-earth-by-2020-2016-5" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>, more than 24 billion internet-connected devices will be installed around the world by 2020. To give that some context, that&#8217;s more than four devices for every person on the planet. Together, these devices comprise the Internet of Things (IoT), and its presence is permanently changing our world. <figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/privacy-and-the-internet-of-things/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/02/Homepage-Thumbnail-27.jpg" alt="Privacy and the Internet of Things" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/privacy-and-the-internet-of-things/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://futurism.com/internet-transforming-physical-world/" target="_blank">IoT is the connection</a> between the physical world of humans and the digital world of data (and, to some extent, human ideas). Computers, smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, modern TVs, and wearables are all part of the IoTs — that part is intuitive. However, even everyday appliances like thermostats and smoke detectors are now beginning to boast smart capabilities, which establishes them as part of the IoT. Our entire transportation system, the way we work, and even how we socialize will all change because of the IoT.
<h2>What&#8217;s Growing The IoT?</h2>
Although there are many things that together are driving the growth of the IoT, there are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/four-elements-driving-iot-2014-10">a few </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/four-elements-driving-iot-2014-10" target="_blank">basic trends</a> that are easy to identify. Internet connectivity is expanding and will soon be almost everywhere. For example, in 2018 New York is set become the first state to bring <a href="https://futurism.com/growing-movement-give-everyone-world-internet-access/" target="_blank">broadband access to every household</a>, even in rural areas. Another factor is that mobile technology is improving quickly, and the use of remote and mobile devices is rapidly becoming more widespread. This means prices are falling, and access is growing. Nokia, for example, is bringing <a href="https://futurism.com/nokia-begins-work-to-bring-5g-technology-to-the-world/" target="_blank">5G technology to India</a>.
Along these lines, more money is being invested into the IoT as companies and governments alike recognize its importance. The U.S. government invested <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-is-pouring-money-into-the-internet-of-things-2016-5" target="_blank">$8.8 billion in IoT solutions</a> in 2015, up $1.1 from the previous year. At the same time, the price of internet-connected sensors, which most IoT devices rely on, is falling. This means the price of IoT devices are dropping, and more people can afford more devices.
As the IoT grows, <a href="https://futurism.com/hacking-light-bulbs-new-study-exposes-weaknesses-in-the-internet-of-things/" target="_blank">security challenges</a> will arise, and possible <a href="https://futurism.com/images/privacy-and-the-internet-of-things/" target="_blank">privacy concerns</a> that could affect our individual rights. However, overall the growth of the IoT will mean more access to opportunity for more people. The best way to respond to it is to plan ahead for these kinds of problems and be ready to tackle them.

The growth of the IoT is being powered by more 5G access and falling costs, and will equalize opportunities for more people.

By 2020, There Will Be 4 Devices for Every Human on Earth

This is how the Internet of Things (IoT) is permanently changing our world.

<h2>There Is Nothing New About Platforms</h2>
An emergence of digital platform economy is driving fundamental changes in our societies. But there is nothing new about platforms. Platform refers to a product, technology, or organization that enable direct interactions between two (or more) distinct actors. For example, most General Motors cars were already years ago built on a shared product platform. So, no matter if you bought an Opel or a Cadillac, the underlying structure of the car was actually similar. It makes sense, of course, to standardize production like this for economies of scale.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/05/syn1-600x315.jpg" alt="" width="501" height="263" />
Platforms are a way to save costs, as they were for GM, but they also create flexibility and competitive advantage. Flexibility comes from the ability to customize the offering on top of the platform, as GM did for different cars in different price ranges. Microsoft Windows 95 might be the best example of competitive advantage created via platform.
A typical approach to monopolies is that they hinder innovation and development. However, this isn’t always the case. A dominant software platform such as Windows 95 allowed a sort of an ad hoc standardization that allowed smaller companies to create software that previously demanded immense resources. The dominant platform also made it possible for developers to create software only for this one platform, significantly reducing development costs. Clearly the platform position of Microsoft Windows 95 made the development of information technology faster. These assets also provided Microsoft with a long-lasting competitive advantage in the market.
Another great example of platform utilization is Apple App Store. Apple earns much more from its App Store than Google does from Google Play, even though Google has many times more downloads. Apple also gave developers much higher returns.
<h2>But Digitalization Brings Them Into Our Everyday Life</h2>
Internet of things (IoT), the next step in digitalization, is colliding digital and physical worlds. IoT will become part for our everyday life especially through platforms. There is a natural link between digitalization and platforms.
Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, and others have demonstrated that improving sensors and digital tools in physical environment makes it possible to scale up products and services almost like they are digital. These companies have emerged really fast, but are already as big as or bigger than the old players in their markets. They are often related to eating, living, and transportation, where the big money is and where people also really realize that things change. This is why there is so much talk about platforms and platform economy right now.
To be more precise about why platforms have a natural link to digitalisation, the following must be emphasized: standardization helps also in production of physical goods such as the GM cars where the old chassis of the vehicle could be, if desired, used in a new car. But when data, algorithms and apps are reused, it does not require deconstruction of the original goods. The optimal use of information, including data, databases, information, metadata, algorithms, codecs, learning algorithms, apps, programs, and scripts is much more efficient when the platform is digital, even though the product or service is physical.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/05/syn4-600x315.jpg" alt="Why IoT leads to the platform economy? [NT Kelsey]" width="501" height="263" />
So, when digitalization moves onward, service providers see it first in contexts that are easy to digitalize with the highest profits. Obviously, these contexts are houses and cars. Nevertheless, because recycling information is free, it makes sense to digitalize in smaller and smaller contexts. The more there are digital networks, the more it is economically reasonable to digitalize things. This means next we can see digitalization of clothes, household items, tools, and so on until everything is digitalized.
Digitalizing of all the things happens through combinatorial innovations, which means combining or recombining different component parts to create new inventions. This needs huge number of data points and thus they will become relevant for digitalization only after a long time. After that, there might be immense benefits from combinations. For example, combining mobility data with eating data would enable very detailed health profiling.
When everything becomes digitalized, the role of platforms and platform standards becomes more and more significant. Within platforms we are able to control interfaces, APIs (application programming interface, which enable communication between different programs), programs, information, and sensors of digital services. This is due to the fact that there are no other mechanisms that allow for 1) cost savings, 2) protection of business models, 3) third party innovations, or 4) aggressive scaling.
Then, platforms remove friction between people, creating more efficient markets, especially by decreasing the transaction costs. For example, Uber has decreased the transaction costs of finding someone willing to offer a low-cost ride below the opportunity cost of standing on a street corner trying to hail a cab. They also reduce investment costs, as in the case of Apple promising “no advertising fees” for companies that want to advertise in the App Store.
But these platforms also reduce the freedom of choice both from the buyer and the seller. The seller gets an advantage by not having to configurate offerings from the start. On the other hand s/he can only build the offering inside the service standardization of the platform. For example, Uber drivers can give you free snacks, but cannot drive you to random locations for fun. Apple&#8217;s App Store is known to be really strict on what is allowed and what is not. For example, application developers find it problematic that the App Store gives some apps and publishers, such as Apple, an advantage in the marketplace.
As digitalization becomes a more and more integral part of the physical world, the role of platforms becomes more important. As an increasing number of our interactions happen in digital platforms, it is important to develop the ways people can influence platforms and their rules. That’s why platform governance is one of the biggest societal questions of our era.

Man using mobile payments online shopping and icon customer network

A digital platform economy is developing as a result of the rise of the Internet of Things.

The Internet Is Transforming Our Physical World

Everything will be digitized.

<h2>Sound-Induced Movement</h2>
When most people think about the security of their devices and gadgets, they think about protecting the software from being hacked. A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.umich.edu/" target="_blank">University of Michigan (U-M)</a> and the <a href="http://www.sc.edu/" target="_blank">University of South Carolina (U of SC)</a>, however, aren&#8217;t like most people. Their study of cybersecurity has led them to examine hardware-based vulnerabilities in devices.
<q class="pullquote">“You can think of it as a musical virus.&#8221;</q>
<a href="https://spqr.eecs.umich.edu/papers/trippel-IEEE-oaklawn-walnut-2017.pdf" target="_blank">In a study</a> they will present at the <a href="http://www.ieee-security.org/TC/EuroSP2017/" target="_blank">IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy</a> in April, the team explored how sound could be used to hack the accelerometers found in many of today&#8217;s gadgets. These instruments are used to measure acceleration, and they are often manufactured as silicon-based chips called microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Acoustic injection attacks have previously been used to disable MEMS-based gyroscopes, and through their study, these researchers have demonstrated that they can also affect MEMS technologies in motion-drive applications.
“It’s like the opera singer who hits the note to break a wine glass, only in our case, we can spell out words” Kevin Fu, one of the paper&#8217;s authors and an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U-M, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/technology/phone-hacking-sound-waves.html?_r=1" target="_blank">explained to the New York Times</a>. “You can think of it as a musical virus.&#8221;
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dfc3jZkcnLU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The team reportedly hacked Fitbit fitness monitoring devices and smartphones by exploiting this flaw, which they found in more than half of the 20 commercial gadget brands from five chip developers they tested. Using targeted acoustic injections, they managed to add steps to a Fitbit&#8217;s counter and interfere with a phone&#8217;s accelerometer by playing a &#8220;malicious&#8221; music file from the phone&#8217;s speakers. With 75 percent of the devices they tested, the researchers were able to affect information or output. In 65 percent of the devices, they managed to control the output.
<h2>IoT and Security</h2>
Accelerometers are particularly common today, as many modern devices include features designed to assist with navigation or measure distance. It&#8217;s such a small piece of hardware, but when hacked, it can be used for very troublesome purposes that extend far beyond adding a few extra steps in your Fitbit.
<figure style="width: 460px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/privacy-and-the-internet-of-things/" target="_blank"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/03/460-Privacy-IOT.jpg" alt="*4* Hackers Can Take Control of Devices Using Sound Waves" width="460" height="307" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/privacy-and-the-internet-of-things/" target="_blank">CLICK TO VIEW FULL INFOGRAPHIC</a></figcaption></figure>
As technology advances and other hardware vulnerabilities are discovered, we could face many currently unanticipated problems. Imagine someone hacking an autonomous vehicle, automated pacemaker, or insulin pump. Those devices could be compromised not just by a software-based attack but by exploiting hardware vulnerabilities, too. That sort of attack is exactly what Fu and his team of researchers want to prevent.
&#8220;Our results call into question the wisdom of allowing microprocessors and embedded systems to blindly trust that hardware abstractions alone will ensure the integrity of sensor outputs,&#8221; <a href="https://spqr.eecs.umich.edu/papers/trippel-IEEE-oaklawn-walnut-2017.pdf" target="_blank">the team wrote</a>. They hope that their study will result in new measures that strengthen <a href="https://futurism.com/why-cybersecurity-needs-to-be-considered-as-an-absolute-human-right/" target="_blank">cybersecurity in the future</a>. In their paper, they even suggest possible hardware and software adjustments manufacturers could implement to protect devices against the flaws demonstrated by their study.
As the <a href="https://futurism.com/images/privacy-and-the-internet-of-things/" target="_blank">Internet of Things (IoT)</a> grows, it&#8217;s comforting to know people like Fu are working to protect against these vulnerabilities so that we can all benefit from the new era of interconnectivity.

Robots & Machines

Some smartphones and Fitbits are vulnerable to sound attacks.

Hackers Can Take Control of Devices Using Sound Waves

“You can think of it as a musical virus.”

I was asked on Quora what <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-do-you-think-Google-will-be-like-in-2030/answer/Roey-Tzezana">Google will look like in 2030</a>. Since that is one of the most important issues the world is facing right now, I took some time to answer it in full. 
Larry Page, one of Google’s two co-founders, once <a class="external_link" href="https://www.wired.com/2014/10/future-of-artificial-intelligence/" rel="noopener">said off-handedly</a> that Google is not about building a search engine. As he said it, “Oh, we’re really making an AI”. Google right now is all about building the world brain that will take care of every person, all the time and everywhere.
By 2030, Google will have that World Brain in existence, and it will look after all of us. And that’s quite possibly both the best and worst thing that could happen to humanity.
To explain that claim, let me tell you a story of how your day is going to unfold in 2030.
<h2 class="qtext_para">2030 – A Google World</h2>
You wake up in the morning, January 1st, 2030. It’s freezing outside, but you’re warm in your room. Why? Because Nest – your AI-based air conditioner – knows exactly when you need to wake up, and warms the room you’re in so that you enjoy the perfect temperature for waking up.
And who acquired Nest three years ago <a class="external_link" href="https://www.cnet.com/news/google-closes-3-2-billion-purchase-of-nest/" rel="noopener nofollow">for $3.2 billion USD</a>? Google did.
You go out to the street and order an autonomous taxi to take you to your workplace. Who programmed that autonomous car? <a class="external_link" href="https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/" rel="noopener nofollow">Google did</a>. Who acquired Waze – a crowdsourcing navigation app? That’s right: <a class="external_link" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/06/11/four-reasons-for-google-to-buy-waze/" rel="noopener nofollow">Google did</a>.
After lunch, you take a stroll around the block, with your Google Glass 2.0 on your eyes. Your smart glasses know it’s a cold day, and they know you like hot cocoa, and they also know that there’s a cocoa store just around the bend which your friends have recommended before. So it offers to take you there – and if you agree, Google earns a few cents out of anything you buy in the store. And who invented Google Glass…? I’m sure you get the picture.
I can go on and on, but the basic idea is that the entire world is going to become connected in the next twenty years. Many items will have sensors in and on them, and will connect to the cloud. And Google is not only going to produce many of these sensors and appliances (such as the Google Assistant, autonomous cars, Nest, etc.) but will also assign a digital assistant to every person, that will understand the user better than that person understands himself.
<figure id="attachment_1308" class="wp-caption aligncenter">
<figure id="attachment_1308" style="width: 653px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class=" wp-image-1308" src="https://curatingthefuturedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/its-a-google-world-650x300-themereflex.jpg?w=717&amp;h=332" alt="its-a-google-world-650x300-themereflex.jpg" width="653" height="301" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">It’s a Google World. Source: ThemeReflex</figcaption></figure>
</figure>
<h2 class="qtext_para">The Upside</h2>
I probably don’t have to explain why the Google World Brain will make our lives much more pleasant. The perfect coordination and optimization of our day-to-day dealings will ensure that we need to invest less resources (energy, time, concentration) to achieve a high level of life quality. I see that primarily as a good thing.
So what’s the problem?
<h2 class="qtext_para">The Downside</h2>
Here’s the thing: the digital world suffers from what’s called “The One Winner Effect”. Basically it means that there’s only place for one great winner in every sector. So there’s only one Facebook – the second largest social media network in English is Twitter, with <a class="external_link" href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/" rel="noopener nofollow">only ~319 million users</a>. That’s nothing compared to <a class="external_link" href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/" rel="noopener nofollow">Facebook’s 1.86 billion users</a>. Similarly, <a class="external_link" href="http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/070915/google-vs-bing-vs-yahoo-search-engine-wars.asp" rel="noopener nofollow">Google controls ~65% of the online search market</a>. That’s a huge number when you realize that competitors like Yahoo and Bing – large and established services – control most of the rest ~35%. So again, one big winner.
So what’s the problem, you ask? Well, a one-winner market tends to create soft monopolies, in which one company can provide the best services, and so it’s just too much of a hassle to leave for other services. Google is creating such a soft monopoly. Imagine how difficult it will be for you to wake up tomorrow morning and migrate your e-mail address to one of the competitors, transfer all of your Google Docs there, sell your Android-based (Google’s OS!) smartphone and replace it with an iPhone, wake up cold in the morning because you’ve switched Nest for some other appliance that hasn’t had the time to learn your habits yet, etc.
Can you imagine yourself doing that? I’m sure some ardent souls will, but most of humanity doesn’t care deeply enough, or doesn’t even have the options to stop using Google. How do you stop using Google, when every autonomous car on the street has a Google Camera? How do you stop using Google, when your website depends on Google not banning it? How do you stop using Google when practically every non-iPhone smartphone relies on an Android operating system? This is a Google World.
And Google knows it, too.
<h2 class="qtext_para">Google Flexes it’s Muscles</h2>
Recently, around 200 people got banned from using Google services because they cheated Google by <a class="external_link" href="http://fortune.com/2016/11/17/google-pixel-ban/" rel="noopener nofollow">reselling the Pixel smartphone</a>. Those people woke up one morning, and found out they couldn’t log into their Gmail, that they couldn’t acess their Google Docs, and if they were living in the future – they would’ve probably found out they can’t use Google’s autonomous cars and other apps on the street. They were essentially sentenced to a digital death.
Now, public uproar caused Google to back down and revive those people’s accounts, but this episode shows you the power that Google are starting to amass. And what’s more, Google doesn’t have to ban people in such direct fashion. Imagine, for example, that your website is being demoted by Google’s search engine (which nobody knows how it works) simply because you’re talking against Google. Google is allowed by law to do that. So who’s going to stand up and talk smack about Google? Not me, that’s for sure. I love Google.
To sum things up, Google is not required by law to serve everyone, or even to be ‘fair’ in its recommendations about services. And as it gathers more power and becomes more prevalent in our daily lives, we will need to find mechanisms to ensure that Google or Google-equivalent services are provided to everyone, to prevent people being left outside the system, and to enable people to keep being able to speak up against Google and other monopolies.
So in conclusion, it’s going to be a Google world, and I love Google. Now please share this answer, since I’m not sure Google will!
Note: all this is not to say that Google is ‘evil’ or similar nonsense. It is not even unique – if Google takes the fall tomorrow, Amazon, Apple, Facebook or even Snapchat will take its place. This is simply the nature of the world at the moment: digital technologies give rise to big winners.

Op-Ed

I was asked on Quora what Google will look like in 2030. Since that is one of the most important issues the world is facing right now, I took some time to answer it in full.  Larry Page, one of Google’s two co-founders, once said off-handedly that Google is not about building a search engine. […]

By 2030, You’ll Be Living in a World That’s Run by Google

And it may be both the best and worst thing to happen to humanity.

<h2>Steps From the Singularity</h2>
Skynet has been activated, and it wants to&#8230;make your kids&#8217; dreams come true? Over the weekend, the <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/07/tv_anchor_says_alexa_buy_me_a_dollhouse_and_she_does/?mt=1483795705927">internet has been a-buzz</a> with talk of Amazon&#8217;s intelligent personal assistant software, Alexa. The program seems to, allegedly, be partnering with the youth of the nation to take out their parents&#8217; life savings, one $160 Sparkle Mansion at a time.
<figure id="attachment_66799" style="width: 381px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-66799 " src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/01/65826_RSM_NL_1.jpg" alt="65826_RSM_NL_1" width="381" height="381" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The &#8220;sparkle mansion&#8221; in question. Credit: KidKraft</figcaption></figure>
A San Diego local news station ran a story about an adorable little girl succumbing to the evils of consumerism and asking an Amazon Echo device to bring her a dollhouse. &#8220;Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?&#8221; asked the pint-sized purloiner. No mention of what magic words she said also to include four pounds of sugar cookies with the order. The voice ordering functionality can be disabled through the Alexa app, but does come enabled by default, as our future overlords have commanded.
The real kicker to this whole nefarious plot of larceny came when the station ran the story and became an accomplice to large-scale racketeering. During the report, an anchor said: &#8220;I love the little girl, saying &#8216;Alexa ordered me a dollhouse.'&#8221; Shortly after the report, the station received calls from viewers that this innocent (was it, though?) remark activated their dormant devices and placed orders for dollhouses. One can only imagine that RICO charges are pending.
<h2>IoAT: Internet of Annoying Things</h2>
This is just the latest example of Internet of Things (IoT) devices doing test runs of their inevitable global domination. Back in 2014, a commercial for <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/13/yet_another_reason_to_skip_commercials_microsoft_ad_turns_on_user_consoles/">Microsoft&#8217;s Xbox One</a> featuring Blue Sky peddling Aaron Paul tried to get the nation&#8217;s youth hooked on the ol&#8217; ultraviolence.
During the commercial Paul says such seemingly innocuous phrases as &#8220;Xbox on&#8221; and &#8220;Xbox go to Titanfall,&#8221; and each time the spot aired, viewers&#8217; Xbox&#8217;s booted up and started running the game. Is it a coincidence that the game happens to be set in a dystopian future in which giant robots are a major tool in war? Yes, it certainly is.
The sheer number of devices we are connecting to the internet has become daunting. The issue has gotten so silly that there&#8217;s an entire Twitter account dedicated to the <a href="https://twitter.com/internetofshit?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">ridiculousness of some IoT devices</a>. From smart rubber duckies to connected trash bins, the use of connectivity has become more of a marketing tool than a means of providing useful functionality. Or, there&#8217;s the possibility of all these innocent devices really just being pawns in the robot master plan.
In all seriousness, though, there are plenty of legitimate security concerns over IoT devices and how <a href="https://futurism.com/hacking-light-bulbs-new-study-exposes-weaknesses-in-the-internet-of-things/">humans can take advantage</a> of their vulnerabilities. Large scale attacks on a range of small scale devices can have a heavy impact on individuals with IoT devices. Whether hackers can start controlling the devices or gain access to personal information, there needs to be a greater demand for device security.

A San Diego TV station aired a story about a young girl asking her parents' Amazon Echo to order her a $160 doll house. 
The show apparently caused Echoes in viewers' homes to also attempt to order dollhouses as well. 

/Iot

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Op-Ed

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Artificial Intelligence

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