Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

[mmmm8]

According to Wikipedia IBM employs ca 288,000 people worldwide. If losing jobs overall to AI is real this time in 5 years it will be down to 230,000 or less. IBM is a great indicator because this company most likely doesn't employ blue color workforce at all (catering, cleaning, security etc. is normally outsourced in corporate world).

IBM does still manufacturie main frame computers. They have a plant just outside New York City.

[ponchi101]

As I recently had a video call for a possible job.
How difficult would it be to fuse both AI and DeepFake technology for such a call? You would not even need DeepFake in the sense of creating an image from available footage; you could SCAN somebody's face and torso (any actor will do) and create the fake. Then, let AI take over and let it the interviewee the questions; after all, they are all very standard depending on the job.
So, with video conferencing being now routine, and these new techs, will it be long before this can be done?

In my family. Of my nephews/nieces, I can count three with jobs in jeopardy. My eldest niece produces user manuals for a sound company, her sister is an actuarian (producing tables), mu god daughter is a teacher at a university, in liberal arts (Spanish). I say they can be affected.

[Suliso]

I think Spanish teacher is safe, the other two if young enough should consider a career change.

[ti-amie]

Interesting from BBC R&D on use of private 5G during the recent big event there.

Using a private 5G network to support coverage of the King's Coronation
Posted by Ian Wagdin on 5 May 2023, last updated 9 May 2023

This week the worlds media is focused on The Mall in central London for the Coronation of King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort. The world’s media outlets are here, and as I write this on Friday afternoon the crowds are starting to build.

Over recent years news crews have increasingly relied on mobile networks to get pictures from the heart of the action, they offer a great way to get to places that you just can’t reach with a satellite truck or cable. This means that there is computer hardware and kit available to broadcast from anywhere you can get a mobile signal. While this is OK most of the time, at big events the large mobile networks can get saturated with data very quickly as everyone tries to upload content to social media and journalists compete to send their pictures back to news channels.



Rigging a radio head on The Mall.

At large events the mobile network operators can add capacity, but this is aimed at their customers and is generally spread over a wide area. This means that broadcasters cannot rely on this provision when they most need it; so must use other technologies to support their output leaving all the kit that supports news contribution unused.

BBC News approached BBC Research & Development earlier this year following our successful trial of 5G Non-Public Networks (NPN) at the Commonwealth Games last year and asked if we could help solve this issue. The challenge was a big one - could we provide a private 5G network that was available for the days leading up to the event and during the Coronation itself? We wanted high uplink capacity over a large area which we could offer to news broadcasters from around the world. It has led to what is the largest temporary private 5G network of its kind ever deployed.

While we have trialled and tested smaller scale networks previously; this has been to support only 1 or 2 cameras, but we knew this would be a much larger challenge. We planned to support up to 30 devices all streaming large data rate video from any point along The Mall. For this we partnered with Neutral Wireless who specialise in 5G NPN and who we have worked with previously on our 5G Rural First project on Orkney.


Left: Engineer rigging a mast next to BBC Outside Broadcast trucks at Canada Gate.
Right: One of the cells mounted on a pole above camping crowds on The Mall.

One of the challenges of streaming lots of professional video is that you need a high capacity in your uplink. Most public networks are designed for their subscribers to download content. The only way we could deploy a network to support the amount of traffic was to use spectrum available from Ofcom for shared access and separate from the public networks. Working with Ofcom we have been able to secure 80 MHz of radio capacity centred on 3855MHz, and with Neutral Wireless we looked at the best options to deploy cells that would cover the whole of The Mall.


Map simulating coverage from the Coronation 5G Non-Public Network.

We have deployed eight cells all with very low transmit power but high receive capability. This provides reliable and constant coverage from Buckingham Palace to Admiralty Arch. Using the mobile bonding devices such as LiveU’s LU300 with 5G modems and dedicated sims we have been able to move traffic away from the public networks and onto our private network. This traffic is then backhauled over fibre to Broadcasting House where it meets the internet and from there to whichever broadcaster is connected. The beauty of this system is that for operators and broadcasters the workflow is pretty much the same as they use every day, but we can be confident that their units will work no matter how busy the public network becomes. We now have over 60 devices connected from multiple broadcasters right around the world.

Of course, this is R&D so the challenge of deploying one network was not quite enough. We have also been looking at high capacity, low latency networks that can deliver UHD HDR pictures with bidirectional control. Working alongside Sony we also have two cameras operating on a separate cell in front of Buckingham Palace that will help us understand how these networks may be used in the future.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-05-5 ... coronation

[JazzNU]

FYI, Bluesky is picking up steam. Still invite only, but those invites have been opening up in the last week or so to those with medium level followers and no longer just the biggest ones. As I said at the start of this, I expect it to replace Twitter for most people once it launches. I haven't checked Mastodon out that much because it has seemed clunky more often than not. And it just always seemed like a safe bet that Jack would be able to replicate the Twitter experience faster than anyone else and use his connections to speed up integration.

[mmmm8]

As I recently had a video call for a possible job.
How difficult would it be to fuse both AI and DeepFake technology for such a call? You would not even need DeepFake in the sense of creating an image from available footage; you could SCAN somebody's face and torso (any actor will do) and create the fake. Then, let AI take over and let it the interviewee the questions; after all, they are all very standard depending on the job.
So, with video conferencing being now routine, and these new techs, will it be long before this can be done?

In my family. Of my nephews/nieces, I can count three with jobs in jeopardy. My eldest niece produces user manuals for a sound company, her sister is an actuarian (producing tables), mu god daughter is a teacher at a university, in liberal arts (Spanish). I say they can be affected.

I work with a bunch of actuaries but that is a skillset that can take you to much more nuanced and "human-centric" job possibilities. The people I work with don't just produce tables.

I think the user manual job is the most likely to go, but her writing and communications skills can be used otherwise.

[ti-amie]

FYI, Bluesky is picking up steam. Still invite only, but those invites have been opening up in the last week or so to those with medium level followers and no longer just the biggest ones. As I said at the start of this, I expect it to replace Twitter for most people once it launches. I haven't checked Mastodon out that much because it has seemed clunky more often than not. And it just always seemed like a safe bet that Jack would be able to replicate the Twitter experience faster than anyone else and use his connections to speed up integration.

I don't trust Jack Dorsey.

Anything you post there is theirs to do with as they see fit. Just like Elmo's hell site.

[ti-amie]

Speaking of Elmo's hell site...

David Gaines Ⓥ
@NatsAndCats
·
You can already talk to anybody in the world without giving them your phone number, on any number of apps. Telegram comes to mind.

This is major because for many journalists DM's were the way to get tips from people who wanted to remain anonymous.

[ponchi101]

Wasn't this the plot of a movie?

An influencer's AI clone will be your girlfriend for $1 a minute

(Yes. It was the plot of HER. Scary and spooky).

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Principles? Ah, principles?

[ponchi101]

I know we have to do something about climate change.
But the transition to EV's will also have some impact.

To meet EV demand, industry turns to technology long deemed hazardous

This will be one of the issues to consider. Mining all that nickel and lithium and rare earths will be difficult and will demand a lot of energy.
So, for the environment: what good is it to manufacture all those EV's that will not pollute, if in the process you already caused all the pollution that you were planning on saving?

[Suliso]

Is it really all of it?

EV's have another advantage besides carbon emissions - they'll make air in our cities much cleaner. Lots of places desperately need it.

[ponchi101]

Bogota could use that. We would need to get rid of our diesel engine powered public transport, which is something that it is actually being done by switching to natural gas powered buses.
But in the end, it is all about emissions. Concentrated over cities or spread out, the mantra is that we need to reduce the emissions of CO2. And if to obtain the metals to run EV's we actually emit more, and we also cause some environmental degradation (we can see that in the Far East with the adoption of Oil Palm plantations for which natural forests are taken down), I don't know how wise that is.

[Suliso]

I can't believe there is absolutely nothing we can do reduce oil consumption. EV is the only game in town unless you believe in hydrogen nonsense.