The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is primarily a gathering for the bigwigs of the telecoms industry, but far from the main thoroughfares of the vast conference there are always hidden tech gems.
Among the most offbeat products spotted at last week’s event was artificial intelligence (AI) clone technology.
As advertising slogans go, “you can live forever” is up there with the best.
Photo: Reuters
That is how Memori Yamato described the “personalized AI clone” from her Japanese company Alt Inc.
“Your descendants can continue to speak and interact with you, even after your death,” Yamato said.
The idea is to upload as many videos, images and audio samples as you can while alive.
Photo: Reuters
The system would use that data to generate an AI mirror, cloning you in the digital world.
“It will look like you, it speaks in your voice and it even thinks like you,” she said.
The idea has been nine years in the making, and feedback from early users suggests the technology has nailed appearances and voices, she said.
NOSEPRINT
A dog’s nose carries similar identifying traits as a human fingerprint. South Korean start-up Petnow Inc took this information and ran with it — like a dog after a stick — to create a biometric database of pets based on noseprints rather than microchips.
“Since the 1940s, we’ve known that dogs’ noses worked a little like fingerprints,” Petnow business development manager Peter Jung said.
About 100,000 animals are abandoned each year in South Korea, often because owners cannot afford vet bills, he said.
“Less than 10 percent have chips because people don’t like the process,” he said.
Petnow just requires a photo and AI does the rest, ensuring the photos are good enough for identity purposes.
Jung said that 50,000 pet owners have signed up since last year, and he hopes the government will change the rules to allow his system to replace chips.
Cat lovers need not worry.
Their noses might be too petite to be identifiable, but each feline face is unique and can be used in the system, the company said.
TAKING FLIGHT
A staple from the pages of science fiction and the dreams of the superrich, flying taxis could be available as soon as 2025, SK Telecom Co said.
At the MWC, some attendees got an early taste, thanks to virtual reality headsets and a prototype complete with juddering seats.
Halfway between a helicopter and a drone, the craft has six electric motors that allow vertical takeoffs and landings.
It can carry up to four passengers and move at speeds of up to 320kph.
South Korea’s biggest telecoms provider developed it with Californian start-up Joby Aviation and hopes it will solve congestion in South Korea’s cities without adding to global warming.
“In Korea, in urban areas, we have severe traffic congestion, but constructing a mass transportation system like a highway or subway needs many social costs,” SK Telecom manager Ken Wohn said.
“Using this UAM [Urban Air Mobility] service can shorten our customers’ travel time without making so much infrastructure,” he said.
NEVER ALONE
People might live their later years in the company of “socially intelligent” robots capable of “building an emotional relationship” with them.
That is the vision of Spanish technology outfit Eurecat, which has developed a robot called NHOA — or “never home alone.”
It is designed to reduce the loneliness of older people living at home.
The orange and white robot stands 160cm tall and can be controlled with a touchscreen and by voice.
Eurecat healthcare innovation manager David Mari said the aim was not to replace human relationships, but to “humanize” the applications and connected objects used by older people.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS