From the rainforest to the ocean, artificial intelligence is decoding nature’s most complex data patterns and is proving to be a game-changer in conservation.



For as long as there has been wildlife conservation, there has been a need for data. In order to understand ecosystem health, animal behavior and population trends, you have to be able to measure what’s going on in nature. And while there are many ways to do this, from drones to tracking devices, thermal cameras and even rangers on-foot, satellite imagery and camera traps have made study- ing wildlife movement a little bit easier. Not only can conservationists collect ample data, there’s minimal disturbance to animals. When it comes to analyzing the imagery, all that’s really needed is someone who can recognize an animal and there are many training programs to do just that.



But to really understand ecological trends, there are many creatures that are simply too small to be captured through pictures. “With very big animals like elephants, you can see them using satellite data which is great but a significant portion of the ecosystem is hidden,” says Dr Juan Lavista Ferres, who has worked in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) for over 20 years, and is the Chief Data Scientist of Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. Luckily, those animals that are undetectable in satel- lite imagery make up for their size with sound, which is where acoustic data comes in – and in the case of ani- mal sounds, bioacoustic data. “From a noise perspec- tive, they are there,” laughs Ferres. “There is no corre- lation between the size of an animal and the sound it makes. Very small animals can make a lot of noise and can do very specific frequencies.”



<h1 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nature-s-silent-signals">Nature’s silent signals</h1>



There’s huge potential in environmental recordings (bio- acoustics are important bioindicators —they are nature’s health signalers) and the good news is that a lot of the data is already available. At the AI for Good Lab, Ferres and his team have continuous surveillance recordings from the Amazon that go back to 1992. The problem is that there are only a handful of scientific experts who can understand what is going on when the data is visualized, and then interpret the frequencies to identify specific animals. “It’s extremely niche. In the case of bioacoustic data, you need a huge level of expertise and there are very few people in the world that can recognize these sounds and frequencies,” adds Ferres.



Another challenge is that going through all of this audio takes time. Ferres says that many of the record- ings he has run non-stop, day and night, for 365 days. “A person would need to be listening to these sounds for a whole year to get through just one year’s worth of data. Now imagine that you have multiple recordings in one forest?” There’s simply too much data for hu- mans to process manually, which is why AI is such a game-changer in conservation – it’s making research a much more efficient process. AI can learn from these experts to automate identifying and classifying animal sounds across large datasets. “We can go through all of the recordings and understand how the health of the ecosystem is changing,” says Ferrers. “Now that we have more compute and better models, we can work with these different types of data, whether it’s images, videos or acoustic data.”



<h1 class="wp-block-heading">Under the sea</h1>



One of the AI for Good Lab’s first projects using acoustic data was with endangered beluga whales in Alaska us- ing underwater sensors. “You can capture the sound of these whales, their vocalizations,” says Ferres. Because sounds travel much further than visual cues, with acous- tic data, researchers can detect (and even potentially identify) different types of whales over vast distances in the ocean, far beyond what would be possible with visual observation methods. “There are particular frequencies in the water that will be very difficult to detect without AI,” adds Ferres. “You can’t solve a problem if you can’t measure it. By doing this, we can actually start measuring the problem.”



Working with different industries and partners throughout the world, Ferres’ hope is that now that the information is in these AI models, more people will be able to use them to track animals over time. All the work that comes out of the AI for Good Lab is also open source which means all of the projects are freely available to re- searchers and organizations worldwide. “It’s a complete philanthropic effort. We give up the idea. We publish everything. All the work we do is for the societal good,” he says. “AI is not just the solution, but sometimes it’s the only solution we have.”

Botswana. Woman photographing giraffe in Chobe National Park with tablet.

Work On The Wild Side: How AI Is Helping Conservation In Africa And The Huge Potential Of Environment Recordings

Navigating the complexities of our future is big business – and big money. Here are some of the more eminent global futurists offering fresh insights into future tech and a better tomorrow.



At the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, there’s one particular session where people start queueing around four in the morning to get a seat. It’s not one of the big-name music performances or a movie screening with awards buzz, it’s a keynote by Amy Webb.



Webb, who is the founder and CEO of the Future Today Institute (FTI), is a futurist. She’s a professor of strategic foresight, a data and research-driven field that unpacks what could be in an increasingly complex world. Webb’s 2024 Tech Trends Report, which is downloaded more than a million times every year, is made up of just under a thou- sand pages of insights businesses rely on to navigate the future.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
IN HER TALK AT SXSW, AMY WEBB SAID THAT THE NEXT STAGE OF AI IS MERGING DIGITAL SUPERCOMPUTERS WITH HUMAN TISSUE. THIS IS SOMETHING WEBB REFERS TO AS ORGANOID INTELLIGENCE, OR O-AI. SHE PREDICTS THAT BY 2039, O-AI WILL BECOME THE FOREFRONT OF COMPUTATIONAL EVOLUTION, MERGING HUMAN-LIKE DECISION-MAKING CAPABILITIES WITH THE SPEED OF TRADITIONAL COMPUTERS. IN SIMPLE TERMS, WEBB SAYS THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE BIOCOMPUTERS OUT OF HUMAN BRAIN CELLS – WE WILL GROW COMPUTERS RATHER THAN BUILD THEM.
</blockquote>



Predicting what comes next may be big business but it’s not necessarily new. While modern futurists use data to forecast pos- sible future scenarios and spot emerging opportunities, the science of probability – long-term planning – has been around since the 1940s. And before futurology became an academic field and job role, science fiction authors like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Arthur C. Clarke, were recognized as futurists with an uncanny ability to foresee the world to come. Today, there are a number of well-known futurists sought out by industry giants (and the government) to steer business strategy and adapt to disruptive change. Businesses are hiring futurists to tell them the things they don’t want to hear so that they can prepare for unfore- seen inevitabilities.



Meet the futurists



As the founder of Singularity University and the XPRIZE Foundation, Peter Diamandis is a Silicon Valley digital futurist and engineer who has started over 25 companies. Now in his 60s, Diamandis (whose net worth has been reported to be around $200 million) has many innova- tive projects underway. While tickets to attend his membership-only Abundance Summit begin at $10,000, Diamandis is attempting to change the world with his large-scale XPRIZE competitions that tackle domains like climate, space, biodiversity and deep tech. According to the Key Speakers Bureau, Diamandis’ speaking fee starts at $60,000 – and that’s for a virtual, not in-person, appearance.



As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more and more popular, there’s a good chance that futurist Ray Kurzweil will be mentioned. Kurzweil, who has received 20 honorary doctorates is a computer scientist and futurist with a 30-year track record of accurate predic- tions – his written predictions, of which there are 147, have an 86% accuracy rate. Kurzweil’s first predictions around AI came out in 1999 and while many people felt that his views were radical when he said that computers would be as intelligent as humans, his estimated date of 2029 doesn’t seem so far off. Kurzweil’s net worth is reportedly around $30 million, most of which comes from the four companies he success- fully founded based on his research and academic prizes. One of his boldest predictions is that immortality will be achievable by 2030 with nanobots – tiny robots that can repair human bodies on a cellular level.



In an interview, he famously said: “By the time we get to the 2040s, we’ll be able to multiply human intelligence a billionfold. That will be a profound change that’s singular in nature. Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter.”



Webb, who has been called ‘one of the five women changing the world’, recently wrote a book called The Genesis Machine with fellow futurist, Andrew Hessel. The book, which won a Gold Axiom Medal, explores synthetic biology, a controversial and emerging techno-science. Biotech, which is something both Webb and Hessel focus on, was a key part of Webb’s 2024 Tech Trends Report. In her talk at SXSW, she said that the next stage of AI is merging digital supercomputers with human tissue. This is something Webb refers to as organoid intelligence, or O-AI. She predicts that by 2039, O-AI will become the forefront of computational evolution, merging human-like decision-making capabilities with the speed of traditional computers. 



In simple terms, Webb says that we will be able to make biocomputers out of human brain cells – we will grow computers rather than build them. Hessel is a pioneer in synthetic biology, microbiologist, geneticist and futurist. He is also the co-founder of a company called Hu-mane Genomics Inc. that engineers synthetic viruses to target cancer cells. “Biology is a very different medium than computing but there are fundamental similarities,” he wrote in a blog post talking about synthetic biology in Af-rica. “Africa is geographically well-positioned to benefit from synthetic biology. Much of the country is in the biological power band of the world, blessed with ample sunlight, fresh water, fertile soils, and incredible biological diversity. But it is also vulnerable to changes in climate, particularly shifts in rainfall and heat waves,” he continues. Hessel has seen first-hand how AI tools are supercharging all aspects of digital biology and predicts that DNA printers are on the cusp of a major upgrade. He believes that in the next five years, we will be able to print and assemble microbial-scale genomes — at reasonable cost and turnaround times.



In the workplace



No matter whether you call them futurists, fu-turologists, foresight practitioners or horizon scanners, it’s becoming increasingly common for organizations to employ professionals with these titles. According to the Univer-sity of Houston, around 25% of Fortune 500 companies have futurists on staff. They’re also commonplace at government agencies as well as non-profits. Andrew Bolwell, for example, is HP’s chief disrupter. In his role, he unpacks megatrends like microfluidics – working with tiny amounts of fluid with precision. Even though printers already do this, Bolwell is talking about even smaller amounts, fluids the fifth of a size of a human cell (or a thousand times smaller than a raindrop). With the microfluidics market projected to be worth $64.94 billion by 2029, according to Mordor Intelligence, the possibility of 3D-printing vital organs may become a reality.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
&#8220;BY THE TIME WE GET TO THE 2040S, WE’LL BE ABLE TO MULTIPLY HUMAN INTELLIGENCE A BILLIONFOLD. THAT WILL BE A PROFOUND CHANGE THAT’S SINGULAR IN NATURE. COMPUTERS ARE GOING TO KEEP GETTING SMALLER AND SMALLER. ULTIMATELY, THEY WILL GO INSIDE OUR BODIES AND BRAINS AND MAKE US HEALTHIER, MAKE US SMARTER.”&#8211; Ray Kurzweil
</blockquote>



When Dr Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President at Amazon, one of the globe’s most innovative companies, looks into the future, the world takes note.



The well-known futurist, who releases tech predictions for the year and beyond, also happens to be one of the highest-paid CTOs worldwide – it’s no wonder his live speaking fee reportedly starts at $100,000. One of Vo-gels’ predictions is that women’s healthcare, femtech, is on the rise. “Women’s healthcare is not a niche market,” he writes in his tech predictions report. “At AWS, we’ve been work-ing closely with women-led startups and have seen first-hand the growth in femtech. In the last year alone, funding has increased 197%.” 



With increased access to capital, technologies like machine learning, and connected devices designed specifically for women, Vogels believes that the world is at the precipice of an unprecedented shift, not only in the way women’s care is perceived, but how it’s administered. From women in rural areas who have been historically underserved medically to female athletes whose training was modelled on what worked for men, femtech will finally see women’s care move from the fringes to the forefront.



As companies strive to achieve aggressive sustainability targets, there are now climate and environmental futurists emerging as key strategic advisors, guiding businesses in navigating the complexities of climate change, resource management and eco-friendly practices to secure long-term viability and environmental stewardship. For Gerd Leonhard, a German futurist, green has become the new digital and sustainable is the new profitable. In a recent keynote, he said that he’s optimistic about climate change and global warming because we already have the tools we need to solve it. “We’re going to suffer for 15 to 20 years in the process of fixing this,” he predicts, “but we’re now getting ready to do this… technological advancements offer solutions that can help tackle these challenges. It will be essential to find a balance between economic progress and environmental preservation.”



Leonhard, like other consulting futurists, is working with companies to help them understand the next decade and develop foresight. “It’s not predictions, it’s understanding, intuition and imagination,” he explains in a podcast, adding that being a futurist is similar to being a therapist. His job is to essentially point his clients in the right direction; clients who happen to be tech giants, business leaders and government officials around the globe.



The future, today



There’s no question that history is happening now and futurists provide a way to understand current trends as well as anticipate what’s to come. Futurism is essentially risk management because every industry is experiencing dynamic change. In the last 50 years we’ve made more progress than in the previous 250,000 years and it’s been said that the next 10 years will bring more change than the previous 100. Of course, the future is unpredictable and futurists are not fortune tellers – they get things wrong. However, their value lies in their ability to analyze data and identify patterns. By incorporating foresight into strategic planning, businesses, governments and other organizations can adapt more effectively to emerging trends, mitigate risks and seize the moment. In a world characterized by rapid technological advancements, the role of the futurist has become increasingly indispensable in shaping a better tomorrow.

GUI (Graphical User Interface) concept.

The Fortune Of Foresight: Futurists On Tomorrow’s Tech

There’s mythology and mystery in the mix as gaming developers tap into the rich history of Africa telling stories that go way back in time.



The African gaming market sits on the cusp of global potential as studios shake up Western foundations with mythology, mystery and inclusivity.



In Nigeria, Maliyo Games has partnered with Disney to create a mobile game for an animated series called Iwájú. Mekan Games in Kenya launched a hypercasual game called The President which became the number one mobile game in the United States in 2022 with more than 10 million downloads. Kiro’o Games from Cameroon is a thriving studio producing games, animations and applications. 



And, in South Africa, there’s Khumo Moerane who collaborated with Leti Arts from Ghana to create a game demo called Karmzah Run about a superheroine archaeologist with cerebral palsy. Leti Arts’ game Sweave was recently accepted into the Gameloft platform. Moerane’s parent company is ITTHYNK Gaming and his studio is called Disputed People.



They are also developing an entirely new gaming franchise in South



Africa called PRYDE: The Lion of Africa which is based on African gods and mythology, and is still in development.



“Folklore and mythology are the cultural artifacts of our ancestors. They tell us what our ancient cultures valued and what lessons and morals were so important to them; they wanted to pass them on to future generations,” says Moerane to FORBES AFRICA. “These mythologies give us insight into how our ancestors saw themselves in relation to other people, the land and their spirituality, alongside the flora and fauna of Africa.



“The game taps into the stories that comprise the rich history of Africa as part of the studio’s commitment to celebrating the continent. “We want to reignite the awesome that is Africa.



Remember the wonder and joy of the epic godly powers within us and, in the process, awaken the world to the real magic that sits here, in Africa. These stories have survived despite all the turmoil that has befallen the continent and we want to carry them forward.”



The game is an ambitious one but it has energized Moerane and the people he’s collaborating with to create it because it is Africa- centric. The world is starting to pay attention to African games and the talented people creating them. There’s an energy in the sector that may yet shift the narrative away from Africa being a place where big companies come to sell their games.



“The value has traditionally been concentrated in Europe, America and China as companies do what they can to create games that appeal to those markets,” says Moerane . “I think that’s the tricky part for Africa – how can gaming within this market gain traction and visibility?”



For gamers in Africa, it’s a question most would like answered. Other than South Africans used as ‘bad guys’ in games like Uncharted, or locations across Africa used to enhance the thrill of a game filled with American accents, there are few games that connect directly with the local gamer. Since the first monsters stepped through a portal (Half-Life) or the first space marine battled the forces of hell in space (Doom), gamers in Africa have had little representation.



“I’ve been gaming for years, and it hit me that I’ve never actually played a game with an African hero or set with African mythology. This was an awakening for me,” says Moerane . “It has inspired my work on PRYDE: The Lion of Africa. 



“It has been a challenge – we’ve had to find the right talent to help us. We’ve collaborated with students and with people who want a chance to use their skills to create a game because they love gaming. We’ve also connected with people at game jams, like the one in Kenya. But what we really need is business people who have the acumen to run a studio. Corporate-minded people to support the creatives so this industry can soar,” hopes Moerane.

Khumo Moerane; image supplied

Gaming Gains: The Tech Tapping Into African History

Quantum security in Africa may not be as advanced as in other regions, but it is recognized as an important facet of computation in the future.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“Right now, quantum computing is where classical computing was in the 1960s.”
</blockquote>



Quantum is about to change how computers are used to attack. No, it’s not here right now. It’s probably not going to be here tomorrow. But it’s coming and it’s time to pay attention.



The <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/quantum-readiness-toolkit-building-a-quantum-secure-economy/">World Economic Forum</a> is listening. It released a Quantum Readiness Toolkit in 2023 discussing the speed of quantum development, the increase in quantum computers and the cybersecurity threats these introduce. The <a href="https://www.epc.eu/en/publications/A-quantum-cybersecurity-agenda-for-Europe~526b9c">European Policy Centre</a> published its quantum security agenda the same year, putting the quantum conversation firmly in the security spotlight. Quantum has the potential to change everything, including cybersecurity.



“It will change how computers will be used to attack and defend, potentially cracking cryptographic algorithms at speed,” says Martin Potgieter, Co-Founder and Technical Director at Nclose in Cape Town, South Africa. “While quantum computers are largely experimental and impractical, the idea is that when they become mainstream, they will introduce exponentially greater computing power.”



Professor Bruce Watson, Director of the Computational Thinking for AI Group, in the Centre for AI Research (CAIR), in <a href="https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&amp;&amp;p=5a340fced2ef2890JmltdHM9MTcxMDQ2MDgwMCZpZ3VpZD0wZGZiMjgzOC1hMjgxLTZlZTQtMWY2ZC0zYmVhYTM0ZDZmZGMmaW5zaWQ9NTc5OQ&amp;ptn=3&amp;ver=2&amp;hsh=3&amp;fclid=0dfb2838-a281-6ee4-1f6d-3beaa34d6fdc&amp;u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20vYWxpbmsvbGluaz91cmw9aHR0cHMlM2ElMmYlMmZ3d3cuc3VuLmFjLnphJTJmJnNvdXJjZT1zZXJwLWxvY2FsJmg9M2pNJTJmdG5sWGR3SlUxZ3JuVG5FektKTXolMmIzdW8yQzhXJTJiTnIySkE5TEFaTSUzZCZwPWx3X3RwdCZpZz1GMjExNzZDMjBBREQ0QTg0ODI0NzBERTgyQTE4RTMwNyZ5cGlkPVlOODIwMngxODM0MjI0MDk2MDgzOTcwMjgwOQ&amp;ntb=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stellenbosch University</a>, South Africa, adds: “They are complex and expensive to build requiring facilities that have liquid nitrogen or liquid helium cooling with vibration-proof infrastructure that can cost upwards of $100 million just for the lab. Right now, quantum computing is where classical computing was in the 1960s.”



This is globally, not just in Africa. While some of the big names in technology are putting their money in the quantum basket, the technology and its capabilities are on par with the grainy photographs of giant computers and stacks of floppy discs over 70 years ago. The only difference is that countries like the United States (US) and China have the budgets to drive the quantum agenda.



“In Africa, there are several labs working on quantum experimentation but none are building full-blown quantum computers,” continues Watson. “It comes back to the cost point. Even though we have the scientists and the mathematicians and are building up this expertise on the continent we’ll be making use of overseas facilities for the foreseeable future.”



However, this doesn’t change the need to prioritize quantum security on the continent. Just as the first virus – the Creeper – released in 1971 was an unexpected side-effect of innovation back then, so it will be for the quantum computer in the future.



“I don’t see this as a region-specific phenomenon,” says Potgieter. “Should Sothern African Development Community and the African Union put quantum security on their agenda, if they don’t already? While we have a lot of problems in Africa that need attention and there are a lot of variables, it should be discussed at a high level.”



Looking ahead, it is very likely that sectors such as finance and healthcare – both very much in line to benefit from the potential of quantum – will look to implementing protocols and guidelines that will ensure they are protected. According to Jean-Francois Bobier, Partner and Vice President, Deep Tech at Boston Consulting Group, there are no regulations specifically for the banking sector in Africa at the moment. In Morocco, initiatives are driven by leading banking groups such as Attijariwafa Bank at a preliminary stage but central banks are still struggling to impose Transport Layer Security (TLS) with classical cypher algorithms.



“It’s likely Africa will follow the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines which are based in the US and we expect them to mandate the move to post-quantum cryptography in 2025,” he adds. “We anticipate it will be similar to Y2K, even worse because crypto is everywhere, has never been properly documented, and is sometimes hard-coded in applications and certificates.”



Quantum security in Africa may not be as advanced as in other regions, but it is recognized as an important facet of computation in the future. Steven Cohen, Managing Director of Triple S Solutions, adds: “The continent’s diverse economic and technological landscape means different countries will engage with this issue at different paces and levels of intensity. However, given the global nature of digital security and communication, quantum security is a conversation worth having.”



Over the next five years, quantum is unlikely to leap into mainstream but the groundwork laid in these years will be critical for shaping the quantum future in Africa.



As Watson concludes: “As far as I can tell, we don’t have a single significant post-quantum cryptography effort or quantum security effort for designing new algorithms. There are people across Africa advocating for the need for post-quantum cryptography but the vast majority don’t yet understand that they should be taking action now.”

Children Screen Time Rockets

Africa’s Quantum: Welcome To The 1960s

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Kai Zhuang, a 17-year-old Chinese exchange student, has been found alive in the Utah wilderness after going missing in what local police are calling a case of “cyber kidnapping,” a new criminal trend in which scammers extort vulnerable victims remotely, convincing their families they’ve been forcibly kidnapped and demanding ransom money.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Zhuang was reported missing on Dec. 28, after his family in China contacted his school in the U.S. to report they’d received images that suggested he was forcibly kidnapped, even as Zhuang’s host family in the U.S. told police they had seen Zhuang earlier that day and were unaware of a forcible kidnapping,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=788485949980868&amp;set=pcb.788486709980792" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to Riverdale, Utah Police Chief Casey Warren.



His family paid approximately $80,000 in ransom money to Chinese bank accounts after receiving “continuous threats from the kidnappers” about Zhuang’s safety, police said.



Meanwhile, the scammers were threatening Zhuang for possibly a month, telling him if he didn’t comply with their demands, his family would be harmed in China, and ordering him to isolate himself in the woods and send photos to his parents, Warren said in a Tuesday&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ksltv/videos/1094551185237234" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">press conference.</a>



The Riverdale Police and Weber County Sheriff’s Office used bank and phone data to track Zhuang’s movements and general area and conducted a drone search and rescue, finding Zhuang camping in the Brigham City canyon area alive “but very cold and scared,” police said.



In his press statement, Warren said that, as part of the investigation, the FBI had briefed the department of this “disturbing criminal trend,” highlighting similar cases that have been targeting foreign exchange students—and Chinese foreign exchange students, in particular.



In these “cyber kidnapping” cases, the scammers tell victims to isolate themselves and may convince them under duress to make it appear they are being held captive—in some cases even contacting the victim via webcam and sending voice recordings to the families.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Other local law enforcement agencies have reported so-called cyber kidnapping cases—last month, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/GrantCoSheriff/posts/pfbid0aHnLAcV63R5CLaNcUdsJG8XDJJGtaUMR4We46iRPn3dHnrJ4huNZpaBUAXtmgyv6l" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grant County Sheriff’s Office</a>&nbsp;in Washington reported receiving similar cases. In some, scammers have been suspected of using artificial intelligence to mimic the victim’s voice or likeness. Earlier this year, CNN&nbsp;<a href="https://amp-cnn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/04/29/us/ai-scam-calls-kidnapping-cec/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;on the case of Jennifer DeStefano in Arizona, who received a cyber kidnapping call that included fake audio of her daughter screaming—which she believes was generated with artificial intelligence. In June, the FBI issued&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2023/PSA230605" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a warning</a>&nbsp;about scammers’ use of artificial intelligence to generate explicit images of victims to harass or extort—also known as a “sextortion” scam. But the FBI has also been warning about these cyber kidnapping scams as far back as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/virtual-kidnapping" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2017.</a>&nbsp;The Bureau noted then that these cases have been known to law enforcement for at least two decades, but used to be common mostly along the southern border. They’ve since evolved to reach residents all over the U.S.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$8.8 billion. That’s how much money Americans lost in scams in 2022, with $2.6 billion of that in so-called imposter scams,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/02/new-ftc-data-show-consumers-reported-losing-nearly-88-billion-scams-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the Federal Trade Commission.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Following Zhuang’s case, the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. warned Chinese citizens, especially students, “to boost safety awareness, take necessary precautions, and stay vigilant against ‘virtual kidnapping’ and other forms of telecom and online fraud so as to protect their personal and property safety.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



The Riverdale Police Department noted that if you believe you are the victim of a cyber kidnapping, “do not send money, discontinue contact with the suspects, and contact police immediately.”

Unknown person in the hood, reaches out from the darkness to the laptop. Theft of household and computer equipment

What Is ‘Cyber Kidnapping’? Chinese Exchange Student Latest Victim Of ‘Disturbing’ Trend

If you wanted to be a great footballer, would it make sense to avoid kicking the ball for the first two minutes of every game?



The intuitive answer is obviously no.



There is no reason to believe that doing nothing could ever be a good strategy.



But surprisingly, we know that Lionel Messi does exactly that.



He quite literally just walks around and watches, which explains why he rarely scores in the first five minutes and in the first two minutes of a game.



There is, however, method to this madness because not only does Messi use this time to quieten his nerves, but he also uses it to develop his game plan.



Pep Guardiola, who coached him from 2008 to 2012, explained that he’s not being lazy. He is actually incredibly engaged, as he is watching the opposition in order to understand where the defensive weak points are.



Messi provides a unique example of how, by analyzing and then acting on data, we can give ourselves a competitive edge.



And data analysis, when done well, can also help companies unlock huge opportunities by allowing them to make decisions that, like Messi’s, seem intuitively wrong.



Take Yongqianbao, a Chinese financial services provider.



By analyzing consumer behavior, they know that people who type faster are less likely to default, which in turn allows them to provide credit at better rates than their competitors.



Another example comes from the video streaming industry. Conventional wisdom has always been that you should give your customers an interface that provides them with plenty of choices about what to watch. Choice was seen as a key feature if you wanted your app to be successful.



But thanks to TikTok, we have learned that giving consumers a choice isn’t a feature; it’s actually more of a bug.



Think for a minute about how you interact with TikTok on your device.



You just open the app and start watching, right? If you like what you see, you keep watching. If you don’t, you scroll on.



TikTok has ignored the conventional wisdom and removed choice to ensure they collect better data for their algorithms. This, in turn, allows them to deliver incredibly- accurate content based on what we actually want, not what we think we want.



Our taps and swipes have enabled them to create a platform that reportedly has over 1 billion users and average viewing times that are estimated to surpass YouTube by 12 or more minutes a day.



Anecdotes like this showcase why leaders should think less about using their “experience” or “intuition” when making decisions and instead invest more of their time and money into data-led decision-making.



Indeed, when we zoom out, it should not be surprising to learn that nine of the most valuable companies in the world are successful either because of their clever use of data or because they help their clients better use data at scale.



But if data is indeed the new oil, why do the majority of companies seem unwilling or at least unable to monetize it in the same way the top tech firms have?



Historically, cost would have been the obvious answer, but this is less relevant today, as cloud and other related technologies are making it easier and cheaper for everyone to analyze data at scale.



This leads me to conclude that the real barrier to tech- enablement comes down to the organization’s cultural maturity.



If you want to truly embrace the power of data across an organization, you can only do this if you grant more people the authority to investigate and use algorithms to make business decisions in real-time. This means delegating decision-making. Encouraging continual learning. Allowing experimentation. Accepting that mistakes will be made. Not many organizations have leadership teams that are bold enough to truly trust their people with these levels of autonomy.



But those that do have will have a significant advantage because true digitization only comes when you are both tech-enabled and human- empowered.

Businesswoman viewing graphs on digital tablet in business meeting

Data Offers Huge Opportunities.But Only If You Trust Your People

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Disney’s sports broadcasting network ESPN could be valued at about $24 billion, according to a Bank of America analyst note, which said potential investment suitors like Amazon, Apple and Verizon could help manage Disney’s push to transition from linear TV toward streaming.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Disney intends to keep ESPN and has reportedly been on the hunt to find partners for a full streaming service of the sports network, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-in-talks-with-disney-about-espn-streaming-partnership" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/10/disney-wants-sports-leagues-as-espn-partners-but-its-not-clear-they-want-espn.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sources</a>, as marquee products like Monday Night Football are not aired on the existing ESPN+ streaming platform.



Disney—which owns 80% of ESPN, while Hearst holds the remaining 20%—could sell stake in the company to new investors assuming it intends to maintain majority ownership, according to the note.



The note added a partnership deal between Disney and another company could help Disney bridge the gap to a streaming version of ESPN, bring a capital infusion that could bolster ESPN’s offerings and give Disney a chance to spin off ESPN in the future.



On top of potential tech company suitors, Bank of America added leagues like the National Football League and National Basketball Association could be potential investment partners, in addition to distribution firms like Verizon.



The note said ESPN needs to transition to a direct-to-consumer model to compensate for an environment in which linear TV subscribers are declining.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$2.9 billion. That’s how much profit ESPN generated for Disney&#8217;s fiscal year 2022, almost $1 billion more than the profit raked in by Disney&#8217;s entertainment business in that same window,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/19/disney-reveals-espn-business-size-first-time" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Axios</a>&nbsp;reported.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



A potential ESPN streaming service would come as tech giants like Google and Amazon push into sports broadcasting. Amazon spends about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/18/nfl-media-rights-deal-2023-2033-amazon-gets-exclusive-thursday-night.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1 billion a year</a>&nbsp;to maintain an 11-year media rights deal with the NFL to air Thursday Night Football on its streaming service—while YouTube, which is owned by Google, agreed to a seven-year contract with the NFL last year worth&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nfl-sunday-ticket-youtube-6253c4eee5c2f8c9b0f9fe191217e543" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more than $2 billion</a>&nbsp;per season for the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which gives subscribers access to all out-of-market broadcasts. As sports rights deals have become more prevalent, so too have cord-cutting tendencies among consumers. Television providers experienced record subscriber losses in the first quarter of this year, losing 2.3 million customers, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cord-cutting-all-time-high-q1-2023-pay-tv-losses-1235610939/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Variety</a>, citing MoffettNathanson research. The total pay-TV penetration of occupied households in the U.S. also dropped to 58.5% during the period, a figure not seen since 1992,&nbsp;Variety&nbsp;added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/05/15/nfl-adding-peacock-only-playoff-game-in-first-of-its-kind-streaming-deal/?sh=8f38ffd4cad6">NFL Adding Peacock-Only Playoff Game In First-Of-Its-Kind Streaming Deal</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-in-talks-with-disney-about-espn-streaming-partnership" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon in Talks With Disney About ESPN Streaming Partnership</a> (The Information)

New York Yankees v Baltimore Orioles

ESPN Could Be Worth $24 Billion And Attract Investments From Tech Giants, Report Says

On a recent working tour of the TechQuest Hub in Lagos, Nigeria, recently, Digital and Innovation Fellows from the African Union (AU) engaged with Charles Emembolu, the Founder and Director of TechQuest STEM Academy who spoke about how innovators organized as one body for the Innovation Support Network (ISN).



Emembolu, speaking in his capacity as the director of ISN, explains: “We have shifted our focus from merely complaining about lack of government support to proactively engaging with them. This shift has led to increased interactions with both federal and state governments.



“Currently, our office is located alongside the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). As a result, we actively participate in any engagement or activities organized by NITDA,” he says.



According to the organizers, the fellowship program, which started accepting applications in 2021, aims to identify and deploy skilled tech innovators within the African continent to various AU headquarters and departments as ‘resident fellows’. Their role is to understand the system within those departments, identify challenges, and propose solutions.



They note the goal is to tackle African challenges by fostering co-creation and building innovative tailor-made products and services by startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the continent.



According to a recent global startup ecosystem report by Startup Genome, Lagos became the regional leader in ecosystem values and early-stage funding in 2022.



It is home to over 400 startups, representing about 88% of the total number of startups in the country. Lagos led these regions with a total ecosystem value of $8.43 billion, while Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar, and Accra received $7 billion, $3 billion, $2 billion, and $1 billion, respectively.



Obi Asika, convener of The Omniverse, a technology and innovation ecosystem platform, emphasizes the need for collaboration across the board to deliver and scale.



Asika, a member of the ISN, highlights: “Digital sovereignty is a significant concern that Africa must address. Omniverse believes that technology can provide the wings needed for everyone to soar. These innovations emerge from the ecosystem, and we anticipate witnessing further developments.”



The Lagos ecosystem visit allowed for interaction with founders and the AU and AfriLabs contingent, and was an opportunity for key stakeholders with aligned interests to engage. It also offered showcasing opportunities for founders.



Founders from across Nigeria who showcased their innovations included Aminu Ibrahim Hashim (Kamel), Christiana Okere (MyStash), Hafsat Sahabi Dange (EasyComply), Dirug Samuel (NorthWave), Joseph Orjinta (EvriSale), Soji Akinlabi (Centre for Digitization of Indigenous African Languages—CDIAL), Osasumwen Asoro (Asoro Automotives), Siro Collins (Advanced Engineering Centre), Ahmed Idris (Adashi), and Michael Osumune (Moon Innovations).



Osumune, Founder of Moon Innovations, shared his experience at the Lagos ecosystem visit and expressed the need for more support from the local community to thrive in the Nigerian startup ecosystem.



He tells FORBES AFRICA: “It&#8217;s been an exciting experience showcasing at the Lagos ecosystem visit, connecting with people and sharing our mission to accelerate digital transformation in Nigeria using solar technology.



“The Nigerian startup ecosystem shows promise with its abundance of bright young minds. However, to thrive, we require more support from the local community, just like the support offered by Lagos ecosystem.”



Similarly, Orjinta, Founder of Blualpha’s EvriSale, pointed out the need for increased funding to assist tech startups in the sales and marketing of their solutions.



“More funding should be provided for most tech startups to support them in sales and marketing of their ready-to-market solutions to their target audience,” he says.



He also laments the fact that “Nigerians are not quick to adopt technologies that they can benefit from”.



Implemented through the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Commission’s Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) DataCipation program, the fellowship has already produced 13 fellows. It also supports the AU and its branches in enhancing citizens’ engagement.



In appreciation of the GIZ, the Digital Transformation Center (DTC) Nigeria, and TechQuest STEM Academy, Orjinta considers the meet-up an opportunity to gather tremendous insights from the fellows. He also believes the insights demonstrate the potential for his app to scale and be utilized in AU member countries.

Digital And Innovation Fellows From The African Union Explore Nigeria’s Startup Ecosystem

‘Wings To Soar’:Co-Creation And Collaboration From Nigeria’s Startup Ecosystem

Dr Preeti Aghalayam, the first woman to lead an IIT, hopes to operate at a scale that is impactful and leverages scientific strengths.



The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), India’s top-ranked engineering and technology university, is set to open its first international campus in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in October, bringing to the African continent its prestigious, world-renowned legacy and expertise headed by Dr Preeti Aghalayam, also the first woman to lead an IIT.



“We&#8217;ve been looking at what makes sense for us [as an institution] because we are nationally ranked number one [in India], and what are the places where our kind of education and research will find value,” says Aghalayam, the Dean of School of Science &amp; Engineering and Director-in-charge of IITM’s Zanzibar campus, to FORBES AFRICA. “Also, which nation, or which region would find useful what we bring to the table, which is quite different than other institutions, say in the West, or even in India.”



The Zanzibar campus is expected to onboard 50 undergraduate and 20 post-graduate students in October for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in data science and AI. The academic offerings are expected to be expanded in 2024.



After over two years in the Office of Global Engagement at IITM and an over 10-year career teaching at IIT Bombay (in Mumbai, Maharashtra) and IITM (in Chennai, Tamil Nadu), where she was a professor of chemical engineering, Aghalayam was hand-picked to lead the campus, as part of a partnership with the Government of Tanzania. Aghalayam is also a former IITM student and pursued her post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.



“This whole relationship is at the level of the education ministries of [India and Tanzania] and IIT Madras is a designate of the Government of India,” she adds of the new partnership.



“I believe that Tanzania is also very keen on this, especially in the Zanzibar region, because they are looking to expand their education offerings. Apart from being a tourist destination, they are looking if it can also become an educational destination.”



With a challenging and aggressive timeline to open the campus and build the same institutional reputation, infrastructure, and ecosystem in a new part of the world, Aghalayam is tasked with a difficult feat, but one she is embracing as a seasoned academic and researcher. With scientific rigor and research at the core of her ambitions, she hopes to propel the campus to be both inclusive with more diversity than India sees, but also competitive in nature.



“[We] will offer the type of academic programs that are needed by the young people, not only in Tanzania, but also the larger East African region, at the level of quality that is the IIT hallmark,” says Aghalayam.



“It&#8217;s important for us to operate at a scale that is impactful, makes a difference, leverages our scientific strengths etc., because it helps solve global challenges.”

Preeti Aghalayam, the first woman to lead an IIT_ image supplied

Tourism And Tech In Zanzibar: India’s Top-Ranked IIT To Debut Academic Programs In Africa

By Tiana Cline



Lead poisoning is an issue in Africa where lead-acid batteries reign supreme, powering cars and generators, providing solar power storage, and even backup for cell towers during rolling blackouts. But here’s How one company is transforming resources to power a more connected, sustainable world.



African children have died from lead poisoning. In countries like Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Tanzania, blood lead levels is not only unusually high – they’re increasing, according to a report in the Lancet Planetary Health journal. Exposure to lead, a potent neurotoxin, is known to affect the brain resulting in disability (if not death). The World Health Organization states that children are more at risk because high lead exposure damages the brain before it has had a chance to fully develop so one has to ask: where is all this lead coming from?



While certain types of paint contain high levels of lead, America banned the use of these residentially in 1978. In South Africa, however, rules around lead paint were only enforced in 2010 and from October this year, lead paint will be officially classified as a hazardous substance. But paint isn’t the biggest problem – a growing danger is the informal recycling of lead acid batteries. Even though lithium-ion batteries are a better battery (technologically-speaking), lead acid batteries reign supreme across Africa, powering cars and generators, providing solar power storage, and even backup for cell towers during rolling blackouts.



“Batteries are everywhere,” says Jamie Lee, Ecobat’s Chief Information Officer. “You don’t think about it until you think about recycling. In the transportation and energy sector, 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from road transportation. If batteries could be recycled better, it would mean less transport and you’re actually making an impact.”



When lead acid batteries aren’t recycled properly, acid and lead dust enters the soil. The process emits toxic fumes that permeate the air with poison and the workers return home with hazardous dust on their clothing.



“In addition to this, there are certain countries that use child labor to break open batteries and get those materials out which are then sold to the open market,” adds Lee. “We need to configure our supply chain in a way that we can get that battery supply into our hands for recycling. Then when the materials are put out, they go back into the hands of the manufacturers to take over and the result is less mining.”



THE WORLD’S MOST EFFICIENT CIRCULAR ECONOMY



Lee says that while many people believe paper, plastic and glass are the most recycled materials globally, lithium-ion batteries come in second and lead sits at the top of the pyramid.



“The most recycled material worldwide is lead;130 million batteries come through the recycling process,” he adds. “There’s enough lead in the recycling process to not mine for new materials.”



But that’s only when lead-acid batteries are regenerated or refurbished safely – something Ecobat does around the world because lead poisoning isn’t simply an African issue. A new study out of UNICEF found that around 800 million children are exposed to lead annually and the numbers in South Asia are higher than anywhere else.



“We are in a unique position globally as the largest battery recycler. Ecobat’s true impact is its value – if we didn’t exist there would be landfills of batteries,” he says. Recycling batteries is complicated – there’s a chain of over five different work centers to open each battery up, draw chemistries out of it and melt it down before refining the materials and shipping them off. From a safety perspective, there also has to be specialized breathing apparatus in place to ensure the recycling plant meets regulatory standards.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">A new study out of UNICEF found that around 800 million children are exposed to lead annually and the numbers in South Asia are higher than anywhere else.</blockquote>



As battery technology evolves, Ecobat also have had to adapt the way batteries are collected and stored as well as enhance their technical capabilities in the cloud.



“We are in the business of making batteries safe and sustainable which means we need to apply technology and safety. Batteries are not going away – they’re only going up in consumption,” says Lee, adding that the battery market size is expected to grow exponentially by 2030. “That means more and more batteries as well as different types of batteries – we’re chasing technology that’s evolving.”



Lithium-ion batteries, for example, contain 20 different chemistries. Every material inside a battery requires specialization that goes into Ecobat’s engineering in order to maximize sustainability.



“If we maximize our performance, the battery manufacturers can maximize theirs and lead batteries could last longer. If you’re lengthening the cycle, by effectively bringing the product back to recycling, you’re almost completely circular and that’s an exciting place to get to.”



Ecobat have slowly been buying out recycling and manufacturing businesses across Europe, the United Kingdom, America and Africa. So far, they’ve consolidated 2,730 companies under one brand using SAP sustainable intelligence to help them scale their growth.



“We need to reclaim and reuse materials like lead rather than mine more,” says Lee. “Even renewable energies rely on lead acid batteries for backup. Electronic vehicles have lead acid batteries because if their security or intelligence systems go down, you need to transition seamlessly.”



Many African countries today still lack adequate recycling facilities and these informal, lead acid battery processing sites continue to put the health of millions of people at risk. To create an ecological impact, Lee believes that the conversation shouldn’t start with materials like plastic, aluminium and glass.



“That’s all low on the list because we see it being collected – even if it isn’t necessarily being recycled correctly,” he adds. “But we need to get recycling visible and help people understand where batteries of all kinds should not (and cannot) go. We do not want them in landfills – we need batteries to be a key consideration in the recycling process so we can make use of those materials.”

Old leaking batteries

COUNTERING THE DANGERS OF ONE OF THE MOST RECYCLED MATERIALS IN THE WORLD

Is the metaverse the future of the internet? It’s already here with Big Tech banking on it, and it just might unlock untold economic opportunities for Africa.



BY TIANA CLINE



&#8220;IT FEELS LIKE SCI-FI WHEN WE TALK ABOUT it. If you think about the internet that we look at, the metaverse is going to be an internet that we are inside of,” says Derya Matras, Facebook’s Vice President for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. “Over the last few years, we’ve been observing social communication getting more and more immersive. I remember being in high school and dreaming of having a phone that I could take with me everywhere so I could talk to my best friend. Even being able to talk to my parents over video felt like sci-fi twenty years ago. It’s important that we observe where the technology is moving already.”



Matras explains that the metaverse will be made up of a set of digital experiences that seamlessly interconnect. A deeper and wider virtual reality (VR) that is far more than social media and video games. This is one of the reasons Facebook changed its company name to Meta at the end of October 2021.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:35% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-53909 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Derya-Matras-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
The metaverse is going to give a lot of opportunities to Africa but the connectivity has to be there.



– Derya Matras
</div></div>



“Facebook is primarily known as a social media company but we actually define ourselves as a tech company that has the mission of connecting people and businesses. As social technology evolves, we will also,” she says. “Obviously, the metaverse is not there yet and it’s going to take a good ten years to build it all together as an industry.”



Matras believes that the metaverse has the potential to unlock huge economic opportunities for Africa. As a company, Facebook has already made some significant investments into bringing more affordable broadband to the continent. They’re in the process of building 2Africa, the longest undersea cable in the world which will effectively connect three continents – Africa, Europe and Asia (with plans of going live in 2023).



“The metaverse is going to give a lot of opportunities to Africa but the connectivity has to be there. And it is the responsibility of tech players like Facebook and telecom operators and governments to build that collectively,” says Matras. While Facebook, as a social media platform, isn’t going anywhere, what excites Matras the most about the metaverse is its educational implications.



Immersive learning through the use of VR is a field that Louise Claassen, an executive fellow at Henley Business School Africa, is already working on. (And outside of the business school, she also spends a lot of time in AltspaceVR, a social VR platform acquired by Microsoft in 2017.)



“For decades, people have been immersed into the virtual reality space but as individuals. What is happening now is increasingly, we’re seeing multi-user VR environments,” she explains. 



While independent VR social spaces have been in existence for a number of years – many of which already have vibrant, thriving communities – people are now looking into these environments as business tools and in the med-tech space. Research out of the University of Maryland, for example, showed that VR not only increases memory retention, but when used as a learning tool could potentially treat memory-related disorders like Alzheimer’s.



 “One of the qualities we have in virtual reality is embodiment, that sense of being present in a different environment. Your body is responding to where your mind believes that you are. There are all sorts of very interesting opportunities that this convergence into the metaverse present,” says Claassen. 



At Henley, Claassen works with VR by creating rich immersive experiences for her students and in particular, global case studies that transport them to different places to understand different economies: “From a business school perspective, we believe that it’s important for leaders to have well-developed cultural intelligence and they can only do that if they travel. While physically visiting and being immersed in different contexts still has tremendous merit, what virtual reality does is it democratizes that process so more students can go to more locations more frequently.”



What the metaverse can bring to education (and many other sectors) is that immersive experience at the click of a button. A digital twin where data is not only visualized, but augmented.



“When we can see each other move in a three-dimensional space, we decode that information in a very different way and that’s very powerful,” says Claassen, “it give us a much more dynamic experience of the world which is pretty much what the metaverse offers, on scale.”

future technology metaverse

Can The Metaverse Provide Opportunities For Africa That Are Out Of This World?

AS I WATCHED the militant group Taliban take control of Afghanistan, ousting the sitting president and his government, I started to reflect on leadership. Very swiftly, as America was finalizing its withdrawal of troops, insurgents stormed across the country, capturing all major cities. It was a stark reminder of how precarious and delicate the concept of leadership is.



In 1994, Brooks Bash poignantly asked if leadership and parochialism or narrow-mindedness were an enduring reality. Yet, with the turn of the century, there was evidently no room for parochialism.



As globalism took hold, leadership stretched beyond the confines of walls and of borders. Strangely enough, when borders closed as nations locked down last year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were once again staring down the barrel of parochialism. How have we managed to fall so woefully behind? We are collectively navigating a particularly challenging period – one defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise in populism and resultingly a rise in intolerance alongside technological shifts at an unprecedented rate.



Perhaps the most stark question we have been faced with against this backdrop is what should leadership look like? How we respond as leaders will be a greater definer of the times. Will parochialism once again define leadership? Historically, we have seen the impact of pandemics, of wars based on intolerance and of industrial revolutions. Though these events soon took their rightful place in the annals of history, the response of leaders has remained stark in our collective memory.



Parallel to the pandemic, we have entered the era of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The 4IR is changing every facet of society from the way we interact, to how our industries operate to the way we consume. While we have long been on the cusp of the 4IR, it is safe to say our current circumstances have hastened this shift.



As we interrogate leadership against our current and rather grim context, it is apparent that it is not willingness but the arsenal of skills needed to confront a major anxiety that is the essence of leadership. Of course, with the rapid pace of change we now find ourselves faced with, we have to interrogate what these skills should look like.



As we battle the pandemic, I have spent much of my time trying to understand what leadership in the 21st century means. Faced with the seemingly impossible task of righting the ship against a turbulent and unpredictable backdrop, leaders have had to take extraordinary measures, create Marshall plans and deploy resources. As the pandemic rolled into its second year, it became increasingly apparent that leadership could not be discussed in the abstract, or in terms of theoretical frameworks.



Rather, leadership as a practice needs to be interrogated and the layers of complexity have to be unpacked. Though there are various levels of complexities, it is apparent that a leader needs 4IR thinking, which entails the following skills: complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with others, emotional intelligence, judgement and decision-making, service orientation, negotiation and cognitive flexibility. Importantly, we have to lead from a place of knowledge.



How do we begin to adapt to a changing world, and our changing circumstances, if those at the helm of our country are ill-equipped? For instance, as we modernize and reform our agricultural systems through land reform, we must have sufficient people who are knowledgeable in the political economy of farming to ensure continued food security and global competitiveness. As we tackle the problems of our shrinking industries, we need to understand issues of automation, technology and human capital to improve the quality of life of our people. This fundamentally calls for a reimagining of what it takes to be a leader. Are we ensuring that our engineers, our academics, our scientists and our philosophers are at the fore of leadership? This is crucial if we are to close the gaps that exist.



As we face an ever-changing context, leadership must speak to it. Will we continue to widen our disparities or will we find solutions to some of our most deep-seated inequities? Will we continue to let intolerance define our world order or in the disarray we find ourselves in, will we forge a sense of unity? There are leadership lessons to be learned from the successes and mistakes of the last year. If we are to use the pandemic as a yardstick for leadership strategies going forward, it must remain stark in our minds what accounted for the successes. If we are indeed to tap into the promise and override the peril, we must begin by approaching leadership differently and reimagine what it takes to be a leader in this new world.



By TSHILIDZI MARWALA The writer is the Vice- Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg, a member of the Namibia 4IR task force and author of the book ‘Leadership Lessons From The Books I Have Read’.

Smart city and global communication network ,Business  concept..

Reimagining Of The Leader In A New World

TOPLINE ‘“HUMAN ONE,” the follow-up to NFT artist Beeple’s record-breaking <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/03/11/beeple-art-sells-for-693-million-becoming-most-expensive-nft-ever/?sh=6dfeaf102448">$69.3 million nonfungible token</a>, sold for $28.9 million including hammer fees, shattering auction estimates for the artist’s first physical work.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The buyer, an online bidder in Switzerland, placed the winning bid of $25 million at Christie’s on Tuesday evening, ending with “HUMAN ONE” fetching $10 million more than the auction estimate of $15 million.



It’s the first physical work from Michael Winkelmann, who goes by the moniker Beeple and helped set off the NFT craze in March when his “ Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” sold for <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/10/28/nft-artist-beeples-first-physical-piece-could-fetch-15-million-at-auction/?sh=5cb1b42062ce">an unprecedented $69.3 million</a>.



“HUMAN ONE” is a seven-foot-tall box made of LED screens playing a loop of footage of a person wearing an astronaut-like suit walking through extraterrestrial-inspired backdrops, with a rotating base that shows the viewer different angles.



Winkelmann will periodically edit the video playing on the screens using blockchain, the artist said in a Christie’s statement, and plans to continue updating the footage throughout his lifetime.



The ability to continuously shift the work even after purchase creates a new dynamic between artist and owner, one that Winkelmann compared to having “an ongoing conversation.”



Christie’s representatives said the piece garnered major interest from potential buyers immediately after the sale of the statue was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/10/28/nft-artist-beeples-first-physical-piece-could-fetch-15-million-at-auction/?sh=5cb1b42062ce">announced last month</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The popularity of NFTs has exploded in 2021 parallel with the ascent of cryptocurrency, which is used to purchase digital artworks. NFT artists use the blockchain to tokenize their NFTs, like how investors track cryptocurrency. The sale of “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” placed Winkelmann among the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/03/11/beeple-art-sells-for-693-million-becoming-most-expensive-nft-ever/?sh=6dfeaf102448">most valuable artists alive</a>, following only David Hockney and Jeff Koons. Christie’s previously announced it would accept cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum for the piece, along with dollars, but it was not immediately clear how the buyer would pay for the statue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



Not everyone in the art world is thrilled about NFTs. Hockney has slammed NFTs as “silly little things&#8221; and called the people who create and buy them “<a href="https://decrypt.co/63917/artist-of-worlds-most-expensive-painting-nfts-are-for-crooks-and-swindlers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crooks and swindlers</a>.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/10/28/nft-artist-beeples-first-physical-piece-could-fetch-15-million-at-auction/?sh=5cb1b42062ce">NFT Artist Beeple’s First Physical Piece Could Fetch $15 Million At Auction</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/03/11/beeple-art-sells-for-693-million-becoming-most-expensive-nft-ever/?sh=6dfeaf102448">Beeple NFT Sells For $69.3 Million, Becoming Most-Expensive Ever</a> (Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/"></a>By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff

Screenshot 2021-11-10 at 11.14.01

NFT Star Beeple’s First Real-Life Piece Fetches $28.9 Million

TOPLINE One week after Facebook announced it would rebrand to Meta to focus on a metaverse where people can meet and connect virtually using any device, Nike appears among the first major brands preparing for a launch into the metaverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=login&amp;p_lang=english&amp;p_d=trmk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike</a>&nbsp;filed trademark applications last week with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for Nike-branded virtual goods, including clothing and sneakers, with sources telling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/02/nike-is-quietly-preparing-for-the-metaverse-.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC News</a>&nbsp;that the move is the company’s first step toward rolling out virtual products in the metaverse space.



The day Facebook announced its rebranding, it tweeted at Texas supermarket chain&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Meta/status/1453898356086956044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1453898356086956044%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysanantonio.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farticle%2FMeta-tweets-at-HEB-metaverse-16582277.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">H-E-B</a>, “wondering what groceries in the metaverse will look like,” signaling a potential collaboration where people could order groceries virtually online, as the supermarket chain completes construction on a new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2020/01/10/first-look-h-e-b-s-massive-headquarters-expansion.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tech center</a>&nbsp;in San Antonio.



Meta has also hinted at working with its long-time e-commerce partner&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/meta/status/1454167184834502661?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shopify</a>, saying it “couldn’t wait to explore” the possibilities of selling “physical and digital products” with the company in the metaverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tanegnt">TANEGNT</h2>



Microsoft has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;it would create their own digital virtual universe called “<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft Mesh</a>” — a direct competition to Facebook’s metaverse — and it would introduce new features to Microsoft Teams like 3D avatars and virtual meeting rooms as a part of its digital offerings.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Facebook’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=9d1834c7f833">name change</a>&nbsp;and new announcements come as the company faces scrutiny for internal documents that were released by whistleblower Francis Haugen, who alleged the company allowed misinformation to spread on its platform and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/09/29/facebook-publishes-criticized-instagram-research-into-teen-health-ahead-of-congressional-testimony/?sh=797e48a8310e">ignored research</a>&nbsp;that its apps were harmful to teen mental health, which Zuckerberg has denied. In an effort to distance itself from the allegations, the company rebranded and announced a slew of new features coming to its platforms, including the building of its metaverse. Zuckerberg said they had high hopes for it, with a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">goal</a>&nbsp;of reaching a billion people and hosting “hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-out-for">WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR</h2>



At Facebook’s annual Connect conference, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=9d1834c7f833">details</a>&nbsp;into the digital world the company hopes to build, saying it would create virtual spaces for work and education, as well as virtual workout sessions. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">founder’s letter</a>&nbsp;released with the launch of the company’s new name Meta, Zuckerberg said people would be able to do “almost anything you can imagine” and that they want the metaverse to feel as if a person is “right there with another person or in another place.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=9d1834c7f833">Facebook Announces New Name: Meta</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/02/most-americans-still-like-facebook-poll-finds-but-not-mark-zuckerberg-or-its-new-meta-name/?sh=73fc2a941cbd">Most Americans Still Like Facebook, Poll Finds—But Not Mark Zuckerberg Or Its New Meta Name</a> (Forbes)



<meta charset="utf-8">By Kimberlee Speakman, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration a Nike logo seen displayed on a

Virtual Nikes: Shoe Giant Follows Facebook Into The Metaverse

TOPLINE Tech giants Apple and Amazon both came up short of expectations in quarterly earnings reports released after market close Thursday and warned of supply chain issues cutting into their bottom lines, causing Apple to fall 3.4% and Amazon to dip 3.6% in after-hours trading.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/10/apple-reports-fourth-quarter-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;revenue of $83.4 billion for the quarter ending September 25, a 29%year-over-year jump, though it was slightly below analyst&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/apple-aapl-q4-2021-earnings.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expectations</a>, while its earnings per share of $1.24 per share matched forecasts.



Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/apple-aapl-q4-2021-earnings.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC</a>&nbsp;that “supply constraints,” including chip shortages, cost the company $6 billion in revenue.



Amazon&nbsp;<a href="https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2021/q3/Q3-2021-Earnings-Release.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;$110.81 billion in revenue for the quarter, also below&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/amazon-amzn-earnings-q3-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forecasts</a>, while its $6.12 earnings per share were well short of the $8.92 expected by analysts.



Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2021/Amazon.com-Announces-Third-Quarter-Results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;that supply chain issues will cost the company “several billion dollars” in the current quarter, coinciding with the critical shopping season.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Jassy detailed problems Amazon expects to face in the fourth quarter in the earnings&nbsp;<a href="https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2021/q3/Q3-2021-Earnings-Release.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">release</a>: “We expect to incur several billion dollars of additional costs in our Consumer business as we manage through labor supply shortages, increased wage costs, global supply chain issues, and increased freight and shipping costs.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$38.87 billion. That’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/FY21_Q4_Consolidated_Financial_Statements.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">how much</a>&nbsp;in iPhone sales Apple brought in last quarter.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Amazon and Apple were not the only members of the FAANG stock group (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) making headlines Thursday—Facebook changed its name to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=1224f8677f83">Meta</a>&nbsp;Thursday to reflect its foray into augmented reality and virtual reality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/apple-aapl-q4-2021-earnings.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple sales miss expectations, Tim Cook says supply issues cost company $6 billion (CNBC)</a>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/28/amazon-amzn-earnings-q3-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon badly misses on earnings and revenue, gives disappointing fourth-quarter guidance (CNBC)</a>Follow me on <a href="https://www.twitter.com/derek_saul" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. Send me a secure <a href="https://www.forbes.com/tips/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">tip</a>. 



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/"></a>By Derek Saul, FORBES STAFF

Tag: Technology

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