Let’s Talk Tech #5: Open data, Privacy, AgTech

Let’s Talk Tech, the Orange newsletter for in-depth reporting on scientific innovations that will shape tomorrow’s world.

#OPENDATA – AI to create new opportunities for the development of open data

Datactivist cofounder Samuel Goëta believes that AI will boost access to public data. Not only will it transform unstructured data into a valuable resource that can be used to feed artificial intelligence systems, but AI is also offering more and more people the opportunity to make use of data. In particular, the availability of tools like GitHub Copilot have made it significantly easier to create new data services. For its part, French software company Opendatasoft provides a solution that enables users to submit questions to data, which automatically generates answers and visualizations.

#BRAIN – Progress in neurotechnology offers many benefits but also raises ethical concerns

Could neurotechnology devices soon be used to treat Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression and ADHD? Thanks to a growing market for innovation, advances in miniaturization, and the convergence of neuroscience with technologies like AI, ground-breaking neurotechnology applications for human health and wellbeing will be increasingly common in the coming decades. Researcher Laure Tabouy voices a number of concerns about these new tools, which could potentially be used to influence and manipulate people, and the major ethical issue of mental privacy and data protection for human thought. Watch the video interview.

#CUSTOMERSERVICE - Deep learning to assist call centre agents

An innovative solution developed by Orange uses a neural network to extract and evaluate key acoustic indicators in audio recordings of call centre conversations. Improving efficiency and customer experience, the new technology provides fast, accurate call analysis, while reducing costs, optimizing resources, and adhering to strict data privacy standards. Automatically monitoring and assessing thresholds for silence times, speech overlap, speaking turn and other language independent indicators, it can quickly appraise the quality of voice interaction and significantly reduce customer dissatisfaction.

#PRIVACY – A 100% privacy-preserving camera for IoT

A prototype camera developed at the University of Sydney could pave the way for a new generation of IoT devices that are unable to identify people. The new hardware, which is equipped with a modified lens scrambles visual information before it’s digitized, but nonetheless creates images that are sufficiently detailed to allow for the efficient functioning of machines like robot vacuum cleaners. Filtering out visual information that may be used to recognize owners or other individuals in lost or stolen data, cameras of this kind could enable manufacturers to offer fully operational IoT that guarantees unbreachable respect for privacy.

#AGTECH - Harnessing free electrons in soil to power IoT

In the United Kingdom, a University of Bath spin-off is developing a device that harnesses microbial energy in the soil to charge batteries in IoT devices and other equipment. Bactery, the company behind the innovative fuel cell which captures free electrons generated by micro-organisms, estimates that its current prototype can generate 0.2 watts per square metre for a duration of up to four years. The innovation could prove to be a gamechanger for farmers seeking sustainable solutions for the deployment of large numbers of sensors.