Dublin Tech Summit – Bots, Threats and Sex

By MelanieBoylan #Training #Business #Events | Consult, Manage | @Irish_TechNews Contributor | Networker | #womensinspire | #SMClinicIre | Go to #socialmedia #blogger | #Speaker

Day Two at Dublin Tech Summit

Rise of the Robots – 10:10-10:30 – Prism

A panel consisting of Ed Hoppit, Ben Jones and “George” RoboThespian and moderated by Gina London

This panel discussed how advancements in robotics has and will have an impact on jobs in the future.

“George” theorised that robots in the future will be more in public areas rather than in the home.  Over time the home is becoming “smarter” and more and more.  The need for humanoid robots is no longer deemed the future in his opinion.  The use of utility droids like R2-D2 is more realistic.  He speculated that the likelihood of having a Data android from Star Trek arriving in the next 10 years is not going to happen.  More a possibility in the next 50-100 years.

Ed implied that robots have infiltrated many areas of our lives without us even realising.  The example he gave was the self service checkout.  They state “There is something unexpected in the bagging area.  He also mentioned that people tend to personalise their cars which also is effectively a robot on wheels.  The challenge he said is people don’t spot the robots already in our lives as they have become an accepted part of our lifestyle.

Ben mentioned that the pre-programming of robots has an impact on the AI overall – robots don’t have a conscience – they are tasked to do the jobs that we don’t want to do.  The C3PO’s of tomorrow are not going to appear any time soon.

“Robots do what they are told to do….The scary thing about robots is not robots itself – it is what humans do with robots” RoboThespian

Protecting Your Organisation from IoT Threats – 10:30-11:00 – Prism

Rik Ferguson started the talk about when the “Internet of Things” was first referred to.  It was Nikola Tesla in 1926.  Even “wearable technology” dates back to 1955, yet it is only accepted as a modern concept.

“By next year there will be 3 billion connected devices in use in smart cities“. Rik suggests we are now entering the post-app era.  Not long ago we were 100% dominated by browsers and now its apps.  Now these are being sidelined and its “chatbots” that are the latest innovation.

He gave the example of people using tests on Facebook, we have all seen them in our newsfeed. You would answer certain questions after you had given permission for the app to access your profiles and friends details.  This app downloads all of your data to influence your bias in the newsfeed.  It tracks the type of things you like and share and keeps a record off of Facebook.

He highlighted the threats that are growing.  Notably “Ransomeware“.  Some people have cameras and microphones on our phones and laptops.  There may by unscrupulous people whilst you are out and about accessing these things.

Growth Hacking Secret Sauce: A Toolkit for You – 12:20-12:40pm – Prism

Ross Kingsland of Social Thunder explained that not all techniques we learn about growth hacking works for all of us.  His particular model is to understand how we influence people from the outset.

Subliminally we affect action from our audience by demonstrating the following:

1. Authority – We have a public platform
2. Social Proof – Lots of followers on social
3. Liking – Seen as charasmatic and helpful
4. Reciprocity – If you receive you feel compelled to return
5. Commitment and Consistency – Displaying these garbers greater trust
6. Scarcity – Making offers timed leaves your audience with FOMO

Ross suggested you need to understand the psychology of the people you are targeting.  Essentially you need to understand a factor of their decision making, which is very hard to measure.  Your metrics are a key to see just how successful your influence is with your chosen audience.

A PDF of his slides

Why the Next Big Thing in Tech is Disrupting Sex – 14:10-14:40pm – Prism

The title itself lended to a certain amount of controversy.   Cindy Gallop (along with others) has establish a new arm of tech known as “SexTech“.  She said that she was frustrated that sex was not discussed openly.  To this end Porn has for many years been the educator of our children when it comes to learning about sexual endeavours to the detriment of said relationships.

Nine years ago she set up a website called Make Love Not Porn.  She wanted to bridge porn sex and reality with her website.  The website is not anti-porn – its about bringing real sex to real people.

She wants to build a whole new category, not porn but social sex.  By this she wants to capture what happens in the real world without props and planning.  Society rave about how important authenticity is on social media and how effective it is to use to promote yourself.  If Facebook and Youtube allowed such a thing on their platforms, she feels her content is just as honest as anything that would be applauded on their platforms.

Final Review

Bringing these speakers to Dublin has definitely impressed upon the audience that authenticity can be engineered in many different ways.

By embracing Future Tech to making sex palatable in society, the overriding theme has been learning to read your customer and instead of just answering their questions you influence them.  Robots are and will be a part of our short and long term future.   They will only be seen in our life time as tools rather than humanoids.