Weekly News Digest #6

Join us as we bid farewell to one of the fathers of UI. Larry Tesler, the innovator behind “cut”, “copy” and “paste” passed away earlier this week. He was instrumental in making computers accessible to the general public, and we owe him much for that.

Tesler’s CV included Stanford, Xerox and Apple. His chief invention, cut and paste, is said to be based on the old editing technique of cutting portions of text and gluing them elsewhere. The feature debuted in Apple’s 1983 Lisa computer.

A week in retrospect…

Let’s start with AI.

Researchers from the ESPCI Paris and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology recently published a study which might explain why single-celled organism like viruses are so successful. The research shows that, under the right ecological conditions, groups of these organisms start behaving like a single one.

The computational models used to recreate said conditions can have a tremendous impact on AI research. By emulating the natural selection process, we could build rich neural networks that one day could rival even that of the human brain.

The Internet of (Wild) Things.

Both climate change and IoT are in everyone’s mouths these days. Not often in the same sentence, though.

We can’t recommend enough Charles McLellan’s piece on how IoT is helping organisations fight biodiversity loss and climate change. From camera-based anti-poaching systems, to listening networks that monitor for the sound of chainsaws, NGOs and charities are doing impressive things all over the world.

A truly refreshing perspective on the applications of emerging tech.

In mergers and acquisitions…

Google has acquired the Dutch company Cornerstone, which specializes in helping companies transition from on-premises to the public cloud. The move signals the push of big tech companies to deliver all-in-one cloud solutions and achieve market dominance.

Meanwhile, Dell is selling the cybersecurity leader RSA to a consortium of equity firms. The company said in a statement that the $2-billion deal will help simplify its business and product portfolio.