FTI Consulting News Bytes – 6th January 2023

This week’s news

The weird and wonderful tech from CES

This week, the tech community descended on Las Vegas for CES, the annual showcase of the latest gadgets and gizmos. The BBC’s Zoe Kleinman described it as “a smorgasbord of clever ideas – and some completely bonkers ones.” Indeed, this year has seen myriad innovations from a $3,300 self-driving pram, a 10-second clean toothbrush and a robotic breathing pillow. Elsewhere, Sony trod on more familiar territory, unveiling its first line of electric autonomous cars in partnership with fellow Japanese company Honda. Meanwhile, the growth of health and fitness technology continues. Evie have launched a ring aimed at women that monitors heart and respiratory rate as well as period and ovulation tracking.

Making space for all astronauts

Before Christmas, the Daily Mail reported that AstroAccess, a project designed to drive inclusion in space, successfully conducted its first formal research flight with 14 disabled crew members from five different countries. The crew conducted a series of experiments that will inform the design of accessible space vehicles in the future including testing tactile graphics so blind astronauts can stay oriented, adapting American Sign Language for zero gravity, and demonstrating the ability of a person with reduced mobility to independently fasten themselves into a launch seat. AstroAccess’ mission is timely with the European Space Agency recently appointing its first disabled astronaut – former Paralympian John McFall.

Apple falls from the money tree

On this year’s first day of trading, Apple’s stock fell 3.7% – its lowest since June 2021 – pushing its market value to just below $2 trillion. This was in stark contrast to 2022’s first day of trading where Apple was the only company to reach a $3 trillion valuation – meaning it has lost a third of its value in one year. Bloomberg reported the slump is due to “concerns about iPhone supply in the important holiday quarter”, with investors losing faith in a reprieve from higher interest rates. Also on Tuesday, Tesla shares fell 12.2% as vehicle deliveries fell short of investor expectations.

In the bleak crypto winter

Just two months following the astonishing collapse of crypto exchange FTX, US regulators have issued their first ever joint warning to financial institutions about the risks associated with the cryptocurrency market, CNBC reported. In their statement, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the risks include “fraud and scams among crypto-asset sector participants” and “contagion risk within the crypto-asset sector resulting from interconnections among certain crypto-asset participants.”

Predicting this year’s tech trend

A new year brings with it a new set of predictions about the biggest developments in tech. This time last year, the metaverse seemed to be the mot du jour. This year, the big bet is on AI as the technology that will transform the way live, work and play. Although AI has been a trend in tech for some time now, the launch last year of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a language generation model, and Dall-E 2, an image generator, has focused minds on the true potential of AI. However, the Financial Times warned of the imperfections of generative AI which puts a particular responsibility on those developing these models “to consider how they may be abused”. FastCompany echoed these concerns suggesting “the lack of transparency” around generative AI and its “unintended consequences” may end up making headlines for the wrong reasons this year.

Top Tweets of the week

• Riddhi Kanetkar, healthtech reporter at Insider: Funding into healthtech startups fell by nearly 50% in 2022, to $13.5 billion. Despite the funding slowdown, investors are betting big on certain sub-sectors that they see long-term potential in. Here are the healthtech trends they’re eyeing.
• Zoe Kleinman, Tech Editor at BBC News: Dell has launched a keyboard with in-built Zoom controls (touch keys) – it’s always interesting to watch hardware adapt to digital trends. They have to be sure it’s not a fad!
• Lewis Goodall, Editor of Global and Presenter of The News Agents podcast: SCOOP: Letter from Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan to Rishi Sunak confirming her recommendation is that Channel 4 privatisation does NOT go ahead. Says there are “better ways to ensure C4’s sustainability.” Direct opposite of what the Johnson government said.

Number of week

5 – The number of years since the launch of the Matt Hancock App, which the MP announced would be discontinued this week. He directed followers instead to his TikTok account where he has 156,000 followers.

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