Fri, 06/18/2021
Welcome to ‘Tech Roundup,’ where we highlight some of the most significant/thought-provoking news items from the world of tech, especially at the nexus of law and technology. We are particularly interested in foregrounding tech news that is happening in Nebraska, and our region more broadly. If you have a news item you would like to see in the Roundup, please email neil.rutledge@unl.edu.
Local/Regional
AgTech Insights: A Look Into Beef Industry Start-Ups
The Combine
- In this exploration of AgTech startups, The Combine looks at some of the innovators active in the industry, operating at various points across the supply chain.
- These include Resilient Biotics, which utilizes “big data analytics to design microbiome-based therapeutics and advanced screening methods for the prevention and precision treatment of deadly infectious diseases.”
- Another highlighted startup, FarmAfield “is an up-and-coming start-up that allows outside investors to invest in livestock. The company connects investors and producers, allowing an outside investor to buy a pen of feedlot cattle. Historically, agricultural investments like cattle have only been accessible to investors with significant capital, vast industry expertise, and direct connections to producers.”
Meet the latest members of NMotion’s Accelerator Studio—and their innovations
Silicon Prairie News
- Four burgeoning startups supported by Lincoln-based NMotion, a gener8tor program, made their debut recently at the virtual Prairie Roots Spring Show.
- The four startups include Bumper, a custodial investment program that empowers Gen Z teenagers to take an active role in their own investment decisions, WellCapped, a monthly subscription service that officers high quality, lace-front wigs driven by a “Rent the Runway” business model, AION Prosthetics, a body-powered prosthetics company that provides a “faster-to-market consumer product at a middle-market cost,” and Share My Change, a “digital fundraiser platform that generates donations everywhere nonprofit supporters shop.”
Nebraska Engineering students craft prosthetic for cat
Nebraska Today
- With the help of a 3D printer at Nebraska Innovation Studio, the Husker engineering students recently finished fabricating a prosthetic leg prototype for Olive, a young tabby cat missing the lower half of her left foreleg.
- The prosthetic was the culmination of joint capstone courses — Biological Systems Engineering 470 and BSEN 480 — that have seniors put to use, and put to the test, much of what they’ve learned in their previous three years.
Local Startup Spotlight
- Loco Omaha is a local food delivery platform that provides users with a way to “support local restaurants while paying much lower prices for food delivery.”
- It’s app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
National/International
One of Big Tech’s Biggest Critics Is Now Its Regulator
New York Times
- President Joe Biden named Lina Khan chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, according to people familiar with the matter, an unexpected move that puts one of the most prominent advocates of aggressive antitrust enforcement against U.S. technology giants in charge of the agency.
- As chairwoman, Khan will need a majority of the five-member agency to make enforcement decisions, but she will have significant control over the staff who conduct the agency’s competition and consumer-protection investigations.
- Her confirmation gives Democrats majority control of the commission for now.
Quantum weirdness helps design better accelerometers
The Economist
- These ultra-precise accelerometers rely on an ultra-precise laser, which “in effect, divide(s) atoms temporarily in two using a trick which takes advantage of the fact that all particles, however apparently substantial, are actually also waves.”
- The result is a device “which can detect the tiniest of forces - as tiny, for example, as the gravitational pull of a passing lorry.”
Biden Issues Executive Orders on Chinese Companies and Apps
Lawfare
- On June 3, President Biden signed an executive order prohibiting Americans from investing in 59 Chinese companies with alleged links to the Chinese military. This latest move marks a significant expansion of Trump-era restrictions on investments in firms with similar ties.
- On June 9, Biden issued an order revoking the Trump administration’s TikTok and WeChat bans, in favor of a broader regime requiring scrutiny of all “connected software applications” linked to foreign adversaries.
Chip shortage addressed by US-EU tech alliance
BBC
- The Trade and Technology Council (TTC) was unveiled following talks between European commissioner Margrethe Vestager and US President Joe Biden. The group will also seek to set common standards for new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
- Both sides are concerned by the rise of China as a technology superpower.
European Court Ruling Opens Door for Privacy Action Ramp-Up
Bloomberg Law
- Facebook Inc. and other companies subject to Europe’s data protection regime could face heightened privacy enforcement in the wake of a court ruling on regulatory oversight within the bloc.
- The Tuesday ruling from the European Union’s Court of Justice opened the door for other authorities besides a company’s lead regulator to pursue potential privacy violations in certain circumstances.
A firm founded by Bill Gates bets on a novel nuclear reactor
The Economist
- On June 2nd TerraPower, a company (Gates) founded in 2008, announced that it would build a demonstration of an exotic, high-tech nuclear power station in Wyoming.
- The Natrium reactor makes two big changes to the standard nuclear-power-plant design. It replaces the liquid water that normally courses through the core with hot, liquid sodium (natrium, in Latin). And instead of using the heat generated by the reactor to make electricity directly, it first employs it to heat a tank of molten salt that acts as a giant battery. The upshot, the firm hopes, will be a cheaper reactor that is better suited to power grids that will increasingly be dominated by intermittent sources of energy such as wind turbines and solar panels.
Alibaba Victim of Huge Data Leak as China Tightens Security
Bloomberg Law
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. was the victim of a months-long web-scraping operation by a marketing consultant that siphoned up sensitive data including usernames and phone numbers, according to a court case that wrapped in June.
- A central Chinese court ruled that an employee of a consultant that helps merchants on Alibaba’s Taobao online mall was guilty of dredging up more than a billion data items on Taobao users since 2019, using that to serve clients.
House Dems unveil bills to rein in Silicon Valley giants — opening rift among Republicans
Politico
- House Judiciary leaders unveiled their long-promised antitrust package Friday, introducing five bipartisan bills aimed at reining in or even breaking up some of the nation's largest, wealthiest tech companies.
- Collectively, the Democratic-led bills take aim at some of the tech empires' most lucrative operations, including Apple's App Store, Amazon's marketplace, Google's YouTube and Android, and Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Instagram. And perhaps most ominously for Silicon Valley, some Republican tech critics immediately announced their support.
Google agrees to advertising changes after €220M French antitrust fine
Politico
- Big Tech’s advertising technology business took another antitrust hit on Monday. France’s competition authority fined Google €220 million for abusing its dominant position in the online advertising market. The U.S. tech giant settled the case and agreed to make operational changes, the regulator said.
- “Google used its vertical integration to skew the process and win almost every time,” the competition authority’s chief, Isabelle de Silva, told reporters in Paris.
Nuclear energy: Fusion plant backed by Jeff Bezos to be built in UK
The Economist
- A company backed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos is set to build a large-scale nuclear fusion demonstration plant in Oxfordshire.
- It won't generate power, will be 70% the size of a commercial reactor, and aims to be operational by 2025.
What We Are Reading
Cody Stolle, Research Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, and 2020-2021 NGTC Faculty Fellow, highlighted this article describing the current legislative dynamics regarding automated vehicle development.
Rep. Bob Latta Reintroduces Self-Driving Vehicle Bill
Transport Topics
Cody offered this reflection:
“This brief article describes some of the legislative support being taken to encourage connected and automated vehicle development. We are still a long way from the full realization of this technology, and very challenging problems in artificial intelligence, road edge sensing, and vehicle guidance remain.”
Elsbeth Magilton, Executive Director of Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law and the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, highlighted the following hearing of the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
“Starships and Stripes Forever – An Examination of the FAA’s Role in the Future of Spaceflight”
Transportation Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
- The committee states that “The hearing will explore broadly the future of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry, its rapid growth and expansion into human spaceflight, and the role of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in overseeing and regulating the industry.”
Elsbeth had the following reaction:
“Currently the FAA has the dual mandate to both regulate and promote the growth of the commercial sector. This proposed legislation would end the promotional duties of the space office there, relying on NASA to promote the sector's growth.”
Tags: Tech Round-Up
