Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 21

Student Caught Using AI, So His Parents Sued School. This is Why It Matters …

“Parents sue school after son gets punished for using AI on class project.” That’s the short summary of a story trending this week about Massachusetts-based Jennifer and Dale Harris who are suing their son’s school claiming the student handbook “failed to clarify when AI could be used appropriately.”

The story is a symbol of a confusing reality playing out in schools across the world. What’s the right way to use AI in classrooms and when (if at all) should it be banned? It also intersects...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: A Kids Book About Diwali by Chhavi Arya Bhargava

Diwali is for everyone. That’s the biggest perspective you’ll get from A Kids Book About Diwali … which isn’t really just for kids. Going far beyond the usual holiday stories, this book clearly outlines the cultural traditions behind this important holiday in an inclusive way that incorporates the various traditions of the many faiths that celebrate it — including Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists.

For anyone looking to understand the meaning behind the five days of Diwali, answer kids’ ques...

The Talking Pet Collar That Aims to Give Your Pet a Voice

It’s an idea right out of science fiction: a talking pet collar. And it’s here thanks to entrepreneur John McHale who almost lost his dog to a rattlesnake bite. This dog collar comes with the ability to select one of several preprogrammed voices and customize all sorts of settings for your pet. Some are quite over the top:

“You can select your pet’s values, like compassion, justice, and courage. There are settings for its religious beliefs, power of forgiveness, or thoughts on freedom, fate, ...

The Virtues of [Not] Playing It Safe

Can a song capture 50 years of one of the most iconic buildings in the world?

Tim Minchin is an Australian composer who was commissioned to answer this question last year as part of the 50-year anniversary celebration for the Sydney Opera House. He shared the story of how he did it on stage this week as part of the SXSW Sydney event.

The opera house is one of the most recognizable in the world, so ubiquitous that it’s simultaneously become a legendary performance venue and a cliché logo yo...

The Next Las Vegas Will Be in the Arabian Desert, But It’s a Secret.

“The first rule of casinos in the UAE: You do not talk about casinos in the UAE.”

Intrigued yet? This week an article from travel site Skift sorts through the rumors and follows the money in early investments to piece together an inside look at the emerging plans for creating a Las Vegas style gambling destination in the UAE. Despite the considerable cultural hurdles of a regulated alcohol industry and conservative governments, insiders believe these plans are gaining considerable momentum. T...

Adobe Helps Creators Protect Their Work with Digital Content Credentials

You would expect Adobe, a company that has millions of professional creators using their software tools every day to find ways to support that community. Their newly-announced Content Credentials feature is a way to add metadata specifically to images and video that can certify the rights of the creator. As the challenge of digital rights continues to get sorted out, this is exactly the kind of leadership the tech industry will need to take in order to solve a problem that technology has created...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: VIDEO: Three Things That Make My New Book Non-Obvious Thinking Different …

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About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:Every week I will be featuring a new “non-obvious” book selection worth sharing. Titles featured here may be new or from the backlist, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great books that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.

The First Profession to Be Replaced by Robots Could Be … Sports Referees?

In theory, a robotic referee would never miss a call, show bias or be bribed. It would make decisions instantly and eliminate the sometimes-agonizing wait involved in sports where video replay is used to review and sometimes change a call already made on the field. In other words, the data shows robots would make much better referees than humans. This isn’t just a futuristic idea either. Most line calls in tennis are already made by bots. The NFL, NBA and MLB have all been testing some versions ...

The Rewear Chair Makes It Easier to Avoid Washing Your Clothes

You probably have a chair like this. The one where you throw those clothes that aren’t quite laundry. They still have a few wears left. The more clothes you have like that, the more energy and water you are actually saving … so it’s probably a good thing to have them so you can avoid over washing your clothes. This week as part of Dutch Design Week, Uncommon Creative Studio is launching a campaign for eco-cleaning brand that includes presenting this take on the “laundry chair.” The arms are exte...

Are We Heading Toward a World Filled with Climate Abandonment Zones?

People are stubborn. We see it in nearly every disaster movie where the flood or fire or aliens are headed straight for a town and there are people who still refuse to leave. They stare down the impending doom and assume everything will still work out. Sometimes, in the movies and in real life, it does. When it doesn’t, this commonly held faith in our shared ability to survive tragedy takes a hit.

A growing body of research is showing that more people over the next few years may finally be gi...