TLDR 2020-05-04

Elon's meltdown 🐦, Youtube film festival 🎬, augmented reality cut & paste βœ‚οΈ

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Big Tech & Startups

Tesla has a new product: Autobidder, a step toward becoming an electric utility (4 minute read)

Autobidder is software from Tesla that provides companies with the ability to autonomously monetize battery assets. It features price, load, and generation forecasting, dispatch optimization, and smart bidding for energy systems. The software has been used to drive down energy prices where Tesla has deployed its Powerpacks. Tesla is looking to start introducing the software in the UK. A screenshot of Autobidder's UI is available in the article.

YouTube to Host Free Virtual Film Festival With 20 Partners Including Cannes, Tribeca, Sundance (3 minute read)

YouTube will host a digital film festival from May 29 to June 7 this year. It will be free-to-watch and ad-free. The event includes feature films, shorts, documentaries, music, comedy, and panel discussions from 20 top film festivals. Viewers will be asked to make donations for COVID-19 relief.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Stanford Pupper (Website)

Stanford Pupper is a robot designed to help students get involved with robotics research. It costs around $600-900 to build, depending on if you already own existing tools or parts, and it takes around four to 10 hours to build. A 10-minute video is available showing a demo of Pupper at the Stanford Robotics Club.

'Pandemic drones' could single people out in a crowd for coughing, sneezing, or running a temperature, developers say β€” here's how they work (1 minute read)

Canadian drone company Draganfly will work with the Australian Department of Defense and the University of South Australia to develop pandemic drones that will use sensors and computer vision to monitor people's temperature and heart rates. The drones will be able to detect people coughing in crowds. Images of the pandemic drones and the software are available in the article.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

AR Cut & Paste (Twitter Thread)

AR Cut & Paste is an AR+ML prototype that can cut elements from surroundings using a smartphone and then paste the element into Photoshop. A 43-second video demo is available that shows the software in action.

My First Year as a Freelance AI Engineer (12 minute read)

Most people aren't suited to being a freelancer due to the work environment, the high quality requirements, and the job uncertainty. It is possible to be paid well, especially in the right market. Most clients are found through networking. There is a lot of freedom with being a freelancer, but this requires being good at time management. It is a viable career path to be a freelance AI Engineer, as long as you understand the risks and requirements.
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Miscellaneous

Was Elon’s Tesla Twitter meltdown illegal? An investigation (8 minute read)

Elon Musk has tweeted a series of tweets, saying that he would sell almost all of his physical possessions and that Tesla's share price was too high, among other things. Tesla's share price dropped in response. Tweeting about Tesla's share price could potentially be securities fraud. For the tweet to be securities fraud, the SEC or plaintiff would have to prove that Musk profited from the drop in stock price. Due to previous rulings by the SEC, Musk must have a company lawyer pre-approve tweets about Tesla's financial health, sales, or delivery numbers, and Musk did not receive approval for this tweet. Government agencies have not taken any action yet.

Garden eels 'forgetting about humans' need people to video-chat (3 minute read)

Tokyo's Sumida Aquarium has been closed since March 1 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its garden eels have started to dive into sand whenever their keepers walk past, making it hard to check if they're healthy. This may be due to the eels starting to forget humans, so the aquarium is asking people from around the world to call in for a video chat with the eels. From May 3 to 5, people can call one of five tablets using Apple's FaceTime app to keep the eels company. Links to further details are available in the article.
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