Hekate

Using AI in Managing Remote Workers

hekategroup — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 10:23:11 +0000

The shift to remote work due to the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic is still happening drastically thanks to advanced technologies. In the past, the two greatest threats posed by virtual work were the risk of loss of productivity and losing control over what remote workers are doing during working hours. However, these corporational intimidations are now weakened and, in the future, can be eliminated by using AI-enabled tools.

AI nowadays is more than just a Buzzword. It keeps evolving rapidly and has become an indispensable business-driven tool with which business problems of cost, profit, business insight, and sustainability can be improved. Although it is widely known that the main role of AI is to automate repetitive tasks and analyze business insight, workflow efficiency in the remote workplace also can be achieved. An increase in the adoption rate of digitalization and automation was shown in research done by McKinsey, in which 88% of executives in the financial and insurance industry and 76% that of in the information and technology field have reported a surge in automation and AI since the Covid-19. Notably, this phenomenon appeared frequently in those companies which caused a significant shift to remote work.

Let’s take a look at 4 opportunities that AI can benefit your company in managin remote workers.

1. Chatbots to simplify communications

In short, Chatbots are simplification versions of robots programmed to respond like humans. It is fed with data specified based on different business processes to generate human-like conversations with the user. Those data are usually representing the most common issues facing a business or the most prevailing requests coming from employees, which can be encoded for automating purposes. As the business grows, communication method changes, and requirements for a job become various; Chatbots will evolve to meet those standards as long as enough data are added into them. Hence, all the tedious processes, time-consuming administration works, or ordinary problems can be resolved shortly without supervision from a leader or manager. Some routine tasks that can be done automatically when employees are at home can be:

– Administrative tasks: e.g. schedule meetings, reserve conference rooms

– Human resources tasks: e.g resolve employee queries, conduct interactive onboarding

– Store specialized knowledge: e.g Return fixed correct answers for employee issues

– Project management tasks

2. Real-time data-driven tools to support decision making

As data is the heart of a company, data about employees also fall into this spectrum. AI-powered applications and software are capable of keeping employees’ status in a real-time manner, supporting managers, especially those who work in the Human Resources department, to monitor their team’s working conditions. And not only that, AI/ Machine Learning employs powerful algorithms that can store historical behavior by employees; as a result, helping the leaders draw optimal conclusions about employees’ performance, analyzing the whole working flow, detecting mistakes, and devising future plans to avoid the same issues occur. This AI’s impressive ability is extremely useful in the covid situation when an employee’s mental and physical health are uncertain and subjective to a distressed state. Having an AI-enable solution will then allow the company to follow up with the health conditions and quality of life of their workforce.

3. Support team collaboration

Many AI-based collaboration tools foster transparency among individuals. This means that even if a member misses a team meeting or a conference, he/she will be kept updated thanks to AI tools that capture all the relevant information for later use. The team productivity, therefore, will be accelerated, as a result saving time for more crucial duties.

4. Document and identify verification

In any business, handling countless documents is hardly a great experience. From employee applications to business documents, hundreds of them must be exchanged and verified every day. Figuring out a way to keep them organized and distributed quickly is a great challenge. AI-based digital assistant is now being pushed due to the wave of working from home as they can automatically scan the document quickly, validate the signatures, perform face recognition process, identify the owner instantaneously and keep their on-hands. When this verification process is automatic, all remote workers and company managers can exchange document-based information more efficiently.

6 Cybersecurity Solutions Your Company Must Know

hekategroup — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 10:04:43 +0000

At most companies today, cybersecurity threats and digital vulnerabilities are becoming prevalent as a significant number of companies’ assets are created, stored, and exchanged in digital form. Furthermore, given a complicated supply chain where each link of the chain contains various layers of stakeholders across nations, the process of secure information is one of the big challenges, and no entity can ignore it anymore, especially when cyber attackers are evolving to be more sophisticated. Seeking solutions for cybersecurity is one of the priorities of the company.

But before we come to the final answer for a digital security question, companies must identify the root causes or have a detailed checking from their own systems to understand the current and predict future challenges. There are 3 most common issues facing by companies that weaken their ability to keep their digitized assets safe, as pointed out by research from McKinsey. These include:

Employees’ failure to perform good data-hygiene practices as they still fall prey to simple errors such as clicking on innocent-seeming emails, downloading sensible-looking attachments, or disclosing their private information on fraudulent websites.
Companies have been negligent in being proactive toward online security by abandoning their system for perimeter and encryption defenses such as firewalls. Raising the fence and leave it there is not enough in this digital world.
IT departments are being exploited but provided with a limit of advanced resources. Besides the job of supporting IT solutions for the entire business, the IT department must prevent and detect illegal outsiders fearlessly and has a good understanding of which company’s assets are the most critical.

After re-evaluating the company’s system and practices, there are 6 solutions and practices your company can proceed to adopt.

1. be proactive to what is happening around your system (do not wait for them to come)

Although most business is already implementing firewall as a bar gate between the internet and its computer, one or two layers are now still not enough to protect data from sophisticated intruders. Therefore, employees in a company must actively examine everywhere (software or system) to pinpoint cyber risks and network vulnerabilities before they occur.

2. Build Data-driven cybersecurity tools in a real-time manner

Currently, this practice requires more advanced data-driven tools to detect cyber-attacks in advance. Artificial Intelligence is worth considering in this case. More specifically, an AI and ML ( machine leanrning) will be deployed to analyze threat and incident, test software, anticipate threats, perform security architecture, automatically respond to security incidents, and annalyze and visualize cybersecturity data.

3. Develop decoys to lure attackers

Decoy for servers and systems, a.k.a deceptions, are set up to silently allure and attract unauthorized users by distributing numerous system vulnerabilities traps; as a result, gaining a better understanding of the attacker’s identity, motives, purposes, the method used. By doing this, the IT security teams can enrich their threat intelligence with more focused data and plan for future plan.

4. Deploy ring architectures to store sensitive data

Ring architectures is a ring network in which each node of that network connects to exactly the other two nodes forming a circle-like form of network. This network allows organizations to store data in different layers based on the importance and sensitivity of the asset. As each layer contain its own specific key and authorization protocol to access, the act of penetrating one layer will trigger the alarm and notify your business about the attacker threats.

5. Adopt private cloud and/or secure the transition within the public cloud

Going with public, private, or hybrid cloud services will depend on your business’ purpose. A private cloud service offers you a customizable virtual place, which means you can build the exact IT specification based on your team’s expectations. Furthermore, you have more control and protection toward your resources and data access. In contrast, if you choose to go with a private Cloud, there are some shortfalls subjective to cyberattacks as your vendor might grant physical site access to other tenants, or access can be granted from anywhere. Having said that, the public Cloud is still an excellent choice for most companies, and more and more workloads are publicized on the public cloud platforms. If the latter choice is your final decision, there are 4 ways to enhance the transition security within the public clouds that you might consider:

Developing a cloud-centric cybersecurity model in which businesses must come to an agreement on how to manage perimeter in the Cloud and how much you should re-architect applications.
Re-designing the full set of cybersecurity controls for the public cloud.
Be clear and specific about internal responsibilities for cybersecurity.
Applying DevOps to cybersecurity to create highly automated security service available to the developers via APIs.

6. Perform security assessments within the workplace frequently

Security assessments are the examination to analyze the current state of an organization’s cyber security performance. It includes building and enhancing the employee’s awareness and practices of cybersecurity policy and testing the security control compliance with the industry-accepted standards.

Building Trust in a Virtual Working Environment

hekategroup — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:51:32 +0000

Attending an online discussion is no longer a new thing in this advanced technological world; in fact, online interaction is seen as a preferable means of building, gaining, and sharing knowledge between different groups of individuals. Due to the fact that all physical distractors, including facial expression, tone of voice, and body language, are off the table when exchanging the information online, we have less clue to judge other people’s intentions and behaviors toward what we are sharing and to assess whether our idea meets their expectations. Building trust in the virtual workplace, therefore, becomes hard to nurture in a virtual world.

This issue poses a significant risk when it comes to working virtually, where trust is a key foundation of a successful business. More specifically, all leaders expect their team members to follow a rule, exert commitment toward their tasks, be intentional about communication, while employees wish to have their voice heard, to not be exploited with long hours of work when working from home, two parts of a corporation can’t function well, resulting in poor performance in very departments as all departments are interdependent.

A report’s result posted in Harvard Business Review called ‘The Neuroscience of Trust’ pointed out that in a high-trust company, employees were seen to have 50% higher in productivity, 76% more engagement, 74% less stress, 40% less burnout, and 29% more life satisfaction. In a remote world, there is obviously more room for misjudgment, misunderstanding, or confusion among laborers and managers.

Even though figuring out which components to look at when building trust through communicating, assigning tasks, and maintaining it in a virtual environment is a great challenge, there are 3 ways to reproduce effective virtual teams as an in-person collaboration would do.

1. Start with clarity and commitment toward promises, goals, and expectation

Promoting discipline within your virtual workplace in the first place is paramount important for achieving a following peaceful working environment. At the first point of commencing a working from home event, companies must agree on the team on what metrics and KPIs should be used to measure their performance, what roles and responsibilities an individual should provide, and which process will be deployed to each type of business. Importantly, to avoid any later conflict, managers must appear as role models; for example, if you want your employee to be on time for a meeting, you have to work on that too. Don’t let your employee second-guess the company’s credibility.

2. Deploy technology for trust fostering

Technology plays a big role in generating a credible and secure place for employees to connect and establish trust. Some applications companies can consider would be Slack– an application that provides interactive channels allowing employees to organize their conversation, a great idea to keep other employees updated if they’re off-site, Trello – a project management software where the manager or leader of a project can issue tasks and set deadlines for each team members and notably, it is visible to any in a team.

Another advanced solution worth trying is investing in AI technologies that offer collaboration tools, Chatbots, Business intelligence platforms, and cloud-based software.

3. be widely open to re-direct business toward flexibility and innovation

In the time of Covid, not everybody is easily flexible with fixed working hours. For example, some employees might have kids staying at home all day, some might have to deal with terrible background noise, or other rights have worse health conditions. These issues arise on a case-by-case basis, which requires companies to provide adjustable policies and listen to their workers with empathy. If companies are able to welcome their employees to speak their minds and dictate how they can get their work done perfectly, not only can the employee be motivated, but trust also naturally comes into your workplace.

How To Retain Gen Z in The Workplace

hekategroup — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 06:56:43 +0000

Gen Z is a term for a generation born from 1996 to 2010, a large chunk of individuals who are currently a student or just entering the workforce. Given the prospects that a great demographic shift from Generation X, Baby Boomers, and even Generation Y to Gen Z is becoming more prevalent, employers need to ensure they correctly understand this fresh young source of the workforce in order to devise a suitable plan for attracting, recruiting, training, and maintaining an excellent gen Z in the workplace.

Before heading to the solutions for retaining them at work, there are 6 essential characteristics of a gen-Zer that employers need to be aware of before planning strategies for retaining a gen-Zer

1. Gen Z are genuinely Tech-savvy

As a generation that witnessed most of the tremendous technological outbreaks, passively emerged themselves in the rise of social networking and always being wired connected (now wifi connected), they become a hypercognitive generation in terms of using the internet for learning, collecting information, and sharing it to the world. Therefore, integrating virtual and online experiences becomes their preferred means of communication.

2. Searching for the truth is their core behaviour

Being born during numerous historical events such as the great 2008 recession, the normalization of gay marriage, the rise of social networking, climate change, and corporate social responsibility, all these issues shaped a new expectation for their purpose in life. In fact, Gen Z is highly analytical and realistic when it comes to making decisions. 65% of Gen Zers in a research conducted by McKinsey showed that they particularly valued the state of having control over what happens around them and were eager to search for the truth.

3. Gen Z acutely prioritize personal privacy

According to a survey done by PWC in terms of assessing the degree toward how different each generation is regarding the trading-off liberties for employment, Gen Z, in this case, is shown to be the least generation to be comfortable giving access to their personal data. Instead, they prefer to have their data sharing when it adds value to their lives and can publically condemn the reveal of their data for predatory practices of big tech companies.

4. They expect diversity in the workplace

With a core behavior of seeking the truth, Gen Zers are fully welcome and encourage diversity in gender and race. In other words, any inequality based on those topics and sexual orientation will be brought to discussion straightly, and even worse, create a big conflict in the workplace.

5. work-life balance and well-being are always on top priorities

Being in the era full of the mental health crises where more than 9 in 10 Gen Z adults reported suffering at least one physical or emotional issue due to stress. And the rates of depression are approximately 2/3 higher than millennials. These problems lead to a well-developed awareness of their mental health protection when they enter the workforce.

6. They require job security

Experiencing various momentous events through their youth makes them keen on having a job that can guarantee a stable life. Managers can see them in the hardest-working group of young people in a decade or even two if they can prove the security and nurturance during the work.

Here are 6 ways for an employer to motivate and retain Gen Z-ers in the workplace:

1. Promote personal communication and feedback

It is advisable to provide them with interpersonal feedback on their job in a real-time manner. This will foster bonds between them and the manager and keep their head updated with what is happening around them, their performance, and which parts need to be reviewed and eventually motivate them to work and enhance productivity.

2. Cultivate the workplace culture

As they value personal identity, they also wish to be involved in a company that has a unique culture, fosters collaboration, and strives for innovation. The ability to build a balanced culture between individuals in a company is a method to show that your company cares for equality in the relationship between peers.

3. Encourage diversity

Having policies supporting gender equality and opposing racism will be the first positive impression for a company when attracting this young workforce. A company nurturing social and connection needs ethnically makes them feel comfortable and safe to work in.

4. embrace advanced technology

A research study from Dell Inc., 80% of Gen-Z strives to work with cutting-edge technology. They aspire to work for innovation where all tedious, repetitive tasks are automated, creating room for personal creation. Gen Z-ers also believe that technology is a key to transforming the ordinary way of future work and life, especially in this physical blockage due to Covid-19.

5. offer opportunities for training and career development

Training is more than a tool for productivity. In fact, this approach is proved to be an effective employee retention method. Gen Zers do not want their career becomes stagnant. They are eager to see the growth in their career and whether it is worth putting their effort into it. A company that can provide a clear map for their advancement will win Gen Z-ers’ hearts in an interview and turn them into hard-working employees in the future.

Manage Human Resources in The New Normal – Essential Guides

hekategroup — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 01:37:22 +0000

With the settling down of social distancing and the beginning of the reopening of facilities and services, all businesses face another unique circumstance. The reopening of business requires a lot of human resources; people almost have to return to the workplace. This return to work creates challenges for both the company and its employees. Most companies will face backlogs and increased workloads after the covid 19 crisis. Using “pre-covid” mindset in the new normal, all managers deal with this situation with very tough regulations and deadlines. Therefore, innovating and thinking differently is necessary to find an appropriate answer for the post-covid circumstances.

There are 4 challenges in managing the workforce facing the managers, especially people in Human Resources Management, when their roles will be fundamentally changed to adapt to the new normal phenomenon.

There is not enough workforce for the upcoming workload.

Due to increased workload and the employee absences related to covid 19, which cannot be predicted, there are not enough staff to perform all required duties. Therefore, employees may be unexpectedly absent from essential positions. Potential solutions will aim to have enough staff to handle all requests and provide uninterrupted service.

Eliminate health risks in the workplace

The Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in damaging health effects on the workforce. One of the most significant challenges is figuring out ways to monitor and maintain proper protocols to ensure staff are always safe and deliver their best performance.

Losing motivation and increase in employees’ anxiety and depression

During the weeks or months of unscheduled remote work and special working conditions, many employees have experienced varying degrees of stress and anxiety. Some of them are now afraid of going to work; another is afraid of the increased workload. Many employees are affected by irresponsible attitudes or lack of direct communication, causing disorientation and low morale. Without timely support, one may be at risk of losing their job for underperfomance. The goal achieved by potential solutions is to ensure employees’ health both physically and mentally, thereby improving working capacity.

Managing remote workers in day-to-day operations

The hybrid working model is becoming a norm in the workplace. Some people prefer to continue working from home and demand to get it normalized. It almost comes from the desire to have a better work-life balance, to be more productive, or the fact that they are located far from work. Forcing them to return to the office is hardly a sustainable choice.

Now, let’s take a look at various ways to managing human resources according to the 4 big questions generated from the abovemented issues.

1. How to deal with increased workload due to unresolved tasks and new priorities

Encourage the employee to work overtime of their own free will with incentives such as having a financial reward.
Promote flexible working hours, in which employees allow to choose which is the best time window for them to get their work done based on the types of job. This can also be done by postponing the summer holiday and moving it to the winter. Using annual working hours is another choice where each employee must work a fixed number of hours during the year; working hours can fluctuate from week to week.
Request help from other departments whose job is less affected or less aggregated due to Covid 19. This means we re-locate routine and easy tasks to units with less workload.
Using short-term contracts for hiring project-based employees.
Optimize the workflow. To ensure key functions and services are maintained, you can hold daily early morning meetings to reallocate staff according to the situation of the day. Reassign roles and responsibilities according to the priority of each employee at the company.
Consider a special and temporary allowance for car/motorcycle use, to encourage employees to come to the office if they are concerned about using public transport.

2. How to ensure employees' safety within the company

Establish stringent cleaning and sanitation protocols for all rooms and facilities within the company.
Monitoring and maintaining proper social distancing guidelines.
Devise a contingency plan for another spike in Covid 19.
Revise travel policies.
Deploy AI advanced technology to promote collaboration within the company while maintaining social distancing protocol and tracking and keeping updated with each employee’s health condition, and detecting suspect health risks and improper behavior in advance.

3. How to support employees' mental health

Train managers and supervisors to pay attention to employee motivation and give feedback and full recognition of the work they are assigned. And encourage employees to participate in training and career development.
Provide health training for employees to reduce the risk of stress and burnout.
Listen to employees’ needs and concerns and provide support where possible.
Set clear goals and stick to the results.
Allow employees to have their work habits to distribute workload better and avoid fatigue.
Reassign stressed employees to new roles to reduce the employee turnover rate.
Be empathetic and provide personal feedback with the right message for your employees.
Personalize reward. Develop a new incentive scheme such as new benefits packages based on personal performance or based on their needs and preferences.

4. How to manage a large chunk of employees working from home

Come to an agreement clearly about specific KPIs, productivity standards, expectations from managers and employees, promises, and commitment.
Review performance weekly and consistently.
Be organized and flexible to the working hours due to difficulty in terms of indispensable personal problems of the individual.
Using AI-enabled data-driven tools to track employees’ progress, monitor costs and workforce performance, reduce less valuable tasks, provide an optimal virtual environment for them to innovate, and facilitate real-time collaboration between each team member.

Hekate X PATH: Boost a strong sense of pride in LGBT+ community

vivo — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 01:43:06 +0000

We believe that everyone has the right to express and protect themselves online, which is why we want to strengthen the interaction between the LGBT community and relevant governments. An organization called PATH with the projects “Rainbow Village” and “Sexy girl” is a typical example. “Rainbow Village” and “Sexy Girl” are initiatives of Healthy Markets project, planned and developed by PATH. The project is funded by the US Agency for International Development and the US President’s Emergency Relief Fund for HIV/AIDS. Together with public and private partners, and community groups, the project creates a modern market for HIV prevention goods and services in Vietnam.

Vietnamese LGBT community is at high risk of HIV infection. In urban areas, HIV infection rate due to making love among gay men and among transgender women is estimated at 18 percent. There are more than 250,000 people living with HIV in the country, but only nearly half are receiving treatment while an estimated one-third are unaware that they have HIV. According to a study by the United Nations, almost 130 million condoms were sold in Vietnam in 2014, but about a quarter of these was of poor quality.

That’s why the chatbot projects “Rainbow Village”, “Sexy Girl” and the collaboration between Hekate and PATH was introduced. For now, when getting access to these 2 pages, visitors can send chatbots HIV-related questions and receive expert advice such as information about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) wherever and whenever. If more detailed information is required, visitors are automatically directed to one of the trained admins. Since its implementation in late 2018, the chatbot has sent out more than 9,300 responses to 1,162 users between October 2018 and September 2019.

“Rainbow Village”, “Sexy Girl” chatbots are built on the most basic chatbot platform so that they are friendly to users. These chatbots interact with users through a set of predefined questions and keep responding until answers satisfy users. In addition, the chatbot can ask users to make choices from a predefined list or menu so that it can have a deeper understanding of what the customer is looking for.

Individuals from the LGBT+ community should feel safe and accepted wherever they are, both in the real world and online. That is why Hekate continues to conduct research and develop more artificial intelligence solutions to improve the lives of this community. We hope to be able to accompany them in voicing their opinions about human rights because we believe that everyone deserves to be protected and loved.

Let’s join Hekate to take artificial intelligence further

vivo — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 04:16:31 +0000

In line with Hekate’s talent attraction efforts, we have established an official assessment structure to evaluate new projects, products, and deals. Thoughtful decisions require careful and nuanced consideration of how the AI principles (aimed at the highest level to allow flexibility as technology and circumstances evolve) should be applied, how to balance when principles confront and how to minimize the risk to a situation.

The assessment structure consists of three core pillars:

An innovation team is responsible for handling day-to-day operations and initial assessments. This team includes user researchers, social scientists, ethologists, human rights experts, privacy and policy advisors, and legal professionals on a full-time and part-time basis, allowing diversity of perspectives and fields.
A group of senior experts from many fields, being technology partners who provide expertise in technology, functionality, and applications.
A board of senior executives to handle the most complex and challenging issues, including decisions that affect multiple products and technologies.

AI applications we will not pursue

Apart from above applications, we will not design or implement AI in the following cases:

Technology that causes or is likely to cause overall harm. In the event of severe harm is likely to occur, we will proceed only when we believe the overall benefits outweigh the drawbacks and will incorporate appropriate safety measures.
Weapons or other technologies whose primary purpose or operation is to cause or directly injure a person.
Technologies that collect or use the information to monitor internationally unaccepted standards.
Technology whose purpose goes against generally accepted principles of international law and human rights.

Long-term Artificial Intelligence Development Plan

While this is how we chose to approach AI, we understand that more voices are required during this evolution. As AI technology goes further, we will work with a range of stakeholders to foster leadership in the industry, based on scientifically rigorous and multidisciplinary approaches. And we’ll continue to share what we’ve learned to improve AI technologies and practices.

Until now, the variety in the scope of artificial intelligence applications is considered to be helping us build a framework to extend this process across Hekate products and technologies. This framework will include the establishment of an external advisory group, consisting of experts from various fields, to complement the internal management and processes outlined above. We are committed to take thoughtful consideration of these important issues and appreciate the contribution of many groups to the assessment of projects and the evolution of our technological approaches.

We believe, with the mission of “bringing the benefits of artificial intelligence to everyone”, we will bring AI into all walks of life in the most natural and useful way, helping to improve everyone’s life.

Money-Making Effective Ways On Non-Fungible Token

vivo — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 06:53:16 +0000

These days, we all see the widespread popularity of NFTs on the internet and everyone has shown interest in them. Creators and investors have produced incredible numbers that have changed their lives forever. Earlier this year, for example, Beeple’s $69.3 million sale of NFT broke down barriers on the internet and changed the way the world views these digital collectibles.

Recent statistics show that the popularity of NFT is growing rapidly. Typically, in 2020, the total sale value of NFTs was $250 million, while the first quarter of 2021 witnessed a total selling value of NFTs at $2 billion.

If you are interested in NFTs but do not understand how NFTs make money, Hekate is here to help you take advantage of this currency!

Digital Artwork

When it comes to absolute profitability generation, individual NFT artworks are by far the most valuable NFTs ever created.

On March 11, the history of blockchain technology and the history of art changed forever when Christie’s, one of the world’s most famous auctioneers, sold an NFT artwork for 69 million dollars. It was the first time Christie’s auctioned an entirely digital artwork.

The piece titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” was created by a digital artist named Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple. NFTs are not a single work of art but a collage of 5000 coded images that Beeple has created on a daily basis over the years.

While some are expressing concern that the sale of a digital painting for millions of dollars could be just a front for money laundering, others believe that NFTs are a real revolution in the art world. The record price set by Beeple’s NFT could soon be surpassed. Beeple was, until recently, a completely unknown artist. If someone like Banksy were the person who auctioned off this piece of NFT art, the price would likely have been much higher than $69 million.

Licensed collections

Encrypting collections is one of the most appropriate applications of NFT, and it is likely the most obvious way to handle collections. Those who have participated in the business of tangible collectibles such as jewelry, memorabilia, trading cards, and other items now only have to trade like what they have done with digital assets. Given the NFT’s ability to prove unpopularity, the value of collectibles can be significantly higher than their physical counterparts.

The most popular collection by far is the sports card. Initially, the sports card project only allowed the trading of licensed player cards. Now, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has also launched a collection of NFT cards. It is more likely that other sports will follow and the collections will have more sports NFTs to buy.

This does not mean that other collections do not perform well. As discussed earlier, physical collectibles can be converted into digital assets and purchased, traded, or sold as such. While physical transactions and handling can damage collectibles, NFTs never lose their quality as they only exist in digital form and are securely stored on the blockchain.

Video Games NFT

NFT-based video games are likely to be the future of NFT technology. To date, no NFT-based game has become widely popular, but the potential for NFT to be applied to video games seems huge.

Gamers have been known as people who regularly spend money on virtual items in online games such as World of Warcraft’s gold, Call of Duty’s loot boxes, or Counter Strike’s skins — All of these markets are already worth billions. If any video game company decides to sell in-game items under NFTs form, such a decision will have an enormous impact on both the gaming ecosystem and the blockchain.

It should also be noted that NFT video game developers are among the most ambitious Non-Fungible Token creators, and NFT in-game items can accelerate the development of Non-Fungible Technology.

Compared to simple digital trading cards, or even to more interactive NFTs like virtual artworks, NFT in video games is by far the most advanced. The NFTs used in video games can be complex, fully interactive, and they can change over time, such as by being upgraded or leveled with the player’s character.

Investing in NFT Startups

The final way to directly make money with non-fungible tokens is through investing in startups. If there is one thing that helps NFTs prove that they are not a passing crypto trend, it is because they have many applications in different industries that can change the world. There are many promising NFT startups that are introducing great innovations in the crypto world. It would be impressive if you could invest in them as they take their first steps into a revolutionary future.

As the big fish continue to pour more money into the NFT, the NFT is sure to become more popular. Currently, playing games, trading collectibles, and creating NFTs may be accelerating the popularity of NFTs, but there are more ways you can make money through them. Just like any other investment, there are always some risks associated, so remember to do extensive research and a wise investment.

NFT technology has many unique applications and the full potential of NFT just starts to be discovered. It seems that the NFT craze only starts as more and more individuals and businesses decide to join the NFT ecosystem. The fact that the most popular NFTs currently are still simple images shows that the market is still undervalued – the real explosion in NFT popularity may not begin until NFTs show off the full potential of new technology.

Hekate: how have we brought AI benefits to everyone

vivo — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 05:03:52 +0000

Music composing, books writing, public administration voicebot, customer experience improvement -these are just a few examples of how researchers, engineers, and user experience specialists in Hekate turned the ideas in their partners’ imaginations into reality.

In 2020, Hekate focuses on conducting research, developing applications, and building new technologies that make the collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence much more effective, enjoyable, and equitable. One of our main objectives over the past years is to create user-friendly tools for visualizing machine learning (ML) datasets and training ML models (mathematical equations that represent steps the machine will complete to make a decision) on partner platforms. To simply put, this means that anyone with an internet connection can use our AI products.

AI’s assistance to compose music and write books

In July 2020, we officially cooperated with author Nguyen Phi Van to launch the book “Nym – My Future Self”. The book marked the first milestone that AI can self-compose books and music in Vietnam. We used machine learning, natural language processing as well as big data technologies to teach AI more than 3000 books including author Nguyen Phi Van’s books so that AI could have enough knowledge and skills to write the first paragraphs. The topics AI wrote were all the most discussed ones between GenZ and Sumi (an AI that was created and nurtured 4 years ago) at that time.

After AI finished writing the passage by itself, the author Nguyen Phi Van made some edits on the sentences and words to be more consistent and smoother for readers. We have to admit that the AI-generated passage was often filled with out-of-order paragraphs, or with oddities that were useless in accelerating the plot, serving the story, or assisting in any way. Although AI can excel in imitating authors or users on a low-level basis (for example, a few sentences at a time), it still fails to create a larger structure that gives a sense of satisfaction for the author himself and users (like a completed work of art).

Instead of feeling afraid that one day AI will replace authors and composers, Hekate looks at the problem from a very different perspective. We hope artificial intelligence will motivate authors in positive ways when AI becomes a partner or tool to boost their own creativity. AI can suggest interesting ideas, help us behave more flexibly and creatively.

Voicebot in public administration

Upgraded based on chatbot platform with the sponsorship of the United Nations Development Program in Vietnam, approved by the City People’s Committee to receive aids at Decision No. 5479/QD-UBND on November 19, 2018, Hekate’s Voicebot application makes it easy for users to search for information by voice. Using voice-to-text and word-to-speech technology, citizens can interact, receive requests, or access information related to public services such as administrative procedures, and other public information such as results of handling administrative documents; bus routes, information on vehicles violating traffic fines, information on vaccination facilities, clinics, pharmacies; food hygiene and safety standards-met businesses or restaurants; event calendars, weather, tourist attractions, tourist vehicle operating permits, public toilets and so on. In addition, the voicebot can receive requests and guide people to making appointments for medical examination, treatments, vaccination, administrative procedures without the presence of the switchboard staff.

This application in public administration has completed our mission that everyone can access artificial intelligence in the easiest way and just with voice, users can control their lives in a much more convenient way. Thanks to innovations in artificial intelligence technology, chatbot 1022 was honored to enter the final round of GO SMART AWARD in 2020 and Da Nang was also ranked the top in online public service integration on the national public service portal.

AI integration on various platforms

In the past, we simply used Facebook-based AI technology to create chatbots for customer support. However, in 2020, we have integrated and expanded artificial intelligence applications on many platforms such as Zalo, Telegram, Line, Skype, and Slack to serve more purposes such as Marketing, task management, and recruitment.

Expanding AI applications on a variety of platforms has really marked a huge turning point for Hekate in meeting more business needs, solving many pressing problems in society, and bringing more benefits of artificial intelligence to everyone.

2020 is a special year when everyone’s activities seem to come to a halt due to the pandemic but at Hekate, we have never stopped developing new technologies, discovering new problems, and creating the best artificial intelligence solutions for communities and businesses not only in Vietnam but also in the global market to step by step become a leading artificial intelligence application company in the world.

The critical role of NFTs in the creative and digital economy

vivo — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 04:18:52 +0000

On March 11, 2021, a piece of art was sold for a record of $69 million in a Christie’s auction. Interestingly, this work is not a tangible artwork by famous contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons but is a digital work, an NFT created by Mike Winkelmann, also called Beeple. This proves that NFTs is playing an increasingly important role in the global creative economy.

However, rampant copyright Infringement rampant has challenged the art market for centuries. But it’s optimistic that piracy is facing a strong competitor right now which is the creative economy — a conglomeration of people living in the digital world, those who produce all types of content. By monetizing creative content across a variety of channels, the community of payers can have access to creative, unique, and engaging media. And the reason why the creative economy is so appealing is that they provide a way to make money from the sale of digital content for content creators.

Changing the model from an attention economy (advertising provided by big companies like Facebook, Google …) to a creative economy has really helped creators, as well as ordinary people like us to take control of various online platforms to interact with their audience. Despite not being an entirely new concept, this model has greatly democratized the way content is created and shared, in order to decentralize different platforms. It also allows creators to build on their passion and gives audiences more autonomy in choosing what they really want to consume.

While there are a variety of platforms for showing off creativity, NFTs are now proving to be a tool of choice for both unknown and well-known artists. NFTs have the right format in the modern world and can keep pace with the ever-evolving creative context. NFTs are for all types of art, even including physical works. NFTs can be memes, priceless artwork, music albums or even cars, ownership of NFTs poker. Blockchain acts as a guarantor, allowing creators to focus on what they do best – creating, expressing personality, emotions, and producing works for audiences. The technology also prevents the loss of income due to piracy that discourages creators’ motivations and steals their legal earnings. The nature of NFTs is focused on ownership, the idea of making a particular item more valuable simply because it is owned. Based on the innate human perception that owning things is a value itself, NFT allows fans to associate this experience with value.

NFTs have become a popular trend since 2021, but thanks to the crazy interest surrounding them, the popularity of NFTs will continue to rise even further in the future. The creative economy is rapidly catching up with traditional media, as the number of mobile viewers surpassed 50% of total global traffic in Q3 2020, reaching 54% in Q1 2021 (*data source quoted from statin.com).

The role of NFTs makes a significant contribution to the growth of mobile audiences, as next-generation mobile systems implement the NFT mechanism. We now live in a world of collectible games and other apps that appeal to young audiences who prefer a high social standing, leading to their full effort to possess a unique item. As a result, creators and collectors are in a win-win situation where market dynamics are clearly illustrated.