Michaela Jamelska or the upsurge of a tech & human rights expert: The virtual classes that take place nowadays in a boring Zoom environment will be replaced by a new world of immersive learning and entertainment,” says founders Jean Arnaud and Michaela Jamelska. “One of the problems with mass education today is a lack of personalization. For a student, entering into a NOVA classroom will be like stepping into Narnia from the comfort of their own space. The AI avatars will support students during their studies and real teachers will have expanded possibilities with digital tools that make each class a unique experience. Students will move through the 3D environments as avatars and interact with each other and their teachers, despite being miles away in real life. NOVA is full of endless possibilities with students being able to create a new world with the power of thought and their own creativity. Find additional information at Michaela Jamelska.

The reality of limited technology access for women is a real issue in 2023 says Michaela Jamelska: According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there are still 2.7 billion people who do not have a reliable internet connection, and women are disproportionately affected. The digital divide is a term used to describe the gap between those who have access to technology and those who do not. Unfortunately, this divide disproportionately affects women, particularly those living in low-income communities. This means that many women do not have access to the same resources and opportunities as their male counterparts. As surveyed globally, more than 58% of men have access to internet, compared to less than 48% of women. Many women, including those in Europe and North America, are unable to access services because they are either expensive or severely limited in rural or underserved areas. The difference is much starker in developing countries. In Africa, for example, only 34% of women have access to the internet, compared to 45% of men. The disparity is even wider in the Arab world, with 75% of men having a reliable internet connection and only 65% of women having the same. According to ITU data, only 19% of women in least developed countries used the Internet in 2020, compared to 86% in developed countries in 2019.

Michaela Jamelska regarding Ai and Gender Equality: So, while more women tend to enter computer science roles, their numbers radically drop over time because female workers lack support, face discrimination, or the glass ceiling phenomenon, which essentially makes them transfer into another field. To claim, we have concluded that the number of women entering the technology field is just not enough. While this is not to say that women who enter the engineering field must stay in it for 20 years, to optimize the numbers, we need to empower women who decide to change their careers later in life and grow their skills to receive new training in data science or computing to enter those fields in later years. Unfortunately, many fields act as some sort of elitist and exclusive human capital, refusing to bring in and train people, so that we can create a more polyvalent society. Therefore, efforts to improve current education should come from all sides: individuals, stakeholders, government, and the private sector as well. Finally, there is no doubt that there are AI algorithms that reinforce gender biases, but also ones that uncover them. However, AI itself is not one to blame. It is only mirroring issues of our society, and the fundamental work and improvements are still to be done among us, humans.

Michaela Jamelska on the innovative 5G trial to boost business : WECA obtained £3million of government funding to test how the region can handle with all the benefits of 5G technology. Its ultra-reliability and low latency is expected to increase the connectivity level and impact on the public sector to try new ways of delivering services and explore new commercial opportunities. Ports are fundamental to the global economy, transporting up to 90% of the world’s goods. Drones-based technology is quickly becoming a regular tool in the ports and logistics industry. Unmanned Life, with its software for autonomous robotics, is unlocking the full potential of drones in Ports and will improve safety, reduce costs, and enhance process efficiency, making UK ports a reference in the world. The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has secured over £3m from the Government to test how the country can seize the full benefits of 5G and help businesses harness the power of modern technology. WECA’s 5G Logistics project programme will develop 5G products and services to support operations at Bristol Port and Gravity Smart Campus and demonstrate a smart and dynamic port environment. The project will focus on security, traceability, and real-time tracking of goods within and across extendable virtual boundaries – and between public and private networks.

I read an opinion recently where someone said that being in a virtual world is just an illusion of identity, and our freedom is limited to what the corporation decides to do. Simply put, they are saying that our entire existence is cancellable, or in the hands of others, which conflicts with basic human rights ideology. While their opinion has some truth, we face risks in the real world, too—we are even ‘cancellable’ in a way if someone decides to attack and kill us in the street. While this may be an extreme and drastic comparison, it illustrates the idea that we can’t make assumptions about the limits of our freedoms in the virtual world. Certainly, our freedom in the online world has limits drawn from commercial interests, but our freedom has limitations in the real world as well, stemming from political interests, commercial interests, and so on. We don’t have full freedom in the real world; neither will we have it in the virtual world.

This past week our team has been everywhere at once from Down Under to Europe. We have been asked to attend high-profile events to showcase our technology, and this speaks to the value of our software, innovation and capacity to execute globally. We enable industries to be fully autonomous through our one of a kind AI for Autonomy-as-a-Service software Platform. It is the uniqueness of our technology that interests companies like Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, Accenture and Governments in the USA, EU, Singapore and South Korea amongst others to look to us for help with important sectors like 4G / 5G Telco-enabled services, Supply Chain / Logistics, Public Safety, Transport and Infrastructure. We are also focused on expanding in Asia, which is why in the past seven days we’ve had numerous business missions with strategic partners and customers and very high-level meetings in Singapore, Australia and with the South Korean Government, which are all vital to our continuing traction.

Michaela Jamelska on the future of Air Mobility in Europe: Building on the key learnings and results of the SESAR JU Gulf of Finland (GOF) U-space project, which successfully demonstrated the safe airspace integration of unmanned aerial vehicles in summer 2019, GOF 2.0 intends to safely, securely, and sustainably demonstrate operational validity of serving combined unmanned aerial systems (UAS), electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL), and manned operations in a unified, dense urban airspace using existing ATM and U-space services and systems.

So maybe Metaverse is not just the beginning of Web 3.0. Maybe it’s about doing better this time, starting with a tabula rasa, and proving that we are not subjects of our pre-determined human nature—that we as a society can learn from our current world’s faults and create a better one. Maybe Metaverse will be an existential and philosophical revival of who we are as humans, and the mistakes of today will vanish in the world of tomorrow if we only realize them and are willing to progress.