Meet Hikari, Podcast Guest Special, U.S. Tech Salaries, Tech News Shots

Happy Thursday!

Yes, it’s been a while since the last Futurizm newsletter landed in your inbox and we know you can’t wait to get stuck into this one (haha) and we have some pretty big news! So here we go:

COMING UP:

• Meet Hikari - Our human-centric, AI-powered recruitment platform

• The Podcast - Guest Special: Alfie Brown From Brushes With The Law To Working With The UN

• U.S. Software Engineer Salary Heatmap

• Tech News Shots

• Big Tech Dad Joke

MEET HIKARI - OUR HUMAN-CENTRIC, AI-POWERED RECRUITMENT PLATFORM

For the last year, Will Grady has been quietly working on the software wing of the business, Black Star AI, with co-founder, Lidia Pierre, to create something we believe will be a “game-changer” in the recruitment industry.

Meet “Hikari”

Our AI-powered recruitment platform was built by recruiters and engineers from Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Google.

Our mission? To fix the real, everyday pain points recruiters face. 

And guess what? 

We’re looking for testers to get in early with our Pilot and Beta Testing.

Here's how Hikari works:

• No More Resume Black Holes: Our AI rapidly filters and flags top candidates, so you can ditch the manual sifting and focus on the rockstars.

• Bye-bye, Bias: With ethical AI built-in, Hikari removes unconscious bias at every stage, helping you build a more diverse and talented team.

• Data-Driven Decisions: We don't rely on generic algorithms. Hikari is trained on a massive dataset of successful resumes and expert feedback. It knows what works in the real world, not just in theory.

• Real-Time Insights: Track candidate engagement and recruitment performance like a boss. (Because data is your superpower.)

• Personalised Communication: Our AI helps you craft personalised messages that keep candidates engaged and feeling valued. (No more generic templates!)

Ready to ditch the hiring headaches and level up your recruitment game?

Join our pre-release and be one of the first to experience the future of hiring.

Click here to book a demo.

PODCAST GUEST SPECIAL - ALFIE BROWN FROM BRUSHES WITH THE LAW TO WORKING WITH THE UN

The career of multi-media and strategy consultant Alfie Brown has been nothing if not colourful. From graduating with a degree in Economic History from Cambridge, run-ins with the law and smashing his boss’ prized golf trophies, “unemployable” Alfie’s gone on to set up his own 360 multi-media marketing firm with clients that include the UN, Bloomberg and The Independent. 

To hear more about Alfie’s unorthodox career path and his brutally honest approach to marketing and branding, download The Futurizm Podcast available on all major providers.

Anyone looking for a brand roast can contact Alfie here.

www.alfie-brown.com

U.S. SOFTWARE ENGINEER SALARY HEATMAP

We came across this interactive map in the TLDR newsletter and thought you might find it useful.

It depicts the average salary range for a software engineer by U.S. state. It also lists top-paying companies, compensation components and percentiles.

What are your thoughts? Is it accurate? Would you consider moving state for a better compensation package?

TECH NEWS SHOTS

While Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta dominated headlines recently after it fired staff for spending food vouchers on items like toothpaste and washing powder, here are some stories you may have missed:

APPLE TAKES DIM VIEW OF ITS OWN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has said that some of Apple’s employees believe the company’s AI is over two years behind its rivals Google, OpenAI and Meta.

According to sources within Apple, internal studies suggest that the ubiquitous ChatGPT is over 25% more accurate than Siri and can answer 30% more questions.

Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership back in June. Gurman’s article comes as Apple launches a slew of new AI-integrated tech this week.

SALES OF RAYBAN META GLASSES DAZZLE

Rayban’s Meta smart glasses are the top-selling product in around 60% of all Rayban stores in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, according to EssilorLuxottica CFO Stefano Grassi.

The impressive sales performance comes even though it hasn’t rolled out its full AI functionality in Europe owing to a lack of clarity from regulators.

The gadget allows users to livestream directly to Instagram and Facebook, give information on the item a user is looking at, take calls and listen to music.

NVIDIA COMPUTER SAILS PAST PRIME NUMBER RECORD

2^82,589,933 -1 has been knocked off the top spot as the largest known prime number by 2^136,279,841 -1! That’s a whopping 16 MILLION digits more! It’s calculated by multiplying two together 136,279,841 times, then subtracting one.

As we’re sure you’ll all remember from school maths, a prime number is only divisible by one and itself.

The calculation was made by researcher and former Nvidia employee Luke Durant, using a supercomputer with 1,000s of GPUs in 17 countries. It was part of GIMPS, or Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

They could have come up with a better acronym though….

ENIGMATIC NEW AI IMAGE GENERATOR TAKES TOP SPOT

An AI Image Generator, initially known only as Red Panda, has shot to the top of the rankings of the Artificial Image Analysis Arena.

For weeks, people were stumped as to who was behind the tech and what it was for.

We now know that Recraft V3 is the developer behind the tool and Red Panda is the name of its latest image generation model.

You can play around with the chart-topping software here.

INCEPTION BECOMES REALITY

Neurotechnology company REMspace claims that two people have successfully communicated with each other IN THEIR SLEEP!

The California-based start-up managed to induce lucid dreaming in two volunteers, who were then able to exchange a simple message through specially designed equipment.

Researchers hope the tech will have real-life applications in helping cure psychological problems and learning new skills.

BIG TECH DAD JOKE

Well that’s about all we have for this week’s newsletter and as you know we like to go out with a bang!

So, in keeping with the software engineer salary map above, here we go!

Why did the programmer quit his job?……

HE DIDN’T GET ARRAYS!

We hope you enjoyed this week’s Futurizm Newsletter, send any feedback to [email protected] and we’ll get back to you!

Have a great weekend!

Will Grady (Founder, Futurizm)