For many years the traditional formula for service on the internet was, give us your data, and we will give you service for free. However as data is becoming more valuable, will this formula stay, or be replaced? Should we get paid for giving away data? Should our data be stored on more secure blockchains? As more people become aware of how valuable their information is to companies, and how easily it can be used and sold, people are beginning to wonder just how easily they should give over their information.

Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Spacemaker for $240 million net of cash. The acquisition will provide the San Rafael-based design and manufacturing software maker with a powerful platform to drive modern, user-centric automation -- powered by artificial intelligence -- and accelerate outcome-based design capabilities for architects, according to the company. Based in Oslo, Norway, Spacemaker uses cloud-based AI and generative design to help architects, urban designers, and real estate developers make more informed early-stage design decisions faster and enables improved opportunities for sustainability from the start. By evaluating the best options from the outset, Spacemaker is said to help architects maximize their clients' long-term property investments. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close during Autodesk's fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, ending Jan. 31, 2021.

Siraj's latest video on explainable computer vision is still using people's material without credit. In this week's video, the slides from 1:40 to 6:00 [1] are lifted verbatim from a 2018 tutorial [2], except that Siraj removed the footer saying it was from the Fraunhofer institute on all but one slide. Maybe we should just ignore him at this point, but proper credit assignment really is the foundation of any discipline, and any plagiarism hurts it (even if he is being better about crediting others than before). I mean, COME ON MAN.

For many years the traditional formula for service on the internet was, give us your data, and we will give you service for free. However as data is becoming more valuable, will this formula stay, or be replaced? Should we get paid for giving away data? Should our data be stored on more secure blockchains? As more people become aware of how valuable their information is to companies, and how easily it can be used and sold, people are beginning to wonder just how easily they should give over their information.