Posted in business, economics, space travel
Is this Mars thing really happening? SpaceX did its first test launch of Starship this spring, the rocket that it’s developing to send to Mars. But getting to Mars is still a long way off. So does SpaceX have the funding and business plan to pull it off?For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Tesla Inc has doubled discounts on some already made new Model 3 electric cars and offered discounts on the Model Y and others in its U.S. inventory to entice buyers amid economic uncertainty, rising competition and the upcoming redesign of its mainstay model.
In California, a Model 3 variant in inventory was priced at $42,060, a discount of $2,680 to the price of newly ordered cars, according to its website. That is double the $1,300 discount on Model 3 cars offered less than two weeks ago.
The moment is badly chosen, but with Elon Musk the unexpected is the rule.
The serial entrepreneur arrived in China on May 30, according to Reuters, whose journalists spotted his private jet at Beijing airport. This surprise visit by the CEO of electric vehicle producer Tesla, founder of SpaceX and owner of Twitter, comes at a time of renewed tensions between China and the U.S., which raise fears of a potential confrontation between the two leading world powers.
Musk and his empire symbolize, according to experts, the intricacy of the two largest world economies, which are interdependent. The U.S. and China are Tesla’s two biggest markets and the regions where the world leader in electric vehicles manufactures the vast majority of its cars.
JIUQUAN — China sent three astronauts to its Tiangong space station on Tuesday, putting a civilian into orbit for the first time as it pursues plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by the end of the decade.
The world’s second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its military-run space program in a push to catch up with the United States and Russia.
The Shenzhou-16 crew took off atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 9:31 am (0131 GMT), AFP journalists saw.
The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place—coal. A team of Penn State scientists found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas, much like batteries store energy for future use, addressing a major hurdle in developing a clean energy supply chain.
“We found that coal can be this geological hydrogen battery,” said Shimin Liu, associate professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State. “You could inject and store the hydrogen energy and have it there when you need to use it.”
Hydrogen is a clean burning fuel and shows promise for use in the most energy intensive sectors of our economy—transportation, electricity generation and manufacturing. But much work remains to build a hydrogen infrastructure and make it an affordable and reliable energy source, the scientists said.
It’s been a strange week. On the technological side, it has been exciting. Since there is the possibility that Apple announces its headset soon, all the companies are rushing to announce what they have in the pipeline before the big day. This means that these days we are going to have a lot of announcements. This and the next editions of the newsletter are going to be full of cool pieces of news.
On the work side, it has been busy, very busy. I’m also working on a cool tech prototype and I will share it with you very soon in the next few days on this blog. Be sure not to miss it! Next week I’ll also be at AWE. So the next 2–3 weeks are going to be crazy for me, so sorry if I will make the comments on the newsletter a bit shorter than usual.
On the personal side, I’m a bit devasted by the flood that happened in central Italy. My city has not been affected, I’m kinda distant from there (thanks to everyone that asked if I was ok), but seeing the images of what happened there tore my heart. In the Friends section of this newsletter, I will tell you how you can donate to the people affected by this terrible event if you want.
Posted in augmented reality, economics, robotics/AI
Believe it or not, one of the most important technology announcements of the past few months had nothing to do with artificial intelligence. While critics and boosters continue to stir and fret over the latest capabilities of ChatGPT, a largely unknown 60-person start-up, based out of Tel Aviv, quietly began demoing a product that might foretell an equally impactful economic disruption.
The company is named Sightful and their new offering is Spacetop: “the world’s first augmented reality laptop.” Spacetop consists of a standard computer keyboard tethered to pair of goggles, styled like an unusually chunky pair of sport sunglasses. When you put on the goggles, the Spacetop technology inserts multiple large virtual computer screens into your visual field, floating above the keyboard as if you were using a computer connected to large external monitors.
As oppose to virtual reality technology, which places you into an entirely artificial setting, Spacetop is an example of augmented reality (AR), which places virtual elements into the real world. The goggles are transparent: when you put them on at your table in Starbucks you still see the coffee shop all around you. The difference is now there are also virtual computer screens floating above your macchiato.
Tokyo can boast of political stability, a soaring stock market and potential victory over deflation, though longer-term challenges remain.
Posted in business, economics, government, policy, robotics/AI
Summary.
As businesses and governments race to make sense of the impacts of new, powerful AI systems, governments around the world are jostling to take the lead on regulation. Business leaders should be focused on who is likely to win this race, moreso than the questions of how or even when AI will be regulated. Whether Congress, the European Commission, China, or even U.S. states or courts take the lead will determine both the speed and trajectory of AI’s transformation of the global economy, potentially protecting some industries or limiting the ability of all companies to use the technology to interact directly with consumers.
Page-utils class= article-utils—vertical hide-for-print data-js-target= page-utils data-id= tag: blogs.harvardbusiness.org, 2007/03/31:999.357112 data-title= Who Is Going to Regulate AI? data-url=/2023/05/who-is-going-to-regulate-ai data-topic= Government policy and regulation data-authors= Blair Levin; Larry Downes data-content-type= Digital Article data-content-image=/resources/images/article_assets/2023/05/May23_28_5389503-383x215.jpg data-summary=
As the world reckons with the impact of powerful new AI systems, governments are jostling to lead the regulatory charge — and shape how this technology will grow.
TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) — Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Saturday called for the development and adoption of international technical standards for trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) as lawmakers of the rich countries focus on the new technology.
While the G7 leaders, meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, recognised that the approaches to achieving “the common vision and goal of trustworthy AI may vary”, they said in a statement that “the governance of the digital economy should continue to be updated in line with our shared democratic values”.
The agreement came after European Union, which is represented at the G7, inched closer this month to passing legislation to regulate AI technology, potentially the world’s first comprehensive AI law.
