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Self-described mixed reality nerd, Brad Lynch, has tweeted out several interesting details about Apple’s yet-to-be announced VR/AR headset. He has managed to compile information from several sources — mostly reports produced by hardware analysts based in China. His summation of the leaked info states: “The Apple HMD’s Bill of Materials (BoM) cost to be about $1500–1600 (USD). This is about double the reported BoM for the (Meta) Quest Pro (which was 800 dollars including the controllers and charging pad).”

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The AI “arms race” commences. Silicon Valley is looking to capitalize on AI’s big moment, and every tech Goliath worth its salt is feverishly looking to churn out a new product to keep pace with ChatGPT’s 100 million users. Microsoft kicked things off nicely earlier this month with its integration of ChatGPT into Bing, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella proclaiming, “The race starts today.” The OG tech giant says it wants to use the chatbot to “empower people to unlock the joy of discovery,” whatever that means. Not to be outdone, Google announced that it would be launching its own AI search integration, dubbed “Bard” (Google’s tool already made a mistake upon launch, costing the company a stock slump). In China, meanwhile, the tech giants Alibaba (basically the Chinese version of Amazon) and Baidu (Chinese Google) recently announced that they would also be pursuing their own respective AI tools.

Do the people actually want an AI “revolution”? It’s not totally clear but whether they want it or not, it’s pretty clear that the tech industry is going to give it to them. The robots are coming. Prep accordingly!

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Tech startup Sanctuary AI has unveiled a general-purpose robot designed to perform many workplace tasks currently handled by people — working with humans or without them.

The challenge: Robots have worked alongside people for decades, and traditionally, they’ve been incredibly specialized — a bot on a General Motors’ assembly line, for example, might move pieces of metal from one place to another over and over again.

This has meant business owners would need to purchase multiple (usually expensive) robots if they wanted to automate multiple tasks.

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(NEXSTAR) – Large swathes of the U.S. could suffer blackouts this summer, according to the annual assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

The report, which forecasts how prepared the energy grids that power air conditioners, medical devices, lights and other vital resources are, found that roughly two thirds of the country are at an “elevated risk” of power loss.

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“Siri was very playful. And that was by design,” he declares with a wide grin and a laugh almost like a proud dad.

“Now it’s used roughly a billion times a day. That’s a lot of use. It’s on 2 billion devices. It is absolutely woven into everyday life.”

But what Mr Gruber and long-time colleagues working on artificial intelligence (AI) have seen in the past 18 months has scared them.

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It’s as though Musk views in-person work as a kind of hazing ritual — he and others did it, so you have to do it too. Well, as my mom frequently said when I proposed doing something dumb because others did it, “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”

Picture this: Musk standing on the precipice of the Golden Gate Bridge, urging us all to leap into the frigid waters below simply because he took the plunge. While his bravado might be admired by some, it’s not a practical or sustainable model for the future of work. Here’s a thought: rather than Musk’s daredevil dive into the deep abyss of forced in-office work, perhaps we should consider a more measured, flexible and hybrid approach to work, one that incorporates both remote and in-person options, as I tell my clients.

Related: Employers: Hybrid Work is Not The Problem — Your Guidelines Are. Here’s Why and How to Fix Them.

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