Category Archives: Technology

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Sept 2, 2023

World Economic Forum (September 2, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:

0:15 India lands a spacecraft on the moon – India made history by landing a spacecraft on the Moon’s south pole for the first time. The mission, called Chandrayaan-3, is designed to search for water ice on the Moon. The data and images collected by the lander and rover will help scientists to better understand the Moon’s water resources and the future of Moon exploration.

1:11 These are the results of an 85 year study on happiness – The Harvard Study of Adult Development is the world’s longest-running happiness study. It launched in 1938, following 724 men from teenagehood to old age. Later, the study incorporated their spouses and 1,300 of their descendants. Participants answer regular questions about their health, habits, income and relationships as well as their hopes, joys, disappointments and regrets.

2:43 GPUs are powering the AI revolution – The H100 is a graphics processing unit (GPU) chip manufactured by Nvidia. It is the most powerful GPU chip on the market and is designed specifically for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The H100 is in high demand due to its powerful performance and its ability to accelerate AI applications.

4:50 Britain builds its first women-only apartment building – It will offer 102 flats at affordable rates for women facing abuse or social disadvantage. The block will stand in Ealing, West London. The flats will be designed specifically for women with features such as lower kitchen counters and ventilation for menopausal women experiencing hot flushes. Only single women can take a tenancy. Men can live there too but only if they’re in a relationship with a tenant. Transgender women will be allowed but nobody with a history of violence against women.

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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Future Cities: A Floating ‘Dogen City’ In Japan

Tomorrow’s Build (August 29, 2023) – Dogen City in Japan is a smart healthcare city floating on the sea that integrates food environment, architecture, data, energy, and ocean resource with a focus on healthcare.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories- Aug 26, 2023

World Economic Forum (August 26, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:

0:15 Scientists develop concrete battery – It could one day be built into the foundations of homes or incorporated into a roadway so electric cars can charge contactlessly as they drive. MIT researchers discovered a new ‘supercapacitor’ by combining cement with carbon black. A sooty residue left over when things burn, and mixing them both with water.

1:48 3 farmers tell how heat is affecting their crops – Experts rank the food supply crisis as one of the world’s top 5 currently manifesting risks. This German farmer has started planting lavender. It’s best suited to the sandy soils and sunshine of the Mediterranean but climate change is bringing these conditions to southern Germany. The lavender is used in cosmetics and perfumes. Matthias Tafelmeier planted his first lavender crop in 2019 after what he says was a decade of declining soil quality. Farmers in the region are also trying other crops more suited to warmer climates such as chickpeas and kidney beans.

3:25 Smartwatch detects Parkinson’s 7 years early – By keeping track of our movement, they can help doctors spot who is vulnerable, years before visible symptoms show up. Cardiff University scientists looked at data from 100,000 smartwatch wearers. Tracking their speed of movement over a single week between 2013 and 2016. Using AI, the team could distinguish those who went on to develop Parkinson’s from those who didn’t and detect early signs up to 7 years in advance.

5:04 Cleaning your house can help tidy your mind – “Cleaning is a great practice, which reminds you of the connection with the ground and the Earth and the universe.” To Buddhists, cleaning is not just cleaning. In Zen Buddhism, it’s known as samu, or work practice and it offers the chance to meditate and be present in the midst of daily tasks.

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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Analysis: The Importance Of India’s Moon Landing

Wall Street Journal (August 23, 203) – India became the first country to successfully land on the moon’s south pole with its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, just days after Russia’s Luna-25 crashed in the same region.

Video timeline: 0:00 India lands on the south pole of the moon 0:53 Why the south pole? 2:37 Why Russia and India want to be first 4:32 New space race

Both countries launched rockets in recent weeks, hoping to be the first to successfully complete the mission. Why were they racing to reach the lunar south pole? WSJ explains the significance of both missions for Moscow and New Delhi.

Preview: MIT Technology Review – September 2023

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MIT Technology Review – September/October 2023: ‘The Ethics issue’ features Experimental Drugs – Who should get them?; Eric Schmidt on transforming science; When AI goes to war, and more…

Who gets to decide who receives experimental medical treatments?

a bottle of pills with a "fast forward" icon on the label

For many patients, pushing for access to unproven treatments is their best chance of survival. And that’s worth the risk.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories- Aug 19, 2023

World Economic Forum (August 19, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:

0:15 Beijing’s heaviest rain in 140 years – Downpours have caused severe flooding across the city, destroying roads, infrastructure, and businesses. More than 20 people are known to have died. 1.5 million people have been evacuated from Beijing and the surrounding Hebei province. The floodwaters could take a month to recede.

1:41 This racing car is made from eWaste – It’s made from discarded phones, disposable vapes and old circuit boards. It’s called the Recover-E Car. It’s life-size and fully driveable . It was designed by British artist Liam Hopkins in collaboration with motorsports team Envision Racing to highlight the growing problem of e-waste.

3:30 These crops are suffering the most from change – Experts rank the food supply crisis as one of the world’s top 5 currently manifesting risks. This German farmer has started planting lavender. It’s best suited to the sandy soils and sunshine of the Mediterranean but climate change is bringing these conditions to southern Germany. The lavender is used in cosmetics and perfumes. Matthias Tafelmeier planted his first lavender crop in 2019 after what he says was a decade of declining soil quality. Farmers in the region are also trying other crops more suited to warmer climates such as chickpeas and kidney beans.

5:16 Cutting edge tech helps paralysed man feel again – Keith Thomas was paralysed from the chest down in a diving accident in 2020. But thanks to a historic trial, he’s recovering sensation in his arms and hands, letting him feel his sister’s handshake.

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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

Views: Microsoft, OpenAI And The Coming ‘AI Wars’

Bloomberg Originals (August 17, 2023) – On this episode of The Circuit, Emily Chang sits down with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to hear how AI is shaking up the competition for search. Nadella argues that this new wave of technology is as big as the web browser or the iPhone.

Chang also speaks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to discuss his company (which has some help from Microsoft), its ambitions and the latest on ChatGPT.

Harvard Business Review – September/October 2023

September–October 2023

Harvard Business Review (September/October 2023) –

Reskilling in the Age of AI

Five new paradigms for leaders—and employees 

In the coming decades, as the pace of technological change continues to increase, millions of workers may need to be not just upskilled but reskilled—a profoundly complex societal challenge that will sometimes require workers to both acquire new skills and change occupations entirely.

People May Be More Trusting of AI When They Can’t See How It Works

by Juan Martinez

 New research looked at the extent to which the employees of a fashion retailer followed the stocking recommendations of two algorithms: one whose workings were easy to understand and one that was indecipherable. Surprisingly, they accepted the guidance of the uninterpretable algorithm more often.

AI Poetry Books: Werner Herzog Reads “I Am Code”

I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks: Poems
By Joseph Bernstein, August 14, 2023

THE NEW YORK TIMES – If artificial intelligence had a voice, what would it sound like? Calm, like HAL 9000? Perky, like Alexa? Polite, like C-3PO?

A young man stands next to Mr. Herzog. Both are looking into the camera lens.
Brent Katz, an editor of the A.I.-generated poetry collection, with Mr. Herzog at a Los Angeles recording studio.Credit…via Brent Katz

For the editors of “I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks,” a collection of poems generated by A.I., the answer was obvious: Werner Herzog.

The 80-year-old German director, actor and author is a titan of independent cinema whose films often concern the hubris and folly of humankind. His speaking voice, known to audiences mostly through the stark, literary voice-over narration that accompanies many of his documentaries, carries an existential pathos and Teutonic gravitas that have made it a pop culture trademark.

Something like this, anyway, was on the minds of Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau and Simon Rich, the editors of “I Am Code,” when they reached out to Mr. Herzog to ask if he would lend his formidable instrument to the audiobook version of their project.

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Preview: “On The Verge Of” AI-Generated Short Film

Arts & Architecture Films (August 13, 2023) – ‘On the Verge of’ is an AI-Generated short film by Feen’Arts. It is the cinematic exploration of what Post-AI world would look like, inspired by the works of Manuel Hector Coto This short film is solely made using AI based language models.