The Economist - The exponential growth of solar power will change the world

/

“Today solar power is long past the toy phase. Panels now occupy an area around half that of Wales, and this year they will provide the world with about 6% of its electricity—which is almost three times as much electrical energy as America consumed back in 1954. Yet this historic growth is only the second-most-remarkable thing about the rise of solar power. The most remarkable is that it is nowhere near over.”

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/06/20/the-exponential-growth-of-solar-power-will-change-the-world

NYT - How Big Tech Is Killing Innovation

/

“Silicon Valley prides itself on disruption: Start-ups develop new technologies, upend existing markets and overtake incumbents. This cycle of creative destruction brought us the personal computer, the internet and the smartphone. But in recent years, a handful of incumbent tech companies have sustained their dominance. Why? We believe they have learned how to co-opt potentially disruptive start-ups before they can become competitive threats.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/13/opinion/big-tech-ftc-ai.html

The Econmist - Three reasons why it’s good news that robots are getting smarter

/

“The robots are coming! In science fiction that is usually an ominous warning. In the real world, it is a prediction—and a welcome one. The field of robotics has made impressive progress in the past year, as researchers in universities and industry have applied advances in artificial intelligence (ai) to machines. The same technology that enables chatbots like Chatgpt to hold conversations, or systems like dall-e to create realistic-looking images from text descriptions, can give robots of all kinds a dramatic brain upgrade.”

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/06/06/three-reasons-why-its-good-news-that-robots-are-getting-smarter

WSJ - It’s Crunchtime for a New Generation of Climate StartupsIt’s Crunchtime for a New Generation of Climate Startups

/

“Hundreds of young climate companies like Material Evolution are burning through cash and racing to turn new technologies into big businesses. The transition period is called the “valley of death” because so few startups survive it. 

The success of at least some of these startups is crucial to the world’s efforts to limit climate change. But companies in their early stages are often derailed by blown budgets, engineering failures and any number of unexpected hazards. 

“Everybody says there’s a playbook,” said Liz Gilligan, chief executive of Material Evolution. “There’s no playbook.” Had she known how hard it would be to develop industrial technology, she would have started a software company, Gilligan jokes.”

https://www.wsj.com/business/climate-change-startups-investment-business-8f5c83be?mod=mhp

WSJ - The AI Revolution Is Already Losing Steam

/

“Nvidia reported eye-popping revenue last week. Elon Musk just said human-level artificial intelligence is coming next year. Big tech can’t seem to buy enough AI-powering chips. It sure seems like the AI hype train is just leaving the station, and we should all hop aboard.

But significant disappointment may be on the horizon, both in terms of what AI can do, and the returns it will generate for investors.

The rate of improvement for AIs is slowing, and there appear to be fewer applications than originally imagined for even the most capable of them. It is wildly expensive to build and run AI. New, competing AI models are popping up constantly, but it takes a long time for them to have a meaningful impact on how most people actually work.”

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ai-revolution-is-already-losing-steam-a93478b1

The Economist - A new age of sail begins

/

“In 1926 an unusual vessel arrived in New York after crossing the Atlantic. This was a converted sailing ship renamed Baden-Baden. Its two masts had been torn down and a pair of 15-metre-high revolving cylinders were mounted on its deck instead. Known as Flettner rotors, after Anton Flettner, their German inventor, the rotors worked like sails. Not only were they extremely efficient, allowing the vessel to consume less than half the fuel an oil-powered ship of a similar size would use, they also let the craft tack closer to an oncoming wind than its original canvas rigging allowed. The rotors were hailed as a great achievement at the time (praised by Albert Einstein, among others) before cheap oil caused interest to wane.”

Forbes - Lash Extensions From An AI Robot: Is This The Future Of Beauty?

/

“My shock and curiosity were piqued when I learned that a fully functional AI lash extension robot exists in Northern California. This also meant I had to try it. Known as LUUM Lash, this is the first AI tool used to innovate the process of eyelash extensions, creating an entirely new category called “Beauty Experience Automation.” This autonomous robot performs a consumer service traditionally achieved by hand, at the scale of a nanometer. According to the brand, its machine is safer and more accurate than human eyelash extension application, and without any sharp instruments or tools.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dahvishira/2024/05/28/lash-extensions-from-an-ai-robot-is-this-the-future-of-beauty/?sh=78b219c56f7c

NYT - The Mostly Persuasive Logic Behind the New Ban on Noncompetes

/

The Federal Trade Commission used two very different rationales to get to its near-total ban this week on noncompete agreements. One of them is a no-brainer. The other is provocative but not completely obvious. I guess I’d call it a brainer.

As you may have read, the F.T.C. commissioners on Tuesday voted3 to 2 on a final rule against noncompete clauses in employment contracts, which limit the ability of an employee to quit and immediately go work for a rival. The commission determined that they are an “unfair method of competition.” The rule takes effect 120 days after its publication in the Federal Register, unless a court blocks it before then.

Cildo Meireles, Babel 2001

/

Babel 2001 is a large-scale sculptural installation that takes the form of a circular tower made from hundreds of second-hand analogue radios that the artist has stacked in layers. The radios are tuned to a multitude of different stations and are adjusted to the minimum volume at which they are audible. Nevertheless, they compete with each other and create a cacophony of low, continuous sound, resulting in inaccessible information, voices or music.

The Atlantic - One Reason Hybrid Work Makes Employees Miserable

/

“The problem with overstuffed to-do lists isn’t just the total time required to execute their contents, but the fact that each new commitment generates its own ongoing administrative demands—emails, chats, check-in calls, “quick” meetings. That’s the overhead tax. Before long, knowledge workers find themselves spending the bulk of their time talking about work instead of actually doing it.”