The Future is Now: From Mega Turbines to AI Debates
Plus: EV battery price drops, nuclear’s comeback, and the GPU bubble
Dear Friend,
Remember the collective elation when many of us believed that working from home would be the de facto norm for companies going forward? What was presented during the pandemic as an unshakable truth started to erode slowly the moment we donned our masks and many of our employers asked us to come back to the office for a few days a week. This trickle back to the office has, for some companies, turned into harsh ultimatums, requiring workers to be back in the office five days a week, or else… Dell, Amazon, and many others seem to feel that unless their employees are sitting in their cubicles, they won’t get anything done. It turns out that some companies, Microsoft being just one example, decided to be a little more laissez-faire and allow their employees some more freedom. And maybe for good reason—as the International Monetary Fund has just released a report showing the monetary benefits for companies to allow WFH arrangements.
Regardless of where this email finds you today—at home, in the office, or on the road—I hope you enjoy our weekly finds. And as always—simply hit reply to this email to send me a personal note.
Have a beautiful day!
P ツ
The Thin Wisps of Tomorrow
Offshore Wind Gets Supersized — Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Dongfang just announced an absolutely massive 26-megawatt offshore turbine with a staggering 310-meter blade. When it comes to renewable energy, solar gets all the sunlight, while wind is the hidden champion.
EV Batteries Are Getting Cheap – Really Cheap — Talking about energy, EV batteries, one of the main price drivers for electric vehicles, are set to drop by another 50% within the next two years. This can only mean that EVs will become cheaper—and thus we will see more of them. Norway already hardly sells any gas-powered cars anymore.
Nuclear is Coming Back — It took AI’s insatiable hunger for electricity to bring nuclear back from the (semi) dead. Google, as well as Microsoft, is investing in bringing back existing nuclear power (Microsoft’s spinning up of the Three Mile reactor), as well as new approaches by startups like Kairos Power.
GPUs Might be Bad Business — Here is a fascinating deep dive into the economics of GPUs (the chips powering the AI revolution), also known as the stuff that makes Nvidia rich. It turns out that the usual price pressure we have seen countless times in other technologies also applies here—and might make the whole GPU business not quite as lucrative as Nvidia’s stock price might suggest. Bad for some, great for others.
Bad News for Living Longer — A recent study in Nature on longevity, analyzing data from eight countries with the longest-lived populations, plus Hong Kong and the United States, suggests that realistically only 15% of females and 5% of males will live to 100 years. Short of some scientific breakthrough slowing down biological aging, our clocks continue to tick. Time to smell the roses—and work on those breakthroughs (tl;dr living longer doesn’t come for free)
Lab-Grown Diamonds are Good News for Engagement Rings — Flawless, conflict-free, much cheaper, and thus—on average—bigger: lab-grown diamonds are taking over from their natural counterparts. Today, every other diamond is artificial—up from only 10% four short years ago. Talk about disruptive!
CO2-Free Cement is Here — Concrete (and thus the building industry at large) is a major driver of climate change. A team at UCLA has finally cracked the nut of creating cement with less than 98% CO2 emissions compared to traditional methods.
The AI Debate Continues — In the seemingly never-ending discussion between AI maximalists (“AGI is just around the corner”) and AI skeptics, the last week saw a few salvos being fired: Meta’s Yann LeCun argued that AIs are dumber than a cat and Apple released a study that showed that LLM-based AIs, in fact, cannot reason. Meanwhile, Dario Amodei, CEO of the AI company Anthropic, published his opus magnum on why AI will pave the way to paradise on Earth for humanity (as long as we keep funding his company, of course). Also, please don’t ask ChatGPT for advice instead of your doctor’s insights. But do fire your workers—as TikTok just did. Meanwhile AI scans RNA and finds 70,000 new viruses.
What We Are Reading
👮🏼 How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing The Reports Us Police Write Several California police departments have started using or testing Axon’s Draft One, the AI-powered police report writing software. Should we trust it? @Jane
🐅 The Genetic Secrets Of The United States’s Privately Owned Tigers More tigers are held in captivity than in the wild, but not all hope is lost. The DNA of captive tigers, often perceived as highly inbred, turns out to be a genetic mishmash of different tiger populations in Asia. This is good news, as captive tigers can serve as a potential backup for reintroduction and rewilding efforts. @Mafe
⚡ Big Tech Is Bringing Nuclear Power Back To Life Sustainability targets of big tech have been ambitious when set, but a substantial increase in energy demand to power AI advancements challenges them further. Microsoft expects electricity consumption to be 5 times what they anticipated back in 2020. Developing new infrastructure and exploring clean energy sources are thus high on the agenda. @Julian
🔍 Google’s Grip On Search Slips As TikTok And AI Startup Mount Challenge Google’s dominance in the search ad market is facing significant competition from platforms like TikTok and AI-driven startups, potentially reshaping the landscape. @Pedro
💰 A Lawsuit From Backers Of A ‘Startup City’ Could Bankrupt Honduras Absolutely bonkers story about how a group of crypto bros exploit some obscure international law to bankrupt a country. @Pascal
Resources
🧬 You might be following the financial woes of the DNA sequencing company 23andMe. In case their possible sale to private equity leaves you queasy about the safety of your personal data (DNA!), here is how you can delete your account (and thus your data): « link ↗
(Random) Bits & Pixels
🐹 In need of some serious furry cuddling? Casio (yep, the folks who made those funky, cool calculator watches in the ‘80s) made a furry robot for you. « link ↗
🌰 Scandal! A world champion conker player was found cheating with a steel chestnut. « link ↗
🥓 Talk about “unintended consequences”! It turns out that having access to high-speed Internet correlates with an increase in obesity. « link ↗
👜 Forget the Birkin bag and get yourself a spacesuit designed by Prada! « link ↗