Like Gates, Leslie doesn’t dismiss doomer scenarios outright. “Bad actors can take advantage of these technologies and cause catastrophic harms,” he says. “You don’t need to buy into superintelligence, apocalyptic robots or... Read more »

The next two milestones, at 2040 and 2050, could be harder to hit. Efficiency improvements and operational measures won’t be enough to get global shipping to net-zero emissions by 2050. Decarbonizing shipping... Read more »

The big story China’s path to modernization has, for centuries, gone through my hometown  June 2021 For generations, politicians and intellectuals have sought ways to build a strong China. Some imported tools... Read more »

Big Tech’s arrival on the weather forecasting scene is not purely based on scientific curiosity, reckons Oliver Fuhrer, the head of the numerical prediction department at MeteoSwiss, the Swiss Federal Office of... Read more »

A 2021 poll conducted by Haystack Analytics found 83% of developers were suffering burnout, driven by increasing demands on their time and inefficient processes. A 2022 survey by LaunchDarkly showed continued burn-out... Read more »

China has been on the receiving end of semiconductor export restrictions for years. Now, it’s striking back with the same tactic.  On July 3, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that the... Read more »

The use of AI in hiring has been criticized for the way it automates and entrenches existing racial and gender biases. AI systems that evaluate candidates’ facial expressions and language have been... Read more »

Mining companies in Congo and Russia have already said they intend to increase production of germanium to meet demand. Some Western countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and Japan, also produce these... Read more »

“The West will have to accelerate its innovation of new processes to separate and purify rare-earth metals. Otherwise, it may have to relax the environmental regulations that constrain traditional separation and purification... Read more »