The Download: Windows’ CrowdStrike outage, and wildfire-tracking balloons
What’s happening? Windows PCs have crashed around the world, bringing airlines, major banks, TV broadcasters, healthcare providers and other businesses...
World
Balloons will surf wind currents to track wildfires
The balloons can hover over a fire for about 18 hours, using the whims of the atmosphere to stay in...
Why we need safeguards against genetic discrimination
“Genetic discrimination involves an individual or a group being negatively treated, unfairly profiled or harmed, relative to the rest of...
Building supply chain resilience with AI
The Canadian fertilizer company Nutrien, for example, operates two dozen manufacturing and processing facilities spread across the globe and nearly...
The Download: Falcon 9’s future, and Big Tech’s climate goals
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is one of the world’s safest, most productive rockets. But a rare engine malfunction on July 11...
Companies need to stop taking the easy way out on climate goals
Tech giants Amazon and Google both recently released news about their efforts to clean up their climate impact. Both were...
What’s next for SpaceX’s Falcon 9
What exactly went wrong last week remains a mystery. Still, experts agree the event can’t be brushed off. “‘Oh, it...
Transforming the energy industry through disruptive innovation
Building on the same example of PG&E, which I referenced earlier; through our collaboration, piece by piece progressively, we are...
The Download: Big Tech’s climate claims, and reducing your music streaming carbon footprint
As K-pop sweeps the world and accumulates a massive, devout fan base, these fans have been turning their power into...
Five ways to make music streaming better for the climate
One of the most interesting (and also successful) campaigns Kpop4planet has organized shines a light on the carbon footprint of...
Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims
The argument for RECs is that companies often can’t purchase a pure stream of clean electricity to power their operations,...
The Download: K-pop stans’ climate plans, and what AI isn’t
K-pop fans have for years been known for their incredible organizing power. As their numbers have grown around the world,...
A short history of AI, and what it is (and isn’t)
For months, my colleague Will Douglas Heaven has been on a quest to go deeper to understand why everybody seems...
Music streaming can be a drag on the environment. These K-pop fans want to clean it up.
“I think streaming is especially nefarious because those negative impacts are happening so far away and in such an invisible...
The Download: how AI affects creativity, and CRISPR babies
The big storyIs the digital dollar dead? July 2023 In 2020, digital currencies were one of the hottest topics in...
Unlocking secure, private AI with confidential computing
Confidential computing use cases and benefitsGPU-accelerated confidential computing has far-reaching implications for AI in enterprise contexts. It also addresses privacy...
AI can make you more creative—but it has limits
The findings make sense, given that people who are already creative don’t really need to use AI to be creative,...
The Download: robot-packed meals, and the looming fertility crisis
What’s happening: Advances in artificial intelligence are coming to your freezer, in the form of robot-assembled prepared meals. Chef Robotics,...
IVF alone can’t save us from a looming fertility crisis
But plenty of scientists are incredibly worried about just that. Improvements in health care and sanitation are helping us all...
Robot-packed meals are coming to the frozen-food aisle
You might think the meals that end up in the grocery store’s frozen aisle, at Starbucks, or on airplanes are...
