Meta recently announced a long-term research partnership to study the human brain. According to the company, it intends to use the results of this study to “guide the development of AI that processes speech and text as efficiently as people.” This is the latest in Meta’s ongoing quest to perform the machine learning equivalent of alchemy: producing thought from language. The big idea: Meta wants to understand exactly what’s going on in people’s brains when they process language. Then, somehow, i
What do you call an airport for flying taxis? A vertiport. And this week, we took a step closer to the option of catching a flying taxi. UK company Urban-Air Port opened the world’s first vertiport this week in a partnership with the Supernal, the Urban Air Mobility division of Hyundai. The vertiport is called Air-One and is poised to meet the future demand for autonomous drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) passenger vehicles. To be clear, the vertiport is a pop-up demon
Tata Motors, the parent company of Jaguar Land Rover, has revealed its Avinya concept EV, which previews the automaker’s vision of its next-gen electric cars. On the outside, the Avinya is a bit peculiar. It combines the elements of a hatchback, an SUV, and a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), which was a conscious choice of Tata in its attempt to create a unique silhouette. Credit: Tata Motors Its distinct look is accentuated by its suicide doors, an almost flat roofline, and the replacement of side
Every few decades, speakers get a little more immersive thanks to advancements in sound processing technologies and cheaper access to surround sound components. But what if you could literally turn all the walls in your home into one giant speaker? That might just be possible in the coming years. Researchers at MIT have developed a new type of paper-thin loudspeaker that is lightweight and durable enough to attach to all sorts of surfaces. All that sounds neat, but fanciful technologies don’t me
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta/Facebook, recently remarked in a podcast interview that when it came to hiring new staff, his preference was people whose “values aligned in the things that you care about”. This, he said, was akin to “choosing a friend or a life partner”. He went on to state that many young people were too “objective-focused” and “not focused enough on connections and … people”. This speaks to one of the eternal questions for managers in deciding who to hire: do you choose the c
Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky on Thursday announced the company’s 5-point plan to enable employees to live and work anywhere, all the time. Ostensibly because “The world has become more flexible”, and “We also had the most productive two-year period in our company’s history — all while working remotely” (presumably, also: massive decrease in operating costs; consequent increase in profit margins). More highlights from Chesky’s thread include the ability to move anywhere in the US withou
On Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s Monaco E-Prix, FIA and Formula E finally unveiled their next electric race car. It’s called Gen3 — as in, the third generation vehicle used by the series — and comes with some BIG upgrades and claimed world’s firsts. Inspired by a fighter jet, the Gen3 features a completely reworked exterior that makes it look kinda like a modern F18 aircraft on wheels. Credit: FIA/Formula E Formula E believes that the new car design, which is both smaller and lighter than th
The UK’s roads are some of the main culprits of its greenhouse gas emissions. And in 2020, 92% of passenger kilometers traveled in the UK was made by cars, vans and taxis. That means getting around by private vehicle has a disproportionately large negative impact on the environment. What’s more, only 5.8% of vehicles on UK roads are ultra-low emission. Even electric vehicles, though they create less pollution when driven, have a substantial environmental impact thanks to the materials used to cr
There might not be an easy answer to how Elon Musk wants to achieve “free speech absolutism” on Twitter. But there’s another issue he has to tackle with his new purchase: making money. Musk has taken hefty loans from banks with his Tesla shares as collateral. Some of these loans have interest rates as high as $1 billion per year. So he’ll likely want the social network to mint more money toot-suite, and help repay these debts. Cutting down on ads The upcoming Twitter owner has had a few ideas be
Stephen Hawking once suggested Albert Einstein’s assertion that “God does not play dice” with the universe was wrong. In Hawking’s view, the discovery of black hole physics confirmed that not only did God play dice, “but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can’t be seen.” Are we here by chance or design? A more pragmatic approach to the question, considering the subject matter, would be to assume that all answers are correct. In fact, that’s the basis of quantum physics. He