💡 Warp News #254
🌳 100 million trees to be planted in Africa. 🌡️ Heat pumps reduce energy use by 40%. 🌞 Australia leads the world in rooftop solar energy. 💰 Young AI companies generate revenue faster than previous tech companies.
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🗨️ A bubble, you say?
AI is a bubble, it has been said increasingly often during the autumn.
"I don't know if I dare say the emperor is stark naked. But isn't he showing a bit too much skin?", wrote Carl Johan von Seth.
"More and more evidence suggests that AI risks collapsing", Tobias Sundin (not related!) claimed.
I wrote earlier this fall that the pessimists are wrong, and now a couple of data points have emerged that support that claim:
- AI is the new technology whose use is increasing faster than any other technology before, including computers and the internet.
- Young AI companies' revenues are increasing faster than previous tech companies'.
We will of course see exaggerated hype and may well encounter a financial AI bubble. That's not the same as AI being a bubble that "risks collapsing."
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
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💡 Fact-based optimistic news from October
❌ UK closes last coal power plant - end of a 142-year era. 🤰 Obesity in the US is decreasing. 🧊 They are developing a technology to restore sea ice in the Arctic. 🦌 Saiga antelope goes from endangered to thriving.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
🌞 Australia leads the world in rooftop solar energy
Australia has installed rooftop solar panels on a scale that surpasses all expectations. More than a third of all households in the country now generate their own electricity from the sun. Home-based solar energy accounts for 11.6 percent of electricity production in Australia's main power grid.
🏆 Competition to accelerate quantum computers' societal benefits
XPRIZE has launched a global competition worth $5 million to develop practical quantum algorithms. The competition aims to accelerate the development of quantum computer applications that can solve important societal problems.
🌡️ Heat pumps reduce energy use by 40 percent, according to a new study
A new study shows that heat pumps significantly reduce household energy consumption. Household carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 36 percent. Time-of-use electricity tariffs caused households to more than double their electricity consumption during off-peak hours and halve it during peak hours.
🌳 100 million trees to be planted in Africa to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
The company Aspiration has committed to planting 100 million trees in East Africa by 2025. Reforestation increases nature's ability to absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Over 9.5 million trees have already been planted and 8,500 farmers are participating in an agroforestry program.
😮 Researchers impressed by ChatGPT's latest model
OpenAI's new model, o1, performs better than previous models on advanced scientific and mathematical tasks. o1 performed a calculation on black holes in about an hour, which previously took the researcher several months. It solved 83% of the tasks on a qualifying test for the Mathematics Olympiad.
💰 Young AI companies generate revenue faster than previous tech companies
AI startups reach million-dollar revenues in just eleven months. This can be compared to 15 months for the previous generation of SaaS companies. Top AI companies reach $30 million in annual revenue five times faster than previous software companies.
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