Comment on Microsoft is riding on geopolitics to extend its AI footprint

A lawsuit weaponizes environmental law in opposition of new urban housing. Los Angeles-based grocer Erewhon has a reputation for health, wellness, and sustainability, selling high-end organic produce and celeb-favorite smoothies. By supporting organic and regenerative farms, and cutting down on plastic, the company claims it showcases its belief in “protecting the health of our precious planet.”

Sorry athletes. It’s hard to compete with a well-tailored medical professional. While brands like Nike plan to dominate the Olympics with blinding new shoes on the track, Figs wants to own the sidelines through sleek medical scrubs. The medical apparel brand company just debuted a new line of red, white, and blue uniforms that Team USA doctors will wear in Paris—and in a dramatic, slow-mo walk scene, our medical professionals will finally get the full hero treatment. 

Would you trust an on-device AI to listen to your calls to stop scams in progress or to record all of your computing activity so you never forget any of it?  Google and Microsoft have spent the last few weeks unspooling enormous ambitions for artificial intelligence, but their smallest-scale showings of this technology—what they call on-device AI, but which you can also think of as offline or cloud-free AI—look the most interesting.

Solutions to big problems will come from breaking down disciplinary boundaries. A colleague once lamented about a controversy in their academic department (computer science) involving a potential new hire. The candidate in question was formally trained in physics but had a strong record studying information theory, which was of interest to the department.

Both chains began selling Beyond Meat in 2019, but now have either scaled back significantly or stopped selling it entirely. When Del Taco began serving Beyond Meat in 2019, it was the first major Mexican fast-food chain in the country to serve a plant-based beef taco option. (It also called the offering the “future of tacos.”) The company was early when it came to all restaurant chains adopting Beyond Meat, along with brands like Dunkin’, which served a plant-based sausage, and Carl’s Jr., which offered the company’s plant-based beef burger. 

Enlarge / A Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Tesla fans—and CEO Elon Musk himself—are excited about the prospects for Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) software. Tesla released a major upgrade—version 12.3—of the software in March. Then, last month, Musk announced that Tesla would unveil a purpose-built robotaxi on August 8.