Lifeboat Foundation

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish several pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here.

Irene Solaiman began her career in AI as a researcher and public policy manager at OpenAI, where she led a new approach to the release of GPT-2, a predecessor to ChatGPT. After serving as an AI policy manager at Zillow for nearly a year, she joined Hugging Face as the head of global policy. Her responsibilities there range from building and leading company AI policy globally to conducting socio-technical research.

Solaiman also advises the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the professional association for electronics engineering, on AI issues, and is a recognized AI expert at the intergovernmental Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

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Recycling nutrients is essential for closing nutrient loops within a circular economy. Using locally available resources such as human excreta to produce bio-based recycling fertilizers can substitute mineral fertilizers and thereby promote environmentally friendly food production. To better understand the fertilizer potential and nitrogen value of human excreta, three novel and safe recycling products were evaluated in a field experiment. Two nitrified urine fertilizers (NUFs) and one fecal compost were applied alone or in combination, and compared against the commercial organic fertilizer vinasse. In addition, the uptake of pharmaceuticals was assessed for treatments with compost application. White cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. alba) was cultivated in plots in three different soil types (sand, loam or silt) treated with the fertilizers according to plant needs and mineral soil nitrogen content. The two NUFs resulted in marketable yields similar to those of vinasse in all soil types. Combining fecal compost with a NUF led to increased marketable yield compared to compost alone. The highest yield was recorded from the sandy soil, where vinasse and NUF treatments led to comparable yields, as expected in organic productions systems (up to 72 t ha⁻¹). The cabbage yield and total aboveground fresh biomass followed the following trend in all soils: NUFs ∼ vinasse ≥ compost + NUF ≥ compost. Nitrogen uptake in the cabbage heads and total biomass was significantly higher in sand (69.5–144 kg ha⁻¹) than loam (71.4–95.8 kg ha⁻¹). All compost treatments alleviated the effect of soil type and resulted in comparable nitrogen uptake and yield in all soil types. Plant uptake of pharmaceuticals (Carbamazepin) was higher in sand than in loam, and concentration in the edible part was lower than in the outer leaves. In conclusion, NUF alone appears to be a promising successful fertilizer substitute in horticultural food production. The combined application of NUF and compost led to slightly lower crop yields, but may increase soil carbon content in the long term, promoting climate-friendly food production.

In view of a growing world population and the human alteration of nutrient cycles, including nitrogen (N) and phosphorus ℗ (Rockström et al., 2009), transforming food production is a major challenge of this century (Springmann et al., 2018). Both N and P are essential nutrients for healthy plant growth in crop production; however, their addition to synthetic fertilizers is currently organized in a linear economy. The Haber-Bosch process, used to generate plant-available N from its airborne unreactive form, is energy intensive, depending on fossil fuels such as natural gas, and associated with high greenhouse gas emissions (Wang et al., 2021). P is obtained from finite, depleting phosphate rock resources and its mining is increasingly more expensive and polluting (Desmidt et al., 2015). This background emphasize the need for significant improvements of nutrient management in agriculture and for alternative, circular N and P sources to achieve global food security (Gerten et al.

Along with climbing homelessness and other societal woes globally this is the time for transhuman ideals to emerge to save lives. We could automate all work and get universal basic income with AI to work for us.

About 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, an issue that impacts both low-wage and high-income families alike, according to new research from LendingClub.

Low-wage earners are most likely to live paycheck to paycheck, with almost 8 in 10 consumers earning less than $50,000 a year unable to cover their future bills until their next paycheck arrives. Yet even 4 in 10 high-income Americans, or those earning more than $100,000, say they’re in the same position, the research found.

Continue reading “More than 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Here’s what researchers say is to blame” »

A study, published in One Earth, is the first to analyze the interplay of electrification and hydrogen in EU climate neutrality scenarios at greater sectoral detail. The analysis shows higher potential for electrification and identifies a more confined deployment range for hydrogen-based energy than earlier studies.

“Previous research has shown that our power system can be transformed to renewable sources like wind and solar at low cost and low environmental impact. However, the next question is how this renewable electricity can be used to substitute fossil fuel use in the buildings, industry and transport sectors. Our analysis shows that the direct use of electricity, for example, via electric cars and heat pumps, is critical for a broad range of sectors, while the conversion of electricity to hydrogen is important only for few applications,” says Felix Schreyer, PIK scientist and lead author of the study.

Using the energy-economy model REMIND, PIK-scientists investigated plausible combinations of both strategies in EU energy system transformation pathways under different scenario assumptions.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI stepped up the race in generative artificial intelligence Thursday when it unveiled its text-to-video generation tool, Sora, viewed as an impressive but potentially dangerous step in the booming AI economy amid concerns about disinformation spread.

“Game on,” said the CEO and cofounder of rival video generator Runway after OpenAI teased content from its latest AI tool.

A research has identified and analyzed potential areas which can give a country comparative advantage and expansion in economic activities.

The findings indicates that developing countries can leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to achieve a faster and more sustainable growth. This has led to countries worldwide racing to harness AI to make their industries more competitive and helping to diversify economies.

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No American spacecraft has made a soft landing on the Moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 in 1972, but that could change soon as the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander launched from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:05 am EST (10:05 pm PST) last night. With a currently scheduled landing date of February 22, Nova-C (also called IM-1 Odysseus) is slated to land in Malapert-A crater, which is approximately 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the Moon’s south pole. This landing will also mark the first time a private company will perform a soft landing on the Moon and holds the potential to test technologies that could be used on future human missions with NASA’s Artemis program.

“NASA scientific instruments are on their way to the Moon – a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “These daring Moon deliveries will not only conduct new science at the Moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much to learn through CLPS flights that will help us shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.”

The science instruments that will be traveling with Nova-C include the Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator, Laser Retroreflector Array, Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing, Radio Frequency Mass Gauge, Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath, and Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies. All these instruments are designed to investigate how spacecraft can both land and operate on the lunar surface, specifically near the south pole of the Moon.

Earlier this week I went to a roundtable in London hosted by the UK government’s Office for Quantum to gather views from industry and academia about adapting the UK workforce to quantum technologies. The Quantum Skills Taskforce Workshop was co-hosted with techUK, a UK-based trade organization for the technology sector. Featuring 60 participants from academia and industry, the day featured lively discussion and debate about what the next decade has in store for the UK quantum sector.

All major economies around the world now seem to have their own quantum plan and the UK is no exception. In fact, the UK is onto its second National Quantum Strategy, which was launched in March 2023 by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Setting goals for the UK to become a “quantum-enabled economy” by 2033, it also established an Office for Quantum within the DSIT.

The need to quash outbreaks, quickly create medicines, stress-proof crops and fend off other 21st century threats is providing a lucrative arena for biotech companies to sell their services.

Why it matters: But the infrastructure to support such ambitions is increasingly recognized by the U.S., China and other countries as a linchpin of national security and economic strategy, putting it at the center of geopolitics.