Alkaline sodium hydroxide was dumped into the Gulf of Maine to test its effect on carbon uptake and marine life Daniel Cojanu, Undercurrent Productions, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Can we safely remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by counteracting ocean acidification? Maybe, suggests a trial in which ships poured 65,000 litres of alkaline sodium hydroxide…
Hello again, and thank you, as always, for spending time with Fast Company’s Plugged In. In a remarkably influential 2011 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz cofounder Marc Andreessen declared that software was “eating the world.” From entertainment to commerce to transportation, he argued, startups that were about code at their core were…
If there’s one thing that stops people using their smart rings over the long term, it’s the battery life. After all, they’re so unobtrusive, it’s easy to forget to drop it on the charging plate every few days. It doesn’t take long for your pricey gadget to become little more than a very expensive piece…
Psst! Can you keep a secret? Yana Iskayeva/Getty Images The average person is keeping nine types of secrets, ranging from having told a lie to covert romantic desires. This can be a major burden, because secrets have the troubling habit of flashing into the mind unbidden. Confessing them can sometimes bring relief, but some secrets…
Recently, Grok AI faced criticism after users found it was creating explicit images of real people, including women and children. Although xAI has now implemented some restrictions, this incident revealed a serious weakness. Without safeguards and diverse perspectives, girls and women are put at greater risk. The dangers artificial intelligence poses to women and girls…
Despite an ultimatum from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Anthropic said that it can’t “in good conscience” comply with a Pentagon edict to remove guardrails on its AI, CEO Dario Amodei wrote in a blog post. The Department of Defense had threatened to cancel a $200 million contract and label Anthropic a “supply chain risk” if…
According to the World Economic Forum, 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks by 2030. Thanks to artificial intelligence, leaders are under pressure to raise the bar on what they will deliver to their stakeholders—with the expectation that thanks to AI, companies can (and must) achieve more. That matters…
Apple’s mobile devices are secure enough for NATO. Following extensive testing by the German government, the iPhone and iPad are now considered secure enough for the NATO-restricted classified level. Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, or BSI) tested the devices. BSI first approved the iPhone and iPad for governmental…
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, with the giant planet behind it in a view from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy The story of Saturn, its rings and moons, may have started with its largest moon, Titan. A collision between an early proto-Titan and a smaller object about 400 million years ago could have set into…
In the latest chapter of the pizza wars, Papa Johns announced it is closing hundreds of North America locations during a fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. It will also cut about 7% of its workforce. In that call, Papa Johns’ chief financial officer and president of North America Ravi Thanawal said the company plans to…
