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Category: economics – Page 4

HUGE: Elon’s “Macrohard” AI — His CRAZIEST Idea Ever

Questions to inspire discussion.

Industry Disruption.

🏢 Q: How might traditional companies be affected by AI simulations? A: Traditional firms like Microsoft could see their valuation drop by 50% if undercut by AI clones, while the tech industry may experience millions of jobs vanishing, potentially leading to recessions or increased inequality.

🤖 Q: What is the potential scale of AI company simulations? A: AI-simulated companies like “Macrohard” could become real entities, operating at a fraction of the cost of traditional companies and disrupting markets 10 times faster and bigger than the internet’s impact on retail.

Regulatory Landscape.

📊 Q: How might governments respond to AI-simulated companies? A: Governments may implement regulations on AI companies to slow innovation, potentially creating monopolies that regulators would later need to break up, further disrupting markets.

Continue reading “HUGE: Elon’s “Macrohard” AI — His CRAZIEST Idea Ever” | >

The AI revolution: facilitator or terminator?

We’ve all heard the arguments – “AI will supercharge the economy!” versus “No, AI is going to steal all our jobs!” The reality lies somewhere in between. Generative AI1 is a powerful tool that will boost productivity, but it won’t trigger mass unemployment overnight, and it certainly isn’t Skynet (if you know, you know). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that “AI will affect almost 40% of jobs around the world, replacing some and complementing others”. In practice, that means a large portion of workers will see some tasks automated by AI, but not necessarily lose their entire job. However, even jobs heavily exposed to AI still require human-only inputs and oversight: AI might draft a report, but you’ll still need someone to fine-tune the ideas and make the decisions.

From an economic perspective, AI will undoubtedly be a game changer. Nobel laureate Michael Spence wrote in September 2024 that AI “has the potential not only to reverse the downward productivity trend, but over time to produce a major sustained surge in productivity.” In other words, AI could usher in a new era of faster growth by enabling more output from the same labour and capital. Crucially, AI often works best in collaboration with existing worker skillsets; in most industries AI has the potential to handle repetitive or time-consuming work (like basic coding or form-filling), letting people concentrate on higher-value-add aspects. In short, AI can raise output per worker without making workers redundant en masse. This, in turn, has the potential to raise GDP over time; if this occurs in a non-inflationary environment it could outpace the growth in US debt for example.

Some jobs will benefit more than others. Knowledge workers who harness AI – e.g. an analyst using AI to sift data – can become far more productive (and valuable). New roles (AI auditors, prompt engineers) are already emerging. Conversely, jobs heavy on routine information processing are already under pressure. The job of a translator is often cited as the most at risk; for example, today’s AI can already handle c.98% of a translator’s typical tasks, and is gradually conquering more technically challenging real-time translation.

A new genetic link to pain provides a promising drug target

Chronic pain is life-changing and considered one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, making daily life difficult for millions of people around the world, and exacerbating personal and economic burdens. Despite established theories about the molecular mechanisms behind it, scientists have been unable to identify the specific processes in the body responsible, until now.

In an exciting collaboration, a team led by NDCN’s Professor David Bennett, and Professor Simon Newstead in the Department of Biochemistry and Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery, have identified a new genetic link to pain, determined the structure of the molecular transporter that this gene encodes, and linked its function to pain.

The findings of the research offers a promising, new, specific target against which to develop a drug to alleviate . The paper “SLC45A4 is a pain gene encoding a neuronal polyamine transporter” is published in Nature.

Social experiments assess ‘artificial’ altruism displayed by large language models

Altruism, the tendency to behave in ways that benefit others even if it comes at a cost to oneself, is a valuable human quality that can facilitate cooperation with others and promote meaningful social relationships. Behavioral scientists have been studying human altruism for decades, typically using tasks or games rooted in economics.

Two researchers based at Willamette University and the Laureate Institute for Brain Research recently set out to explore the possibility that (LLMs), such as the model underpinning the functioning of the conversational platform ChatGPT, can simulate the observed in humans. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behavior, suggest that LLMs do in fact simulate in specific social experiments, offering a possible explanation for this.

“My paper with Nick Obradovich emerged from my longstanding interest in altruism and cooperation,” Tim Johnson, co-author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “Over the course of my career, I have used computer simulation to study models in which agents in a population interact with each other and can incur a cost to benefit another party. In parallel, I have studied how people make decisions about altruism and cooperation in laboratory settings.

Legacy Auto & Fake News Freaking Out Over Tesla Robotaxis & Autonomy

Questions to inspire discussion.

🚕 Q: What real-world application of Tesla’s FSD technology is currently operating? A: Tesla Road, a robo taxi service in Austin, Texas, allows paid customers to ride in Teslas that are literally driving themselves, demonstrating Tesla’s FSD supervised technology in action.

🛻 Q: How are Cybertruck owners responding to their vehicles? A: Cybertruck owners, including celebrities Theo Von and Kat Williams, describe their vehicles as unique experiences that feel like “driving in the future”, forming a small but enthusiastic group.

💰 Q: What financial challenge is Rivian facing in the EV market? A: Rivian faces a $100 million deficit due to the Trump administration’s rollback of fuel economy standards, compounded by high price points and lack of profitability per vehicle, making it difficult to compete with Tesla.

🤝 Q: What recent partnership has Honda formed for autonomous driving development? A: Honda and Helm AI have entered a multi-year joint development agreement to accelerate Honda’s Navigate on Autopilot system for highway and urban autonomy, though it’s not full autonomy and requires constant driver attention.

Media Coverage of Tesla.

Continue reading “Legacy Auto & Fake News Freaking Out Over Tesla Robotaxis & Autonomy” | >

AI Revolution Could Require Us to Re-Think Money Entirely

It’s the defining technology of an era. But just how artificial intelligence (AI) will end up shaping our future remains a controversial question.

For techno-optimists, who see the technology improving our lives, it heralds a future of material abundance.

That outcome is far from guaranteed. But even if AI’s technical promise is realised – and with it, once intractable problems are solved – how will that abundance be used?

Inside Beijing’s Crisis Tanks, Fear and a Nation on Edge

Inside Beijing’s Crisis: Tanks, Fear, and a Nation on Edge reveals the shocking truth behind China’s escalating turmoil in 2025. From military convoys flooding the capital to social unrest, epidemics, and economic collapse, discover how Beijing has become the symbol of a nation on the brink.

#chinanews #chinacrisis #chinadisasters

New AI Model May Predict Success Of Future Fusion Experiments, Saving Money And Fuel

What this means in real time is that researchers using these maps do not know if there are any errors or issues ahead of them, nor do they know if these errors are part of the research design. Nevertheless, this is all they have to work with, so they have to make a decision based on this limited information, and doing so will always have high costs in terms of the ignition attempt, which is expensive.

To overcome this, the team at the NIF created a new way to create these “maps” by merging past data with high-fidelity physics simulations and the knowledge of experts. This was then fed into a supercomputer that ran statistical assessments in the course of over 30 million CPU hours. Effectively, this allows the researchers to see all the ways that things can go wrong and to pre-emptively assess their experimental designs. This saves a lot of time and, more importantly, money.

The team tested this approach on an experiment they ran in 2022, and, after a few changes to the model’s physics, was able to predict the outcome with an accuracy above 70 percent.

Discover How AI is Transforming Quantum Computing

Quantum technologies have had a meteoric rise and become a key area of prioritization for governments, academics, and businesses. Government funding commitments total almost $40 billion, while private investments since 2021 total nearly $8 billion. The US agency, National Institute of Standards and Technology, released this year three new post-quantum security standards, which governments classify as ‘critical resources’ for the economy and national defense. Meanwhile, users of quantum technologies experiment with them, from industry applications in drug development and materials science to energy grid optimization and logistics efficiency.

Yet, besides a few areas, such as quantum sensing, practical and impactful quantum technologies haven’t matured for widespread use. However, when combined with classical machine learning, practical use cases emerge.

This article delves into the impact and potential of artificial intelligence and quantum technologies with QAI Ventures, a financial partner and ecosystem builder in quantum technologies and AI, as a potential collaborator for startups to deliver investment, resources, global networks, and tailored accelerator and incubator programs.

This article covers AI and quantum technologies with QAI Ventures, a financial partner and ecosystem builder in emerging technologies.

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