Our First Newsletter: Elon's new robot, Google wake up and editing out DNA

Tesla unveils its new humanoid robot (yeah Tesla…as in the car company)

What has happened?

Earlier this week Tesla released their new Optimus Bot - the second iteration of their humanoid robot. It has seen a pretty major step up from version 1 - with weight reductions, increased dexterity and improved software.

Why does this matter?

Elon is famous for ‘Elon time’: his relative version of time where statements like “it’ll be ready next year” should really be changed to “it’ll be ready next decade”. However, they do almost always seem to happen!

When Tesla announced that Optimus Bot no one really knew what is was or the point of it. However, with time and this latest model, it’s becoming clearer that this humanoid bot will be able to do a lot of the things humans can, but don’t want to do.

In the launch video, the robot is seen moving eggs around between its fingers - I hear you say “that seems cool but pretty pointless” and you would be right, but the broader point here is about the rate of progress - even if it’s on Elon time

What does this say about the future?

So I still haven’t really answered what the point of this robot is yet - and that’s because the truth is, like many evolving-technologies no-one really knows. However, here is my attempt at an Orwellian prediction:

You decide to pack up your desk for the day at the office and send an alert to schedule your Tesla to wait outside.

In the back seat of your autonomous car, you send a message to your Tesla bot (let's call it Jimmy) to open a bottle of wine and get the ingredients out for the fish pie you want to make later.

You arrive home and Jimmy opens the door for you with a glass of red wine in hand, he takes your coat and your bag and lets you know that all the ingredients for the fish pie are ready on the worktop organised in the order in which you’ll need them.

As you cook Jimmy tidies up behind you and proactively gets things out and puts them away based on your needs and movements.

In other words, you have your own personal assistant which doesn't need breaks, doesn't sleep and “only costs as much as a car” (and Elon walks away with his fourth trillion dollar).

Google woke up from behind the AI wheel

What has happened?

Google just launched Gemini, their latest AI model. Which, much to the surprise of a lot of people, seems to compete with and in some areas outperform OpenAI’s GPT models (maybe helped by OpenAI’s latest Succession wannabes shenanigans).

Why does it matter?

For a while now there has been a common feeling that Google somehow have missed the boat with AI - which in retrospect was a little naive as they pretty much own the internet. But it matters for 2 main reasons - and one isn’t so obvious.

Firstly, the fact that they were conceivably behind and now have somewhat leapfrogged the others is impressive.

Secondly, it was reported that Sergey Brin - Google’s billionaire cofounder who no longer runs the company - was actually taking the lead for this release. So it looks like not only is Google not behind but has put an enormous focus on leading this clearly massive technological tsunami.

What does it say about the future?

There was a sentiment that OpenAI had come from nowhere and were almost the incumbent in the AI space, but that clearly is not the case. The race has probably only just begun for AI dominance and there will almost certainly be many winners (hopefully the human race is not a loser…).

Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta and many others are leading the way with their foundational models - models that are large-scale, pre-trained AI models that can be adapted for a wide range of tasks and applications - but it just goes to show in an industry as fast moving as AI no one is safe (literally maybe no one…).

Curing all diseases

What happened?

Last week, the FDA (the drug regulator in the US) approved a medicine called Casgevy to treat sickle cell disease and it’s a pretty big deal.

Why does this matter?

The FDA approves drugs all the time so why is this one special? Casgevy is a drug made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR therapeutics; the organisation behind the incredible gene editing technology CRISPR.

CRISPR allows scientists to find broken sections of human DNA, commonly called mutations, and fix them. You can think of it like Command F in a Word document, finding a misspelled word, and making the necessary changes.

In the case of sickle cell disease, due to an inherited mutated gene, the red blood cells don’t function like they are supposed to. For the first time in human history, we have designed a treatment that cures people of this debilitating disease by editing their DNA.

What does this mean for the future?

Currently, 80 million people worldwide suffer from diseases caused by one faulty gene. Many of these conditions can theoretically be cured by a CRISPR-powered drug. It is rare that we invent technologies that can alleviate the suffering of such huge populations, especially in the field of pharmaceuticals.

The next decade will see more and more drugs come to market curing different conditions, everything from Sickle Cell to cystic fibrosis. It will also help with diseases like genetic cancers and early-onset Alzheimer's.

In the long run, we will likely enter an era of mostly curable genetic diseases. The next step is genetic enhancement but that is for another post.