The Innovator's Radar newsletter enables you to stay on top of the latest business innovations. Enjoy this week's edition.
Jennifer L. Schenker
Innovator Founder and Editor-in-Chief |
|
- N E W S I N C O N T E X T - |
|
This week Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield, whose foundational work on neural networks paved the way for today's AI revolution, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics and AI researchers David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their innovative use of AI to predict and design protein structures, revolutionizing fields like drug discovery and disease understanding. Both awards underscore AI’s ability to accelerate science.
But not everyone benefits enough from science and technology today. That’s why while the prizes were being announced in Stockholm, the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Antcipator (GESDA), was convening 1,000 scientists, diplomats, policymakers, innovators, executives and citizens from around the world in Switzerland for its annual summit under the theme of “The Great Scientific Acceleration.”
GESDA, a Swiss Foundation initiated by the Swiss Federal Government and the City and Canton of Geneva, bring together different communities to jointly anticipate scientific and technological advancements and, based on them, develop inclusive and global solutions to help solve some of humanities biggest global challenges.
Read on to get the key takeaways from the GESDA Summit and learn about this week's other important technology news impacting business. |
|
| Stay on top of the latest business innovations and support quality journalism. Subscribe to get unlimited access to all of The Innovator's independently reported articles. |
|
| When used effectively and responsibly, AI holds the potential to accelerate progress on sustainable development and close digital divides but scaling AI for social good initiatives is tough. In her latest exclusive column for The Innovator Kay Firth-Butterfield, the World Economic Forum's former head of artificial intelligence, talks about the challenges ahead. |
|
- I N T E R V I E W O F T H E W E E K - |
|
Who: Roger Spitz is President of Techistential, a foresight practice, which advises CEOs, founders, and boards on evaluating strategy under uncertainty, anticipating disruptions, and sustainable value creation. He is also Chair of the Disruptive Futures Institute in San Francisco and an expert advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Global Foresight Network. He has authored five books, including the acclaimed collection The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption.
Topic: His latest book Disrupt With Impact: Achieve Business Success In An Unpredictable World.
Quote: "Look at uncertainty as a great thing. Without it, things would be predetermined. Uncertainty gives you agency to become the architect of your future. But agency is an option. If you don’t exercise it, it won’t exist, and others will create your future for you."
|
|
- S T A R T U P O F T H E W E E K - |
|
| Wastetide, a French startup, has developed AI software that helps factories to sort waste, cutting costs and emissions.
“Waste management generates more than twice the CO₂ than air transportation,” says CEO Nicolas Brien, who co-founded the company in 2023 with CTO Côme Ozanne. “We want to turn this liability into revenue.”.
"If you go to any factory in the U.S. or the EU about 3% of the cost structure is related to waste management," says Brien. "Up to 30% of the cost could be avoided. Based on our customer research we believe factories could get back one percent of their bottom line." |
|
- N U M B E R O F T H E W E E K |
|
Number of new members of the World Economic Forum's Global Lighthouse Network, a community of 172 industry leaders pioneering the use of cutting-edge technologies in manufacturing. Nineteen manufacturing sites received designations as Fourth Industrial Revolution Lighthouses this week for achieving step-change impact in performance through technology-enabled transformation.Three were designed as "Sustainability Lighthouses" for there use of advanced technologies to reduce their environmental impact.
The latest cohort of Lighthouses, which hail from 10 different countries, has gained an average 50% boost in labor productivity, attributed to various digital solutions such as interactive training programs, smart devices and wearables, and automated systems that combine robotics, AI and machine vision. Process modelling and root-cause analytics have also unlocked efficiency gains across the Lighthouses’ end-to-end supply chains, on average reducing energy consumption by 22%, inventory by 27%, and scrap or waste by 55%, according to the Forum.
|
|
|
|
