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17
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2023
DTN 007: Generative AI has a Carbon Problem
Welcome to The Deep Tech Newsletter, a weekly exploration of the business, science, and engineering behind the world’s most important frontier technologies.
The Big Picture
Generative AI’s Energy Use Makes Bitcoin Look Green
“While neither OpenAI nor Google, have said what the computing cost of their products is, third-party analysis by researchers estimates that the training of GPT-3, which ChatGPT is partly based on, consumed 1,287 MWh, and led to emissions of more than 550 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent—the same amount as a single person taking 550 roundtrips between New York and San Francisco.” (WIRED)
Japan Adopts Plan to Make Maximum Use of Nuclear Power
“The basic plan for green transformation marks a departure from Japan’s policy of reducing its dependence on nuclear energy decided after the 2011 meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant. To the end, the government adopted green transformation legislation so that it can procure funds for its share of the envisioned investments, which is projected at some ¥20 trillion.” (The Japan News)
The Incredible Time Cost of Peer Review
“In 2020 alone, researchers spent 15,000 years worth of time reviewing articles. In the US, the time cost for peer review is equal to $1.5B, in China it is $600M, the UK is $400M.” (Research Integrity)
Underdog Technologies Gain Ground in Quantum-Computing Race
“For years, two leading approaches have enabled physicists to make progress partly by cramming devices with more and more qubits. One of those methods encodes qubits as currents running on superconducting loops. The other uses excited states of individual ions trapped in a vacuum by electromagnetic fields. But in the past two years, qubits that consist of single neutral atoms — as opposed to ions — and are held with ‘tweezers’ made of laser light have suddenly become competitive. And other techniques that are at an even earlier stage of development could yet catch up.” (Scientific American)
Deep Tech News
- Blue Origin makes solar cells and transmission wire from regolith simulants
- AI-powered Bing Chat spills its secrets via prompt injection attack
- War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition
- For some electric vehicle owners, recharging now more costly than filling up
- The first network of robotic telescopes present across five continents is deployed
- Securing supply chains with quantum computing
- These startups hope to spray iron particles above the ocean to fight climate change
- AI is dreaming up drugs that no one has ever seen. Now we’ve got to see if they work
- An extremely lightweight fission rocket could reach the solar gravitational lens in 15 years
- Hidden hydrogen: Earth may hold vast stores of a renewable, carbon-free fuel
- Beewise aims to staunch the loss of bee colonies with robotics-enabled BeeHome
- First electric air taxi takes flight around New York City
- Custom-made 3D printed solid-state batteries
Crypto News
- Crypto Buyers Beware: 1 in 4 New Tokens of Any Value Is a Scam
- PayPal pauses stablecoin project amid Paxos probe
- Morgan Stanley says you should be paying attention to stablecoins
- Celsius Reaches Acquisition Agreement with NovaWulf
- ZkSync opens doors to Ethereum developers while network remains in alpha
- Wyoming Legislature Passes Bill Protecting Bitcoin Private Keys From Courts
- Starbucks Polygon NFTs Are Already Selling for Thousands
- SEC charges Terraform and Do Kwon post Terra collapse
Peer Review
- Solar-driven chemistry one step closer to reality
- 3D plasmonic coral nanoarchitecture for cancer diagnosis using urine
- Solid-state battery: New material class with excellent ion conductivity
- Researchers find thermal limits of advanced nanomaterials
- Using lasers, researchers can directly control the spin of a nuclei, which can encode quantum information
- Software assembles complete genome sequences on-demand
- Perovskites, a 'dirt cheap' alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
- Light-controlled drugs for future precision therapies against diseases such as cancer
Funding x M&A
DEEP TECH
- Vacuum ultraviolet detector technology start Vuv Analytics raises $20M
- Genetic medicine delivery platform Aera Therapeutics raises $193M
- Cleantech Qotto embarks on growth plan backed by $8M funding
- Quantum Brilliance snags $18M funding on synthetic diamond road to quantum chips
- South Korea boosts its AI chip industry with $642M amid ChatGPT frenzy
- Battery materials company NanoGraf raises $65M
- Dronamics lands $40M for cargo drones that ‘can cross all of Europe in 12 hours or less’
CRYPTO
- Web3 security startup Stelo Labs raises $6M seed
- Sending Labs, a web3 communications stack startup raises $12.5M seed
- Credit Suisse Leads $65M Funding for Digital-Asset Firm Taurus
- Polychain leads ZK chip startup Cysic's $6M raise
- No-code Web3 Infrastructure platform Caldera raises $9M
- Monad Labs raises $19M to grow its smart contract platform
- Crypto index platform Alongside raises $11M
- Amazon leads $20M investment in synthetic celebrity startup Superplastic
- Web3 Security Company Stelo Labs raises $6M
- SushiSwap Acquires Cosmos-Based Trading Platform Vortex Protocol
- Web3 tower defense game developer Omega Royale raises $2.1M
- Bain Capital Crypto leads Orb Labs’ $4.5M raise
- Ironblocks raises $7M to build blockchain cybersecurity platform
- Napster buys web3 music startup Mint Songs
- Sending Labs secures $12.5M to build ‘web3 communcation stack’
- Web3 tooling startup Nefta raises seed round at $32.5M valuation
- Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng is seeking to raise over $100M for a web3 fund
- Million on Mars raises $3.5M for blockchain-based space sim
Miscellanea.
AI Platforms, Markets, & Open Source / Noam Chomsky on ChatGPT / Raytheon’s high energy laser / DIY Genetic Engineering / Pig Butchering Scams Are Evolving Fast / The AI Bubble of 2023 / Model predicts beer head features / NASA’s Mars snakebot / A step towards a contraceptive pill for men? / A new way to clean up the steel industry / How Inevitable Is the Concept of Numbers? / The USAF may have shot down a hobby club’s balloon / The military wants small hydrogen-powered drones / Man beats machine at Go in human victory over AI / Telepathic robot war dogs / It’s time for a dedicated mission to Uranus / RightWingGPT
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