(Re)Share | #26 - I choose business ethics
Data Poisoning | Forever Chemicals | Net zero plastic| Asteroid Mining | Nuclear Energy
Welcome new readers or those returning! (Re)Share is a semi-weekly curation of the most interesting deep tech news, research and perspectives that I’ve come across. I sometimes share my own writing, so I apologize in advance.
Extremely Honorable Plug
Fellow deep tech / bio investor and inspiring human, Pablo Lubroth, is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro next year in support of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. Pablo has set a goal of raising $1 million to support DRCRF’s mission in funding high-risk, high-reward cancer research by identifying and enabling young scientists who are bold enough to go where others haven’t.
If you have the means I strongly encourage you to join me in donating.
Stuff Worth Sharing
Untraining Day - A team at the University of Chicago unveiled Nightshade, an innovative new method to way prevent AI companies from using artists’ work to train their models without permission. “Data poisoning” allows an artist to modify the pixels of images in subtle ways that are invisible to the human eye but manipulate machine-learning models to interpret said image differently than it should. The poisoned data is very difficult to remove and requires tech companies to painstakingly find and delete each corrupted sample.
Forever young - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a.k.a. forever chemicals, are a family 15,000 human-made and incredibly durable chemical compounds. PFAS are used in countless industrial and consumer products from teflon to mustard gas. This article provides a great overview of PFAS history, environmental / health impact and current state of remediation affairs. Like cockroaches or people that refuse to use headphones while on the subway these are everywhere and seemingly impossible to kill. PFAS needs to be destroyed at the atomic level, because traditional disposal methods lead to really damaging environmental exposure. I have a particular interest in this space due to our investment in Orbital Materials, which has identified PFAS as a core market in the coming years. If reading isn’t your vibe, Last Week Tonight covered it a couple of years ago.
Wrapped in plastic, it’s fantastic! - A Canadian startup has found a way to create fossil-fuel free ethylene. Ethylene is everywhere; at 200 million tonnes per year it is the world’s most widely produced and widely used petrochemical. CERT Systems, has developed a process called CO2 electrolysis that works at ambient temperatures and the only energy input is renewable electricity. Copper is used as a catalyst to split water and carbon dioxide and convert them into hydrocarbons. There are no harmful emissions and all the chemical by-products can be used by various industrial processes.
I choose business ethics - I recently discovered the Dwarkesh Podcast, which features an insanely impressive guest history considering the host’s 23 years of age. This interview with Deepmind co-founder, Shane Legg, is a very informative discussion on the structural considerations of instilling ethics within an AI system. Details were light on how to actually do that, which shows just how bleeding edge this discipline really is. Super top of mind for me and Fly. Shameless plug - if you are working on AI alignment please email me!
Booty call - In the last issue we discussed the NASA mission to recover material from the Bennu asteroid. Now we’re getting our first look at the treasure trove inside. Initial analysis showed waterlogged clay minerals, sulfur and a lot of carbon, which all support the working theory that it was an asteroid like this that brought the initial mineral base to get our primordial ooze bubbling.
Fallout boy - Far more successful newsletter author, Packy McCormick, unveiled a new podcast, Age of Miracles. Packy and co-host Julia DeWahl are spending an entire season exploring the history, challenges and forward-looking potential of nuclear energy. This is a space that is infinitely interesting to me so I am really excited for this addition to my already too dense listening diet. Unless you’re coming into the topic cold fusion (giggles) you could skip the first episode, which is largely an overview of the season itself. Episode 2 dives into the US’ initial excitement in the late 60’s / early 70’s, which led to an overheated market / capacity. They also explore the legislative overreach and regulatory capture dynamics that seem to have ground innovation to a halt. Interesting in it’s own right, but many argue that we’re seeing the same playbook being run with big tech and AI today (hint for next issue).
Chip stack - At this point I should start getting kickbacks for the Acquired podcast. To cap off the recent NVIDIA deep dives the team held a 90 minute interview with Jensen Huang himself. The inside stories are wild. Example - in the first 10 minutes Huang tells the story of betting the farm on basically unproven emulation and going to production pre tape-out.
Holding pattern - Varda Space Industries, an in-orbit pharma lab, is suffering the interstellar sting of red tape. Varda is currently developing the world’s first space-made drug, specifically a HIV / hepatitis C antiviral, that benefits from production advantages of microgravity. The lab and payload was set to return to Earth a few weeks ago but has been delayed indefinitely due to America’s greatest export, bureaucratic delay. Commercial space is built on the idea that satellites are a single use product (i.e. burn up in the atmosphere) but because Varda’s labs are designed for re-entry and collection the coordination task has been…complex.
Can’t catch a brake - California bans all Cruise driverless cars after multiple safety misrepresentations. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating multiple accidents that occurred due to rapid braking of the autonomous vehicles, some of which have resulted in human injury. Probably should just use Wayve….
Full of hot air - Sergey Brin’s startup, Lighter than Air Research, received an airworthiness certificate for its helium-filled airship. LTA intends its aircraft to be used for humanitarian missions, deploying cargo and personnel to areas that are inaccessible by road. I feel like the SNL skit writes itself here.
Man of steal - If you’re looking to commit financial crimes a good time to do them is the evening when your target files for bankruptcy. In this case the target is former crypto exchange and current court room tire fire, FTX. Wired has a very entertaining story of a billion+ crypto steal that kicked off the night that the wheels really fell off. Not deep tech news - I just love a good heist.
Book report - I finally finished One Giant Leap and it was awesome. I’ve mentioned this book a few times but as a reminder this was the comprehensive story of the space race / moon landing + an ex-post perspective on what the true impact of said event was. I picked up this book because I love space, hate communists and sort of needed to feel good about the US again. But what I took away was a far greater appreciation for the catalytic effect that grand challenge had on the tech industry at large (silicon wafers, software viability, advanced materials, etc.). Highly, highly recommend.
Portfolio Flex
Lakera announced their $10M Seed round, led by our friends at RedAlpine. Since launching their Lakera Guard offering they are really having a moment
Kheiron Medical’s AI-radiology solution was found to improve breast cancer detection rates in Hungary by 13% and now the’ve replicated those results in Scotland. NHS Grampian saw a ~13% increase in cancer detection rate compared to the standard double reading, which translates to as many as 2,000 women in the UK per year could have their breast cancers diagnosed earlier. Kheiron was also recently published in Nature for related work.
Until next time
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