The World as You'll Know It
Newsletter / Issue No. 29
The World’s Workforce is Shrinking. Will Technology Come to the Rescue?
Fertility rates are dropping and people are living longer. The combination is disrupting long-held demographic patterns and threatening to destabilise economies around the world. We’re entering an age of AI-enhanced technology, but will it deliver the productivity gains we need?
Plus
A new AI scientist from Google is proving itself useful in labs. Chinese biotech companies are on a drug development tear. AI is tracking poverty in Africa. And it might be very difficult to build the data centers of the future if AI continues to advance at its current pace.
Technology / Feature
A $10-Billion Plan to Sell Africa's Wind and Sun to Countries 7,000 Miles Away
A deep look at how green hydrogen could capitalize on remote areas of renewable resources and redraw the world's energy map.
Artificial Intelligence / Feature
One Company's Decision to Put AI Into the Ground
What does it mean to adopt AI? For John Deere it meant hundreds of millions of dollars, a new corporate culture and forever changing the relationship between a farmer and the land.
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about Clean Energy Tech
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about Clean Energy Tech
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Timeline
13 Milestones in the History of Robots
People have been making machines that replicate human abilities for centuries. These are the breakthroughs that got robots to where they are today. Photo: NMAH
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Feature
Robots' final frontier? Taking care of us.
To understand how far robots are from replacing humans, just look at the everyday task of using a fork.
By Clive Thompson