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Welcome to this update from New World Same Humans, a newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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Coming Back Around
It’s been a while. The last time I sent an instalment of this newsletter OpenAI had just launched its new text-to-video model, Sora.
After that, things went unexpectedly quiet.
Thanks to those of you who dropped me a line to ask: where did you go?
And to those who signed up during this unplanned break, welcome. This newsletter is a place to think about emerging technologies, social change, and the new world taking shape around us.
What happened? The short and wildly lame answer: I got caught in a perfect storm of work projects and life events, including lots of writing for the premium research service that I launched last year, The Exponentialist.
But now I want to reboot! To that end, here is a glimpse of four intriguing stories that surfaced while I was away. Think of them as Postcards from the Exponential Age, gathered while I was on my travels.
I’ll be back with more soon. That means the return of the weekly update. Plus a long essay that was sent to Exponentialist subscribers a while back. And a sequel to the Creatures and Machines essay that I published at the start of the year.
All of this is to say: I’ve been neglecting this community, and I want to make it up to you.
So, let’s get into it.
🤖 Apple and your new AI friend
Ahead of Apple’s WWDC event in June, a new research paper offers a glimpse of what the company is cooking in its AI lab.
The paper introduces ReALM (Reference Resolution As Language Modeling): a multi-modal AI model that can understand both natural language conversation and on-screen content.
Why does this have tech watchers talking?
When it comes to this generative AI moment, Apple has been nearly silent. And we’ve all been waiting patiently for them to make their move.
After all, they’re perfectly positioned. Apple has built huge edge AI capability on their newer devices, meaning those phones and laptops can run large models on-device, no internet required. And when the company does nail an AI application, they can roll it out to over 1 billion iPhone users.
It’s widely expected the company will make a series of AI announcements at the upcoming WWDC.
Now, with ReALM, it looks as though the pieces of the puzzle are coming together. ReALM’s ability to understand both user conversation and on-screen content means it can underpin a major upgrade of Siri, Apple’s on-device AI assistant.
This isn’t just about a better AI assistant. It’s about the kind of virtual companion we’ve been discussing since the earliest days of this newsletter: a guide, counsellor, and friend that knows you better than anyone and is there to talk 24/7. I’ve long believed this will be the next consumer-facing innovation to reweave the fabric of everyday life at the scale, and with the same speed, that the iPhone did.
A host of startups are also racing to create this kind of all-purpose virtual companion, including Character.AI and Inflection — at least, before the latter was eaten by Microsoft. But Apple have huge resources, and a global network of devices just waiting to receive their next software update.
The race is theirs to lose. I’ll be watching WWDC closely.
🌗 NASA wants the Moon to have its own time zone
The U.S. government has asked NASA to establish a definitive answer to the question: what time is it on the Moon?
A new memo sent to NASA by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy says the agency has until 2026 to establish a ‘Coordinated Lunar Time’ (CLT).
The challenge? CLT must run differently to the way our time zones work on Earth. Lower gravity on the lunar surface means time runs faster than it does on our planet, gaining around 58 microseconds per Earth day. It’s a tiny difference, but over time it compounds and if left unadjusted it will cause chaos for communications and satellite technologies.
All of this is happening as NASA gears up for its Artemis programme: a series of missions intended to put humans back on the Moon in 2026.
The deeper point here? Via NASA’s Artemis missions back to the Moon, the vast contribution made by SpaceX, and a flourishing ecosystem of startups, a new space economy is set to bloom into life. See startups such as Varda Space Industries, which last month successfully used an orbiting satellite to formulate an HIV medicine in microgravity conditions.
This lunar and space economy is just firing up. If it’s to function, we need an agreed Moon Time.
The coming of CLT, then, sends a powerful message: the Exponential Age is pushing beyond Earth.
👨💻 Use of ChatGPT at work is accelerating fast
New data from Pew Research shows that use of ChatGPT for work purposes is in steep ascent.
A full 20% of the U.S. adults surveyed by Pew in February said they’ve used ChatGPT for work tasks, up from just 12% in the middle of last year.
Amid the lightspeed AI advances we’ve all seen across the last 24 months, here is further evidence that momentum is still gathering. The proportion of U.S. adults using ChatGPT for work has more than doubled in a year.
And we’re still so early. With crushing inevitably, we’re amid the early days of a backlash against generative AI. Critics say that it is yet to have a transformational impact on the real economy or the working lives of most people. That’s true enough. But transformational impact takes time.
Integrating generative AI tools into the workflows of large companies is the work of years, not months. Remember, it took decades before we saw productivity boosts from other general purpose technologies, including electricity and PCs.
There’s much yet to come. Including domain and industry-specific apps. New kinds of AI models that weave together the benefits of statistical and symbolic approaches to AI. And the development of the organisational skills and culture needed to allow most workers to take advantage of all this.
Don’t believe the worst excesses of the hype on generative AI. But don’t believe the backlash when it comes, either.
💥 Next-generation nuclear is coming to the U.S.
A nuclear energy startup backed by Bill Gates says it will start building the first next-generation nuclear power plant in the U.S. in June.
TerraPower says it is applying for permits to start construction of its advanced Natrium reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Gates recently heralded the coming of the Wyoming reactor on his blog, doubling down on his argument that ‘the world needs to make a big bet on nuclear’.
We’re on the verge of a nuclear renaissance led by a host of nuclear power startups. Think players such as TerraPower, X-Energy, and Last Energy, who want to make small modular reactors in disused U.S. shipyards. And one key implication? This renaissance will fuel the AI revolution happening now.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is a major investor in Helion, a U.S. startup pursuing fusion power. The Altman and Gates connections here are no accident. Both of these tech leaders know that to fuel the AI revolution that is accelerating now, we’re going to need much more compute. And that means huge energy demands.
AI and energy are now falling into a symbiotic, flywheel relationship. It’s an epic Exponential Age story, and one I’ve been watching for a while. Much more to come on this.
Same Humans Are Go
Thanks for reading this week.
Taken together, these postcards send a powerful message.
We’re amid a confluence powerful emerging technologies. Think machine intelligence, robotics, blockchains, technologies of genetic manipulation and more. It’s hard to avoid the feeling that systemic, transformational change is ahead.
This newsletter will keep watching, and working to make sense of what it all means for we humans and our shared future. And there’s one thing you can do to help: share!
If this week’s instalment resonated with you, why not forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it? Or share it across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.
I’ll be back next week. Until then, be well,
David.