Morning Thrust | Weekly Highlights (11th Edition: 26.02.2023)

Welcome to the 11th edition of?Morning Thrust?where I share weekly highlights on Future tech, Space Economy, Sustainability, Smart Cities, Supply Chain and logistics (Edition: 19.02.2023)

Four time #NBA Champion Stephen Curry joins forces with Simplicity building communication #superapp for #smartcities. Simplicity is an AI-driven platform for seamless interaction with local Government. Residents can find all city services, updates and events in one single place, allowing city administration to increase the quality of life for its residents with a mission to streamline government services and strengthen the bond between cities and their residents, Simplicity's cutting-edge technology has already been adopted by and is operational in over 30 major cities across the United States, including New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Austin, Denver, Buffalo, St. Louis, Cleveland and others.

Spotify partners with OpenAI and reveals new AI-powered DJ to personalise music for users. Spotify describes the DJ as a personalised AI guide that “knows you and your music taste so well that it can choose what to play for you”. The new DJ feature uses AI to suggest music and provide commentary in ‘a stunningly realistic voice’. In its latest earnings report last month, Spotify revealed that it surpassed the milestone of 200m paid subscribers in 2022. However, the company’s operating losses continue to mount and it recently revealed plans to cut roughly 6pc of its global workforce.

In 2023, rapid delivery services are common, but grocery delivery service aggregators and supermarket giants were slow to catch on. However, Deliveroo and Just Eat Takeaway.com now offer #grocery services in partnership with leading UK supermarkets and convenience retailers. 特易购公司 (Whoosh) and Ocado Retail (Zoom) are also growing their own rapid delivery platforms, creating competition for the delivery giants. Rising inflation and higher prices across basic grocery items have resulted in volume sales dropping by 6.9%, the lowest in over nine months, and shoppers trading down by opting for own-brand items and purchasing fewer non-essential products. Deliveroo ’s full-year profitability for 2022 is expected to be at -1% due to the cost-of-living crisis, with the company planning to start a redundancy process that could affect 9% of its workforce. While these challenges have been a significant hindrance to growth prospects for the #qcommerce market, grocers are continuing to invest in rapid delivery operations.

#China bans its big tech companies from providing #ChatGPT service. The country has previously banned 谷歌 Facebook YouTube & Twitter between 2009 & 2010 and also banned Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia & Reddit, Inc. between 2018 & 2019. Regulators in China have told big tech companies in the country not to offer ChatGPT services to the public. The report comes amid growing fears in the country that the #AI chatbot, developed by 微软 -backed OpenAI , is generating replies that would otherwise be censored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chinese tech giant 百度 recently announced it is in the final stages of testing for its?ChatGPT-like service?called "Ernie Bot". However, that service will likely be integrated into Baidu's products to begin with instead of being used as a regular chatbot.

The Delhi government?in #India banned the likes of #Ola #Uber and #Rapido from operating bike taxis?earlier this week. There are more than 500K bike taxi drivers in the country, with 120,000 active drivers based in Delhi alone. The state government stated that the companies were using bikes with private registration numbers (white number plates) for commercial purposes, which was a violation of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. However, under Section 15 of the Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines of 2020, the Central government has made the provision to allow non-transport vehicles, which includes bikes, to be aggregated. The bike taxi aggregators have reportedly argued that the Delhi government’s argument is fallacious. Incidentally, bike aggregator companies have to ensure that any new vehicles they onboard from the date of commencement of the scheme are electric #EV under the Delhi government’s new draft aggregator policy. Further, the government has mandated bike taxi aggregators to convert their fleet to 100% electric by the second year of the notification, though the same deadline for last-mile delivery companies is April 1, 2030. Bike Taxi Aggregators write to Delhi Govt seek time till 2025-2026 For #EV Transition.

With 10 billion people to feed globally by 2050, at that very sustainably, the world is looking at #blockchain and #AgriFi to drive technological innovation in developing countries. #Blockchain technology has diverse applications that improve efficiency and incentivise #community participation. The #farming sector can benefit from blockchain solutions, which can improve small business operations across financial and sustainability metrics. As the world's population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050, agricultural development is crucial for ending poverty, achieving shared prosperity, and feeding the #global population. The $8.5 trillion global agri-food industry needs technological innovation to achieve these goals. While farmers in G20 nations have access to technology, small farmers in emerging countries struggle to produce enough food for their families, and this gap needs to be reduced to sustainably feed the growing population.

European Space Agency - ESA is leading a project to explore the use of lunar soil to create fertiliser for growing plants on the #Moon. The project, called ‘Enabling Lunar In-Situ Agriculture by Producing Fertilizer from Beneficiated Regolith’, aims to extract mineral nutrients from the regolith and study a combination of mechanical, chemical, and biological processes to create fertiliser. #Hydroponic farming, which feeds plant roots with nutrient-rich water without soil, offers a practical alternative to the use of #lunar regolith. The project is being led by Norway’s Solsys Mining and funded by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities.

Uber has released an updated version of its app that aims to simplify and personalise the experience for customers. The new app has a more straightforward homescreen, making it easier for customers to book a ride or order a delivery. It also allows customers to access saved locations more easily, and some iPhone users can track a ride's progress on their lock screen. The redesign is aimed at making the user experience effortless and intuitive, encouraging customers to see Uber as the "one-stop-shop" for going anywhere 0and getting anything. The release will go out to "tens of millions" of customers in 1,200 cities worldwide, expanding the breadth and relevance of products that Uber customers can engage with.

Subway is partnering with electric vehicle infrastructure startup GenZ EV Solutions to build electric car-charging stations at some of its locations, with plans to eventually launch larger "Subway Oasis" facilities that include green spaces, bathrooms, and playgrounds. This move shows how companies with large #retail footprints are finding creative ways to embrace the electric transition while also making money. Subway plans to start with smaller charging stations this year and is working with #franchisees to roll them out. The goal is to provide equitable access to charging infrastructure, which is essential to the adoption of #EVs.

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration is seeking university researchers to explore the possibility of using metal extracted from the moon's surface layer in 3D printing and other material sciences technologies. The Lunar Surface Technology Research program is part of NASA’s #Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative aimed at funding early-stage technology that could be transitioned into large production contracts. This follows the trend of leveraging resources in space to avoid using more fuel from Earth. The rising interest in metal mining in space coincides with improvements and greater investment in tech like 3D printing. China's increasing investments in space have heightened the urgency of the space race that NASA and other US agencies hope to win.

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