obvious

“Apple Purchases AI Company Focusing on Oversight of Production Components”

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Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based tech to observe components during manufacturing to improve efficiency, Bloomberg reported. DarwinAI had raised over $15 million in funding across various rounds from investors including BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund, Honeywell Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Inovia Capital. BDC Capital and Obvious Venture didn’t comment on the story at the time of writing. As Bloomberg noted in its report, apart from helping with manufacturing efficiency, DarwinAI uses techniques to make AI models smaller and faster. This could be useful for on-device generative AI features Apple hopes to introduce in iOS 18 this year.

COP28: The Long-Awaited Recognition of Global Truth

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I have a confession to make: I don’t usually follow the UN climate change conference proceedings until the very end. Not because it was hosted by an oil and gas power, and not because neither President Biden nor the Pope attended. Rather, I’ve come to view all Conferences of the Parties (COP) as lagging indicators of what needs to happen. More recently, they’ve also become lagging indicators of what’s actually happening in the world. Documents leaked shortly before COP28 showed that the country was planning to use the meeting to strike oil and gas deals with 15 countries.