X, the moonshot factory

How do you design a model aircraft to have the same quality, reliability, and performance as a commercial jet? Adam Savage’s “Tested” visited Wing’s workshop and labs to learn how the team envisions and engineers their autonomous drones to set them up for success in the air. In the episode, CEO Adam Woodworth shows the Tested crew Wing’s earliest “stick plane” models, takes them on a tour of the custom wind tunnel the team built to test propellers, explains how his team solved design challenges like creating bigger delivery drones to hold items like six-packs of beer and boxes of diapers, and more. Take a look: https://lnkd.in/gnMFpRFh

💥 Bad ideas spark big breakthroughs. That’s what Astro Teller, head of Alphabet’s innovation lab X, the moonshot factory, shared with Pioneers of AI host Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D. at last week’s Masters of Scale Summit. In today’s Frontiers of AI newsletter, discover how X’s unique brainstorming approach has fueled innovations like Waymo and major AI advancements. Astro’s tip? Don’t ask for the best ideas — ask for the worst ones. Astro also breaks down the three essential components of a moonshot and the power of small experiments. Dive into today’s issue to learn more.

“When it comes to plastic, we desperately need innovation to jump-start the circular economy.” Elsa Wenzel wrote about X's moonshot for circularity and how the team is building a molecular inventory management platform to create a world without waste. Read the Trellis Group article to learn more: https://lnkd.in/g5CMfe-r   Joy Rifkin, Rey Banatao, Astro Teller

We’re honored that Project Taara and Project Bellwether were named two of Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech this year! These moonshots are developing breakthrough solutions in connectivity and disaster response. Learn more about their work on the list. #FCTechAwards https://lnkd.in/gq9AZ8Cj

“It’s a shame that we spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year extracting things like petroleum to make plastics, and we just throw that away and have to re-extract all over again.” X’s moonshot for the circular economy was featured in a recent episode of “Where the Internet Lives,” which chronicled the team’s efforts to transform waste management. The team is building tools that use data and AI to identify plastic waste at the molecular level to find new ways to reuse and recycle the world’s waste. Watch the episode, which features X’s Rey Banatao, Recology’s Julia Mangin, Google’s Kate Brandt, and more: https://lnkd.in/d5ED_zSd

What if our waste became our most valuable resource? Global waste is projected to reach 3.8 billion tons annually by 2050—a 73% increase from 2020. X’s Moonshot for Circularity has been developing radical new approaches to help with this ballooning waste management problem. Their mission is to transform the way we recycle, reuse, and redesign the world’s goods so that we will no longer need to extract raw resources from the earth to create new products. Learn more this National Recycling Day: https://lnkd.in/gpEMPHxd #NationalRecyclingDay

How can we use technology, business, and creativity to solve some of humanity’s biggest problems? X Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller sat down with Rana el Kaliouby, Ph.D. for an episode of the Pioneers of AI podcast to discuss how our teams are working on new approaches to huge challenges like carbon capture and universal connectivity. Listen to their full conversation, which touched on the future of AI, the meaning of humanity, and even love: https://lnkd.in/grspTVdH

Congratulations to the Taara and Bellwether teams for being named two of TIME's Best Inventions for 2024! Taara, which is bringing fast, affordable connectivity to communities around the world using beams of light, won the Communications & Connectivity category. Bellwether, which is building the first prediction engine for Earth, won the Artificial Intelligence category. X’s mission is to develop breakthrough technologies to help address some of humanity’s toughest problems, and it’s an honor for two of our projects to be recognized among the groundbreaking inventions on this year’s list: https://lnkd.in/ekZTJCpd #TIMEBestInventions

It’s #NationalInternetDay, which marks the date in 1969 when the first electronic message was sent over a network. Now, 55 years later, we rely on the internet to power most aspects of our daily lives—and yet 3 billion people are still not online. Taara, X’s moonshot for connectivity, aims to address this by using beams of light to bring fast, affordable internet access to communities around the world. Taara was recently spotlighted in Bloomberg’s series “The Future with Hannah Fry.” It features Hannah visiting the Taara lab to learn how the technology works and meeting with entrepreneurs in Kenya who have been able to help their neighbors come online by reselling Taara data. As the episode depicts, it’s not only a technical challenge to bring reliable connectivity to everyone globally; there are also economic and social barriers. “This is where you see the genuine impact the internet has on people’s lives,” Hannah says. “Not just in terms of access to information and the outside world, but also the business opportunity it presents.” Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/g_jb-tGP

“It’s the kind of thing that sounds like science fiction—but it’s already taking place in deployments around the world.” Adam Savage “Tested” visited the airfield where X graduate, Wing conducts its test flights to learn about the future of drone delivery. Touring the facility and deconstructing the components of both real and model drones, CEO Adam Woodworth explained how his team ensures their aircrafts meet regulations to be considered a “little airline,” how they build the structures to avoid damage, and how Wing is working towards a future where drones move out of the “what if?” phase and into our everyday lives. Check out the full episode: https://lnkd.in/gBX74a57