Elon Musk and Twitter Making Headlines Again

Never one to stay out of the headlines for long, Elon Musk’s recent bid to acquire Twitter has prompted the company to ward off his $43bn takeover attempt with a poison-pill defense. ​​Previously, in early April, Twitter shares had soared by almost a third after Musk bought a 9.2% stake in the company – having recently criticized its failure to uphold freedom of speech.

The Tesla tycoon took to Twitter on April 9 to thank the attendees of an event to celebrate the opening of his company’s new electric car factory in Texas, which will focus on producing the Model Y vehicle. He had told a large crowd at the ‘Cyber Rodeo’ that Tesla would reach an unprecedented size to help the world to transition to sustainable energy and that the $1.1bn Austin plant would play an important part in this. Musk also once again said that Tesla would soon make its 'full self-driving' beta software available to the North American customers who have paid up to $12,000 for it. Having been promising its arrival for several years, Musk announced that it could be expected some time this year now. He also spoke of creating a futuristic, self-driving 'robotaxi'.

While such technologies are rapidly changing familiar consumer products, they also have the potential to profoundly alter the political sphere. Many writers have explored how rulers could use technology to coerce and control their subjects, yet the myriad problems that AI could bring are poorly understood. A recent TechCrunch article identifies three ways in which AI will precipitate major changes. First, the balance of power between countries will shift with the development of AI. Technology has always defined the geopolitical order and the advent of AI will mark another stage of jostling for position, particularly between the US and China. Secondly, it is arguably corporations to a greater extent than governments that today are leading the way in technological advancement and AI. Some already overshadow countries and command considerable geopolitical power in their own right. Thirdly, AI also has enormous potential to transform and broaden the art of war, not only through enhancing traditional weapon systems but by opening new offensive fronts. We have already begun to see some states take advantage of technology to spread disinformation, meddle in elections, and hack crucial infrastructure.

Amongst the many concerns over the destructive potential of AI, though, it is easy to lose sight of its creative potential. And indeed it offers great possibilities for opening up all sorts of tasks and professions to beginners and novices. Software company Salesforce is developing AI that can produce computer code based on conversations. Rather than actually writing the code themselves, users would simply explain what they want it to do, the company's chief scientist Silvio Savarese recently told TechCrunch. This could benefit experienced programmers by automating the laborious process of writing the code manually, as well as laymen, whose ability to code may be only limited.

Another interesting example of how technology could ease all sorts of tasks is a raspberry-picking robot being designed in Switzerland. There's a knack to picking a delicious ripe raspberry that the human hand is particularly adept at, but which robots struggle to replicate. The researchers are using a silicon raspberry to 'train' their robot, which receives feedback from the imitation berry to teach it to pick cleanly. Given the short harvest season for the tasty red berries – and labor shortages in some areas for fruit-pickers – automating the process could quite literally bear a great deal of fruit!