Rich Man’s Ring
The Stargate Project, a $500 billion initiative led by Donald Trump to establish the United States as a global leader in artificial intelligence, is sparking friction even before its official launch. The project aims to reshape AI research and implementation, but it has not escaped criticism and controversy.
Elon Musk, now heading the Government Efficiency Department, openly criticized the financial capacity of the project’s stakeholders, including SoftBank and OpenAI. Musk suggested that the promised funds are overly ambitious. In response, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, accused Musk of pushing his interests in AI, particularly his xAI project.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s exclusion from the Stargate announcement highlighted growing tensions with OpenAI. Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019, now faces challenges as OpenAI seeks more computational capacity to meet its ambitious goals. The exclusivity agreement between the two is also reportedly limiting OpenAI’s expansion, as Microsoft focuses on integrating AI into its software products.
Speaking of AI…
Artificial intelligence (AI), capable of making independent decisions, dominated discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos. These AI systems offer immediate returns for businesses but also raise structural and ethical questions.
Alan Flower from HCLTech emphasized the challenges of integrating these autonomous agents into existing workflows. Coordinating collaboration between AI agents and humans and ensuring seamless interaction between AI systems from different organizations are top concerns.
One pressing question is whether these agents should be evaluated using performance indicators, like KPIs, and how to “motivate” their performance. Beyond operations, experts warn about governance issues. Trusting bots to represent brands or individuals without a solid ethical framework could lead to significant risks. Human resources departments have an opportunity to lead this integration by creating transparent systems for AI adoption.
Hunting Hydrogen: The New Energy Race
A fresh race is underway, and this time the prize is natural hydrogen—a potential game-changer for decarbonizing industries like aviation, shipping, and steel production.
Recent studies reveal trillions of tons of natural hydrogen stored underground, formed by chemical reactions involving water, iron, and radioactive elements. Australia is emerging as a leader in this exploration, with startups like Koloma raising over $350 million to map and access hydrogen deposits.
Despite its promise, the hydrogen sector faces significant hurdles. Challenges include the logistics of hydrogen transport and storage, its low density, and the presence of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—in some reserves. Furthermore, current exploration methods rely on oil and gas industry techniques, which may not efficiently locate or extract hydrogen.
