X, the moonshot factory

X Graduate Waymo shows what it’s *really* like to be driven around by robots (spoiler alert: extremely convenient, especially if you’re hoping to play saxophone in the backseat!). Take a look:

“Early wins are fun. Plucking low-hanging fruit is satisfying. Progress and momentum are awesome. But if you can’t solve the monkey, that progress goes to waste.” Journalist Jeff Haden highlighted one of the key pieces of advice from X Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller in a recent piece for Inc Magazine: Always start with the monkey. In other words, when pursuing an audacious goal, it’s often tempting to begin by tackling the easy parts. If you wanted to teach a monkey to recite Shakespeare on top of a pedestal, it might seem like it makes the most sense to build the pedestal first—a straightforward task to complete. But if you can’t train the monkey to speak the lines from those historic plays, all the time and energy spent constructing that pedestal will have been for nothing. Astro often invokes the monkey-and-pedestal metaphor when describing X’s approach to taking moonshots. Learn more about how Jeff applied this mindset to his own life: https://lnkd.in/gtaQ7p6M

This World Nature Conservation Day, we’re spotlighting the ocean, which covers 70% of the earth, provides half the oxygen we breathe, and produces food for billions. Our oceans are essential to sustaining life on this planet—but they’re under serious threat from overfishing, pollution, acidification, and climate change. Tidal, X’s moonshot for ocean health, is working to help change that with underwater perception technology that helps fish farmers move to more environmentally friendly practices. The team recently became an independent company focused on feeding humanity sustainably while protecting the ocean. Learn more about their work: https://lnkd.in/gEP9BQvm. #WorldNatureConservationDay

“After only an hour of living with robotic legs, I have zero doubt that mini exoskeletons like MO/GO will soon be an essential part of our lives—especially for those who have difficulty walking.” This week Skip unveiled the MO/GO, the world’s first piece of “powered clothing,” built using technology developed at X. In collaboration with outdoor gear company Arc'teryx, the MO/GO uses sensors and power to help people walk, hike, and climb stairs with ease—or, as Skip describes it, “an e-bike for your body.” Fast Company’s Global Design Editor, Mark Wilson, was one of the earliest people to try the MO/GO on for size. Here’s what he thought: https://lnkd.in/dH__Fwqm.

Go behind the scenes to see how X’s Design Kitchen team built one of Project Tidal’s early prototypes to collect underwater imagery. This homemade “fish run” was one of the first ways the team collected imagery of fish and underwater ecosystems to build their AI models. Learn more about X’s moonshot for ocean health and the team’s mission and technology here: https://lnkd.in/g8rGRUzB.

X Graduate 280 Earth recently signed a $40 million deal to capture carbon from the atmosphere with Frontier, a collective of companies dedicated to carbon dioxide removal. 280 Earth’s novel system, which was developed by scientists at X, uses waste heat from data centers and other large industrial operations to pull carbon dioxide out of the air at unprecedentedly low temperatures. As part of the agreement, 280 Earth’s pilot facility in Oregon will be used to capture 61,600 tons of carbon dioxide by 2030. Read more from Justine Calma with The Verge:  https://lnkd.in/ex_5gxpD

🐠What started with kiddie pools and plastic fish is now X’s newest graduate, Tidal. 🫧Tidal set out to develop breakthrough technology to help improve ocean health and sustainably feed the planet’s growing population. Along the way, they built all kinds of prototypes to gather data and learn about aquatic relationships and ecosystems. 🌊 Today, Tidal’s AI powered technology is helping fish farmers around the world monitor the health and behavior of their stock, so they can make more sustainable decisions. 

🌊The tide is turning! Tidal, X’s moonshot for ocean health, is graduating to become an independent company focused on feeding humanity sustainably for generations to come. Read more in this post from X's Captain of Moonshots, Astro Teller: https://lnkd.in/g8rGRUzB

Congratulations to 280 Earth, a recent X graduate, which just signed a $40 million agreement to capture carbon emissions through Frontier, a collective of companies dedicated to carbon dioxide removal! 🌍 “When we started 280 Earth as a moonshot at X, our vision was always to find a radically effective, affordable and scalable way to remove billions of tons of carbon from our atmosphere. We’re excited to see this momentum with Frontier buyers.” - Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X

“Climate change is a systems problem, and we’re going to have to approach it that way.” Dr. Suze Kundu at Digital Science chats with X’s Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller about the multiple moonshots needed to tackle the climate crisis, from ocean health to the electric grid.