The Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), whose 2020 event concluded Wednesday, showcases the innovators harnessing the power of technology to address the greatest challenges facing humanity and our planet.
Young Sohn, corporate president and chief strategy officer for Samsung Electronics, and the co-founder of XTC, said the 80 judges who evaluate the contestants were looking for something different this year due to COVID-19 conditions.
"We used to look at the message, but now, we really want a viable business... we are looking for a startup management team that has the ability to drive and achieve their mission," Sohn said. "I think providing a very viable business plan that can be developed and discussed by the community is really what we are looking for."
This year's global winner was Genecis, a cleantech startup that converts food waste into biodegradable plastics and other high-value materials. Microgen Biotech's Xuemei Germaine won the Female Founder Award, and the COVID-19 Innovation Award went to TytoCare.
Sohn said it was important that companies were working towards implementing the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals.
"Whether it's the food issues, medicine, inclusion issues, equality, education. And we want to make sure these kinds of areas are well-captured, along with the technology to enable these applications to develop," he noted.
But achieving these goals takes inspiration and teamwork, and Sohn is hoping that the collaboration of ideas between bigger companies can bring greater results. He also gave credit to one world leader for providing the inspiration for creating this competition.
"I give a lot of credit to [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron for inspiring us to really rework our goals... working with big corporations like Samsung and Intel and Microsoft to accelerate the innovation path. In the process, together, I think we could have a bigger impact."
Apple has taken down an app that uses crowdsourcing to flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents after coming under pressure from the Trump administration.
Former Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers learned all about technology’s volatile highs and lows as a veteran of the internet’s early boom days during the late 1990s and the ensuing meltdown that followed the mania. And now he is seeing potential signs of the cycle repeating with another transformative technology in artificial intelligence. Chambers is trying take some of the lessons he learned while riding a wave that turned Cisco into the world's most valuable company in 2000 before a crash hammered its stock price and apply them as an investor in AI startups. He recently discussed AI's promise and perils during an interview with The Associated Press.
Tesla reported a surprise increase in sales in the third quarter as the electric car maker likely benefited from a rush by consumers to take advantage of a $7,500 credit before it expired on Sept. 30. The company reported Thursday that sales in the three months through September rose 7% compared to the same period a year ago. The gain follows two quarters of steep declines as people turned off by CEO Elon Musk’s foray into right-wing politics avoided buying his company’s cars and even protested at some dealerships. Sales rose to 497,099 vehicles, compared with 462,890 in the same period last year.
OpenAI could now be the world’s most valuable startup, ahead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok parent company ByteDance, after a secondary stock sale designed to retain employees at the ChatGPT maker. Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company’s valuation to $500 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The valuation reflects high expectations for the future of AI technology and continues OpenAI’s remarkable trajectory from its start as a nonprofit research lab in 2015.
Tom’s Guide Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer breaks down Apple & Amazon's latest product drops—what's hot, what's hype, and what really matters for users.
Police in Northern California pulled over a self-driving Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn. But without a driver behind the wheel, they could not issue a moving violation ticket.
