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."
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Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
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An internet outage on Monday morning highlights the reliance on Amazon's cloud services. This incident reveals vulnerabilities in the concentrated system. Cloud computing allows companies to rent Amazon's infrastructure instead of building their own. Amazon leads the market, followed by Google and Microsoft. The outage originated in Northern Virginia, the biggest and oldest cloud hub in the U.S. This region handles significantly more data than other hubs. Despite the idea of spreading workloads, many rely on this single hub. The demand for computing power, especially for AI, is driving a construction boom for data centers.
Ashley Fieglein Johnson, CFO & President at Planet, joins us to share the story behind the Owl launch—and how strategy, tech, and vision are fueling liftoff.
