Web browser Mozilla is investing $30 million into launching a startup, called Mozilla.ai, focused on building a "trustworthy, independent, and open-source AI ecosystem."
The company wrote in a blog post about the investment: "This new wave of AI has generated excitement, but also significant apprehension. We aren’t just wondering What’s possible? and How can people benefit? We’re also wondering What could go wrong? and How can we address it? Two decades of social media, smartphones and their consequences have made us leery."
Mozilla said it still sees the potential of AI to enrich peoples' lives, but it doesn't see those positive effects coming from "big tech and cloud companies with the most power and influence."
The company pitched Mozilla.ai as a "counterweight to the status quo" that will make "generative AI safer and more transparent." Moez Draief, who researched AI at Imperial College and LSE, will lead the initiative.
Fold CEO & Co-founder Will Reeves joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses what his company's augmented reality metaverse involves and elaborates on Fold's goals surrounding the new initiative.
Donald Pettey, Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives for MassDOT, and Mohammed Siddiqui, Vice President of Public Relations at Ko-Solar, join Cheddar Climate, where they discuss their plan to test highway barriers that absorb sound and solar energy, with construction expected to begin in the first half of 2022.
President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" bill could mean cheaper electric bicycles and scooters as the nation attempts to shift away from gas-powered cars. Noa Banayan, the director of federal affairs at PeopleForBikes, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to provide some background on the E-Bike Act included in Biden's reconciliation bill that would provide tax credits for qualified purchases. "We want to make sure, from the bike industry's perspective, that this is a technology and a product that is available to the majority of Americans who want to lower their carbon footprint and get around town faster and do everything that they would normally do in a short car trip but by bike, because it's healthier, it's fast, it's efficient, you're not in traffic," she said.
