Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., America’s first Black Air Force chief, on race, tech, and the trouble with AI

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General Charles Q. Brown Jr. became the first Black chief of staff of the Air Force during a perilous moment for the United States. In the time between Brown’s nomination and his unanimous confirmation by the Senate, George Floyd died under the knee of officer Derek Chauvin on the street in Minneapolis. While angry protests and a national reckoning over race unfolded around the country, Brown made the difficult decision to speak out with unusual frankness and depth of feeling for a military leader. “I’m thinking about how my nomination provides some hope but also comes with a heavy burden,” he said in a video addressed to Air Force personnel. “I can’t fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix decades of discrimination that may have impacted members of our Air Force.” [Photo: U.S. Air Force] Brown also entered his role as the U.S. was navigating a rapidly evolving global threat environment. The four-star general spent a good part of his career leading the Air Force’s fight against nonstate terror groups, chiefly ISIS, in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now the U.S. is increasingly threatened by major state actors, mainly a resurgent Russia and emergent China. These new opponents may attack in ways that aren’t necessarily addressable using fighter planes and missiles. It’ll be Brown’s job to oversee the Air Force’s shift in investment away from legacy platforms and toward technologies that will allow the U.S. to compete in the battle theaters of the future. I spoke to the general about these emerging threats, the Air Force’s work with U.S Read More …

The devastating cost of the Big Tech billionaires’ immense wealth

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COVID-19 was a boon for the superrich. There are few better examples than the founders, CEOs, and spouses of the five Big Tech giants: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Apple’s Tim Cook and Laurene Powell Jobs. I call them the tech barons. The recently released Forbes World’s Billionaires List includes some shocking figures about our tech overlords. At the start of 2020, the tech barons were collectively worth $419 billion. A year later, their wealth had soared to $651 billion—a 56% increase. The hoarding of that wealth harms us all: It distributes resources away from those who need it most and, by allowing the tech barons to influence government policy, corrodes democratic society. Most of us will never grow our wealth by 56% in a year. But wealth begets wealth Read More …

This immersive technology turns hospitals into less stressful places

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There is quality sound, and there is noise. Sadly, in our day-to-day lives, we have way too much of the latter. Excessive noise can cause several short- and long-term health problems, such as sleep disturbance, cardiovascular effects, poorer work and school performance, and the most obvious risk: hearing impairment. Noise has emerged as a leading environmental nuisance in the World Health Organization’s European region, and the number of public complaints about excessive noise is growing. Read More …

Scientists created embryos with human and monkey cells, stoking ethical concerns

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Scientists are locked in debate over the necessity of creating chimera embryos that contain both monkey and human cells. A study released on Thursday  showed that human cells can indeed grow when implanted inside macaque monkey embryos. The goal of the research is to find ways to develop human organs and tissue that can be used for transplants. But some scientists are urging caution and question the need for this type of research at all. The study took 132 monkey embryos and injected them with human stem cells. Scientists used a process that allowed them to develop monkey embryos for up to 20 days in a lab. Only three of the embryos made it to day 19 before they collapsed. What was most exciting to the scientists involved is that the human and monkey cells were able to communicate with one another, allowing the human cells to survive. Past research has shown that trying to grow human cells in pigs or sheep yields far less stunning results, though humans and macaques are much more closely related than humans and pigs. The study’s authors see this research as key to better understanding human development and primate evolution, and an opportunity to advance the use of chimeras for organ creation. The need for organs is great. In the U.S. alone, over 100,000 people are registered on the national waiting list for a transplant. Approximately 17 people die every day because they were unable to secure a transplant, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. Still, some scientists are concerned about what this research could mean in the future. The loudest worry is about the potential for so-called “rogue scientists” to use this research to develop true human-monkey chimeras. Another is that such experiments may develop in unintended ways. Plus, there are ethical questions about creating chimeras purely for organ extraction Read More …