The Top 10 in Tech – March 2021

1.    MIT is building a ‘one-stop shop’ for 3D-printing robots

Take: MIT’s latest innovation, LaserFactory, is the breakthrough prototype of a one-stop shop for additive manufacturing solutions. The system appears to be the first solution to integrate the full manufacturing pipeline, including assembly. While the official presentation of the project is expected in May, the technology could be a catalyst for additive manufacturing in the industry.

2.    Tesla buys $1.5B in bitcoin, may accept the cryptocurrency as payment in the future

Take: Tesla announced the purchase as a diversification effort of the investments, however the company also declared their intention to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment in the near future. Several analysts declared that the move was to shift the media from the issues Tesla have in China as the company was recently summoned over quality concerns.

3.    Social audio app Clubhouse has topped 8 million global downloads

Take: Still being an invite-only app, Clubhouse managed to disrupt the social media landscape with more than 5 million downloads within just 2 weeks. With Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg hosting talks, the platform became the hub of business and hustle culture, proving the worth of need for personalized business content. This quick success also put other giants in worry as both Facebook and Twitter announced to launch their own lookalikes.

4. TikTok’s forced sale to Oracle is put on hold

Take: The Biden administration put the Oracle deal on hold while still investing the potential data, privacy, and security concerns. Yet, it seems TikTok will overcome the concerns as the company opened many job positions in the U.S. very recently. The TikTok could be the sign of healing Sino-American relations, however the administration showed no inclination to put Huawei back on the table.

5. NASA’s Perseverance rover is about to start searching for life on Mars

Take: The aim of the mission is to explore Mars by retrieving samples and to better understand whether the planet is habitable by examining the atmosphere and natural resources. Declared as the “hardest mission ever” for NASA, the rover is a showcase of the state-of-art technology. MOXIE is a device that aims to create usable oxygen from the Martian atmosphere and there is Ingenuity, a helicopter that could take the first powered controlled flight ever made on another planet.

6. China’s Ant to hive off credit data in revamp; sees IPO in 2 years – sources

Take: Regulators suspended Ant Group’s IPO in November, which would have been the world’s biggest, due to regulatory concerns over the amount of data Alibaba has. Jack Ma found the solution in spinning off the consumer credit data operations and restructuring the Ant Group to be a more regulated financial holding company to ease the regulatory burden.

7. Facebook bans news in Australia as fight with government escalates

Take: Australian government proposed rules that would require Facebook and Google to pay media organizations for the use of their news content. Tech Giants threatened to shut down their services if the bill was to pass. It did and thus, Facebook banned all the news content from the platform in Australia.  This ban is “the most restrictive move Facebook has ever taken against content publishers.”

8. Jeff Bezos will no longer be CEO of Amazon as of later this year

Take: Bezos announced that he’ll leave his seat to become the executive chairman this year. The current CEO of Amazon Web Services, Andy Jassy, will take Bezos’ place. Jassy takes the credit in AWS’s dominion in the cloud market, and his transition shows Amazon’s intentions to stay on top regardless of Microsoft Azure’s notable %50 growth past year.

9. After firing a top AI ethicist, Google is changing its diversity and research policies

Take: The co-leader of the ethical AI team in Google is fired because she was  using automated scripts to look through her messages to find examples showing discriminatory treatment of Timnit Gebru. Gebru was fired from Google supposedly after questioning an order not to publish a paper claiming AI that mimics language could hurt marginalized populations. To calm the tides, Google appointed Marian Croak as the lead of the team and promised to implement new policies to enhance diversity and inclusion.

10. Volkswagen’s Porsche Sports Car Brand May be Listed by IPO

Take: According to Bloomberg, Volkswagen is strongly considering spinning off Porsche. This strategic move helps Volkswagen in multiple fronts. Currently, Ferrari trades on about 32 times its expected operating profit. The IPO would mean both a huge cash intake for WV and a distinct separation for its EV line, making Porsche a competitor for Tesla and NIO in the booming premium EV market.