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Apple is set to revolutionise Siri with advanced AI capabilities, aiming to close the gap with rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, a Bloomberg report has said. The ambitious upgrade, internally codenamed “LLM Siri,” will make the voice assistant smarter, more conversational, and better equipped to handle complex queries. However, users will have to wait until 2026 for the full rollout, according to the portal. While Siri has received incremental updates in recent months, including a glowing interface, enhanced understanding of Apple devices, and improved pause detection during speech, it still struggles to compete with the sophisticated <keyword id="21257971" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-driven-tools" source="keywords">AI-driven tools</keyword> dominating the market. To bridge this gap, Apple is temporarily integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT into Siri starting this December, signalling the assistant’s current limitations while the company develops its own in-house large language models. The revamped Siri, expected to debut officially in spring 2026, is expected to feature cutting-edge AI models designed to make it significantly more intuitive and responsive. Apple is reportedly testing the next-generation assistant internally, with a possible preview at the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple’s cautious approach reflects its focus on delivering a polished product, but it also means delays in introducing groundbreaking features. While iOS 18.4, slated for release in spring 2024, will include minor improvements, many features originally planned for iOS 19 are now deferred to align with the Siri overhaul in 2026. This staggered rollout strategy ensures Apple has ample time to refine its AI capabilities while providing users with incremental enhancements in the meantime. However, for those eager for a smarter Siri, the true transformation remains at least two years away. Until then, the integration of ChatGPT and smaller updates aim to keep the assistant relevant in a fast-evolving AI landscape. Apple’s move underscores its determination to re-establish Siri as a competitive force in the world of generative AI, as it continues to refine and innovate its voice assistant for the future.

Apple is planning a major update for Siri to compete with ChatGPT, Gemini: All we know

India is resolved to lead the world in 6G, communications minister <keyword id="19999763" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jyotiraditya-Scindia" source="keywords">Jyotiraditya Scindia</keyword> said on Tuesday, terming the <keyword id="20434665" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="telecom-sector" source="keywords">telecom sector</keyword> of the country as 'aggressive' and 'ambitious'. Scindia, speaking at the inauguration of <keyword id="21058244" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Mobile-Congress" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="India Mobile Congress" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="India Mobile Congress">India Mobile Congress</keyword> and World Telecommunication Standardization (WTSA) 2024, said with the <keyword id="22506536" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharat-6G-Alliance" source="keywords">Bharat 6G Alliance</keyword>, India hopes to contribute at least 10 per cent patents to 6G standardisation. "It is our belief and our commitment -- India followed the world in 4G, we marched with the world in 5G, but we shall lead the world in 6G," the minister asserted. With the fastest <keyword id="20366727" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="5G-rollout" source="keywords">5G rollout</keyword> in India wherein 98 per cent of districts and 90 per cent of all villages were covered in a span of just 21 months, Scindia said it is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effort of not just embracing, but bracing the country to become the first-mover in 6G technology. "It is noteworthy that the Indian Mobile Congress and the International 6G Symposium demonstrates both local and global advancements in 6G, and also design principles that will shape the future of telecom," he further said. The recent changes to the <keyword id="22077688" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Telecommunications-Act-2023" source="keywords">Telecommunications Act 2023</keyword> have been designed in such a way so as to modernise India's telecom framework, drawing light upon hitherto unaddressed areas such as the high potential sector of <keyword id="21282723" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="satellite-communications" source="keywords">satellite communications</keyword>, addressing the challenges of the digital era, the most important being <keyword id="20080676" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cyber-security" source="keywords">cyber security</keyword>, Scindia said. "The telecom sector, much like other growth-critical sectors in India, is aggressive, is ambitious, and its outlook in our journey from Amrit Kaal to Shatabdi Kaal is to lead the world," he said. India Mobile Congress (IMC) is an annual event organized by the Department of <keyword id="20204336" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="telecommunications" source="keywords">Telecommunications</keyword> (DoT) and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). IMC 2024 will see participation from over 400 exhibitors, nearly 900 startups, and participation from 120+ countries. About 3,200 delegates from over 160 countries are part of the WTSA assembly. "We are confident that this (WTSA), along with the Indian Mobile Congress in its 8th edition... will serve as a breeding ground for innovation, but also showcase India's impending but inevitable emergence as a global hub for telecommunications across the world," Scindia said.

India set to lead global 6G revolution: Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

Healthcare data is messy. Saria has spent her career trying to make sense of it with AI.Saria, part of Business Insider's 2024 AI Power List, directs the machine learning and healthcare lab at Johns Hopkins University and is the founder and CEO of the AI startup Bayesian Health. She began her career in computer science and was getting her doctorate at Stanford when President Barack Obama signed the Hitech Act into law to boost the use of electronic health records — drawing Saria's attention.She spent the next year using digitized healthcare data to develop an algorithm meant to better identify <a target="_blank" href="https://www.science.org/content/article/new-model-predicts-complications-preemies">premature infants at high risk</a> of developing deadly complications.After a promising result, Saria dug deeper into research on how tech could use healthcare data in medical records to improve care for patients with conditions as varied as Parkinson's disease and cancer.Then Saria lost her nephew to sepsis. Spurred into action, she decided to spin her research out of academia and bring the tech to hospitals with Bayesian Health.The startup, which emerged from stealth in 2021, has raised $15 million from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors. It developed an algorithm that helped hospitals predict sepsis faster, leading to nearly 20% fewer sepsis-related deaths, according to a real-world study published in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bayesianhealth.com/sepsis-research/">Nature Medicine</a> in July 2022. Saria calls that research "probably my proudest achievement.""We should not be practicing like we live in the 18th century with no science and no engineering," she said. "We should be up-leveling the way we deliver care to match the level of scientific innovation we see in the rest of our lives."Now, top health systems like Cleveland Clinic and Northwell Health use Bayesian Health's tech, and the startup has notched partnerships with Epic, Oracle's Cerner, and Allscripts. While the company launched with a focus on sepsis, it's expanding to predict other complications, like pressure ulcers, and it's targeting more down the line, like deep-vein thrombosis in pregnant people."I see 100 conditions where this system applies," Saria said. "It's not just one or two — it's everywhere I look."Saria has continued to research healthcare AI at Johns Hopkins. She's also made angel investments in more than 15 AI startups. For her work in healthcare AI, the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2018.In response to less-than-ideal healthcare AI implementations, like Epic's widely utilized sepsis algorithm — which, according to a June 2021 study in JAMA Internal Medicine,<a target="_blank" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2781307#google_vignette"> poorly predicted sepsis</a> compared to the performance the company reported — she's bringing together industry stakeholders to develop new tech. In 2022, Saria cofounded the Coalition for Health AI, which brings federal agencies and healthcare organizations to discuss best practices for using healthcare AI. She also helped the National Academy of Medicine develop<a target="_blank" href="https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/national-academy-medicine-drafts-code-conduct-ai-healthcare"> its code of conduct for AI deployment</a>, released earlier this year.See Business Insider's full <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://businessinsider.com/ai-power-list-2024">AI Power List</a>

Bayesian Health CEO Suchi Saria is leading the healthcare data revolution

Wang is the CEO and cofounder of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/layoffs-tiger-global-and-y-combinator-scale-ai-artificial-intelligence-2023-1">Scale AI</a>, a data-labeling company valued at $13.8 billion. The company employs contractors to annotate training data essential for developing AI models. The company initially focused on data labeling for autonomous vehicles but has since expanded to power the generative AI boom, working with prominent startups such as OpenAI. Before founding Scale AI, Wang was an algorithm developer at Hudson River Trading and held software-engineering roles at Quora and Addepar.See Business Insider's full <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://businessinsider.com/ai-power-list-2024">AI Power List</a>

Alexandr Wang's startup gets data ready to power the generative AI revolution 

New Delhi [India], July 29 (ANI): <keyword id="19951944" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bharti-Airtel" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bharti Airtel" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Bharti Airtel">Bharti Airtel</keyword> ("<keyword id="19896909" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airtel" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Airtel" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Airtel">Airtel</keyword>") announced on Monday that it has begun re-farming its existing <keyword id="10952298" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mid-band-spectrum" source="Orion">mid-band spectrum</keyword> to accommodate the rapidly increasing traffic demand on its 5G network. According to an exchange filing, with a growing number of customers transitioning to 5G, Airtel is reallocating its mid-band spectrum to expand 5G services across the 1800, 2100, and 2300 MHz bands nationwide. The re-farming of the mid-band spectrum aims to provide customers with enhanced <keyword id="726530" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="browsing-speeds" source="Orion">browsing speeds</keyword> and improved <keyword id="2551158" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indoor-coverage" source="Orion">indoor coverage</keyword>. As data demand escalates, Airtel is accelerating its spectrum re-farming efforts to deliver an exceptional 5G experience to its users. Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel, remarked, "As more customers pivot to our 5G services, we have re-farmed our mid-band spectrum which was being used for 4G services. With this, we are also ready to launch Stand-alone technology. This will mean that the <keyword id="2365216" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Airtel-network" source="Orion">Airtel network</keyword> will be the first network in India to run on both stand-alone and non-standalone modes allowing us to deliver the best experience in the market." Airtel has successfully piloted the switch between standalone mode (SA) and non-standalone mode (NSA) modes on its 5G network in select circles, including Rewari, Chennai, and Bhubaneswar, with encouraging results. This capability will enable Airtel to introduce new innovative applications, services, and solutions through open APIs, differentiated connectivity, and service-based architecture. In collaboration with smartphone Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Airtel will push NSA and SA combined binaries with carrier aggregation functionality, further enhancing the 5G experience. Over the past year, Airtel has showcased the power of 5G with numerous use cases that have transformed the way customers live and conduct business. Airtel's 5G rollout has been one of the fastest in the country, now covering all 28 states and 8 union territories. (ANI)

Airtel accelerates 5G revolution by re-farming mid-band spectrum to meet surging demand, enhance browsing speed

Inside the tech industry's 'broletariat revolution' against the media

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Justina Nixon-Saintil is IBM's chief impact officer and a member of BI's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/workforce-innovation-board-tackles-topics-such-as-c-suite-innovation-ai-worker-wellness-2024-8">Workforce Innovation board</a>.</li><li>The leader in corporate social responsibility says companies must expand access to learning AI skills.</li></ul>Business Insider's "Workforce Innovation" series features an advisory board of experts, convened from a wide variety of roles and industry verticals, to talk about driving positive outcomes across four key change drivers — artificial intelligence, diversity, equity, and inclusion, worker well-being, and C-suite transformation.As IBM's vice president of corporate social responsibility and chief impact officer, Justina Nixon-Saintil's remit sits at the intersection of some of the most pressing workforce issues."When you look at all the different areas — artificial intelligence, DEI, C-suite transformation, and worker well-being — there are <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-employee-well-being-support-human-side-business-work-engagement-2024-9">connections</a> between them across the board," Nixon-Saintil said.Nixon-Saintil comes from an engineering background and thinks leaders should have a hands-on approach to technology and its impact on employees and communities."I do love technology. I love learning new technologies. I myself have to upskill so that I understand these technologies and how we can use them from a social-impact perspective."The following has been edited for length and clarity.You focus a lot on sustainability in your role. What is the connection to workforce innovation?I focus on very specific populations so that they can be prepared and successful in the workforce. We also make sure that we're investing in communities that are most vulnerable due to climate change and environmental threats.A lot of my time is spent on AI and how to make sure we're using it to help vulnerable communities. How do we use AI to help support our learners? From the high-school and university level to adult learners — how do we upskill and reskill them in AI so that they can move into well-paying jobs?There's a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-wont-take-your-job-someone-using-it-will-quote-2024-6">saying</a> now that everyone is repeating: AI is not going to take your job, but somebody with AI skills will. So we want to make sure we're bringing those AI skills to our learners so that they can be successful in these tech jobs.Every industry is going to be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-the-ai-revolution-means-for-business-2024-5">revolutionized</a> with AI; it's a useful innovation. We want to make sure that people can take advantage of those jobs, and that helps worker well-being.How are you evolving your leadership focus for yourself and at IBM?When I was in Singapore recently, we hosted a roundtable with corporate-social-responsibility leaders from a number of companies, clients, and partners. They're all thinking the same thing: How can we use new technologies to understand all communities better and have a greater impact?They're also thinking about how they can use it to enhance their own productivity. I think everyone is trying to figure out how to take advantage of and understand this technology because it's happening so quickly.I have the privilege of working at a company that has focused on upskilling its employees.For two years now, I've taken part in what we call the WatsonX Challenge internally, where we do training on AI and participate in a team to solve a challenge. I was a part of a CSR team, and we focused on how to create an AI assistant that could help respond to questions around ESG practices.Leaders are upskilling and reskilling themselves around AI. I think it starts from the top, and we're seeing that all employees have to engage. This is a way a lot of companies can also upskill their employees in something that's fun, competitive, and team-based.The AI evolution is moving fast; what is the impact of that rapid change? Do you see any parallels?When I was at university, it was the launch of the internet. For the everyday person, it wasn't until maybe a little over 30 years ago that it really accelerated quickly, and there was a need to understand it as an engineer. Even if you think about the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/digital-divide-affordable-connectivity-program-ending-april-2024-3">digital divide</a> and what we as CSR professionals have been looking at for the last 20 or 30 years, from the time that the internet was made available to where we are today, there's still a gap.I saw a statistic that six out of 10 professionals still need to be upskilled globally just on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-literacy-ethics-teaching-students-educators-scholars-2024-2">digital literacy</a>. So when you think about that and what's happening with the acceleration of gen AI, my concern is: Does it widen the gap?How do we make sure that it doesn't become that digital divide we've had for many years and quickly support our communities, especially in low-income areas, to ensure they have access to the right skills to be successful? Because it's moving at a pace that we've never seen before.

Reskilling and investing in communities are crucial during the AI revolution, IBM's chief impact officer says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Gen Z is embracing sober dating, prioritizing health and authenticity over alcohol.</li><li>They drink less than millennials and see the benefits of a sober-curious lifestyle.</li></ul>For many, dating is not just synonymous with drinking but unthinkable without it.But young people are changing the game. Gen Z is earning a reputation as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-drinking-less-alcohol-bad-news-concert-venues-promoters-2023-6">the sober-curious generation</a> that prioritizes their health, well-being, and authenticity when finding a partner.Gen Zers seem to have less of an interest in drinking. A Statista report states that around 18% of Americans under 28 and of legal drinking age drink regularly drink alcohol. For millennials, it's more like 30%.Ryan Mairs, 28, is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zillennial-millennial-gen-z-generation-am-i-age-year-birthday-2021-7">a "Zillennial"</a> on the cusp between millennials and Gen Z and has noticed the shift. He's been sober for 10 months, he told Business Insider, which has been "a bit of a rollercoaster."Mairs, who is a voice artist and mental health advocate, is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Moving away from drinking, drugs, and partying has been a welcome change in his life, he said.But dating without alcohol has been a learning curve.One of the biggest challenges was learning who he was without the booze, he said."On dates, I would probably start off quite slow and quiet and introverted, and then as I got more drunk, I would become extroverted," he said. "Once the alcohol has worn off, you're back to being the kind of quiet guy."Mairs said he wondered whether he could be the confident person that alcohol allowed him to be, and over time, he found that he was.The more regularly he dated sober, "You come accustomed to it and grow confidence and comfort in it," Mairs said. "I can understand why some people would be hesitant to try that or to experience that, but for me, it's always been a positive."<div type="image" title="Ryan Mairs" height="1750" width="2333" msid="112013104" hostid="261"></div><h2 id="c92b511d-657f-435f-a30b-23c872eb1a76">The sober-curious generation</h2>Mairs is one of many young people reevaluating their relationship with alcohol and how it may have negatively impacted their physical and mental health.Gen Z are drink less regularly than millennials, according to Statista data. They also spend the least on alcohol and are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1333255/consumers-drinking-more-non-alcoholic-drinks-in-the-us-by-generation/">the fastest-growing demographic</a> purchasing non-alcoholic beverages.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.datingnews.com/industry-trends/dry-dating-statistics/">A recent survey by DatingNews.com</a> found that 65% of millennial and Gen Z respondents said they would prefer a "dry" first date. So even if the whole cohort isn't going T-total, they appreciate the idea of alcohol not being involved in their love lives from the get-go.Kate Daly, a relationship expert and cofounder of the online divorce services company Amicable, told BI Gen Zers are more health conscious than previous generations.Gen Z appreciate transparency and honesty, as well as recognize alcohol may have a damaging impact on them socially, she added."Dating without alcohol means that they can present their true selves," Daly said. "And they can engage in a much deeper, more meaningful conversation rather than it being very surface and frivolous."Zoomers are also outcome-driven as a generation, Daly said, and dating while sober means there's no pretense or mixed messages."You're more inclined to be honest, open, straightforward," she said. "And I think that's really critical for building a genuine connection."Justine Benanty, the chief community officer of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.drybaby.co/">the sober socializing platform</a> Drybaby, told BI Gen Zers' lives are particularly expensive for the stage they're at."They are a very health-conscious generation, but they're also constrained by finances," she said. "So many people are Venmo-ing people after their dates now because it's so expensive."Taking alcohol out of the equation is not only good for budgeting, but for "leading with authenticity," Benanty said, which is a pillar of Gen Z."They're a generation that really cares deeply about who they are," she said.<h2 id="440e1bfe-9fbc-4c2a-914a-1fb35fea3a1a">Building confidence</h2>Looking back, Mairs thinks using alcohol as a buffer while dating was a bit of a coping mechanism.Dates can be nerve-racking, and alcohol typically takes the edge off, he said."But you might not be yourself," Mairs said. "Whereas being sober enables you to show if you are comfortable around that person naturally."He said that after a few drinks, people can trick themselves into feeling attracted to someone. But this just prolongs the inevitable and is a waste of everyone's time.In comparison, now Mairs knows when he's attracted to someone, which has really helped build intimacy."It was kind of weird to me how much sex got better compared to drunken one-night stands," he said. "If you're not drinking on a date, and if you do get to that stage with someone, it's not masked by alcohol."<h2 id="bf77faa0-7689-4d8e-8ee7-f2cd3cd673ff">Dating app woes</h2>Jessie Urvater, who is now 25, has been sober since she was 19. She's the founder of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.clubpillar.co/">the sober dating platform Club Pillar</a>, launching this summer.Urvater saw the need for an app that caters to sober, sober-curious, or light drinkers."I struggled on traditional mass-market dating apps, whether it was the stigma, or dating someone who did not match with my lifestyle, or having to reveal too much information about why I was sober very early on in the conversation," Urvater said."Modern dating is enough of a minefield without having to treat your sobriety like an obstacle."<div type="image" title="Jessie Urvater" height="1500" width="2000" msid="112013102" hostid="261"></div>Urvater wants to build a community where people don't necessarily want a partner who is completely sober, but they want to date someone who doesn't center their life around when their next drink or party will be, she said."Club Pillar caters to all people on the sober spectrum: light drinker, California sober, in recovery, sober-curious, T-totaller," she said. "You can do all the things that you would do when you're drinking except without the alcohol."<h2 id="e74820f1-8a80-42e6-b85c-61de6ab2740b">Drunkenness can be an ick</h2>Urvater thinks a growing awareness about mental health and the negative impacts too much drinking can have is a big driver among Gen Zers becoming sober-curious."A lot of them recognize that alcohol can exacerbate anxiety or depression and other mental health conditions," she said.Mairs agreed that's been a big part of his decision. Drinking, for him, was like "throwing petrol on a fire."While he still feels judged occasionally, Mairs said perceptions of drinking could be changing."Some girls that I've spoken to, they've said that sometimes when they see a drunk guy stumbling about and falling over, spilling a kebab down themselves, it's a bit of an ick," Mairs said."I do sometimes miss the fun and antics," he added. "But for the next chapter of my life, it's just the best thing for me."

The sober dating revolution is here, and Gen Z is leading it

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Swiss startup Transmutex's technology reduces long-term radioactive waste.</li><li>The technology could further entice AI companies to use nuclear energy to power their data centers.</li></ul>Ancient alchemists once tried transmuting elements, toying with metals like lead to create gold. That pursuit of quick riches has since been abandoned, but scientists are now using a similar idea to level up one of the world's most promising energy sources.Transmutex, a Swiss startup, is pioneering a new method for "nuclear transmutation" that not only destroys nuclear waste but can also turn it back into energy — solving a key problem in nuclear energy production.Scientists have long considered nuclear energy one of the cleanest and most reliable forms of energy production. However, the waste it creates must be stored in deep geological repositories for thousands of years to prevent the environment from being exposed to harmful radiation. Transmutex says its technology can "transmute" 99% of the world's high-level radioactive waste into new fuel.Nagra, the Swiss agency that manages nuclear waste, validated the claim as a "theoretical possibility" in a letter to the company last month.Switzerland, however, has pivoted away from nuclear energy, in part because of the safety concerns made apparent by Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011. But such disasters are rare and many other countries — like the United States and Saudi Arabia, for example — are betting on nuclear energy as the most efficient and sustainable option."To reach our goal of net zero by 2050, we have to at least triple our current nuclear capacity," US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in May.Tech companies at the forefront of the AI revolution are also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/data-centers-amazon-ai-nuclear-power-grid-2024-5">turning to nuclear energy</a> to power their vast AI data centers.Transmutex CEO Franklin Servan-Schreiber believes the company can help these businesses go nuclear by destroying that long-term waste."If we know how to deal with the waste, even if it takes a long time, we still know that in the future there is a limit to that waste, which is not gonna be a million years. That's the key," he told Business Insider in an interview.<h2 id="74dcc8b6-0d19-499a-83b1-07db6a1d5d37">A new fuel cycle for nuclear power</h2><div type="image" title="Transmutex" height="2053" width="3825" msid="111139130" hostid="261" sizebytes="863978"></div>Transmutex's technology uses high-energy <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/physics-atoms-empty-space-2016-9">subatomic particles known as neutrons</a> to destroy highly radioactive nuclear waste. While it can take hundreds of thousands of years for nuclear waste to decay to safe radiation levels, Transmutex says its technology can shorten that timeframe to just decades.Servan-Schreiber says that over time, this system can also turn that waste into fuel that can be used again in nuclear power plants — a sort of nuclear recycling program."Because you're able to burn waste and release energy, overall the process is very profitable," Cameron Porter, a venture capitalist who manages <a target="_blank" href="https://www.steelatlas.vc/">Steel Atlas</a> and is an investor in Transmutex, told Business Insider.Nuclear physicists say the company's technology avoids one of the biggest concerns with nuclear energy: that the same fuel used to power nuclear plants can also be used to manufacture atomic weapons. "We don't want that to happen," Andrei Afanasev, a professor of physics at George Washington University's Institute for Nuclear Studies, told Business Insider.Transmutex avoids this risk because it doesn't produce plutonium, a key element for making nuclear bombs.The technology is also more efficient, Afanasev said. According to the Department of Energy, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/nuclear-fuel-cycle#:~:text=Spent%20nuclear%20fuel%20can%20be,of%20operation%20in%20a%20reactor.">spent nuclear fuel</a> can still have about 90% of its potential energy even after five years of operation in a reactor.With nuclear reactors, "you just throw away a big chunk of energy that you could use for everybody," he said. "So this technology addresses this issue. They can extract more energy from the existing fuel."<h2 id="a5fab1a3-b2c5-49ef-90b5-c67ba57034aa">AI firms on the lookout for energy solutions</h2>The AI industry is looking for new, more reliable power sources as the race to develop artificial intelligence ramps up."Energy, not compute, will be the No. 1 bottleneck to AI progress," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-o5YbNfmh0">said on the Dwarkesh Podcast</a> in April, referring to the computational resources needed for training and running AI models.Oklo, a startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-nuclear-oklo-preparing-go-public-sam-altmans-spac-2023-12">betting on generating nuclear power</a> through small nuclear reactors. Its Aurora reactor can run on spent nuclear waste.<div type="image" title="Franklin Servan-Schreiber, CEO of Transmutex" height="2362" width="3149" msid="111139127" hostid="261" sizebytes="262630"></div>Servan-Schreiber said nuclear power might be the only way to support the industry's massive energy demands."AI requires massive, industrial-scale amounts of energy," Servan-Schreiber said. "Only nuclear power will be able to supply this massive energy demand in a reliable manner. With a technology like Transmutex (only one currently being proposed), the US can build classic uranium-based nuclear plants, such as the Vogtle plant in Georgia, without being burdened with high-level nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years."

This new technology for nuclear power could help fuel the AI revolution

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A survey suggests many firms experimented with generative AI in 2023 but few adopted it widely.</li><li>Analysts, executives, and professors argue that there's more to AI than low-level automation.</li></ul>After years of promise and speculation, artificial intelligence for the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-ai-in-business-industry-leaders-panel-2024-4">business world</a> is here, and it's shaping how companies big and small are planning for the future.Businesses are increasingly investing in AI, and success stories about companies using AI to cut costs abound. Corporations no longer need to be persuaded to use the technology — but many are still stumped about how precisely AI fits into their operations.<h2 id="08720755-288d-42e9-87a7-8a256fcdbb86">Businesses are interested in AI, but their use of it varies</h2>Most companies are at least thinking about how AI could affect their business. Goldman Sachs strategists found this year that 36% of S&amp;P 500 companies <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/ai-mentions-rise-sp-500-earnings-calls-goldman-says-2024-02-15/">mentioned AI in their fourth-quarter earnings calls</a>. In a PwC survey of more than 4,000 CEOs around the world conducted last fall, 70% said they expected generative AI — a form of AI that creates content such as text and images — to significantly change the way their company creates, delivers, and captures value in the next three years."Every publicly traded company in the world today, whether it's US or UK or Asian markets, is being asked the question by shareholders 'What is your AI strategy?'" Umesh Sachdev, the CEO of the AI software provider Uniphore, told Business Insider.Sachdev said that before the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022, companies were buying AI as individual solutions for different parts of the business. Companies now are taking a more centralized approach and looking at AI "as a horizontal infrastructure for the whole business," he said.Despite all the chatter, deployment remains low. A survey by MIT Technology Review Insights and the Australian telecoms company Telstra of 300 business leaders across Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe found that while 76% of the companies had experimented with generative AI in 2023, only 9% had adopted the technology widely.A paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests the manufacturing, information-services, and healthcare industries had some of the <a target="_blank" href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/who-what-and-where-ai-adoption-america">highest levels of AI adoption in 2017</a>, while construction and retail had some of the lowest.For some companies, it's all hype and no action. Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, recently described companies that only purport to use AI as engaging in "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/generative-ai-exaggeration-openai-nvidia-microsoft-chatgpt-jobs-investors-markets-2024-3">AI washing</a>." In March, two investment advisors accused of making false and misleading statements about their use of AI <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sec-ai-artificial-intelligence-regulation-false-claims-investment-advisers-gensler-2024-3">agreed to pay six-figure fines</a>.<h2 id="7109c7d7-3d75-49ab-9b4b-f8a9fefcc233">AI can help workplaces run more efficiently</h2>The MIT Technology Review Insights survey suggested that AI was most commonly being used to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-tackling-jobs-humans-dont-have-time-for-or-want-2024-2">automate nonessential tasks</a>.Felipe Thomaz, an associate professor of marketing at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, argued that a divide would appear between companies using AI to simply cut costs and those using it to create value.For companies in the first category, Thomaz said, the approach is "We are doing everything exactly as we did it before, but now we're doing it with AI.""It's the least imaginative way of using a multibillion-pound technology," Thomaz said, "but it dominates the industry in practice."Citi, for example, told BI in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-generative-ai-playbook-impact-jobs-tech-wealth-product-2024-5">previous interview</a> that AI is being introduced incrementally at the bank as part of a multi-year process of transformation."Let's get out of the lab and get onto the factory floor. Get everybody using it for small, little things," Shadman Zafar, Citi's co-chief information officer, said. "It is about putting it into everything that you do that will have the big accumulated impact."<h2 id="6be90394-2125-4661-9b47-a5b047a4bf94">AI can open businesses up to new tech possibilities</h2>For the second category, Thomaz pointed to L'Oréal as an example of a non-tech company doing innovative work with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.loreal.com/en/news/research-innovation/ces/#:~:text=The%20beauty%20sector%20takes%20center,give%20the%20opening%20keynote%20address.">AI</a>. The French cosmetics giant developed an augmented-reality tool to let customers virtually try on makeup. It also launched services designed to provide <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-artificial-intelligence-3d-printing-are-revolutionizing-skincare-2023-11">tailored skincare advice</a> at its brands Vichy and La Roche Posay."What they get out of that is better product recommendations, a relationship with customers they didn't have before, and intelligence about the distribution of skin conditions globally, which goes into product development and new products that go to market, intelligence that you wouldn't have had otherwise," Thomaz said."They remain true to who they are as a company and to their connection to their customers, but actually use the technology in service of their role and benefiting their relationships."Deborah Golden, Deloitte's US chief innovation officer, said AI had massive potential. But, like Thomaz, she argued that proper innovation would require deploying AI to make day-to-day operations more efficient."I feel like we've overpivoted a bit on GenAI," she said. "It's 1/100th of what AI can truly do."She said the technology could open up opportunities for industry "cross-pollination.""Historically, we've seen industries operating in very siloed fashions," she said. "What AI has enabled us to do is really look and say how can one industry's data help us solve another industry's data problems?"For instance, Golden said AI technology developed by the aerospace industry is being used by the agricultural sector, as satellite data from space can <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/agtech-agriculture-industry-farming-methods-climate-change-labor-solutions-2023-9">help farmers</a> manage land changes and decide how to plant crops.<h2 id="232de46a-f629-40d9-8712-d60b19f5471c">Early adoption of AI will require ongoing support</h2>Sam Berndt, a senior director in Gartner's supply-chain research organization, told BI that factors like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/job-disruption-ai-future-careers-blue-collar-desk-work-2023-11">employee resistance</a> could hinder companies' efforts to scale up AI initiatives.He said that making AI work for companies would require continuous investment, not just a one-off upgrade."Over time, models become less accurate to the kind of real-world situations they're trying to generate content around," he said, adding that companies would need to set aside resources to update the underlying data or the models.Liability and ethical deployment are also considerations, especially as legislation and litigation catch up. In February, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-ordered-to-compensate-passenger-misled-by-chatbot-2024-2">Air Canada was taken to court</a> after its chatbot inaccurately told a customer he could claim a bereavement discount after traveling. The court ruled that the airline was responsible for the chatbot's misleading information and that the company had to compensate the customer.Meghan Higgins, a senior associate at the London law firm Pinsent Masons who specializes in technology and digital regulation, said the case was a reminder for businesses to take into account the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-ethics-risks-responsibility-business-bcg-2024-5">risks associated with AI</a>. She highlighted AI's risk of hallucinating, or inventing information.Higgins said that in the future, companies could face defamation cases if AI were to make up things about people, as well as cases about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artificial-intelligence-hr-hiring-recruitment-benefits-2023-12">biased outputs</a> and automated decision-making. Such legal cases could lead to more caution around AI. Despite the risks, there's never been more enthusiasm about AI's potential and possibilities. Thomaz said that companies should approach AI as an evolution rather than a single transformation."There are things that six months ago were said to be impossible, and today they are imminent," Thomaz said. "We are no longer in a world of regular change."

The AI revolution is here. What does it mean for the future of business? 

Anyone who works in office, facilities, or workplace management will tell you that creating and upholding a vibrant company culture is a crucial, but often challenging, task. Like many companies, Indian financial services company, Freecharge, previously relied on physical interactions in the office to drive engagement and build culture. When the pandemic forced everyone to work from home, employees seemed to miss that fun and connection. Adopting Slack was a game changer for Freecharge in the post-Covid world. Freecharge is a fintech company that enables users to recharge mobile phones, pay bills, and make online transactions seamlessly. As the company paves an innovative way forward in the neobanking space, the company relies on Slack to build both a cutting-edge product and culture. Slack allowed the company to simplify collaboration and create a digital space for employees to connect, leading to greater productivity, as well as a workplace that was more enjoyable and culture-oriented. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Taking a productivity leap with Slack" comment="subhead" text="Taking a productivity leap with Slack">Taking a productivity leap with Slack</cmsannotation> To shed light on how Freecharge has leaned into their investment in Slack, BI connected with Rhea Jain, a seasoned Product Manager at Freecharge. According to Rhea, "Slack has considerably increased <keyword id="2728679" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="team-productivity" source="Orion">team productivity</keyword> by streamlining communication and reducing the time spent on bureaucratic processes like setting up meetings." <div type="image" title="12" msid="110260819" hostid="261" sizebytes="65074" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rhea Jain&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Teams today seek adaptive techniques for efficient work progress, from resolving complex issues on the fly to brainstorming creative assignments or checking in with colleagues. And at Freecharge, Slack has become the go-to platform for quick, one-off questions, impromptu collaborations, daily stand-ups, progress tracking, and more. It has transformed the way Freecharge communicates internally. Rhea explained how the company has leveraged Slack to transform their product development and issue resolution procedures through collaborative efforts. “From inception to delivery, Slack makes it easy for us to communicate during the product development process. It even helps with follow-up discussions and resolutions, which will take longer if done only through email friendly meets. Slack is a boon, especially since we have hybrid working and geographically dispersed teams,” she said, making the case for its productivity boost. "The conversational nature of Slack allows for quick issue resolution without the need for formal meetings," she added. "When collaboration occurs in a single area, leadership does not need to be copied on emails. You can join a Slack channel, keep up with the project, and contribute as needed." At Freecharge, when it comes to releasing a product, Rhea found Slack to be a handy tool because she could easily create themes, and create channels to get relevant people on one platform to ideate, engage, and execute efficiently. This helped in cutting down the time for releasing a product. She highlights that Slack makes this process nearly 30 to 40% faster. This efficiency is vital in the fintech sector. It's a competitive market, and the speed to market is crucial in giving Freecharge the edge. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Quick and easy collaboration" comment="subhead" text="Quick and easy collaboration">Quick and easy collaboration</cmsannotation> The impact in simplified communication and collaboration was witnessed across layers of the organisation. Freecharge has extended its collaboration model within the Slack platform to the way it works with clients and external partners - within the Slack platform using secure Slack Connect channels. This direct communication enables Freecharge to address client complaints more rapidly, thereby enhancing customer loyalty and retention. Rhea highlights Slack as the communication backbone for teams, fostering better synchronisation and instant connection among members. And it’s not just text communication. Freecharge uses Slack Huddles feature for cross-team collaboration in real-time using video, multi-person screen sharing, a dedicated thread for notes, audience polls, and emoji reactions – reducing the need for lengthy meetings. “Quick impromptu collaborations have become the norm, fostering a more agile work environment," Rhea added. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="‘Figma’ of your imagination" comment="subhead" text="‘Figma’ of your imagination">‘Figma’ of your imagination</cmsannotation> Rhea stressed that one of the benefits of using Slack was moving away from meetings and emails because it had become very simple to reach out to colleagues through different Slack features that Slack has to offer (like huddles, clips, or direct messaging to name a few). With an average huddle lasting only about 10 minutes, this informal call feature within the platform has helped Freecharge save countless minutes every day, increasing overall productivity. Rhea also emphasises the importance of the pencil feature in Slack, particularly for providing visual feedback to the design team. Integrating Slack with design tools like Figma ensures real-time updates on comments and file shares and fosters an efficient workflow. She says, “This tool expedites the feedback process, making it more actionable and reducing the time spent in written communication.” What works for Freecharge is that Slack is a formal communication channel with features that are user-friendly and enhance day-to-day communication and collaboration. “I really like that Slack is always innovating and keeps releasing features, which reflects how customer-centric it is,” she adds. Freecharge has placed Slack at the centre of its operations to enable fast, seamless collaboration, creating spaces where teams can share ideas, make decisions, resolve potential problems, and move work forward. Rhea expressed that after two years of using Slack, “It’s challenging to imagine working without it. Slack has become an integral part of our collaboration and communication strategy.” Disclaimer: This article is generated and published by the Insider Studios team. You can get in touch with them on <a href="mailto:insiderstudios@businessinsider.in">insiderstudios@businessinsider.in</a>.

Freecharge’s productivity revolution – unleashing efficiency across teams

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The next phase of the AI revolution has arrived.</li><li>This week, OpenAI and Google revealed new developments that push the capabilities of AI forward.</li></ul>There's been a simple question going around AI circles in recent months: "What's next?"Since the launch of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gpt4-openai-chatgpt-everything-you-need-to-know-4-2023-3">OpenAI's GPT-4</a> in March last year, each passing month has made it clear that the ChatGPT-maker's top model set a performance bar that has been curiously difficult for competitors to clear.Big Tech giants like Google and Meta have released rival models like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ai-gemini-bard">Gemini</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-llama2-open-source-mark-zuckerberg-balls-replit-amjad-masad-2023-10">Llama</a>, which proved competitive at most. So, too, have younger startups like Anthropic and Mistral. None of them quite seemed to introduce a step-change in capabilities the way GPT-4 did, though.Gary Marcus, a professor examining AI, suggested last month that it was a sign AI models were reaching a <a target="_blank" href="https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/evidence-that-llms-are-reaching-a?utm_source=profile&amp;utm_medium=reader2">"point of diminishing returns."</a>Questions have also emerged about whether we've already seen the limits of what AI can do.While ChatGPT has shown its usefulness in the workplace to the classroom, a technology touted by Bill Gates as something <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/The-Age-of-AI-Has-Begun">"entire industries will reorient around"</a> should probably have more to show for it than chatbots prone to hallucinations.AI companies seem ready to end that chatter, though; this past week, they have tried to address the "what's next?" question head-on.<h2 id="8b6d1691-c839-4800-a890-f7bb6b7eb73d">OpenAI and Google present their vision</h2><div type="image" title="OpenAI CTO Mira Murati" height="1586" width="2860" msid="111691678" hostid="261" sizebytes="127620"></div>OpenAI kicked off a week of showcases by revealing a powerful new model: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-gpt4o-launch-ai-new-best-friend-sam-altman-chatgpt-2024-5">GPT-4o.</a>Though it wasn't quite the GPT-5 many hoped for, the "o" attached to GPT-4 — which stands for "omni" — introduced some serious advances in OpenAI's technology while hinting at the direction in which it planned to take the AI revolution.In a presentation on Monday, OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, talked through the new flagship model's ability to "reason across audio, vision, and text in real time" to create what the company described as a "much more natural human-computer interaction."Through several demos, OpenAI introduced a version of ChatGPT powered by GPT-4o reminiscent of the Scarlett Johansson-voice AI assistant Samantha from the 2013 movie "Her."Nathan Lambert, research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.interconnects.ai/p/openai-and-her?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=48206&amp;post_id=144646093&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=1khpk7&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email">wrote on his Interconnects Substack </a>page that the reveal shows OpenAI leading us toward a world where "intelligence, attention, positive feedback," qualities "fundamentally craved by humans," come from AI."GPT-4o's demo showcases that we are intentionally marching toward this reality with no shadow of regret," Lambert wrote. While some have been blown away by the chance to have a slightly flirty-sounding AI by their side at all times, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-gpt4o-chatgpt-voice-flirty-her-ick-sam-altman-2024-5">others have been a bit weirded out.</a>Google took its turn at revealing updates to its AI during the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-io-2024-live-updates-ai-search-android-announcements-2024-5">annual I/O event</a> for developers on Tuesday.The search giant, which has been seen as playing catch-up to OpenAI, showed off its new Project Astra agent, which aims to make AI "truly helpful in everyday life." Like the new ChatGPT, Google's multimodal assistant — powered by its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/project-astra-google-ai-agent-dancing-gemini-2024-5">AI model Gemini</a> — has been built to respond to queries in real time. It has vision and audio capabilities, on top of the usual text responses chatbots have become known for.In practice, that means you can point your camera at a scene and get Astra to pretty quickly identify, say, something that walks on four legs, and then go on to have a conversation with you about said tetrapod.Google's announcements didn't stop there. The company has also shaken up the way its core product works, integrating AI into search so that Google will "do the searching for you."<a target="_blank" href="https://blog.google/products/search/generative-ai-google-search-may-2024/">Liz Reid, head of Google Search</a>, explained it like this: "Sometimes you want a quick answer, but you don't have time to piece together all the information you need. Search will do the work for you with AI Overviews."Collectively, the reveals from both companies have made one thing clear: the AI revolution is about to feel a lot more real.Chatbots will start to function more like companions who engage with you in longer periods of dialogue rather than machines that respond to ad hoc requests. Familiar services like Google Search, meanwhile, could actually begin to feel different.The consequences of all these developments, though, are not yet clear. Social interactions could feel different in the future if people interact more with AI chatbots. Publishers might feel pain if a Google newly powered by AI diverts traffic away from them.It's clear, though, that a new phase in the AI era is just getting started.

The AI revolution just took a big step forward

<div type="image" title="One Planet Banner Test" height="138" width="1100" msid="109509214" hostid="261" sizebytes="5076"></div>On one Upper West Side side street, you can hear the quiet hum of electric vehicles almost all day and night.Manhattan isn't known for its plentiful parking. But this street has something even rarer: two public spots reserved for EV charging. Often, vehicles linger for hours.On a recent weekday, one licensed ride-hailing driver had been charging for more than 12 hours. Another EV sat for more than five hours at the neighboring plug. For the ride-hailing driver, that's 12 hours they didn't work. For other EV owners, it's one less charger to plug in to. A Tesla slowed as it drove by in hopes the spaces weren't occupied.This snapshot in time comes as New York City aims to convert almost its entire ride-hailing industry to EVs by 2030, with the exception of wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Mayor Eric Adams' Green Rides Initiative affects the city's more than 84,000 Uber and Lyft drivers — among the largest markets in the world. It's an ambitious target, given that under 10% of rides were taken in an EV in March, according to city data.The biggest hurdle is building enough public chargers, especially in such a densely packed city with an old power grid and lengthy bureaucratic delays. For Uber and Lyft drivers, time is money, so widely accessible charging is key to the EV switch. The majority live in NYC's outer boroughs, such as Queens, and park on the street, where chargers are sparse. A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/82293.pdf">study by the US Department of Energy</a> found that 1,000 fast chargers were needed for every 20,000 EV drivers on the road. Currently, there are fewer than 200 across NYC. Plus, building thousands of new chargers requires billions of dollars of investment.City officials and ride-hailing companies told Business Insider that electrifying the sector could unlock a broader EV revolution because it could solve a crucial conundrum: Companies won't build charging stations if there aren't enough drivers, but drivers won't buy an EV if charging isn't widely accessible."This is the industry that's going to get this infrastructure off the ground because a ride-share driver is a great customer for a charging station," said Bobby Familiar, a spokesperson for Revel, an all-electric ride-hailing service that operates three public fast-charging stations in NYC. "They have to charge every single day that they do a shift. They want fast charging because every minute spent at the charger is time they could be on the road earning a fare."Electrifying the ride-hailing industry also has big returns for the environment, Michael Replogle, a former deputy commissioner for policy at NYC's Department of Transportation, said."If you can electrify Ubers, Lyfts, and taxis that drive several hundred miles a day, it will really reduce the city's carbon footprint and clean up the air," he said.Given the stakes, a lot has to go right in the coming years. The city has to strike a balance between the number of EV drivers and charging sites. Long wait times risk turning off drivers from making the switch, but if there isn't enough demand, the economics could fall apart for stations run by the government or private entities. Chargers also must be in neighborhoods with a history of underinvestment.<h2>A mad dash for EV licenses</h2>The transition is getting an early test this year now that thousands more ride-hailing drivers have licenses.In October, the Taxi &amp; Limousine Commission opened applications for this gig work for the first time in five years — but for EV drivers only. A cap had been in place since 2018 to stabilize drivers' wages and decrease traffic congestion.The TLC approved about 8,400 EV licenses. That brought the total to more than 11,000, a huge jump compared with several years ago.The program is on hold because of a lawsuit filed by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. It represents the yellow-cab industry, which isn't under the EV mandate but can voluntarily make the switch to certain models. The alliance argued that the market would become oversaturated.TLC Commissioner David Do said many of those who applied were ride-hailing drivers already and the total number of drivers in NYC was still lower than pre-pandemic levels.A lot of ride-hailing drivers are excited about the EV push because it's a pathway to owning their own car, rather than renting from fleet owners, according to Aeraj Qazi, the owner of Primetime Brokerage, which helps drivers through the TLC licensing process."Rentals are like handcuffs for drivers, so EVs provide an opportunity for drivers to own their own plates," Qazi said.Weekly rental rates average between $450 and $600, several drivers told BI. That's more than a typical monthly car payment.Qazi said he and other brokerages helped file thousands of EV applications before the court-ordered injunction took effect late last year."We didn't realize how crazy it would get. The charging infrastructure isn't there right now," Qazi said.Guillermo Fondeur, an Uber driver who bought a Tesla in 2021, charges at home. He said the switch had saved him money on gas and maintenance, and he earns some perks from Uber, including an extra $1 on every ride.But he's heard complaints from other EV owners about the lack of public charging infrastructure."It's very inconvenient to find chargers," Fondeur said. "There are one- to two-hour waits to plug in some places."He added: "Drivers want to charge on the block where they live. The city could put chargers in the parking spaces. There's also a lot of parking lots."<h2>NYC's most valuable asset</h2>Today, there are nearly 200 fast chargers in NYC and more than 1,900 Level 2 chargers. The Adams administration <a target="_blank" href="https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/subtopics/electric-vehicles/">wants to grow the network</a> this decade to 6,000 fast chargers and 40,000 Level 2 plugs."We need every space we can find," Do said.In general, EVs can get up to 30 miles of range for every hour they're plugged in to a Level 2 charger. That makes them ideal for overnight street parking, or for several hours during the day while drivers run errands or go to work. Fast chargers, such as those in Tesla's Supercharger network, can add up to 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes, helping ease range anxiety among road trippers and ride-hailing drivers who need a quick refill but don't want to lose too much time.Making progress in NYC requires coordination across the government, power utilities, and private companies. Do is part of a charging task force that brings those parties together.The TLC is sharing data on where drivers live and where and how often trips happen to help inform where chargers should be. The utility Con Edison is identifying where enough power is already available for new chargers and expanded a statewide program that subsidizes the cost of bringing electricity to chargers to $585 million. The Department of Transportation is investing in some curbside charging and fast chargers <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2023/fast-charging-hubs.shtml">in municipal parking lots</a>.The department's efforts build on a <a target="_blank" href="https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/68833">curbside-charging pilot</a> with Con Edison and a Canadian company, Flo. It created 100 Level 2 plug-ins across all five boroughs, a spokesperson for the department said, and there are plans for hundreds more.But those efforts alone won't spur enough development, Replogle, the former DOT official, said."It took us 3 ½ years to stand up that pilot," he said. "We recognized we would not be getting thousands of on-street Level 2 chargers by scaling up that model. It's going to take some competitive procurement with the private sector to make this happen."There are barriers, Replogle added. There isn't a clear path for private charging companies and real-estate owners to get regulatory approval for installing curbside plugs."Street space is one of the most valuable assets the city owns," Replogle said. "There are 3 million parking spaces, and less than 250,000 of them are priced. So there are a fair number of spaces that can produce the kind of economic return for electrification to happen."A DOT spokesperson said the department last year sent out a request for information from EV-charging companies, which will inform future partnerships.Beyond curbside, there are hurdles for companies such as Revel that are building larger fast-charging stations with dozens of plugs. These sites often need electrical-power upgrades to connect to the grid, a lengthy process with Con Edison."We're approaching every charging station like it's a new high-rise building," Familiar said. "But the timeline for getting a charging station up and running is a lot different than a building. If we have power, we can get a site done within months, not years. The power-upgrade timeline does not match that."Charging stations should go to the front of the line, he added.A spokesperson for Con Edison said the utility was evolving its grid-planning process to prepare for large EV loads."When upgrades are needed at the customer property, we are working to reduce interconnection timelines at every step in the process from early customer engagement and education through improved work coordination and collaborating closely with municipalities on permitting," the spokesperson said.<h2>The charging pipeline</h2>Despite the delays, Revel has a pipeline of 300 fast chargers over the next two years, Familiar said. That figure reflects active site leases in various phases of design and construction.Revel owns a fleet of 500 vehicles and more than 50 plugs in NYC that are open to any model.One of the new stations is set to be at LaGuardia Airport, one of the busiest areas for ride-hailing trips in the city. Installing 48 plugs would make it the largest fast-charging location at any airport nationwide. It's expected to open next year.Revel in March also struck a deal with Uber that guaranteed its drivers would use at least 250 of Revel's plugs a certain amount of the time. If Uber doesn't meet the use threshold, it's financially liable. In exchange, Uber drivers will get up to a 25% discount when they charge.The agreement could help Uber meet its own goal to have its drivers go fully electric this decade. So far, more than 6% of Uber's fleet in the US and Canada has zero emissions, and more than 17% of trips in NYC were in EVs last year. The company said it's spending $800 million by 2025 to encourage drivers to make the switch.Josh Gold, Uber's senior director of public policy, said that after the TLC lifted its cap on EV licenses, he saw longer lines at Tesla's Superchargers. And for years, many of the platform's early EV adopters were going to Manhattan to charge, often in paywalled parking garages."That's not where our drivers live," he said. "So that's been a worry, but now we're seeing the charging infrastructure develop more."Uber is sharing ride data with Revel so it can locate chargers in the most convenient places for drivers. Uber has a similar agreement with Tesla.Lyft, for its part, said it's investing $80 million through 2025 on its EV push and working with charging companies including EVgo and Electrify America to offer discounts. Nearly 17% of NYC Lyft rides were in EVs last year.The rising demand from the ride-hailing industry for EV charging could help buoy other startups. Itselectric is piloting some Level 2 curbside charging using excess power from buildings, which avoids the need for utility upgrades and therefore could speed up the build-out. In a parking garage in midtown Manhattan, Gravity in March opened what it says are the 24 fastest chargers in the country.Almost everyone BI interviewed for this story acknowledged that the city's EV's ambitions were lofty.There are some promising signs, however.Do said that the Green Rides Initiative was two years ahead of schedule. By 2025, at least 15% of ride-hailing trips were supposed to be in zero-emissions or wheelchair-accessible vehicles. That threshold was crossed in January and ticked up even higher in March to 17%. That month, more than 2 million trips were taken in an EV — a fivefold increase compared with November.Do said he wanted to boost the TLC's outreach to drivers so they could understand the perks of switching to an EV."There are so many more benefits to a green vehicle, not only for the future of our city but for kids who will breathe cleaner air, and it also might be a little cheaper," he said. "So we've laid the foundation, but now we need to convince many other drivers to convert."Juliana Kaplan contributed to this article.This article is part of "<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/the-great-transition">The Great Transition</a>," a series covering the big changes across industries that are leading to a more sustainable future. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet">One Planet</a> hub.

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