X, the moonshot factory

Brimming with excitement and awe to share the stage with so many revered experts in the Climate & Sustainability track at this year’s SXSW - including the environmental heroes on my panel: Eric C. Olsson, Rey Banatao, Serge Dedina, Ph.D. For a front lines look into the boots-on-the-ground and radical tech solutions driving REAL change in our plastic (and microplastic) crisis, please join us! Event details: https://lnkd.in/gXAPcw-A Thank you Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and SXSW for allowing us the opportunity to share positive answers slated to hold keystone roles in moving forward to a more just world, for all 🌎 #sxsw #climate #ecobabe cc: WILDCOAST, TOMRA Recycling, X, the moonshot factory

The Taara team has been developing wireless optical communication technology that uses beams of light to bring fast, affordable, and abundant connectivity to people everywhere. Through their work on the ground, the team found that developing and deploying new technology is only one part of a much-needed solution. Bridging the digital divide requires adapting to the needs of each individual community, too. In partnership with communities across Ghana and Kenya, the team created Taara Share, a new approach to distributing broadband that empowers local entrepreneurs to resell internet access to their neighbors in small batches: https://lnkd.in/grNJ8tG6

“This wasn’t the business model we had imagined—but we knew there was something magical happening here.” The team at Taara, X’s moonshot for connectivity, is bringing abundant, affordable, reliable internet access to under-connected communities around the world using beams of light. One of the challenges the team has worked to overcome is the high cost of service for people living in underserved areas. For the last few years Taara has been collaborating with community and business leaders in Kenya and Ghana to bring down broadband costs by empowering local entrepreneurs to resell Taara connectivity to their neighbors in small batches. Now, people who previously couldn’t access the internet can afford it and it's unlocking better-quality education, economic opportunities, and more. Read more about Taara’s work in Africa: https://lnkd.in/grNJ8tG6

"It's all about the non-stupid suspension of disbelief—have the audacity to dream big, but the humility to start small."  - Astro Teller, X Captain of Moonshots. Catch Astro’s full interview from the DLD Conference below 👇

X spinout Skip recently published findings in Nature Magazine that show AI and lightweight robotics could help millions of people with early mobility challenges.  According to the CDC, 1 in 4 adults aged over 45 face serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, and reduced mobility often marks the beginning of a person’s decline in physical health and broader quality of life. Six years ago, a team of researchers, scientists, and technologists set out to work on a moonshot for mobility to address this challenge. Read more about how the team at X and researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology used machine learning to create a next-generation “wearable robot” that can adapt to the unpredictable fluidity of human movement: https://lnkd.in/gspnFUB6

X’s most recent spinout, Heritable Agriculture, is using artificial intelligence to decode natural adaptations in plants. Their goal is to breed crops with climate-friendly traits like higher yields, lower water requirements, and higher carbon storage capacity in roots and soil.    Learn more about Heritable and their journey at the moonshot factory: https://lnkd.in/geBUqzuR

🌱 Introducing Heritable Agriculture 🌱 Heritable is using artificial intelligence to accelerate the plant breeding process and predict, for a given environment, which genetic changes will improve a crop’s yield as well as properties like taste, nutritional content, and photosynthetic capacity. The team spent 6 years developing their technology at the moonshot factory and are now an independent company. Learn more about Heritable and their mission in The Economist: https://lnkd.in/gV_pYMaw

“If you want the upside of innovation, you have to have the mess. If you can’t take the mess, you don’t get the upside.” X Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller chatted with WIRED’s Greg Williams at the DLD Conference in Munich this week about X’s culture of calculated risk-taking and radical thinking. Their conversation explored how Xers practice the “non-stupid suspension of disbelief”—the audacity to dream big, but the humility to start small —and how X creates an environment for big ideas to thrive. Take a look: https://lnkd.in/gugKgaJd

✨ 2024: A Year of Moonshots ✨ It’s been a big year for projects at the moonshot factory and an even bigger year for our graduates like Waymo, Wing, Intrinsic, Malta Inc, Dandelion Energy, Tidal, and Skip. Congratulations and thank you to all the teams and our partners who help make moonshots possible. 🎥 Take a look at the highlights:

🌍 A big year for Bellwether! 🌎 From partnering with the National Guard on disaster relief efforts, to a TIME Best Invention award, X’s moonshot for understanding and anticipating changes across our planet made exciting progress since its unveiling this past spring. Learn more about what the Bellwether team has been up to in this recent article from Latitude Media: https://lnkd.in/e9B3GFzw