On Our Final "Virtual Route 66" For 2023: A Brief Year-End Snapshot & A Holiday Wish

2024 is before us.    We present a year-end snapshot as we look forward to deliberations on Artificial Intelligence, Crypto, the evolving Media Landscape (epitomized by the Warner/Paramount Merger Talks), climate change and ongoing technological evolution throughout 2024:

High stakes and ample emotions at Cop28 Jubilation was in the air as Cop28 reached a conclusion. Reuters In brief | It's easy to lose track among the range of emotions displayed at Cop28 in Dubai. There were early celebrations for the implementation of the much-discussed loss and damage fund, and the sky seemed to be the limit for what this Cop might accomplish. There was laughter as comedian Bassem Youssef took crowds along for a journey of Cop history. “How do you find humour during these dark times?” one Cop28 attendee asked the comedian. Mr Youssef answered: “It’s simple. Because the fact that we still have to meet every year to decide not to hurt our planet is a joke itself.” And there was anger for a moment, when some felt the language on fossil fuels in a draft climate deal was too weak. Ultimately, there was jubilation on Wednesday when the global stocktake was unanimously approved by 198 countries, with an unprecedented Cop emphasis to move away from fossil fuels. Why it matters | It's one thing to say that our common humanity and our planet's health binds us together; it's another thing to act on that sentiment. As Cop unfolded, there were plenty of indications that divisions and cynicism might prevail, but those concerns, while valid, ultimately fell by the wayside as world leaders rallied for a global stocktake sought to make a dent in the Cop history books. In the end, ensuring success for the planet's future came down to 31 words, and the world, however fractured for a variety of reasons, came together. Quoted | “We should be proud of this historic achievement ... We have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement for the first time ever” – Dr Sultan Al Jaber, President, Cop28 Future in focus A UAE startup has big plans for desalination Pass the salt | UAE start-up promotes sustainable water and floating farm solutions Living to 100 | Is there an inverse relationship between your carbon footprint and how long you're going to live? Bacteria and AI | Two emerging scientific solutions hold promise for reducing the impact of dengue fever Staying ahead | How Abu Dhabi's sustainable city hopes to maintain its innovative edge Predicting the future: Signal or noise? A zero-emission smart power generator displayed at Cop28. Among the hundreds of futuristic products and services on display at Cop28 in Dubai was a cutting-edge smart electromagnetic generator, capable of meeting the demand for electric power without the need for traditional fuel sources. Is this generator the next big thing, or will it be just another pie-in-the-sky idea that fails to deliver? This is a signal: One of the last dominos to fall in our pursuit of meeting climate goals is the traditional generator. It doesn't get all the glitz and media attention of electric vehicles, sustainable aviation or solar power, but that doesn't make it any less important. The world's first non-rotational power generation system, the result of a partnership between Abu Dhabi's Global Solutions for Project Management and South Korean-based SEMP Group, managed to wow the crowds at Cop28. While it remains to be seen when it will be released and how much it might cost, the potential promise is clear. “This innovation is scalable and can be used in power plants, a house off-grid, electric vehicles with no need for recharging or refuelling, ships, planes and mobile phones. The sky is the limit,” said Zakeya Alameri, founder and chief executive of Global Solutions for Project Management. In case you missed it Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Abu Dhabi start-up Pure Harvest to acquire agriculture production facility in Saudi Arabia Think you have a sharp eye for AI? Take our test to see if you can spot the 'real' photos Why climate finance might be the best way to ensure a healthy planet Faith initiative backed by UAE peace forum aims to shape AI regulation How heritage, innovation and sustainability have created the UAE's unique skyline Opinion: Africa's maritime hydrogen highways could enrich the continent and save the world

GOOGLE

Google’s Gemini lags behind GPT 3.5 Turbo

Image source: Gemini

The Rundown: Fresh third-party testing just found that Google's new (and polarizing) Gemini Pro LLM lags slightly behind free OpenAI models like GPT-3.5 on most benchmarks, despite the hype around its launch.

The details:

On questions across academics, reasoning, math, and other tasks, Gemini solved slightly fewer problems than GPT-3.5. Flaws seemingly responsible included struggling on longer queries, aggressive content blocking, and bias towards end choices. One area where Gemini excelled was in non-English language generations — but content filtering resulted in responses being blocked in 10 language pairs. A Google representative disputed the paper’s claims, pointing to the company’s own research and calling attention to Gemini Ultra’s release in early 2024.

Our thoughts: Is Gemini getting coal in its stocking this holiday season? With all eyes on Google’s flagship AI launch, the numbers in this study certainly seem to show that the tech giant is lagging behind. If Gemini Ultra doesn’t show significant upgrades early next year, things could get ugly for Google.

Bird, the e-scooter rental company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In its filing, the Miami-based company says it will continue to operate as usual and has enough liquidity to meet financial obligations during and after the restructuring. More: Current lenders have agreed to acquire Bird's assets, which the company will sell off via a “stalking horse” agreement. The company is being sustained with a $25M loan from Apollo Global Management, the owner of Yahoo, along with second-lien lenders, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2017, Bird distributes e-scooters for short-term rentals in over 350 cities. In 2021, the company went public through a SPAC with an implied valuation of $2.3B but saw its stock plummet after, losing over 90% of its value within six months.

2 Apple has fixed a worldwide outage that, on Wednesday, affected Apple Card, Cash, Pay, and Wallet. Apple is still investigating the outage, which took down the financial services for about 30 minutes starting at 6:15 a.m. ET. More: It's unclear what caused the outage, which only impacted "some users," according to Apple's status page. While the issue was resolved for most by 6:49 a.m., the status page was not updated to reflect that until about 10:45 a.m. ET. The outage of Apple Pay and Wallet specifically affected web and in-app payments, preventing users from making online purchases. For Apple Cash, users reported problems with transaction notifications. The company didn't specify what the issues were for Apple Card. Zoom out: By 2026, it's projected that 23.3% of Americans will use the Apple Pay digital wallet, up from 18.1% in 2022.

3 The European Union has added the adult content sites Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos to its list of platforms subject to stricter rules under its new Digital Services Act (DSA). If the designation holds, the law could require users of the sites to undergo hard age verification. Background: The DSA took effect in August, applying to major digital platforms and search engines like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. At the time, the EU named 17 "very large online platforms" (VLOPs) and two very large online search engines (VLOSE), which are subject to stricter rules. These companies must do more to fight disinformation and safeguard users or face fines of up to 6% of their global turnover. The DMA, which comes into full force next year, aims to promote fair competition and prevent businesses from imposing unfair terms on consumers. What's new: Pornhub, Stripchat, and XVideos are the first adult content sites to now be considered VLOPs. XVideos and Pornhub rank as the top two most visited adult content websites globally. The platforms have until late April to update their services to comply with the extra DSA regulations, including adding age verification technology if needed.

4 An analysis by LendingTree found that Ram drivers had the highest rate of driving incidents of any car brand in the U.S., followed by Tesla drivers. Nationwide, Ram drivers had 32.90 driving incidents per 1,000 drivers from Nov. 14, 2022, through Nov. 14, 2023, with Tesla (31.13) and Subaru (30.09) being the only other brands above the 30.00 incident rate. Details: LendingTree analyzed driving incidents, including accidents, DUIs, speeding, and citations, for 30 major car brands. Of those, Ram had the worst drivers in 23 states, while Tesla ranked the worst in 11 states, the only other brand in double digits. When only including accidents, Tesla drivers have the highest accident rate of all brands, with 23.54 accidents per 1,000 drivers. This was followed by Ram (22.76) and Subaru (20.90). For DUIs, BMW drivers had the highest rate by a wide margin, with 3.13 DUIs per 1,000 drivers, nearly double the rate of runner-up Ram drivers (1.72). What it means: LendingTree said it's difficult to explain why some brands have higher accident rates but suggests that certain vehicle types may draw riskier drivers. “Most people who drive minivans seem more interested in getting their kids around town safely than they are in zipping around in a high-horsepower vehicle,” said Rob Bhatt, LendingTree insurance expert. Still, he points out that speeding, impairment, and distracted driving are leading contributors to car crashes, which are all behaviors that drivers can control.

BITCOIN

BlackRock bows to SEC pressure on Bitcoin ETF cash creations model

The asset manager filed an amended registration statement indicating the ETF will now feature cash creations and redemptions rather than allowing in-kind transfers of Bitcoin. Other major firms seeking Bitcoin ETF approval have also switched to outlining cash creations following reported advice from the SEC.

The SEC has rejected over a dozen Bitcoin ETF applications in the past, citing concerns about the potential for fraud and manipulation. But with the maturing cryptocurrency market and regulated exchanges, regulators now appear more open to the idea. Their demand for cash creations rather than in-kind Bitcoin transfers suggests specific apprehensions remain around direct custody of the asset. [cryptobriefing]

ALTCOINS

How Ordinals-inspired inscriptions caused outages and gas fee spikes across top chains

Inscriptions allow things like text, images, and video to be stored on-chain, but they are clogging up networks. Some see it as a way for retail traders to access new tokens, while others call it an overhyped fad. Blockchains built on Ethereum's technology are facing major congestion issues. Critics say inscriptions lack utility and waste block space.

Inscriptions emerged at the start of 2023 as a way to create NFT-like assets on Bitcoin's blockchain. The concept spread to Ethereum-based networks over the past month, disrupting the NFT sector as inscription tokens became the majority of transaction volume on chains like Avalanche. The ongoing chaos highlights debates around inscriptions - are they democratizing crypto issuance or just speculative noise clogging up networks? [cryptobriefing]

ETHEREUM

SEC delays several Ethereum ETFs, pushing final decision to May

While the agency has permitted Bitcoin and Ethereum futures ETFs in the past, it has yet to greenlight a spot Ethereum ETF. The delayed ETFs aim to hold a combination of spot Ether and futures or solely futures contracts. The additional proceedings are not entirely unexpected given the novelty and complexity of crypto-based ETFs. However, the delays contrast with recent optimism that spot Bitcoin ETFs may soon be approved.

In soliciting comments on the proposed Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF, the agency specifically asked if the merge raises concerns about fraud or manipulation. While approval of spot Ethereum ETFs could further validate and drive institutional adoption of Ethereum, the SEC appears intent on fully vetting issues first. [cryptobriefing]

We close out with this from the Doha Forum: