TECHNOLOGY

Boeing's crewed Starliner spacecraft mission to the International Space Station was initially expected to last just a few days, but it has stretched into weeks and now two months. 

The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, have been stranded on the ISS following Starliner's helium leaks and failing thrusters in early June.

NASA and Boeing have been working to resolve Starliner's issues, but progress has been limited.

The big story here is that, (more…)

Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Many aspects of everyday life were transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s response to it.

(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

Lockdowns quickly created a remote working environment that hasn’t fully reversed.

Despite some employers’ efforts to cajole their employees back into the office, a majority (52 percent) of U.S. workers still say they prefer working remotely at (more…)

Big Tech’s AI arms race has a significant energy cost. For example, a study found that training OpenAI’s GPT-4 used up to 62,000 megawatt-hours, equal to the energy needs of 1,000 U.S. households over 5-6 years.

And, as Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao details below, this can be seen when tracking Microsoft’s electricity use (in terawatt-hours) and related carbon emissions (in million metric tons of CO₂e) in the last four years.

Data is sourced from the company’s 2024 Sustainability Report, and covers FY 2020–23. Microsoft’s financial year runs from July 1st to June 30th.

AI Push is Putting Pressure on Microsoft’s Emissions Targets

In just four years, Microsoft’s electricity consumption has more than doubled from 11 TWh to 24 TWh. For context, the entire country of Jordan (population: 11 million) uses 20 TWh of electricity in a given year.

This electricity usage jump is accompanied by a 42% increase in total carbon emissions—indicating a relative growing share of renewable energy sources.

Note: Figures rounded.

Both (more…)