Five Things Tech: Father of the Internet, Data Centers, Quantum Computing, AI National Lab, Soft Robot
This is everything you should read about Tech right now.
Heya and welcome to Five Things Tech!
The internet did not build itself. Neither will whatever comes next. We spend our days talking about the shiny layer on top. The models, the apps, the demos. This week is about the layer underneath. The man who wrote the rules that let networks talk to each other is finally retiring. The data centers powering the boom are drinking more water than they admit. Quantum is speeding up but still years from mattering. The robots are learning to fold our laundry. And the rules for all of it remain unwritten. The foundation is never the headline. It should be.
Here are five things tech worth your attention.
The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring
Cerf, 83, and collaborator Robert Kahn are credited as being the architects of the networking protocols that became the internet we know today. His work developing and popularizing TCP/IP — the basic set of rules that lets different computer networks talk to each other — beginning in the 1970s has been recognized with numerous honorary degrees, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Turing Award, among other honors.
Since 2005, Cerf has served as vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. (At this point, we can safely say the internet is fully evangelized, for good or ill.)
I had the pleasure to meet Vint Cerf some ten years ago or so at a luncheon in Berlin where we discussed tech regulation. It was a delight to listen to him talk about the inner workings of the internet.
AI Data Centers Use Far More Water Than Most Tech Giants Report
Recently, Nvidia said it had solved the data-center water issue, showing off a closed-loop cooling system that doesn’t require additional water once filled. This design appears to be a win on two levels, says Gillingham, the Yale professor: It zeroes out direct use of water while also reducing the total amount of energy required for cooling.
Microsoft has committed to similar closed-loop tech. In 2024, the company announced that all its new data centers would use it, starting in 2027.
Unfortunately, most existing data centers use evaporative cooling systems that are energy-efficient but water-hungry, according to data from the 2024 Lawrence Berkeley report. Experts say retrofitting those could be prohibitively expensive.
Data centers are creating huge problems. But data centers are also hugely important and they need to be run profitably. So clever engineers will find solution to all the issues we currently see: too much water usage, to much power usage, too much noise - the list goes on and will be addressed.
Quantum computing is about to get a lot more real
Capital is only one accelerant. The generative AI boom is also helping quantum developers move faster. Artificial intelligence coding tools are helping scientists accelerate the development of materials and components used in quantum designs, says Heather West, an analyst at IDC. That, in turn, is shortening the timelines on product road maps.
Industry consolidation has also helped, often by bringing different parts of the quantum stack under one roof.
Even is Quantum development is speeding up, I do not think we’ll notice anything really happening in this space in the next 5 years. It is still very early.
We Didn’t Build the Atomic Bomb This Way
Artificial intelligence, funded overwhelmingly by private capital, has careened forward despite immense concerns about the effects it will have on labor, education, science, defense and civic life. A.I. companies have outpaced public oversight and, at times, successfully lobbied against it. The central achievements of the industry, the proprietary “frontier models” developed by companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, are guarded intellectual properties even as they are incorporated into schools, offices, hospitals, courts, commerce and our everyday devices. The public did not ask for these A.I. tools and now can hardly opt out of them.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to addressing the impacts that may be coming. But the scale of the concerns requires ambitious responses that serve the public. The United States can start by building a national A.I. laboratory.
This debate is just a few years too late, but it is still necessary that we discuss this.
This Soft Robot Wants to Fold Laundry Without Pretending to be Human
Isaac 1 is meant to handle its main tasks autonomously, though Weave says teleoperation support can step in when needed. That point may be one of the more realistic parts of the project. Homes are inconsistent environments, full of changing furniture positions, loose objects, and edge cases that are difficult to predict. A robot that can ask for help may be more plausible than one claiming to solve every room by itself.
Folding laundry and picking up stuff my kids drop everywhere - this could be awesome. A professional cleaner is still cheaper though…
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading! If you missed last week’s Five Things Tech, you can find it here:
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— Nico