Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 2

Electricity Will Be Free in the Future. In Australia, It Already Is.

Solar power in Australia costs about a third of what it currently costs in the US. As a result, more than 1 in 3 homes across Australia have solar panels. After years of installations, the investment is paying off. Starting in June of 2026, the Australian government announced that residents in three states will get free electricity for a portion of each day thanks to the surplus created. And that’s from less than half of all homes even installing solar panels. If the trend continues, it’s easy t...

Adobe Is Rolling Out Emotion Mixers Where AI Can Shift the Tone of Voice Overs

At the Adobe MAX Creative event last week, WIRED reported on several enhancements to audio editing that are likely to be coming soon inside of Adobe products. The capabilities of this “Corrective AI” feature are quite extensive. It can take an audio track and separate it into components to effectively remove or isolate any background noise to adjust them individually. When editing an existing vocal track, an editor can choose from a preset mix of emotions to apply a filter to the vocal track to ...

How Long Should It Take Before Something Is Declared a Flop?

The initial ratings for the American reboot of The Office were famously bad. People didn’t love the character of Michael Scott and the entire effort seemed like a poor imitation of a popular British comedy. The show wasn’t canceled, though, and the team behind it managed to retool the aspects that didn’t work into one of the most beloved series in American television history. Imagine if they didn’t give it that chance to succeed, though. What might we all have missed?

I was thinking about tha...

Why Zohran Mamdani Won the NY Mayoral Election

The day after stories of Zohran Mamdani’s meteoric rise and win of the NY city Mayoral election were everywhere this week. The best recap I read focused on a specific aspect of Mamdani’s campaign that offers lessons beyond politics. Though he received a lot of credit and attention for his savvy social media videos, the real connections with people he managed to make were largely due to his ability and willingness to just show up in person and talk to real people. When contrasted with his opponen...

Bill Gates Now Says We Are Fighting Climate Change Wrong …

Something unusual was amiss in the media this week: climate activists were hating on Bill Gates. It all started with Gates publishing a blog post ahead of the UN Climate Conference  next week that suggested perhaps we have all been a bit too focused on emission and proposed that “temperature is not the best way to measure our progress on the climate.” The pivot was widely covered as a “stunning claim” that amounted to a betrayal and led to plenty of criticism:

“By arguing emissions shouldn’t ...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

In a world where multiverses are real, there’s just one catch … no one can visit a world where they already have a living counterpart. The main character in this book, Cara, happens to have parallel selves that are “exceptionally good at dying.” That’s the setup for this speculative science fiction novel that crosses space and time to tell a story of survival and what it takes to discover your own identity and sense of belonging when the world around you keeps shifting. When this book first came...

The Personal Exoskeletons Are Coming—Here’s What It Means

Nike just announced a groundbreaking new sneaker​ that includes an advanced exoskeleton to make walking and running easier. It’s essentially a bionic shoe. The upside in terms of bringing mobility to those who struggle now due to disability or age is clear. What’s less clear is exactly what this will mean for the rest of us when this technology becomes more mainstream.

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What about backyard sports or using these sorts of enhancements in club sports leagues? How will people push themselves, ...

All Online Outrage Is Fake

Remember the “outrage” generated online by the revised logo for Cracker Barrel restaurant? According to a ​new piece this week from the WSJ​, much of the online backlash reportedly driven by angry consumers was actually just bots. Another story this week about the outrage supposedly instigated by the NFL’s announcement that Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny would be the halftime performer notes that music star Jay-Z is among a growing number of people suggesting ​that outrage also may be fake​. Put th...

Lessons From the Reinvention of Pittsburgh into an AI Robotics Hub

Pittsburgh was known for steel. Now the city has ambitions to become a hub for something else: AI and robotics. The pieces seem to be falling into place. From central robotics labs at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon to investment from the city, the ecosystem is being built right now as this feature article notes. The most interesting part of this evolution, though, is how the early evangelists for telling this story seem to be linking it back to the roots of Pittsburgh’s identit...

AI Matchmaking and How Expertise Is About to Be Scaled

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There is an elite $2000-per-month matchmaking service called Three Day Rule that made news this week for their choice to ​create an AI matchmaking app​ based on their methods. In a dating world where some people are resorting to ​paying for a billboard to find a potential husband​, people are desperate for alternatives. Talking about the value that a human matchmaker has always had over algorithms, founder Adam Cohen-Aslatei describes the reason for creating the app like this:

“He’s becom...