Good Disruption

One quarter of greenhouse gas emissions in the US is attributed to electricity production. Greening the grid is critical to our ability to decarbonize the economy and after decades of investment and technology improvements we are finally at a tipping point with renewables. Utility-scale solar and wind power are cost-competitive with natural gas even without incentives. Renewable energy sources now account for more than 20% of electricity generation.  

Yet, challenges exist to broader adoption, including the need for a massive build-out of energy storage on the grid. What policies and actions are underway to overcome these barriers? How might other clean technologies like green hydrogen and geothermal play a role in decarbonizing the US grid?

Mike and Yael speak with Sandy Reisky, Founder and Board Member for Apex Clean Energy.

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Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet – "just setting up my twttr" – sold for more than $2.9 million. Bored Ape Yacht Club digital art pieces fetch just over $100,000. NBA Top Shot sells digital NBA moments for millions of dollars. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are making this possible. But is it more hype than reality?

In previous episodes we explored the phenomenon of algorithms creating art and music and touched on the idea of NFTs representing personal data. In this episode we dig deeper into the growing NFT market. Will NFTs be more broadly adopted or limited to the wealthy? What are the potential negative externalities associated with using NFTs, such as energy consumption, malicious behavior, and equal access?

Mike and Yael speak with Dennie Kim, Associate Professor of Business Administration at UVA Darden. Dennie’s research examines the design and performance of whole organizational networks, and the emergence and evolution of new industries. His current work examines multiple contexts, including disparities in healthcare delivery, healthcare reform, whisky, and blockchain applications, including NFTs.

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Deepfakes once used purely for entertainment purposes are becoming more pervasive on social media and, in some alarming cases, more sinister. Take last year’s video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy where he appeared to tell soldiers to surrender to Russia. The video underscores the potential damage that deepfakes could cause if there are not protections in place.

Yet, there are also benefits from automation in content generation. The use of deep learning algorithms like GPT-3 offer the ability handle, manage, release, and edit more content over time. But there is also a danger that comes with this automation. We could find ourselves in a world where most of the content being consumed on the internet daily is created by fewer and fewer people and companies. Do the benefits outweigh the risks? How do policymakers protect people from the dangers of misinformation? 

Mike and Yael talk with Dr Tom Chatfield (@TomChatfield), a British author and tech philosopher. Tom’s non-fiction books explore digital culture, including How To Thrive in the Digital Age (Pan Macmillan).

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Here on the Good Disruption podcast we talk a lot about technologies, but what about the person behind the disruption?  To tackle wicked problems like climate change, not only do we need innovative technologies but also, innovators who introduce solutions that benefit society more broadly.  What makes a good disruptor?  How can we move the needle on climate change?  Mike and Yael talk with Chrissa Pagitsas (MBA ’09), Laure Katz (GEMBA ’16) and Chanceé Lundy Russell to discuss these and other questions around sustainability during UVA Darden’s 2022 Women in Leadership Summit.

For many patients battling disease, working with their doctors to find the most effective treatment can be a painful exercise of trial and error. What if you could more precisely choose medications and customize treatment based on people’s genes, environment, and lifestyle?

Today, this type of customization is possible thanks to the Human Genome Project, which published the full sequence of the human genome in 2013. The release of this data provided clinicians the opportunity to identify genetic variations of thousands of diseases and has led to the rise of a new way to treat patients through personalized or precision medicine. Yet, creating a detailed and complete view of individual patients requires an incredible amount of computing power and there are concerns around accessibility, profiling, discrimination, and privacy with access to personal data.

In 2018, Director Steven Spielberg released the movie Ready Player One. Set in the year 2045, the movie depicts a virtual world, Oasis, where players can escape their everyday lives to be whoever they want and do whatever they want through an avatar. Fantasy? Perhaps, but big tech players like Facebook are betting on the idea becoming a reality. Last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of the company to Meta, a move that appears to be a strategic positioning tactic for the next digital frontier.

What exactly is the metaverse? What are the challenges in building an interactive virtual world? Which technologies will get us there? How will players – particularly younger ones – be protected while engaging with others?

Livestock farming represents more than 60% of agriculture GHG emissions. Cattle account for most of these emissions and are the primary drivers of deforestation. If we want to reduce the global impact of beef, we need to think differently about how we grow and source it.

Across the U.S., new plant-based alternatives are showing up on menus, offering customers similar taste and texture as beef, but without the carbon footprint. Chains like Burger King, Carl Jr., and Starbucks are offering Impossible and Beyond Meat products. Still, many beef lovers are hesitant to make the switch. What if you could promise real beef but without the environmental impact or even, without a herd? In steps cultivated meat, where beef is grown from cow cells in a laboratory.

Podcast image courtesy of World Economic Forum, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

When Ludwig van Beethoven died in 1827, he left his 10th symphony unfinished. Working off just a few musical sketches and notes by the composer, a team of computer scientists at Rutgers University-based start-up Playform AI trained an artificial intelligence to mimic his style and complete the symphony. The finished product was performed by The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn on October 9, 2021.

The use of AI for creative endeavors is not new, but more recently interest in using it for music composition has exploded. Machine learning promises to increase the pace and volume of content released by artists and makes music and composition more accessible to budding new artists. On one hand it helps to feed the seemingly insatiable desire for new content on streaming platforms but on the other, it threatens originality. There is also the question of “who owns the music that the software produces” – is it the programmer, the musician, or the AI itself?

Ten years ago, a group of Stanford professors founded Coursera, an online education platform that allows university partners to offer courses using a subscription-based model. Known in the industry as MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, the company has provided access to more than 95 million learners. These MOOCs have allowed universities to engage a broader audience not able to be reached through traditional means. Market analysts report a year over year increase in online learning, both nationally and globally. In 2021, MOOCs had reached more than 200 million people. The COVID pandemic has only accelerated this trend with most schools forced to move all classes online. Concerns around the rising costs of higher education are increasing the pressure on many universities to consider digital offerings. It’s clear that disruption is underway, but where are the opportunities and what are the risks to top-tier universities?

Bitcoin. Tether. Dogecoin. These are some of the most popular cryptocurrencies being traded around the world. The sheer number of crypto options available today suggests significant market disruption is underway. Building on open source blockchain technology, developers have created more than 4,500 cryptocurrencies. Yet, where there is hype there is also volatility. Just last year, the value of Bitcoin dropped by $6 billion within weeks of Tesla announcing that it would not accept it and China warning that it would block all crypto exchanges. After recovering and reaching an all-time high later in the year, the price once again dipped at the beginning of 2022. Is it merely the newness of crypto that is causing this volatility or does the concern go deeper? What are the benefits of shifting the economy toward digital currencies? What are the concerns? Who will benefit?