OpenAI spent $1.76 million on authorities lobbying in 2024 and $510,000 within the final three months of the yr alone, based on a brand new disclosure filed on Tuesday—a major soar from 2023, when the corporate spent simply $260,000 on Capitol Hill.
The disclosure is a transparent sign of the corporate’s arrival as a political participant, as its first yr of significant lobbying ends and Republican management of Washington begins. Whereas OpenAI’s lobbying spending remains to be dwarfed by greater tech gamers, the uptick comes because it and different AI firms are serving to redraw the form of AI coverage. Learn the total story.
—James O’Donnell
A brand new firm plans to make use of Earth as a chemical reactor
Neglect large metal tanks—some scientists wish to make chemical substances with the assistance of rocks deep beneath Earth’s floor.
New analysis reveals that ammonia, a chemical essential for fertilizer, might be produced from rocks at temperatures and pressures which might be frequent within the subsurface. The analysis was printed yesterday in Joule, and MIT Expertise Evaluation can solely report {that a} new firm, known as Addis Power, has been based to commercialize the method.
Ammonia is utilized in most fertilizers and is an important a part of our trendy meals system. It’s additionally being thought of to be used as a inexperienced gasoline in industries like transoceanic transport. The issue is that present processes used to make ammonia require loads of vitality and produce big quantities of the greenhouse gases that trigger local weather change. Learn the total story.
—Casey Crownhart
