Every week we present the latest startup, tech, and innovation news from around the world. Here are this week's top stories. >>
Perseverance Rover. Photo credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
#1 Mars Rover Lays Down Rock Samples in Quest to Find Life on the Red Planet
NASA's Mars Rover, Perseverance, began this week dropping samples of rock onto the surface of Mars in a mission to find out whether there is life on the Red Planet. The samples contain a mix of volcanic and sedimentary rocks that the robot has been drilling over the past 15 months.
The hope is that the rock samples will be picked up by a future mission and brought back to Earth, where they can be studied.
Elon Musk. Photo credit: lesoir
#2 Elon Musk to Step Down as Head of Twitter
Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO following a public poll saying he will “abide by the results”. With 57.5% of users voting that he should quit, Musk responded in a tweet, saying he would resign “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!”
Having been at the reins of the social media network since the end of October, Musk's other businesses have been lacking his attention. Tesla’s shares have been down 28% since October.
B.I.G.'s virtual performance. Photo credit: Meta Horizon Worlds
#3 Notorious B.I.G. Performs Live in the Metaverse
Biggie Smalls, the late hip-hop rapper, performs ‘live’ in the metaverse in Meta Quest VR concert experience. The iteration of Notorious B.I.G. that performed was created by Hyperreal, a digital tech company that is powering "high fidelity, emotionally real digital twins" of celebrities, as well as creating immersive virtual environments using VFX technology.
While impressively realistic, questions about the ethics of the business are being raised.
No-lace sneaker drop. Photo credit: RTFKY
#4 Nike and RTFKT Launce ‘Cryptokicks IRL’ Sneaker Collection
Nike and RTFKT launch ‘Cryptokicks iRL’ collection. The sneakers with features such as customizable lights, auto-lacing, and wireless charging, will be the first physical footwear from Nike that have roots in the metaverse. No more tying our shoes? Now that’s the future.
Dataiku's stand VivaTech. Photo credit: Dataiku
#5 French AI Unicorn Dataiku Raises $200M in Funding
AI unicorn, Dataiku, raises $200M in funding to bring its valuation to $3.7B. Dataiku’s platform develops AI solutions for companies, using advanced analytics and the latest techniques at a big data scale.
The French company is a long-standing VivaTech Alumni, joining us since 2016, we saw their solution excel, their nomination for the Next Unicorn Awards, and Florian Douetteau, Dataiku CEO, on stage. What a journey.
That’s it for this year. We’ll see you in 2023 for the next roundup!
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