Latest news with #Moonshot
Business Times
a day ago
- Business Times
Alibaba, Tencent freeze AI tools during high-stakes China exam
[BEIJING] China's most popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots such as Alibaba's Qwen have temporarily disabled functions including picture recognition, to prevent students from cheating during the country's annual 'gaokao' college entrance examinations. Apps including Tencent Holdings' Yuanbao and Moonshot's Kimi suspended photo-recognition services during the hours when the multi-day exams take place across the country. Asked to explain, the chatbots responded: 'To ensure the fairness of the college entrance examinations, this function cannot be used during the test period.' China's infamously rigorous 'gaokao' is a rite of passage for teenagers across the nation, thought to shape the futures of millions of aspiring graduates. Students – and their parents – pull out the stops for any edge they can get, from extensive private tuition to, on occasion, attempts to cheat. To minimise disruption, examiners outlaw the use of devices during the hours-long tests. Alibaba Group Holding's Qwen and ByteDance's Doubao still offered photo recognition as at Monday (Jun 9). But when asked to answer questions about a photo of a test paper, Qwen responded that the service was temporarily frozen during exam hours from Jun 7 to 10. Doubao said the picture uploaded was 'not in compliance with rules'. China lacks a widely adopted university application process such as in the US, where students prove their qualifications through years of academic records, along with standardised tests and personal essays. For Chinese high-school seniors, the gaokao, held in June each year, is often the only way they can impress admissions officials. About 13.4 million students are taking part in this year's exams. The test is considered the most significant in the nation, especially for those from smaller cities and lower-income families that lack resources. A misstep may require another year in high school, or completely alter a teenager's future. The exam is also one of the most strictly controlled in China, to prevent cheating and ensure fairness. But fast-developing AI has posed new challenges for schools and regulators. The education ministry last month released a set of regulations stating that, while schools should start cultivating AI talent at a young age, students should not use AI-generated content as answers in homework and tests. BLOOMBERG
Hindustan Times
19-05-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
An Indian model in delivering health care, at scale & low cost
The US spends more on health care than any other country, pouring in hundreds of billions of dollars each year on research, sprawling government programmes, and high-profile initiatives. But what does it have to show for this massive investment? Skyrocketing costs, deep inequalities in access, and health outcomes that lag many developed nations. Both its medical and research systems have grown bloated and inefficient, increasingly disconnected from the real needs of patients. The US Cancer Moonshot is a textbook example of this dysfunction. Launched by President Barack Obama in 2016, with Vice President Joe Biden championing it, the programme promised to transform cancer care — accelerating research, delivering new treatments, and saving lives. Touted as a bold mission to achieve 10 years of progress in just five, it secured over $2 billion in funding. Biden made it a personal crusade, reviving and expanding the initiative during his presidency. Yet nearly a decade later, the results are meagre. Announcements were made and papers published, but little came of this. In sharp contrast, India is demonstrating what true health care innovation looks like — with a fraction of the resources. Karkinos Healthcare, a private venture I have mentored and advised, set out to revolutionise cancer care with just $100 million in investor funding — a sum that would barely register in US health care budgets. And in just four years — less than the Moonshot's original timeline — Karkinos has built a nationwide cancer care network that delivers measurable, life-saving results at a scale the US programme could only dream of. Today, Karkinos operates 80 centres across 12 states, having screened more than 3 million people and diagnosed over 60,000 cancer patients. Of these, 35,000 are from remote villages and small towns that previously had no access to cancer care at all. Thousands of lives have already been saved. Unlike the US moonshot, this is not PR spin — it's real progress, delivered with precision and impact. Karkinos's success is built on execution and smart partnerships. It collaborates with hospitals and clinics to offer screenings and diagnostics close to home, escalating complex cases to higher-level centres only when needed. Its digital backbone ensures every patient's journey is tracked and managed, closing gaps that typically plague cancer care in low-resource settings. The entire experience is mapped — like an Uber for cancer care — with everything digitised and tightly coordinated. Tumour boards review each patient's treatment plan to ensure a second opinion is always part of the process. Rates are pre-negotiated and a fraction of what insurance companies or patients would normally pay. The system is fast, efficient, and fully patient-focused. The journey was far from easy. At one point, Karkinos was in serious trouble — grappling with logistical challenges, funding shortfalls, and scepticism. Its very survival was at stake. But through determination, problem-solving, and tight execution, the team turned things around and achieved what the US could not. Meanwhile, the US Cancer Moonshot — despite its massive budget and high-profile promises — delivered little more than press releases and committee meetings. I saw this complacency firsthand through my interactions with its leadership, including a White House meeting and extensive follow-up discussions. My goal was to advocate for collaboration with India, highlighting the technology Karkinos had built and the treasure trove of medical data it had amassed — offered freely as part of a groundbreaking partnership. But instead of seizing this chance to leap forward, the Moonshot team reverted to its usual routine. It handed out grants to favoured researchers who churned out academic papers with little practical impact, and endlessly scheduled meetings with other government bureaucrats, brushing off India's capabilities with thinly veiled condescension, as if it couldn't possibly have built world-class technology. The sense of urgency was all for show. Patients continued to suffer — and die — while the government's machinery crawled along at its usual pace. The Moonshot's failure is not unique; it reflects a deeper issue. The US health care system is addicted to funding academic research and pilot projects that rarely scale. There is a reluctance to focus on the hard, unglamorous work of delivering proven solutions at scale. The result? A system long on discovery but painfully short on meaningful impact. Karkinos offers a different path, solving real-world problems now, at scale, and using existing technologies. It is a model driven by necessity and ingenuity — and it is working. With Reliance Industries acquiring Karkinos and Mukesh Ambani compassionately backing its expansion, the company is set to scale rapidly. Reliance brings the capital, reach, and operational expertise to take the Karkinos model across India — and eventually to other countries. What began as a bold health care startup is fast becoming a blueprint to deliver cancer care — and healthcare more broadly — effectively and equitably. America spends nearly 18% of its GDP — over $4 trillion annually — on health care. Yet, it delivers poor outcomes. Even more troubling is how much of that funding is tied up in research that rarely translates into real-world improvements. India, too, faces calls from international experts to pour more public money into research. But rather than copying the US model of research for its own sake, India's policymakers should focus on what is already working — government-industry partnerships built for execution, scale, and results. The world doesn't need more Moonshots that fizzle out; it needs more Karkinos-style revolutions that deliver. Vivek Wadhwa is CEO, Vionix Biosciences. The views expressed are personal
NBC News
14-05-2025
- General
- NBC News
No Grades, More Choice: One School's Bold Response to Classroom Disruption
In rural Pennsylvania, a small school is taking a bold step by ditching traditional grades and empowering students to choose what they want to learn. The innovative 'Moonshot' program aims to boost engagement, reduce anxiety, and transform the learning experience. This episode is part of Stay Tuned's Learning Shift series, focused on reimagining classrooms in the wake of disruption. Sponsored by Walton Family 14, 2025
New York Times
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
When Sneakers Become Art
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake produced a devastating tsunami that swept away entire towns along the coast of northern Japan. Otsuchi, in Iwate Prefecture, was one of them. According to official statistics, 1,271 lives were lost and more than half of the town's residential area was submerged during the disaster. Sashiko Gals, managed by Moonshot, a Japanese company that aims to take on social issues through design, is one of the many projects that has coalesced since the tsunami struck that aims to help victims. It was named for the traditional Japanese stitching method — sashiko — that its 15 workers use to upcycle secondhand sneakers, including New Balance, Vans, Converse, Nike and even Dr. Martens. The one-of-a-kind footwear can take as long as two weeks to create, and cost 200,000 yen, or $1,332, a pair. Since Sashiko Gals introduced its work in early 2024, the group has completed 100 pairs of sneakers, sold through stores in Tokyo and elsewhere that stock Kuon, a brand managed by Moonshot. The wait list for the sneakers has grown so long that the group is now accepting new orders only twice a year. But Edison Chen, the Hong Kong singer and actor, has a pair, as does Takahiro Moriuchi, best known as Taka, of the Japanese band One Ok Rock. 'The magic of Sashiko Gals is in how they transform ordinary sneakers into wearable art,' Jake Silbert wrote on the Highsnobiety site in December. 'Little Stabs' Sashiko, a word meaning 'little stabs,' is a patchwork technique akin to that used in traditional American quilting, and one of Japan's many methods of extending the life of items, such as kintsugi, the method of repairing broken items with gold, silver or other precious metals. Melanie Uematsu, a tailor and sewing teacher in Tokyo, wrote in an email that sashiko is a simple, but effective, skill: 'Children from age 3 or 4 can do it and even elderly people who are 104 can still do it.' Developed during the Edo Period (1603-1868), at a time when cotton products were scarce and costly, the method became popular because of its simplicity. All an artisan needs for sashiko is heavyweight cotton thread, a needle and scraps of fabric such as cotton or linen (the Sashiko Gals have been experimenting with using leather, too). Sashiko stitches can be placed in geometric patterns, such as stars or ripples, or appear just as a simple double stitch. At Sashiko Gals, stitching is done freehand and directly on the shoe, which can be harder than stitching, say, a tablecloth. Recently, Tomiko Goto was working on New Balances decorated with white and orange stitches in linear patterns. 'The fabric of this shoe is so hard, and you need strength to thread the needle through the material and pull it out,' she said. 'Sometimes I use pliers to pull the needle out.' Reconstruction On a snowy February day, I took a six-hour train ride north from central Tokyo and got off at Otsuchi's little station. The town itself was quiet, almost no one on the streets. I could see just a few rows of townhouses that were built with government support after the tsunami and a few shops. Later, I walked along the coastline and across a breakwater to Horaijima, a rocky island with a small shrine that survived the earthquake and has become a symbol of reconstruction. Yet, almost 15 years after the disaster, the town still hasn't fully recovered. 'There are no parks for children to play in and the town is full of vacant lots,' said Kaori Kurosawa, who manages Sashiko Gals on-site for Moonshot. Sashiko Gals operates with a crew of all women, some of whom learned the skill shortly after the tsunami, through one of the programs set up at an evacuation center to keep residents busy. Over time the number of needlewomen has risen and fallen; their output has included clothing, small accessories and household items. Moonshot became aware of the group in 2011 and supported them from the get-go. In 2024, the joint venture in sneakers was born. 'Sashiko Gals is not a brand, but a project involving artisans who have great sashiko techniques and stories to tell,' said Arata Fujiwara, the founder of Moonshot. 'We have been involved as a business, not as a charity, because we believe that long-term reconstruction assistance can only be provided through the 'business' of fashion.' Mr. Fujiwara came up with the business's name, combining the sewing term with a label he felt matched the women's lively behavior at work. There is no Japanese translation; everyone just calls them the Sashiko Gals. Needlework The women primarily work from home, but occasionally get together at the business headquarters, a brown and yellow two-level townhouse in the center of Otsuchi, for stitchery sessions and tea parties. While a few of them work on sashiko full-time, others have jobs so they are just part-time. On the day I visited the headquarters, a table in the main workroom displayed an array of pieces they had decorated with sashiko stitching, including a pair of Vans bearing the Sashiko Gals logo, the kanji character for needle; stuffed toys such as a Hello Kitty doll decorated in pink, red and floral fabrics; and clothes and baseball caps. Atsuko Sato, one of the three needlewomen present that day, showed me a pair of Converses covered with cotton pieces in different hues of blue and accented with some purple stitching. 'This kind of fabric is very soft, so it was not that difficult to sew on,' said Ms. Sato, 66. 'But later I started working on different materials, and some of them are very hard.' At that point, she indicated a pair of New Balance sneakers that she said had taken her colleague, Ruiko Ishii, a total of 23 hours to complete. Ms. Ishii, 79, who was also in the workroom that day, had worked as a laboratory technician before the tsunami. 'I lost almost everything, my home, my husband,' she said. 'I was desperate. I felt the worst in my life at the time.' She was one of the women who learned the technique at the evacuation center. 'I was not good at sewing,' she said, 'but I decided to try anyway. I was so overwhelmed by the atmosphere in the workshop. So welcoming, so loving, so calming. There, I found some hope.' Ms. Goto, 77, said she had found sashiko work to be very calming. 'Before that, although I was watching TV, I wasn't able to hear it really,' she said, referring to how hard it was to bypass all her worries. 'But when I started sewing, I could concentrate on it and I could forget about the experience I had gone through.' While she was talking, she had been busy using a long needle with a slightly curved end to stitch a pattern with multicolored thread onto a dark blue tablecloth dyed with indigo. The women said they did talk about how to spread the word about sashiko and ultimately perpetuate their project. Ms. Kurosawa said the group had conducted a one-day class in sashiko at a local high school, and also held workshops for students from other parts of Japan and overseas. 'The Great East Japan Earthquake made the town of Otsuchi known to the entire world, but I think it was quickly forgotten,' she said. 'I know a lot of people survived disasters all over the world. But I hope a lot of people will learn there is a way to recover, by creating a community like this one.' The women all agreed the group's camaraderie had been at least part of the reason that the project has endured. Ms. Goto used the Japanese word kizuna, meaning 'human connections.' 'Sharing those similar feelings with friends has helped me a lot,' she said. 'Everyone has had hardships, but without saying that out loud, they know what it feels like to go through it. That kind of strong emotions and connected feelings are very important in this project.' Ms. Ishii agreed: 'After losing my family, I learned how crucial it is to get involved with other people and to take care of other people, because you are not alone.'
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - How Trump's mission to Mars could save the nation
In his inauguration speech last month, President Trump said America is entering a new 'Golden Age.' He reminded us that Americans are 'explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers' and challengeed us to 'pursue our manifest destiny into the stars,' and plant our flag on the surface of Mars. Trump can deliver a revival of the pioneer spirit by following in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy and setting a goal of establishing a robotic colony on Mars within the next decade. We should choose to go to Mars and do the hard things, 'not because they are easy but because they are hard.' Kennedy entered office in 1961 when the country was bitterly divided and global power was reorganizing. The U.S. was fighting a two-front war: one hot in Vietnam and the other cold with the Russians. Kennedy exuded American exceptionalism and set the nation on a 'New Frontier,' focusing on space exploration, civil rights, economic reforms and global diplomacy. He inspired us to be great, and America rose to the challenge. Taking up the call was his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, who was named chairman of the Space Council. As Douglas Brinkley wrote in his book 'American Moonshot,' Johnson 'championed NASA as a potential bonanza of tech-driven wealth for numerous states.' He played the inside game of pork and patronage that lubricates the wheels of government. At the same time, Kennedy inspired the American people to become 'stakeholders in the grand drama' and 'partners in the adventure.' The Kennedy Moonshot inspired Americans to believe their government was still great, but it also served as a new battlefield for the Cold War, moving the competition outside a warzone and turning the spillover into economic growth. The resulting technological advancement in electronics, medicine, energy, communication and robotics would lead to the creation of personal computers, GPS, MRI and CAT scans, cellphones and solar power. The gains offset the economic costs of exploration, 'increasing real GDP by 2.2 percent after 20 years' and beating the Russians to the moon, setting the stage for détente. Today, as when Kennedy entered office, the country is bitterly divided while global power is reorganizing. We are in a race for technological superiority, building the infrastructure and competing for resources. This is a time for bold action and strong leadership. Trump is a passionate leader. Tapping into his passion and using his bully pulpit can propel us into this new 'Golden Age.' He should task Vice President JD Vance to lead the Moonshot. Vance, like Johnson before him, should spread out the contracts and jobs, uniting our shared interests of safety and opportunity. We chose the tech lifestyle, which requires more power, and now we have to secure the resources and stabilize our future. Landing on Mars and establishing a robotic colony will require government investment and private partnerships. It will not be easy — but neither was going to the moon. The Saturn V rocket that carried our astronauts was the brainchild of former Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun. The rocket technology originated from the V-2 missile developed for the Nazis, but after the war, the U.S. granted von Braun amnesty as part of Operation Paperclip. In the U.S., von Braun worked with a team at NASA and transformed the weapon of war into a tool for peaceful exploration. It took years of trial and error, tragedy and heartbreak before von Braun and his team worked out the bugs and delivered the Saturn V to the moon. Private institutions like SpaceX and Blue Origin are already racing to Mars. SpaceX founder Elon Musk is predicting trips to Mars by 2028. Like von Braun and his team, Elon and the SpaceX team have transformed their innovative, cost-effective Falcon 1 into the Falcon 9, which powered the first-ever private spacecraft to dock with the ISS. The goal is to create a fully reusable Starship, with both the rocket and the spacecraft capable of landing and being reused many times. The innovative design will make interplanetary travel more affordable and sustainable. The American experiment in representative government has thrived because of a strategic partnership between private and public institutions. Building transportation, communication and industry networks has expanded opportunities and secured safety. A strategic partnership between the tech industry and the government would lead to a new era of Manifest Destiny. A reusable Starship could supply a robotic colony working in the harsh Martian environment, conducting research on the Martian core, testing battery development and mining for resources. The colony could send back valuable resources while setting the stage for human inhabitance. A robotic colony on Mars might seem like far-fetched science fiction, but so was the Moonshot. Private institutions like SpaceX and Blue Origin have laid the foundation for success. A mission to Mars could capture the positive attention of the American people and the world. American Exceptionalism will rise again; we are ready for the challenge. Jeff Mayhugh is the founding editor of Politics and Parenting and vice president at No Cap Fund. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
