How a Seattle-area manufacturing giant is testing generative AI ideas

How do large companies compete with startups in the race to build generative AI applications? Seattle-area manufacturing giant Fortive is getting some help from the startup studio at Pioneer Square Labs. A group of Fortive employees recently took a week-long sabbatical to brainstorm and test AI business concepts with PSL. Here’s what they came up with. 

Will the latest technological disruption spurred by artificial intelligence technology result in more jobs for humans, or less? That question is the focus of the latest story in our Bot or Not series.

LiDAR, a sensing technology used for self-driving cars, has many potential applications but is often too large or expensive to be viable. A team of researchers at the University of Washington has developed a much smaller and less costly version of LiDAR — a breakthrough that could soon be a real game-changer for many technologies. Read more. 

Hot links:

• A recent poll shows 67.4% of Seattle residents think the tech industry improved life in their city. A narrow majority — 51.4% — said the same of Amazon. (Seattle Times)

• OceanGate stories: The New York Times details the “last hours of the Titan,” and The New Yorker writes that the Seattle-area company's submersible was "an accident waiting to happen." 
• Lights, camera, cut costs: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is scrutinizing rising spending by the company’s Hollywood studio. (Bloomberg)