Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

Register for the World Standards Week Event on May 18, 2022

NEW YORK, March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, has rewritten the way companies and organizations are doing business. But what are the implications for the workforce and the workplace? Join leading workforce experts to learn about building a future-ready workforce and peer into the workplace of tomorrow at the World Standards Week (WSW) spring conference, Technology and the Workforce (view draft agenda).

(PRNewsfoto/Workcred)

Hosted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in partnership with its affiliate Workcred, the future-focused conference will take place on May 18, 2022, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. A virtual attendance option is also available.

REGISTER HERE.

In opening remarks, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, has been invited to share the Administration's vision for workforce development as a key driver of U.S. competitiveness, and to highlight opportunities for public-private partnerships that will help build an equitable, skilled workforce for the digital, data-based economy. Keynote speaker Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health, will share her visionary perspective on the future world of work and what U.S. companies and organizations need to do to compete.

In three fire-side chat-style panel discussions, workforce experts from industry, academia, and the standardization community will take a deep dive into major issues impacting the workforce, workplace, and standardization community, including:

Innovation and Workforce Transformation Building a Future-Ready Workforce

This panel will explore how the increasing pace of technology innovation is reshaping industries and driving demand for new skills. Panelists will discuss changing skills needs and the reskilling and upskilling needs of the workforce.

Moderator: Jane Oates, President, WorkingNation

Panelists:

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Earl Buford, President, CAEL

Todd Greene, Executive Director, WorkRise

Kerri Nelson, Director of Policy and Workforce Research, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Rethinking the Way We Work a Look at the Workplace of the Future

Has the pandemic toppled the traditional workplace model? Envisioning the future world of work, panelists will explore how companies are successfully embracing new ways of hiring, training, and mentoring to thrive and innovate in a remote/hybrid world.

Moderator: Janet Salm, Managing Director of Research, Strada Education Network

Panelists:

Elise Freedman, Senior Client Partner, Workforce Transformation Practice Leader, Korn Ferry

Diana Gehlhaus, Research Fellow, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University

Standards Community Into the Future

This panel will explore how members of the standardization community are responding to opportunities and challenges, and planning for the future. Panelists will discuss how innovations in standards development, such as SMART standards and greater use of virtual and collaborative tools, are impacting the standards workforce. They will also discuss diversity and inclusion initiatives, as well as creative approaches to growing the next generation of standards professionals.

Moderator: Mary Saunders, VP of Government Relations, ANSI

Panelists:

Muhammad Ali, Senior Standards Strategy and Policy Lead, HP

Alyson Fick, Manager, Standards Development, ASTM International

Veronica Lancaster, Vice President, Standards Programs, Consumer Technology Association

About World Standards Week

World Standards Week is an annual gathering that brings together ANSI members and private- and public-sector stakeholders from across the standards and conformity assessment communities to engage on priority issues and celebrate standardization achievements.

For more information, and to register for WSW events, visit http://www.ansi.org/wsweek.

About ANSI

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S. quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their integrity. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations.

The Institute represents and serves the diverse interests of more than 270,000 companies and organizations and 30 million professionals worldwide. ANSI is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). For more information, visit http://www.ansi.org.

About Workcred

Formed in 2014, Workcred is an affiliate of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Its mission is to strengthen workforce quality by improving the credentialing system, ensuring its ongoing relevance, and preparing employers, workers, educators, and governments to use it effectively. Workcred's vision is a labor market that relies on the relevance, quality, and value of workforce credentials for opportunities, growth, and development.

(PRNewsfoto/American National Standards Ins)

Cision

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Technology and the Workforce: ANSI and Workcred Announce Future-Focused Conference - Yahoo Finance

ESG appears to be taking a back seat, as the latest IEA report reveals that, in 2021, global energy-related carbon emissions increased by 6%, reaching 36.3 billion tons. This was the largest absolute increase in carbon emissions ever recorded. This can be attributed to many parts of the world pursuing a dirty recovery, using fossil fuels to power a Covid-19 rebound. As the Ukraine crisis looms large, the risk of ESG slipping down the agenda once again remains real. As the worlds youth recommenced protests against climate change on March 25, it is clear that more needs to be done to avert dangerous climate change.

The slogan, there is no planet B scrawled across placards has become a common sight at environmental protests in recent years. Against this backdrop, SpaceX CEO Elon Musks quest for Mars could be viewed as tone-deaf. The billionaire has been criticized for taking mass consumption to a planetary level, in his bid for humans to become a spacefaring civilization. However, this reading has generalized the emerging space economy, presenting innovation in space and ESG as a zero-sum game.

In many ways, the space and the environmental aspects of ESG have a shared history. The space age ushered in a new era for environmentalism with the 1972 Big Blue Marble image depicting the Earth from space, emphasizing the finite nature of the planet and the need to conserve its resources.

In addition, space-based infrastructure embodies many of the concepts required for a sustainable future, with a large emphasis on resource self-sufficiency. These learnings have given rise to numerous technological developments. Solar panel technology has been one of the largest beneficiaries, with NASAs Advanced Energy division partnering with private firms to catalyze innovation in renewable energy.

A growing number of satellite companies specializing in high-resolution environmental monitoring could also see the space economy and ESG become the unlikeliest of friends. The company, Planet, currently operates a constellation of over 200 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The constellation harvest 15 terabytes of geospatial data a day and can be used to monitor deforestation, improve disaster response, and map emissions. The company also partnered with Human Rights Watch in 2017 and provides satellite imagery to expose human rights abuses.

Other companies such as GHGSat and Descartes Labs are also working to use increasingly granular satellite data to monitor point source emissions and provide carbon accounting. In this respect, the emerging space economy provides a means of adding empirical data, increasing businesses and governments accountability for measuring their environmental impact and reducing their emissions. This rigorous empiricism will be of paramount importance for cutting through the hazy and confusing landscape of ESG disclosure.

Admittedly, space activity has generated its own environmental crises, with the rapid accumulation of space debris posing as its own super-wicked problem. However, several companies have moved quickly to address the problem. Astroscale was the first to successfully demonstrate how its dual satellite mission could be used to collect space debris in August 2021. In addition, Elon Musks $100 million pledge towards a carbon capture contest is evidence of another way in which space economy and ESG can overlap.

Although an emerging industry, space companies are showing themselves to be agile in the face of challenges and could be valuable allies in the fight against climate change. The matter of ESG and the space economy is not always a zero-sum game and if we want to turn the tide against climate change, engagement with the latter will be required.

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Space economy and ESG is not a zero-sum game - Verdict

Moonstrike is a blockchain-based game developed on Binance Smart Chain. The game is a play-to-earn multiplayer with shooter and development based on AAA quality from Unreal Engine.

Moonstrike is a blockchain-based game that includes a play-to-earn component and first- and third-person shooting. Players can build their base and battle it out with other players on the moon in the game.

The platform is built on Binance Smart Chain and Epic Games Unreal Engine. This technology is used to create the highest-quality 3-D games with AAA grades. Users will access unique design enhancements by purchasing NFTS and using it in the game.

One of the critical aspects of the platform is its premium playstyle and designs, which are brought up in the crypto metaverse. Players of all skills will have access to the Moonstrike gaming platform. The game is now available on desktop PCs, offering challenging gameplay for those intrigued.

Players will be able to control soldiers on the moon in this game, competing for control of essential spots and resources on the battlefield. Users with unique character and weapon models, resources, and vehicles will access a range of NFT features to manage and control the NFT-based player economy.

The platform also includes components such as squad-based 5v5 FPS warfare and construction and land ownership. Players will be able to collect and trade NFT-based elements and other resources such as vehicles, base facilities, and plots. Furthermore, during PVP games, players will be able to use items such as weapons and consumables to acquire an edge over the competition.

The Unreal Engine produced by Moonstrike is quite useful in the game. It offers the competition with a visually stunning in-game universe that stays true to what devoted players have come to expect from the most recent AAA games on the market. While still in its early stages, combat physics demonstrates a thorough understanding of the genre and a clear desire to build a solid reality within the game. Players will acquire and sell items that generate a return as the game grows, thanks to the NFT blockchain elements.

The first screenshots from Moonstrike have been revealed. Players can notice the outstanding quality of the lunar surface in those screenshots, which is due to the use of Unreal Engine. This may pique the interest of many professional gamers and investors looking to invest in a game that offers a fair and healthy battle rivalry while also returning double the amount invested.

Moon Strike is a new NFT Play-to-Earn game based on blockchain technology released soon. The platform is a one-of-a-kind addition to the NFT play-to-earn gaming market, integrating high-quality first-person shooter PVP action with base-building and resource harvesting elements.

For more information, players can visit the website here. Also, for more updates, players can follow Moonstrikes Twitter or join its community on Telegram or Discord.

Contact Details:

Company Name - GamesParadise

Company Email - info@moonstrike.io

Phone Number - 49 08232 11 10 69

Contact Person - Clark P. Tracy

Website - https://moonstrike.io

Location: Dubai, UAE

Disclaimer:The information provided in this release is not investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is recommended that you practice due diligence (including consultation with a professional financial advisor before investing or trading securities and cryptocurrency.

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Moonstrike Using the Unreal Engine Releases the Game Footages of Moon Surface - GlobeNewswire

VANCOUVER, BC, March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO) (NYSE MKT) (TGB; LSE: TKO) ("Taseko" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a new 706 million ton proven and probable sulphide reserve for the Gibraltar Mine, a 40% increase as of December 31, 2021. The new reserve estimate allows for a significant extension of the mine life to 23 years with total recoverable metal of 3.0 billion pounds of copper and 53 million pounds of molybdenum.

Highlights from the new reserve:

Note: Taseko's 75% owned Gibraltar Mine is located north of the City of Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia. All dollar amounts are in Canadian dollars (C$) and units are imperial unless stated otherwise.

Stuart McDonald, President and CEO, commented, "Gibraltar has been our cornerstone asset since it was restarted 17 years ago, and with the extended mine life we expect it will continue to generate significant cashflow for many years to come. Over the last two years there has been a dramatic shift in the long-term outlook for copper, as the world accelerates the transition to a green economy. With the improved market outlook, our engineering team updated pit designs which have added 200 million tons of additional reserves to the life of mine plan. The mine now has a 23-year mine life with significant leverage to copper prices going forward. At current copper prices, the mine NPV increases to over $2 billion (75% basis, after-tax)."

Richard Tremblay, Senior VP, Operations, added, "The additional tons in the new reserve are at a similar grade as Gibraltar's previous reserves. While the life of mine strip ratio has increased slightly, there has been no change to the mine plan over the next five years where copper production is expected to average approximately 128 million pounds per year. The updated pit designs are based on a conservative long-term copper price of US$3.05 per pound (previously US$2.75 per pound), and incorporate material that was previously classified as resources."

Mr. McDonald concluded, "Recent market activity and global events continue to show the value of a long-life, steady-state copper mine in a top mining jurisdiction. With our near-term growth plans in Arizona, and longer-term development projects in British Columbia, Taseko is very well positioned to build a North America based mid-tier copper producer."

1 The NPV and cash flow is based on copper prices of $4.25 (2022), $3.90 (2023) and US$3.50 per pound long-term, and a molybdenum price of US$18 (2022), US$15 (2023) and US$13 per pound long-term and a foreign exchange rate of 1.3:1 (C$:US$).

Gibraltar Mine Sulphide Mineral Reserves as of December 31 , 2021 at 0.15% Copper Cut-off

Category

Tons (millions)

Cu Grade (%)

Mo Grade (%)

Cu Eq. (%)

Proven

509

0.25

0.008

0.27

Probable

191

0.23

0.008

0.24

Ore Stockpiles

6

0.18

0.007

0.20

Total Proven and Probable

706

0.25

0.008

0.26

Gibraltar Mine Mineral Resources as of December 31 , 2021 at 0.15% Copper Cut-off

Category

Tons (millions)

Cu Grade (%)

Mo Grade (%)

Cu Eq. (%)

Measured

845

0.25

0.007

0.27

Indicated

370

0.23

0.007

0.25

Total Measured and Indicated

1,215

0.24

0.007

0.26

Inferred

78

0.22

0.004

0.23

Gibraltar Mine Oxide Mineral Reserves as of December 31, 2021 at 0.10% ASCu Cut-off

Category

Tons

ASCu (%)

Proven

1

0.15

Probable

16

0.15

Ore Stockpiles

0

0.15

Total Proven and Probable

17

0.15

Qualified Persons and 43-101 Disclosure

This technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Richard Weymark, P.Eng., MBA, Vice President, Engineering of Taseko. Mr. Weymark is a Qualified Person under the provisions of National Instrument 43-101 published by the Canadian Securities Administrators.

The resource and reserve estimation was completed by Taseko and Gibraltar Mine staff and contributing consultants under the supervision of Richard Weymark, P. Eng., MBA. Vice President, Engineering of Taseko and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

Additional information regarding data verification procedures, known legal, political, environmental or other risks can be found in the Technical Report dated March 30, 2022, titled 'Technical Report on the Mineral Reserve Update at the Gibraltar Mine' which is available on SEDAR.

Note to United States Investors

This news release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. Canadian reporting requirements for disclosure regarding mineral properties are governed by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). For this reason, information contained in this news release regarding the Company's Gibraltar Mine may not be comparable to similar information made public by United States companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.

For further information on the differences between the disclosure requirements for mineral properties in the United States and NI 43-101, please refer to the company's Annual Information Form, a copy of which has been filed under Taseko's profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com and the company's Form 40-F, a copy of which will be filed on EDGAR at http://www.edgar.com.

Stuart McDonaldPresident and CEO

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the information contained in this news release.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This document contains "forward-looking statements" that were based on Taseko's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook", "anticipate", "project", "target", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "should" and similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These included but are not limited to:

For further information on Taseko, investors should review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission http://www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at http://www.sedar.com, including the "Risk Factors" included in our Annual Information Form.

SOURCE Taseko Mines Limited

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TASEKO ANNOUNCES A 40% INCREASE IN GIBRALTAR PROVEN AND PROBABLE RESERVES - PR Newswire

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Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai wrote:

In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem so obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy and peace.

Decreasing resource base and the struggle for control and power leads to politicising ecological issues and the eventual clash between different beneficiaries.

This happens due to privatisation and the control of resources by the socially powerful, based on gender, class and ethnicity. Securing control of resources politicises ecological issues. This happens due to basic assumptions about the division of labour in the society and access to the environment.

Property rights, which are historically demonstrated to yield economic benefits when under private control, are a complex bundle of rights for everyday goods, which have to be shared among community members.

Next is the problem of imagined identities by development planners and policymakers, which leads to conflict due to biases. Take the case of Thar in India for instance: Lack of access, opportunities, unfair distribution of work and the rewards accrued from the same leads to conflicts like gender wars and unionisation.

Conservation efforts that change the ownership of resources also lead to social conflict. The rights over property are always complex due to sharing and differing ways of accessing it for income, inheritance and benefits. These have evolved after a long time due to landscape and temporal variation.

Exclusive rights to use land lead to conflicts, losses and inequality, and cutting off marginal users. Different investments by development planners and the non-congruence of various stakeholders also lead to divergence and possible clashes.

The women cultivators of Gambia are a good case in point. Access to land in the country was divided based on gender, like many African nations. Men managed dry uplands and women overlooked flooded plains.

There were seasonal obligations to produce crops for the household. After that, rights to make gains and retain profits granted women relative autonomy. International development authorities and later, British development corporations brought about experimentation and agricultural reforms. This led to intensification of land-use and increasing cash crop production.

The change of labour demands and benefits led to women who traditionally worked for profits devoting more time to household production, resulting in loss of their autonomy. It was followed by eventual clashes like cash demand, withdrawal from work and resistance.

All of this happened due to gender assumptions, complex property rights and fluidity of profits. Intensification by horticultural means, mechanisation and external intervention due to beliefs by foreign planners further aggravated the issue.

The case of Western United States demonstrates how simple ecological conflict over ideologies can lead to political wars and how differences between various classes become politicised. In 2000, Siera Nevada had started a new programme for preserving aesthetic values of the western part of the country as opposed to the urban landscaping.

The programme invited community participation for decision making. There were differences between the traditional producer class and the new immigrants in this regime with diverging views on aesthetic values.

The new immigrants had an unrealistic idea about the part of the country and imagined it to be free from human intervention. They were amenity-seeking newcomers who were in direct conflict with farmers and ranchers.

The farmers depended on this very land for production. They viewed land as private property that could be bought and sold for consumption. It was traditionally developed to suit local farming needs and made sufficiently liquid to parcel in chunks.

While the new ones wanted wildlife conservation and tree plantation, the old inhabitants viewed trees as a means of production, which was only to be harvested and not protected.

Here, there were competing ecological views due to underlying divergence in class. This is a case of complex property rights and 'ecologisation' of inherent political differences in the society.

The new immigrants are consumers in the capitalist economy, who view the West as relief from the hectic urban life. The old inhabitants, who were producers in the economy, viewed land as a resource for farming and production.

We get to experience gender discrimination and conflicts due to resource enclosure over time through a study in the far-off deserts of India, Thar. Here, the dispute arose after the state intervened in the local production system and land intensification.

The green revolution was accelerating, leading to increased food production. Despite this increase, women still had disproportionately low access to food and nutrition and the wage-gap increased.

Here was the traditional distribution of responsibilities. Women had to do most of the labour for agriculture and household work, while men had significant decision-making power. Women were married off in the patrilineal arrangement such that they had the lowest position in the rights hierarchy.

Productive sources had expanded while land for household management was lost. However, the green revolution brought more area under cultivation; it increased the burden on women workers who had to work on more extensive lands for long periods.

This is an example where the division of power between gender leads to differences in access to resources and property. An external intervention leads to changes in social structure.

The last case is Oaxaca in Mexico, a UNESCO world heritage site dependent on tourists for its significant share of revenues. This means the city has to maintain its cleanliness and urban image.

Here, the recent migrants from the countryside settled around the dumpsites and garbage bins in the outskirts of the city. They controlled the entry of garbage trucks to and from the city. The residents there used the ecological issue of keeping the city clean to their advantage to secure resources (like health clinics) and politicise it.

This development and closure of dumpsites and garbage bins caused the resource base of ragpickers to stop. They are essential to the flow of garbage through the city and its recycling. The new intervention by state authorities to control resource led to the loss of livelihood and source of conflict between the state, migrants and the ragpickers.

This development work leads to competition due to the politicisation of the ecological issue.

Thus, we find that development works eventually lead to conflict. There is the case of Medha Patekar fighting for the Narmada Bachao Andolan in Sardar Sarovar dam. The construction of the dam was crucial for meeting the state's electricity demand. Still, it submerged the low-lying village and affected the marine ecology.

The incident led to conflict between state authorities and villagers. With the growing representation of the marginalised and disempowered, their voices are also coming forward through various media. Though not adequately, they are also getting a chance to resist and challenge existing power structures and institutions.

With each stakeholder getting political representation, new actors and identities emerge for environmental conflict. With increasing development pressure and global treaties to control emissions, disputes over the environment are becoming more common.

True are the words of Maathai since we are going to see more and more conflicts soon. With sustainable development goals in place, increasing democratisation and connectivity of the world, ecologisation of politics and vice-versa will become the new norm.

Views expressed are the authors own and dont necessarily reflect those ofDown To Earth

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'Development will eventually lead to environmental conflicts' - Down To Earth Magazine

Washington, D.C. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rick Scott (R-FL) urged Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard Glick to rescind two recent policy statements that threaten investments in energy infrastructure, inappropriately expand the scope of the agencys regulatory authority, and will directly harm Florida ratepayers.It is undeniable that natural gas is critical to providing clean, reliable, and affordable electricity to the people of Florida and will continue to be as the states population and economy continue to grow, the senators wrote. Electricity providers in Florida are also seeking to expand their deployment of renewable energy technologies such as solar. The intermittent nature of these technologies requires that they be paired with reliable energy inputs, such as natural gas-based electricity generation. In reality, demand for natural gas may continue to grow as electricity providers expand their deployment of renewable energy. I fear that the implementation of FERCs policy statements, which are designed to impede the approval of natural gas infrastructure, will directly harm Florida ratepayers and will stifle our states economy.It is also worth noting that these policy statements undermine the certainty that Americas European allies can turn to the United States as a reliable source of liquefied natural gas as they seek to pivot their supply chains away from Russia and no longer be at the mercy of Vladimir Putin, the senators continued. The events of the last several months demonstrate that it is in Americas national security interest to promote sending American-produced natural gas to Europe. FERCs policies to intentionally send mixed market signals and harm energy market stability play right into Putins hands and will embolden dictators and mass murderers everywhere to weaken the integrity and solidarity of Americas alliances by threatening energy supply access.The full text of the letter is below.Dear Chairman Glick:We write to express strong concern with two policy statements issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on February 17, 2022, which are apparently designed to delay and prevent the certification of needed natural gas projects. Energy markets are experiencing historic uncertainty and disruption, and American and world leaders are working to combat such challenges and pivot energy supply chains away from autocratic regimes. FERCs issuance of these policies, which further undermine certainty in the sector, is particularly derelict. We urge you to rescind these policy statements immediately.The Natural Gas Act charges FERC with permitting interstate natural gas transportation facilities determined to be in the public interest. The act specifically instructs FERC to certify the projects based on a standard of public convenience and necessity. Such standard is guided by one of the acts principal aims: to encourage the orderly development of plentiful supplies of electricity and natural gas at reasonable prices. The February 17 policy statements seek to expand the role of FERC in this process in a way that neglects the law.FERCs stated intent for issuing the recent Policy Statement Regarding Certification of New Interstate Natural Gas Facilities is to clarif[y] how the Commission will execute its public interest obligations under the Natural Gas Act. However, rather than strictly clarifying how FERC would balance environmental concerns with economic benefits, the policy statement incorporates FERCs intention to evaluate the merits of a project based on a subjective parameter, environmental justice and equity. Notably, instead of discussing the requirements of existing regulations for securing a public convenience and necessity determination, the statement outlines the Commissions expectations without a discussion on how they will be weighed. This is a clear attempt to avoid a formal rulemaking process in order to preempt legal action against a policy evidently intended to delay and prevent project certifications, undermine certainty in the determination process, and deter investment in the natural gas sector.The Commissions other policy, Policy Statement Regarding Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Natural Gas Infrastructure Reviews is an attempt to expand the purview of FERCs regulatory authority to include consideration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from the upstream production and downstream combustion of transported gas, instead of solely considering emissions from a projects construction and operation. With this policy, FERC seeks to grant itself the authority to condition project certification on a project sponsors ability to mitigate upstream and downstream GHG emissions, for which they are not directly responsible. The Commission does not have the authority to regulate or consider either of these factors. It is clear that this improper policy is intended to burden applicants and dissuade the submission of applications.Florida is home to nearly 22 million people who heavily rely on clean and reliable natural gas for their electricity. Natural gas has allowed Florida to reduce its carbon emissions significantly since 2001, when 36 percent of Floridas electricity was generated from coal. Specifically, this critical resource has allowed Florida to reduce its electric power industry carbon emissions from 129.8 metric tons in 2001 to 96.7 metric tons in 2020a 25.5 percent decreasedespite a population increase of over five million people in that same period of time. In 2020, only 7 percent of Floridas electricity was generated with coal, thanks in large part to the shale revolution, which has empowered Florida power utilities to generate approximately three-quarters of Floridas electricity with natural gas from just four interstate pipelines and two intrastate pipelines.It is undeniable that natural gas is critical to providing clean, reliable, and affordable electricity to the people of Florida and will continue to be as the states population and economy continue to grow. Electricity providers in Florida are also seeking to expand their deployment of renewable energy technologies such as solar. The intermittent nature of these technologies requires that they be paired with reliable energy inputs, such as natural gas-based electricity generation. In reality, demand for natural gas may continue to grow as electricity providers expand their deployment of renewable energy. We fear that the implementation of FERCs policy statements, which are designed to impede the approval of natural gas infrastructure, will directly harm Florida ratepayers and will stifle our states economy.It is also worth noting that these policy statements undermine the certainty that Americas European allies can turn to the United States as a reliable source of liquefied natural gas as they seek to pivot their supply chains away from Russia and no longer be at the mercy of Vladimir Putin. The events of the last several months demonstrate that it is in Americas national security interest to promote sending American-produced natural gas to Europe. FERCs policies to intentionally send mixed market signals and harm energy market stability play right into Putins hands and will embolden dictators and mass murderers everywhere to weaken the integrity and solidarity of Americas alliances by threatening energy supply access.FERCs deliberate efforts to undermine Americas economic stability and national security are not just irresponsible; they are downright dangerous and shameful. We urge you to rescind these policy statements immediately.Sincerely,

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Rubio, Scott Urge FERC to Reverse Derelict Policies That Threaten National Security, Raise Energy Prices - Senator Marco Rubio

Planet Earth At Night - City Lights of Europe Glowing In The Dark

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After attending an event in which a leading Russian expert presented about Russia and the Ukraine crisis, I will relay my thoughts regarding how this crisis intersects with energy trends. I had promised this to readers. A select few ideas follow but Chatham House rules apply:

One of the most resounding messages from this non-U.S.-centric perspective was that Putin's Russia has been planning for Russia's comeback since the early 2000s. The West has been tone-deaf to the intentions and signs along the way. This idea has been circulating among geopolitical analysts of late as well.

Inherent in the positioning of Russia has been Putin's grand strategy, which is difficult to implement. While many commentators focus on Russia's past empire-focused aspirations and Cold War framing, the strategy is more forward-looking. Its contours reflect a different geopolitical reality that also considers Asia's economic rise as much as anything. Russia wants to be considered important in this shifting 21st Century paradigm. Another pressure point for Russia has been the rise of U.S. hydrocarbon production, impacting its budget and adding another geoeconomic factor. The Western allies via NATO have enlarged over time and Russia has reacted at the inflection points. This is some of the gist which causes me to tread carefully in my assumptions.

I'm free associating here next. First, there are many reasons Saudi Arabia hasn't been as warm to the U.S. as in years past owing to - wavering support, their Asia-facing markets, uncertainty regarding energy transition policies, and domestic economic diversification. Think geopolitics and geo-economics. Russia is the other counterbalance in OPEC-plus, though there have been times when Putin made the wrong call, example being during the pandemic. (I referred to this in an April 2020 article" OPEC+ Agree to Cut 10 Million In Next Months.") This expanded pact works well for OPEC, Russia and the cartel's role in setting the hydrocarbon agenda as a counterbalance to the U.S., Australia and other free market players.

In The Economist article of March 26, they note that Saudi Aramco (ARMCO) is upping investment to around $40 - 50 billion this year from $32 billion in 2021.

Add to that:

"Saudi Aramco (ARMCO), which produces 12.8m barrels of oil equivalent per day, has just attained a market value of more than $2.3trn, making it the world's second-most-valuable listed company after Apple (AAPL)."

The two most valuable companies now are Saudi Aramco and Apple: A first exporter of hydrocarbons in 1939 and a foremost technology innovator founded in 1976, respectively. Thirty-seven years separate their value creation.

But the world has changed, again. Innovation in energy has been happening for decades, not just with the advent of ESG and climate change. This rests with entrepreneurs, scientists, governments and other types of people willing to place bets. Putin has placed his. And now the geopolitics and geoeconomics are shifting in different ways. Europe is hastening its diversification of energy sources. U.S. natural gas exports will play a larger role now than expected. What might have been considered a marginal project a few years back is more likely to happen, such as Tellurian's (TELL) Driftwood LNG facility.

In spite of the damage to Russia's role in the world, its large hydrocarbon assets are important and have value. According to Nikos Tsafos from a think tank in D.C.:

"Russia is central to the global energy system. It is the world's largest exporter of oil, making up about 8% of the global market. And it supplies Europe with 45% of its natural gas, 45% of its coal and 25% of its oil. Likewise, hydrocarbons are the lifeline of Russia's economy. In 2019, before COVID-19 depressed prices, revenues from oil and natural gas accounted for 40% of the country's federal budget. And oil and gas accounted for almost half of Russia's total goods exports in 2021."

My theme is therefore about reversals and a propensity toward consensus-thinking that clouds clarity about what is happening. Admittedly, it's a tough call and an even harder perspective to maintain when global peace and right actions are at stake. Below are some basic observations at play in the present.

1) Europe's diversification of its energy mix will be favorable to U.S. oil and gas production. More new deals are being made. But OPEC-plus isn't going anywhere for now.

2) However, the energy transition is also at play. The interaction of these two forces is fuzzy. I do not have a clear line of sight regardless of the capital flows at present with many moving parts and mixed messaging in terms of policy, geopolitics and energy security realities. Everyone is talking their book.

My book is the intersection of real economics (like real politik), the practical side, with a thesis about sustainability and doing good with capital. The world is so interconnected that disentangling the many funds' constituent's country exposure would be time-consuming and unconstructive. This period of time is marked by uncertainty, but conviction can and does play a constructive role.

A diversified energy portfolio in both oil and gas, with a mix of U.S.-based production and progressive majors, and low-carbon energy and sustainable resource-oriented infrastructure is my optimal mix. This has been my mantra for many years now. In my portfolio, a slight increase in holdings - such as U.S. natural gas-weighted producer Range Resources (RRC), added on February 24th, and a select energy ETF (PXE) with top U.S. oil producers in November - made sense given trend lines.

As a bystander that pays attention to geopolitics and energy, I'm humbled by developments. It's sobering. Nevertheless, investors have to invest, players gotta play.

See the original post here:

Intersection Of Geopolitics And Energy Offer Sober Reflection - Seeking Alpha

Hundreds of cultural organisations have received a share of the final 35 million emergency support package from the Culture Recovery Fund, to help overcome the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since August 2020, the Culture Recovery Fund has distributed 1.57 billion to around 5,000 organisations and sites across the country, giving a lifeline to theatres, museums, independent cinemas and many more cherished organisations around the country through the pandemic.

The final round of funding has supported organisations through the latest challenges, in particular those affected by the Omicron variant this winter. It has kept organisations up and running so that they can continue to support jobs and contribute to local economies.

The record-breaking fund has helped the countrys precious arts, heritage and culture through the pandemic, backing world-renowned names such as Blackpools Tower Ballroom, Glastonbury Festival and the National Theatre.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

Being cut off from them during lockdown has underlined what a vital role cultural organisations play in their community up and down the country. The Government stood by them in the pandemic, and is determined that they should remain open and accessible to everyone - now and for generations to come.

I am very proud of the Culture Recovery Fund and the lifeline it has provided for cherished organisations in every part of the country.

The government has been working flat out to support our world-class performing arts and live events sector through challenging times. Now, thanks to this funding, festival-goers and gig-lovers will be able to get back to the brilliant live, in-person events that have been on hold over the past two years. Harrogate International Festivals, for example, have received a grant of 80,000 to continue delivering engaging cultural festivals, such as the Harrogate Music Festival.

A 185,000 grant for Corsica Studios in central London has helped the night club welcome grassroots DJs and household names alike and 60,000 has supported the Wedgewood Rooms, an independent music venue in Southsea, Portsmouth offering an important grassroots music space, and comedy and spoken word events since opening in 1992.

To make sure that everyone continues to have access to arts and culture, this funding will support creative, community-driven arts organisations and creative projects to help nurture and sustain local talent. 70,000 has been awarded to the oldest working mens club in Britain, Holbeck Working Mens Club based in Leeds, making sure this community-owned venue can continue with its rich cultural programme.

West End Stage in central London has also received a grant of over 80,000 to continue inspiring and supporting young people to begin their careers on stage. More than 95,000 in funding has gone to Birmingham-based Deaf Explorer to help their important work with Deaf artists to access opportunities across the arts. Almost 50,000 is going to support Golden Tree Productions in Cornwall so that it can continue to develop iconic cultural projects that celebrate Cornwalls distinctiveness and diversity.

The Bluecoat, Liverpools iconic contemporary arts centre, has also been granted over 170,000 to continue their important work engaging the community with art and culture. Home to over 27 artists, arts organisations, craftspeople and retailers in one of Liverpools most historic buildings, the funding has protected jobs and kept the centre running.

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England said:

This additional round of the Emergency Resource Support Fund has provided a vital lifeline to creative and cultural organisations who have faced further challenges whilst recovering from the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We once again thank the government for its unprecedented support for our creative and cultural industries. The 35 million awarded in Cultural Recovery Funding is helping to support the sector as it continues to welcome back visitors, reinvigorate communities, champion local talent, and ensure every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences wherever they are in the country.

These final awards are also safeguarding precious heritage and regional museums so they can be enjoyed by local communities and visitors long into the future. 1.35 million has protected jobs at The Piece Hall in Halifax, the only remaining Grade I-listed Georgian cloth hall in the world, and funded conservation repairs so the heritage destination can continue welcoming visitors.

130,000 has also been awarded to Aerospace Bristol, a family-friendly museum and learning centre whose exhibitions tell the remarkable story of Filton Airfield, and almost 200,000 has gone to The Sussex Archaeological Society to support their work researching and preserving local history and archaeology.

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive, Historic England, said:

This final round of government funding has supported a range of important heritage organisations across the country, including The Piece Hall in Yorkshire. These places offer people with unparalleled ways of understanding the past, the history of their area, and the great outdoors and are of great importance for our post-pandemic recovery. Helping them to continue to recover and thrive into the future will provide long-lasting benefits to communities across the country.

Eilish McGuinness, Chief Executive, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:

This third and final round of the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage has provided a vital lifeline to heritage organisations, sites and attractions who have found it challenging to recover from the ongoing impact of the Covid pandemic. The 3.1 million awarded by DCMS has helped support the heritage sector as it continues to move forward with plans to open doors to visitors, reinvigorating local areas and contributing to local and national tourism and economy.

Emergency funding has also kept projectors rolling in independent cinemas across the country. Thanks to a 45,000 emergency grant from the Culture Recovery Fund, Plymouth Arts Cinema, Plymouths only independent cinema, has been able to continue its rich programme of international and UK independent films and offer cheaper tickets to those out of employment, students, those attending Relaxed screenings, and asylum seekers and refugees.

Almost 130,000 has also supported The Regal at Stowmarket to complete its long-planned refurbishment and offer an expanded programme to local communities, including pocket-money screenings with 3 tickets for children and work with local disability groups.

Ben Roberts, Chief Executive, BFI said:

Every penny of the Culture Recovery Fund including over 500k in this final round of funding to independent cinemas across the country has been vital to their survival, enabling them to recover and welcome back their audiences. As well as bringing people together to experience the magic of experiencing film on the big screen, local cinemas are hubs for educational and film activities and provide thousands of jobs contributing to regeneration and local economies.

TV presenter Angellica Bell, Board Member, Kingston Theatre Trust said:

As a Board member of Kingston Theatre Trust, I know how hard our team has worked to sustain the theatre during the pandemic. The Rose enjoys a reputation as both a well-respected producing house and a vibrant community arts hub for Kingston and South West London. We are committed to welcoming new, diverse audience members to the theatre, and this grant helps us to create work that will entice both first time and returning theatregoers to visit the Rose.

Dame Evelyn Glennie, solo percussionist said:

I am delighted that Deaf Explorer has this Culture Recovery Grant. This is a unique company with immense expertise amongst the artists that they collaborate with and support. They access producers that facilitate deaf artists to pioneer inclusive new work. The grant will help key staff return to work, fund-raise and rebuild confidence in their network of deaf artists, who have been devastated by the impact of Covid-19 on the cultural sector. New marketing and promotion will profile the company and help them find new cultural partners, wanting to improve access. I hope for them to quickly return the CIC to a successful not for profit, inspiring the deaf community to be creative and involved in the arts.

Nicky Chance-Thompson DL, Chief Executive, The Piece Hall Trust, said:

We are incredibly grateful the Government recognises the pivotal role The Piece Hall will continue to play in supporting the regions recovery post pandemic. This generous grant will ensure that this internationally significant heritage site loved by so many, can continue to be sustained and remain free to enter, enabling many different visitors and communities to enjoy and benefit from this precious historic and cultural asset at a time when its perhaps needed more than ever. It has become increasingly clear that heritage and culture both play a vital role in supporting our emotional and economic well-being, and we look forward to bringing some much-needed fun and joy back to visitors with a great line up of events in 2022.

Mary Cloake, CEO, The Bluecoat, Liverpool said:

Were absolutely thrilled that we have been thrown this financial lifeline from the Culture Recovery Fund. Were grateful to DCMS and the Arts Council for their unwavering support for arts and culture throughout the pandemic. We have spent years building a mixed economy that isnt solely reliant on public funding, and that was turned on its head during Covid. We will use this money to continue to provide a centre for art and artists in the heart of Liverpool city centre, rebuilding our business and securing its future.

Anna Byrne, Executive Director, Auxiliary Project Space, Stockton on Tees said:

This funding comes at a pivotal time as we emerge from the effects of Covid-19. It allows us to make the full transition of opening up to the public, and supports our team and building with essential resources. We can now face 2022 with a renewed sense of confidence as we build towards the future.

Joanna Resnick, Executive Producer, The Holbeck, Leeds said:

The Holbeck Club serves the community in so many ways- an everyday cultural palace- a place to learn, laugh and relax. This vital funding means that we can continue to do this in these trying times. Were incredibly grateful for it.

Clare Sacco, Events Co-ordinator, The Creative Seed, South Shields said:

We are absolutely delighted to have received the Emergency Resource Support Fund. The Arts Council and DCMSs support through the ERF fund has been essential to allowing us to continue our work in the community, with people from a variety of backgrounds and demographics, with a focus on those who traditionally do not find arts and culture accessible. We strongly believe that the arts should be fully inclusive, and this funding will be pivotal in allowing us to facilitate this inclusion.

Sharon Canavar, Chief Executive, Harrogate International Festivals said:

This funding will make a significant difference to our ongoing delivery and emergence from the pandemic. Festivals are cyclical by nature and despite delivering a mix of digital and smaller scale live events during 2021 we need to be fit for purpose for the future learning from our resilience, radically changed programmes and creative ambition over the last two years. This funding will allow us to make informed decisions on our future artistic and community outputs.

Peter Blackburn CBE, Honorary President, Harrogate International Festivals said:

Financial support for the Harrogate International Festivals will be a much needed boost to the organisation after an incredibly challenging two years. HIF has been an integral part of the community during the pandemic supporting residents, employing artists and radically changing the creative offer to animate the town. However, as an organisation with a heavy reliance on ticket sales and sponsorship these much needed funds will bridge the gap across the winter months enabling us to rebuild and reimagine our organisation as we look towards the summer season in 2022 and beyond.

Ellie Claughton, Co-Director, Barrel Organ Theatre, Sheffield said:

We believe that everybody should be afforded the opportunity to nourish their creativity and have a voice, whether they consider themselves to be an artist or not. Funding from the Emergency Resource Fund has been intrinsic in supporting this work and in ensuring Barrel Organ are in a robust position to serve the communities we work with.

Loren Slater, Co-Director, Signal Film and Media, Barrow and Cumbria said:

This funding has been a lifeline for us during the pandemic, allowing us to adapt and increase our services to support some of the most vulnerable and isolated members of our community here in Barrow and Cumbria. The money meant we were able to keep delivering high quality activities and adapting to the rapidly changing circumstances of COVID instead of being under constant worry over our survival. Were incredibly grateful to the Arts Council for their dedication to helping organisations like ours and their responsiveness in providing the help we needed in such tough times.

Alison Gwynn, Chief Executive, Northern Film + Media said:

We [Northern Film + Media] are grateful to have received an award through the Cultural Recovery Fund at a really challenging time. The funding has enabled us to survive, and continue with the delivery of our programme of activities to those who are looking to enter the screen industry here in the North East. Our activity is due to expand rapidly this year and this marks the start of what will be an exciting time for the region and significant growth in the industry. The award has helped get to the point where we can thrive and be ready to support our talented screen professionals.

Richard Blaine, Artistic Director, Southwold and Aldeburgh Theatre Ltd said:

The amazing support from both CRF and ERS has been instrumental in both securing the survival of the company and creating a pathway to renewed self-sustainability and expansion. By supporting our 2021 summer season, CRF enabled the company to re-open on Freedom Day, 19th July, the first in our region. That seasons success won us an invitation to expand to a second venue in 2022. The vital bridge to this expanded season, with potentially twice the income, and twice the local jobs of 2021, is our ERS grant. Having been kept afloat, we have now had a huge push back into the stream - its a great example of how judiciously targeted Arts Funding is a future-facing investment, not just a lifeline.

Valerie Mills, Director, Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre said:

We are delighted to have received further funding from the Culture Recovery Fund and this Emergency Response Support grant has enabled us to navigate the winter months with more confidence, despite ongoing difficult operating conditions. Thanks to the funding we have been able to continue working towards sustainability by supporting our 350 volunteers, working with our collections and developing our learning programme.

Steve Goodman (aka Kode9), Hyperdub Records, London, said:

Having held live music, club nights and art events at Corsica Studios for over 10 years (most recently our series which ran from 2017-2020), I am delighted to hear that the venue has been successful in its latest funding round. Corsica is one of the few remaining places in London that champions and supports left field and emerging culture with care and attention to sound and the overall experience of its audiences. Its an incredibly important musical hub and home for artists, labels and collectives in South London.

James Steventon, Director, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Northampton said:

After an incredibly challenging two years we are grateful to Arts Council England and DCMS for their support which has allowed us to take stock and reconfigure our organisation to do what we do best in creatively responding to a changing world.

Corey Baker, Choreographer, Corey Baker Dance, Birmingham said:

By the second half of last year, Swan Lake Bath Ballet had been a huge international hit and we had loads of opportunities for new projects. But for over a year our regular income sources had been completely cut off, and we had a serious cashflow crisis. Emergency Resource Support gave us the working capital we needed to get back to making work. With this support, we danced on top of wind turbines to celebrate renewable energy; we choreographed cars, bikes and skydivers for the BBC and One Dance UKs Dance Passion; and we even got to dance at No 10 Downing Street. We made three new dance films that have been seen by millions. ERS got our company moving again.

Billy Read, Chair of Deaf Explorer CIC, Birmingham, said:

We are excited to receive this Cultural Recovery Grant. Before Covid-19 we massively changed the lives of deaf artists. During Covid-19 our pipeline of artists collapsed. This grant will celebrate and raise our profile with a two day festival that will bring Deaf artists together, commission new work and reach our deaf audiences. We will also fundraise to delivery outstanding community participation projects that will involve a new generations of deaf artists.

Will Coleman, Artistic Director of Golden Tree, Cornwall, said:

Yma an Arghasans Yagheans Gonisogeth ow kweres gwitha an termyn a dheu rag Gwriansow Gwedhen Owr hagan gasa dhe besya dhe dysplegya digolmow gonisogethek, adhyskansel ha kerghynedhel neb a wul dyffransow leun a styr ha hirduryadow dhe gemenedhow.

Translation: The Culture Recovery Fund will help safeguard the future of Golden Tree Productions, and allow us to continue to design cultural, educational, and environmental solutions that make meaningful and lasting differences to communities.

Ian Stockley, Chief Executive Officer, Bath Festivals said:

The ERS Fund allowed us to maintain the required level of resource in the last quarter of 2021 to plan for a successful return to our higher levels of activity in 2022, as we emerge from the pandemic. We announced our May 2022 Festival programme of over 130 events at the beginning of March. This would not have been feasible without the grant from the ERS Fund.

Geoff Priestly, General Manager from Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth said:

The Culture Recovery Fund: Emergency Resources Support Fund has enabled the venue to weather the storm caused by the later Covid variants, and allowed us to keep shows in place, pay artists, promoters and technicians, and allowed The Wedgewood Rooms to present a wide and varied programme, further we have been able to re engage with our local creative community and audience.

Captain Les Brodie, Former British Airways Concorde pilot said:

As a former Concorde pilot, I believe it is absolutely vital that we preserve our precious aviation heritage for future generations and inspire young people to become the scientists and engineers of the future. Im thrilled that, thanks to the kind support of The Arts Council, Aerospace Bristol has been able to make it through the pandemic and Concorde will continue to spark inspiration in young minds for many years to come.

Lloyd Burnell, Executive Director, Aerospace Bristol said:

Thanks to vital support from the Culture Recovery Fund, Aerospace Bristol, has been able to survive the unprecedented challenge of the covid-19 pandemic, keeping our museum open and continuing our award-winning learning programme and conservation work. Were enormously grateful for this crucial grant and its fantastic to now see the results of this support, as visitors return to Aerospace Bristol to discover our incredible aviation heritage, step aboard Concorde, and enjoy days out together again.

Greg Staw, Co-founder, ON:SONG, Stroud said:

After what has been such a turbulent time for ON:SONG, like for so many cultural organisations, we are thrilled to have once again been supported by this round of funding. This means the world to us, both in terms of the financial stability it brings, and the belief shown in our mission to change lives through the power of music and song.

David Marsh, Events and Theatre Manager, Stowmarket Town Council, local to The Regal said:

The ongoing support from the Culture Recovery Fund has allowed us to continue to grow the cultural offering in mid-Suffolk. The additional measures and full programme it has afforded us to put in place has helped give our community the confidence to return to the cinema and in turn support many of our neighbouring hospitality businesses. We thank the BFI and DCMS for their incredibly valued support during this period.

Simon Ward and Corinna Downing, Owners, The Palace Cinema, Broadstairs said:

Were delighted to have received a further award from the BFIs Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas through the DCMS. The BFIs informed and consistent support for our cinema throughout the two years of the pandemic has ensured our survival. Thanks to this award we can look forward to a thriving future presenting an increasingly diverse range of international cinema, special events and education programmes to our communities in Broadstairs, Thanet and wider-Kent. Thank you!

Anna Navas, Director and Film Programmer, Plymouth Arts Cinema said:

We are very grateful to receive this support for Plymouth Arts Cinema. It will enable us to continue rebuilding our audience as we recover from the pandemic, and to develop new audiences by deepening our community engagement. We are committed to bringing world class independent cinema and film culture to Plymouth.

Gareth Negus, Managing Director, Electric Picture House Cinema, Southwold said:

Since we first received support from the Culture Recovery Fund, weve been gratified to see our audiences start to return to the cinema in greater numbers, some for the first time in several years. But we still face the challenge of rebuilding their confidence, and the cinema-going habit, in a period when - like many businesses - we are facing a number of increasing costs. So were tremendously grateful for this additional funding, and the investment in small businesses like ours that are so important to their communities. Were here for culture, and were planning to stay that way.

Gary Trinder, Chairman, Regent Centre, Christchurch said:

We are absolutely delighted to be the recipient of a further Culture Recovery Fund award from the DCMS, awarded through the British Film Institute of which we are members. The award provides ongoing certainty to operation of the Regent which is a registered Charity, meaning that after a sustained period of closure last year, we have reopened once again as a vibrant and healthy organisation, which would not have been the case without the award.

Raj Jeyasingam, Owner, Palace Cinema, Alton said:

Im very grateful to DCMS and the BFI for this much needed help at a crucial time when there has been fewer movies on release to suit our customers, many of whom are still lacking confidence in attending the cinema.

Micaela Tuckwell, Executive Director, The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford said:

The Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP) is enormously grateful to everyone at DCMS and BFI for selecting us for an award from their CRF Emergency Resource Fund as this grant has made a vital difference to the future of our small cinema after the devastating blow Covid-19 had on sales, particularly in the final months of 2021. Crucially, the grant has allowed the staff and volunteers of the UPP to share their commitment to keeping the cinema open 7-days a week and to continue screening the best independent films from the UK and around the world. Receiving the grant has also given the business the stability to green light the cinemas exciting community ownership campaign which is being launched in the coming months inviting everyone who loves the UPP and independent cinema to invest in our historic cinema so that it can be brought even closer to the heart of the community, stays independent and has a bright future.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

For more information on the funds please see:ACEBFIHE/NLHF

Find out more about the Culture Recovery Fund and Here For Culture campaign.

Originally posted here:

More vital support given to over 300 cultural organisations to survive beyond pandemic and protect jobs - GOV.UK

There was a lot to like about President Bidens first State of the Union address, but sadly, I disagree with his conclusion. The state of the union is not strong; in fact, the American people have rarely been less united. And the political rupture that threatens to tear our nation apart is largely occurring along the urban/rural divide.

The causes of this division are many and the solutions are often daunting or obscure, but it is impossible to deny that one of the largest contributing factors has been the extreme geographic inequality that has grown over the past four decades of bipartisan neoliberal rule. Throughout rural America, once-vibrant factory towns have been impoverished and dismantled through the offshoring of manufacturing jobs. Local businesses have been struggling to compete against the concentrated buying power of national chains, while local workers have been forced to struggle to make ends meet as monopsony employers have relentlessly pushed down wages. Small and midsize farmers have been at the mercy of a handful of agribusiness giants with the power to dictate the crops to be sown, the livestock to be raised, and the price to be paid for them. Local tax bases have eroded, and with them the services, schools, infrastructure, and other public investments necessary to secure a prosperous future.

More from Nick Hanauer

The American economy continued to expand throughout the neoliberal era, but nearly all of the benefits of this growth accrued to a relatively small number of big cities and their surrounding counties, a trend that only appears to be accelerating. At the median, rural workers now earn only 82 cents on every dollar earned by their urban counterparts, and as rural jobs grow more scarce and less diverse, rural workers have fewer opportunities to close the gap. Nationally, the U.S. workforce grew by 68 percent since 1975 while rural employment actually shrank by nearly a third. Between 2007 and 2018, just 11 percent of counties captured 9 out of every 10 new jobs, a massive concentration of employment and wage growth in a handful of deep-blue metros. In second-tier cities, small towns, and rural counties, the health and well-being of residents are being left behind.

Compared to their urban counterparts, rural Americans are 22 percent more likely to experience poverty, food insecurity (by a 19 percent margin), and to lack health insurance (by 15 percent), contributing to higher rates of depression, addiction, suicide, and other deaths of despair. The COVID-19 virus has shone a particularly harsh light on the consequences of rural economic dislocation. Early in the crisis, cases predictably surged in the dense big cities where community transmission was hardest to avoid. But over the long course of the pandemic, regional socioeconomic disparities conspired with higher rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other comorbidities to leave rural Americans far more likely to suffer severe illness or death.

If rural voters are angry, they have every right to beand if they look at the relative wealth and good fortune of urban elites and blame their woes on Democratic policies, its not hard to understand why. Yes, there is massive and growing inequality within big blue cities too, but in the aggregate these booming cities are receiving nearly all the benefits of the information economy while rural America reliably gets none. Rural voters are angry, and lacking a more obvious villain they routinely punish Democrats, the party of the cities, at the polls. As the violent rhetoric surrounding the January 6th insurrection indicates, theres a not insignificant number of Republicans who passionately believe that electoral defeat isnt nearly punishment enough.

Rural voters are angry, and lacking a more obvious villain they routinely punish Democrats, the party of the cities, at the polls.

In a truly representative democracy, such extreme geographic inequality would be alarming, but given the peculiar characteristics of the American political system, it threatens to undermine democracy itself. The U.S. Constitution vastly overrepresents small rural states in the U.S. Senate and to a lesser extent in the Electoral College, while a centuries-old tradition of partisan gerrymandering has combined with 21st-century demographics to overrepresent rural voters in state legislatures and in the U.S. House. In nearly every recent election cycle, Democratic candidates routinely receive millions more votes than Republican candidates for the House, the Senate, and the White House, and yet the Republican Party could plausibly establish a regime of minority rule (not to mention a stranglehold on the federal courts) for at least a generation to come. Beholden, both ideologically and financially, to corporate interests, Republican elected officials do little if anything to actually help their rural constituents. Instead, they nurture a politics of grievance. But given the failure of Democrats to offer a compelling alternative, grievance alone appears more than enough for Republicans to continue to secure the rural vote.

President Biden and congressional Democrats have a frighteningly narrow window to persuade a small but electorally significant percentage of rural voters that only Democrats can and will serve their communities needs. To do this, Democrats need to aggressively run on rural revitalization as a centerpiece of their economic agenda in 2022, 2024, and beyond, while immediately using every policy tool at their disposal to begin the difficult work of reversing the extreme geographic inequality that the past 40 years of neoliberalism has wrought.

This should start with the creation of a Cabinet-level director of rural economic revitalization to coordinate the mishmash of existing programs, to guide the development of future policies and programs, and just as important, to serve as the relentlessly visible face of the administrations dedication to improving the lives of rural Americans. To be clear, it is not enough for Democrats to genuinely attempt to solve this problem. It is not even enough for Democrats to succeed. If Democrats are to have lasting success at improving the lives of rural Americans, they must be seen by rural Americans as having success. The first rule of electoral politics is you cant be the grown-up in the room if youre not in the room. Democrats need to get over their preference for highbrow policy wonkery and get about the lowly task of shamelessly advertising their accomplishments for a change.

If you think this is a job for the secretary of agriculture, think again. According to the U.S. Census Bureau fewer than 1 in 10 rural workers are employed in resource-based industries like agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), farming itself accounts for only 1.4 percent of employment nationwide. In fact, by far the largest employer of rural workers is the education services, health care and social assistance industry, which accounts for 22.3 percent of rural employment, followed by manufacturing and retail trade, at 12.1 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively. Our tendency to conflate rural with agricultural has made it harder to understand the problems facing rural communities, let alone solve them. The USDA, with its primary emphasis on promoting and regulating the agribusiness and food industries, has neither the focus nor the expertise to rise to the task. Neither do the hodgepodge of other agencies that moonlight in economic development, many of which offer one-size-fits-all programs intended to serve both urban and rural communities alike.

There are literally hundreds of existing policies and programssome of which can and do helpalthough many are chronically underfunded, difficult to access, difficult even to find, and often poorly implemented. A confusingly complex web of programs is currently available to rural communities: There are some 400 economic and community development programs alone that span a dozen federal agencies. There are more than a dozen congressional committees that have jurisdiction over authorizing legislation.

The first job of the director, then, is to identify, consolidate, and coordinate these programs under centralized administration. The second job is to establish and amply staff regional offices nationwide charged with guiding local authorities through the complicated process of navigating the web of available programs. The Small Business Administration and the Economic Development Administration both have networks of regional officesthough all located in urban districts. The federal governments regional revitalization offices should be distributed widely, within driving distance of every rural community, providing one-stop-shopping access to local leaders and constituents alike. It is a well-known weakness of our current system that the communities most in need of federal aid are often those most lacking the resources necessary to acquire it, while those that are most successful at accessing these programs are often those with the least need. It is through these regional revitalization offices that the White House has an opportunity to play its most active, impactful, and again, most visible role.

Yet however competent the administration, more of the same is clearly not enough. Many of the economic-development challenges facing rural economies are fundamentally different from those in large cities and call for a fundamentally different approach. Addressing this crisis at scale requires both big new ideas and the active input and efforts of the local political, business, and civic leaders who know their communities best. To this end, we should balance the top-down Office of Rural Economic Revitalization and its regional offices with the creation of hundreds of local Economic Revitalization Councils. Some will succeed, some will fail. It is the job of the director through the regional offices to nurture, guide, and fund these local efforts, and then to help propagate their most promising innovations to other local councils. Because rural economies are diverse, revitalization will require a diversity of local solutions. This can never be achieved through top-down administration alone, however competent or well-meaning. The ultimate goal of the director is to help local communities revitalize themselves.

Economic-development challenges facing rural economies are fundamentally different from those in large cities and call for a different approach.

That said, our current crisis of geographic inequality is the direct consequence of policy choices made at the national level, and thus the director must also play a leading role in developing and advocating for substantial federal policy reforms. To this end, the local councils can also play an important part, serving as a source, a sounding board, and a political force for national policy innovations.

The job of the director is to lead, not to follow. In his State of the Union address, President Biden twice emphasized that we must grow our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out. Absolutely. But if we are to substantially reverse decades of geographic inequality and the divisive politics it has sown, political leadership, guidance, and funding must come from the top down.

Central to understanding why the challenges facing rural economic development are different from those in cities, as well as the nature of the reforms we must embrace, is to recognize the three major economic forces that are driving geographic inequality: agglomeration, globalization, and corporate concentration.

It is no secret why high-paying tech companies tend to agglomerate in a handful of metro areas: Technological innovation is the product of large numbers of highly educated workers with a huge diversity of specialized skills cooperating across immensely dense social and economic networks. This convergence of density and diversity is an order of magnitude more important than any other factor in our modern technological economy; it creates thick labor markets in which employers can more easily find workers with the skills that exactly fit their needs, and in which workers can find jobs that exactly fit their own career goals and skill sets. Thick labor markets can be expensive, but they are extremely efficient, and they can only develop in and around cities with the scale necessary to support them. No tax incentive, real estate giveaway, or union-busting right to work regime can make up for it. That is why both workers and employers are so eager to pay the high costs required to live and work in a handful of booming blue metros.

Agglomeration is about as close to a force of nature as youll find in economics. It is an increasing returns phenomenon. You cannot effectively legislate for or against it. The same is not true of globalization or corporate concentration, both of which are creatures of the laws, regulations, and institutions we choose to create.

While certainly aided by advances in transportation and communications, the export of U.S. manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries and the relentless downward pressure on the wages of those manufacturing jobs that remain is largely the consequence of neoliberal trade and labor policies adopted since the 1970s. Whatever ones views on the net benefits of globalization, one must still acknowledge that our current regime of free trade is a purely legal constructand that allowing capital and goods to flow freely across borders, while humans remain more rooted to a place, inevitably disempowers workers. Likewise, the vast concentration of corporate power we have allowed to accumulate over the past few decades is a legal construct too, only rather than being a consequence of changes to our antitrust laws, it has largely resulted from the changing legal interpretations of courts and administrations. Prior to the 1970s, our courts and regulators would not allow a handful of companies to dominate an industry through mergers and acquisitions, regardless of the alleged benefits to consumers. Today, such domination is the norm.

The impact of these changes in the legal order on nonurban communities has been particularly devastating. Millions of manufacturing jobs that once supported these regions have moved overseas, while many of those that remain no longer pay middle-class wages. Locally owned businesses that once proudly anchored small towns have been outcompeted or consolidated away. What job growth these regions have seen has largely been in the low-paying service sector dominated by retail and fast-food giants with the market power to force down wages both for their own workers and for those at remaining locally owned businesses. This Walmart Effect is well documented. But so too is the ability of targeted policy changes to combat it.

One of our most effective policy tools is the minimum wage, but rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all lowest-common-denominator approach, it is time to consider a graduated wage in which the largest employers pay a higher minimum. For example, a small locally owned business might be required to pay a $15 hourly minimum wage, while the local Walmart or Amazon warehouse might be required to pay a minimum of $25 an hour. We might think of this as a countervailing wage, intended to countervail the outsized power of these corporate giants on behalf of both local workers and local businesses, both of which recycle money throughout the local economy rather than extracting profits to distant corporate shareholders.

Retail should not be the only target. For example, meatpacking jobs have always been dangerous and difficult work, but for decades they were unionized and paid middle-class wages. Today, four giant meatpacking companies process 85 percent of American beef and have used their market domination to drive down both the wages paid to workers and the prices paid to ranchers, while driving up the cost to consumers and the profits to shareholders. Slaughterhouse and meatpacking jobs are nonexportable; they must be located near the source of the livestock. These companies saw their profit margins jump by a ridiculous 300 percent over the course of the pandemic. There is simply no good economic reason why they cannot pay a middle-class wage once again.

The regional inequity inherent in agglomeration may be the most difficult to effectively address.

A countervailing wage is just one example of the kind of innovative policies we might adopt in the service of revitalizing rural economies. Antitrust enforcement, sectoral bargaining, and a renegotiation of our international trade agreements might do the same. No doubt consumers have benefited greatly from globalization, but at the cost of undermining the resiliency of both our supply chains and our communities. Its past time for policymakers to acknowledge that free trade isnt free. But whatever policies we choose to enact, the fundamental goal should be the same: to tilt the economic playing field back toward local workers and local businesses in the face of the overwhelming forces unleashed by agglomeration, globalization, and corporate concentration.

The regional inequity inherent in agglomeration may be the most difficult to effectively address. The problem for rural economies is that cities are enormously more efficient, and the bigger the city the greater its economies of scale. As the theoretical physicist Geoffrey West has discovered, cities reliably scale, not merely arithmetically, but at a super linear universal exponent of about 1.15. As West explains, that means if you double the size of a cityfrom whatever to twice whateveryou dont just get twice as much of everything you had before, but rather a per capita 15 percent increase in productivity, patents, job categories, wages, and so onalong with a 15 percent savings on per capita energy consumption, roads, utilities, and other infrastructure. Size matters: A city of 200,000 produces 15 percent more patents per person than a city of 100,000, while a city of 3.2 million is roughly 100 percent more innovative, productive, and efficient. And most significant to our growing crisis of geographic inequality, this universal scaling applies to social networks at the same levels it applies to networks of roads, utilities, and other physical things.

This new prosperity is the product of the knowledge and know-how distributed across vastly complex networks of highly cooperative specialists, and these networks of people cannot easily be picked up and moved. These economies of scale, both physical and social, are why Amazons search for HQ2 was largely a scam. It was never going to be located in a small town or second-tier city no matter how affordable the real estate or attractive the tax incentives. The field of realistic sites was always limited to the handful of large metros where the agglomeration effect had already established a thick labor market of information workers, and where the resources existed for this market to grow thicker still. No policy initiative can change this dynamic.

But that does not mean that rural economies cannot create or attract high-paying jobs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen renewed interest in the potential of remote work, and there are many high-paying job categories that are amenable to at least a hybrid model. This could become a boon for small towns and rural communities as high-earning newcomers spend money into the local economy. But it could also prove a burden on incumbent residents if they get priced out due to the rising cost of housing and other essentials. Our objective is to revitalize rural communities, not places, and so we must be wary of policies and programs that achieve revitalization largely through gentrification and displacement. Accordingly, we must be prepared to address the costs of remote work as well as the benefits.

And where private employers or employees cannot be incentivized to move into rural communities, state and federal governments can. Anchor institutions like public hospitals, libraries, research centersand most famously, land-grant universities and their extension programshave long been prized as engines of economic development, and they could play that role in rural America once again. The USDAs Cooperative Extension System, originally created to serve the needs of farmers and ranchers, should be revitalized and expanded to serve the more diversified needs of our modern rural economies. Of course, rural locations cannot provide the same economies of scale as urban ones, but making their economies more vibrant and viable is a national imperative that taxpayers should be willing to help realize in the service of narrowing geographic inequality and toxic political divisions. And whether public or private, any investment in bringing good jobs to rural communities must be matched with investments in affordable housing, transportation, schools, and other critical infrastructure so that incumbent residents are not disadvantaged or displaced by the inflow of new wealth.

Over the years, task force after task force has been convened by one agency or another to address the economic inequities in the American landscape, but the challenge is too great and the problem too complex to be solved through such an uncoordinated approach. The Biden administration has an opportunity to fix this by appointing a director of rural economic revitalization to lead a coordinated response to one of the greatest political crises of our time. That director will have a narrow window to demonstrate to rural voters that Democrats really are on their side. Democrats dont need to persuade a majority of rural voters, or even a lot of them. Just a few percentage points in a handful of swing states would be enough to block the Trumpist forces from seizing hegemonic minority rule. And that would also give Democrats the breathing space they need to do the hard work necessary to assure that the state of the union between urban and rural America is once again strong.

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Democrats Need to Fix Rural Economiesand Get the Credit for It - The American Prospect

In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the greatest language AI startup of all time. But a new ... [+] generation of challengers is coming.

See here for the first part of this article series: Language Is The Next Great Frontier In AI

Language is at the heart of human intelligence. It therefore is and must be at the heart of our efforts to build artificial intelligence. No sophisticated AI can exist without mastery of language.

The field of language AIalso referred to as natural language processing, or NLPhas undergone breathtaking, unprecedented advances over the past few years. Two related technology breakthroughs have driven this remarkable recent progress: self-supervised learning and a powerful new deep learning architecture known as the transformer.

We now stand at an exhilarating inflection point. Next-generation language AI is poised to make the leap from academic research to widespread real-world adoption, generating many billions of dollars of value and transforming entire industries in the years ahead.

A nascent ecosystem of startups is at the vanguard of this technology revolution. These companies have begun to apply cutting-edge NLP across sectors with a wide range of different product visions and business models. Given languages foundational importance throughout society and the economy, few areas of technology will have a more far-reaching impact in the years ahead.

The first category of language AI startups worth discussing is those players that develop and make available core general-purpose NLP technology for other organizations to apply across industries and use cases.

Building a state-of-the-art NLP model today is incredibly resource-intensive and technically challenging. As a result, very few companies or researchers actually build their own NLP models from scratch. Instead, virtually all advanced NLP in use today, no matter the industry or setting, is based on one of a small handful of massive pretrained language models. Stanford researchers recently dubbed these pretrained models foundation models in recognition of their outsize influence.

Most often, foundation models are built and open-sourced by the publicly traded technology giantse.g., BERT from Google, RoBERTa from Facebook.

OpenAI is another important source of state-of-the-art NLP technology. Its large language model GPT-3 is perhaps the most well-known and widely used foundation model today. GPT-3 is a generative model (the G in its name stands for generative): it generates original text in response to prompts from human users. OpenAI has made GPT-3 commercially available via API for use across applications, charging on a per-word basis.

Given Microsofts massive investments in and deep alliance with the organization, OpenAI can almost be considered an arm of the tech giant.

But there is also tremendous opportunity in this category for younger startups.

Cohere is a fast-growing startup based in Toronto that, like OpenAI, develops cutting-edge NLP technology and makes it commercially available via API for use across industries. Coheres founding team is highly pedigreed: CEO Aidan Gomez is one of the co-inventors of the transformer; CTO Nick Frosst is a Geoff Hinton protg. The company recently announced a large Series B fundraise from Tiger Global less than a year after emerging from stealth.

While Cohere does produce generative models along the lines of GPT-3, the company is increasingly focused on models that analyze existing text rather than generate novel text. These classification models have myriad commercial use cases: from customer support to content moderation, from market analysis to search.

"Language generation has seemingly monopolized the attention of those interested in NLP, but the most significant opportunity for developers interested in building NLP into their systems actually rests in language representation models like BERT, said Gomez. While slightly less 'miraculous', these models form the backbone of some of the most sophisticated NLP systems in the world."

Another leading horizontal NLP startup is Hugging Face. Hugging Face is a wildly popular community-based repository for open-source NLP technology. Unlike OpenAI or Cohere, Hugging Face does not build its own NLP models. Rather, it is a platform that stores, serves and manages the latest and greatest in open-source NLP models, including enabling customers to fine-tune these models and deploy them at scale.

Hugging Faces secret sauce is its community: it has become a go-to destination for companies and researchers in the world of NLP to collaborate. In this respect it can be loosely analogized to GitHub, but for machine learning rather than traditional software engineering.

Other horizontal NLP providers of note include AI21 Labs and Primer.

Based in Israel, AI21 has a two-pronged business model: it offers proprietary large language models via API to power customers applications (its current state-of-the-art model, named Jurassic-1, is roughly the same size as GPT-3), and it also builds and commercializes its own applications on top of those models. Its current application suite focuses on tools to augment reading and writing.

Primer is an older competitor in this space, founded two years before the invention of the transformer. The company primarily serves clients in government and defense.

There is one last wild card worth mentioning in this category. Launched less than a month ago, little is known yet about Inflection AI beyond its eye-catching founding team: Reid Hoffman, DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, and decorated DeepMind researcher Karen Simonyan. The company is being incubated at Greylock, where Hoffman is a general partner. Its stated mission is to fundamentally redefine human-machine interaction by enabling humans to relay our thoughts and ideas to computers using the same natural, conversational language we use to communicate with people.

Given the caliber of the companys founders and backers, expect Inflection AI to make waves in the world of language AI before long.

The most basic way that humans use natural language to interface with machines is through search. It is the primary means by which we access and navigate digital information; it lies at the heart of the modern internet experience.

Search has been dominated by a single player for so long (Google) that it is often seen as an unpromising or even irrelevant category for startups. But this is far from true.

Last month a blog post titled Google Search Is Dying made the rounds and sparked widespread discussion. The post hit home with a simple point: an opportunity exists for an upstart to improve and disrupt the Google search experience.

The new entrant taking on Google most directly is You.com. Founded by Richard Socher, former Chief Scientist at Salesforce and one of the worlds most widely cited NLP researchers, You.com is reconceptualizing the search engine from the ground up. Its product vision includes a horizontal layout, an emphasis on content summarization, and above all, a commitment to user data privacy.

Challenging Google directly will, to state the obvious, be an uphill battle. There is also significant opportunity for startups in search beyond the consumer internet search market with which Google has become synonymous.

ZIR AI is a young startup building a new search platform for enterprise. Leveraging the latest transformer-based techniques, ZIR is seeking to develop search technology with true semantic comprehension (as opposed to keyword-based matching) and more sophisticated multilingual capabilities. Like You.com, ZIR has a pedigreed founding team that includes former Cloudera CTO/cofounder Amr Awadallah.

Algolia is a more well-established player in enterprise search; the company has raised over $300 million in venture funding since graduating from Y Combinator in 2014. Algolia offers an API that enables its customersfrom tech companies like Slack to media businesses like the Financial Timesto embed search experiences in their websites and applications. Constructor.io is another fast-growing competitor in this space that focuses specifically on ecommerce search and discovery.

One final enterprise search startup worth keeping an eye on is Hebbia, which is building an AI research platform to enable companies to extract insights from their private unstructured data.

In the words of Hebbia founder/CEO George Sivulka: Google has only indexed 4% of the worlds online data. Were unleashing the other 96%.

All of the companies mentioned above (including Google) focus on text search. But thanks to recent breakthroughs in AI, opportunities now exist for startups to build search tools for data modalities beyond textand no new modality represents a bigger opportunity than video.

Video has become the dominant medium for our digital lives. A whopping 80% of the data on the internet today is video. Yet remarkably, there is no effective way to search through all this video contentto find, say, a particular moment, concept or discussion. The range of potential commercial use cases for video search is basically endless: from social media to streaming content, from digital asset management to workplace productivity, from content moderation to cloud storage.

One exciting startup building next-generation video search capabilities is Twelve Labs, which announced its seed financing earlier this month. Twelve Labs fuses cutting-edge NLP and computer vision to enable precise semantic search within videos. Multimodal AI like thisthat is, AI that ingests and synthesizes data from multiple informational modalities at once, like image and audiowill play a central role in AIs future.

Large language models are accomplishing incredible things today. We think large multimodal neural networks for video are the obvious next step, said Twelve Labs cofounder/CEO Jae Kim. Video embeddings generated by these networks will supercharge current and future video-driven applications with an intelligence that weve never seen before.

In todays information-based economy, perhaps no skill matters more than effective writing.

Yet as anyone who has experienced writers block can attest, writing can be a frustrating experience. The act of translating inchoate thoughts into well-crafted languageof finding the right wordscan be time-consuming and unsystematic.

Next-generation NLP promises to transform how humans write, reconceptualizing one of civilizations most basic and vital activities.

Large language models like OpenAIs GPT-3 can be thought of as auto-complete on (incredibly powerful) steroids. Given some text prompt from a human, these generative models can automatically produce novel sentences, paragraphs or even entire memos that are strikingly coherent, insightful, creativealmost magically so. Of course, their output remains far from perfect: they can also sometimes be nonsensical or harmfully biased.

This technology will transform writing from an act of solo creation to a collaboration between human and machine: one in which the human provides some initial language, the AI suggests edits or follow-up sentences, the human iterates based on the AIs feedback, and so forth. The skillset required for good writing may accordingly expand to include an understanding of how to get the most out of the AIhow to best guide and coax it into producing the desired language.

This novel paradigm for AI-augmented writing is already starting to become a reality, driven forward by a handful of interesting startups.

The most established player in this category is Grammarly. Founded in 2009, Grammarly has admirably remained abreast of the latest NLP technologies over the years. The company raised funding late last year at a whopping $13 billion valuation. Grammarlys product provides automated recommendations for improved spelling, grammar, diction and phrasing in real-time as users write.

Textio, LitLingo, and Writer are three newer entrants using next-generation language AI to build advanced Grammarly-like solutions for more targeted use cases. Textio focuses on hiring and recruiting, LitLingo on business compliance and risk management, and Writer on company-wide style and brand consistency.

Trained on millions of writing samples, Textios AI can give users nuanced insights about their job postings and other hiring-related content: for instance, that a certain phrase will resonate more with male than with female candidates, that a given word suggests a fixed mindset over a growth mindset, that a particular metaphor may come across as exclusionary to applicants. LitLingo, meanwhile, uses real-time NLP to monitor employees digital messages and proactively prevent communications that could trigger litigation or unwanted public attentionsay, related to antitrust, workplace discrimination, securities violations or employment law.

All four of the companies mentioned so far use AI primarily to provide recommendations and insights on existing text that humans have already written. Todays NLP, though, allows us to go one step further. The next frontier in AI-augmented writing will be for the AI to generate novel written content itself based on guidance from the human user.

CopyAI is a Tennessee-based startup backed by Sequoia, Tiger Global and Wing VC that auto-generates customized marketing copy. The way it works is simple. Users enter basic information about their company and select a content format: say, a blog title, a website blurb, a Facebook ad, even an Instagram hashtag. CopyAIs NLP engine, which is powered by GPT-3, then spits out ten samples of text at a time for the user to use, adapt, or take inspiration from. According to the company, over half a million content marketers are using its technology today, including at organizations like Nestle and Microsoft.

To temper expectations, we should not expect that todays NLP will immediately take over all writing from humans. Some forms of writingbrief formulaic content like marketing copy or social media postswill yield more naturally to these new AI tools than will others. Original, analytical, creative worksay, op-eds, thought pieces or investigative journalismwill resist automation for the time being.

But make no mistake: in the years ahead, whether we like it or not, NLP will fundamentally change how humans produce the written word. Ten years from now, writing ones own content from scratch may well be considered an artisanal craft, with the vast majority of the worlds written text produced or at least augmented by AI.

Language barriers are a fundamental impediment to international business and travel, costing untold billions in lost productivity every year.

More profoundly, the inability for people around the world to understand one another inhibits the advancement of grand global goals and species-level harmony. But in a polyglot world like ours (over 7,000 languages are spoken in the world today), language barriers have always been an unavoidable reality.

The Babel fish from Douglas Adams science fiction classic The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxywhich goes in someones ear and automatically enables them to hear any spoken language in their native tongueis an enchanting but purely fictional concept.

Until now.

Machine translation has been a central goal of artificial intelligence researchers dating back to the very beginnings of the field of AI in the 1950s. Automated language translation products have been available since the dawn of the commercial internet in the 1990s. Yet machine translation has proven to be a devilishly difficult challenge. AI-based translation tools have historically been deeply flawed (as anyone who remembers using AltaVistas Babel Fish service in their younger days can attest).

But thanks to the remarkable advances underway in language AI, reliable and high-quality machine translation is fast becoming a reality.

The most widely used AI-powered language translation service in the world is Google Translate. Unsurprisingly, given that it is the birthplace of the transformer and the most advanced AI organization in the world, Google has incorporated the latest NLP technologies to vastly upgrade its Translate service in recent years.

But significant opportunities also exist for startups in the fast-changing world of language translation.

BLANC offers AI-powered translations for video. Its AI platform takes a video with spoken dialogue in one language and applies AI to quickly reproduce that video with the dialogue in another language, doing so in a way that the speakers lip movements continue to look natural. Think of it as sophisticated dubbing, except that it can be carried out automatically and at scale.

KUDO is a more established competitor that also offers video translation services. Today, KUDOs platform relies on human interpreters to stream translations over the internet in real-time. But the company envisions a future in which its platform is increasingly powered by AI. In this sense KUDO represents an interesting archetype: a mature non-AI-first business looking to inject more AI into its product offering by leveraging its massively valuable proprietary datasets.

Lilt is a notable growth-stage player working on machine translation. The company was founded by two NLP researchers at Google Translate who came to appreciate that an AI solution like Google Translate could not, on its own, be relied upon to deliver automated language translation with the robustness demanded by enterprise and government organizations.

Thus, Lilt offers a hybrid model that combines cutting-edge AI with humans in the loop to translate written content for global organizations, from marketing to mobile apps to technical documentation. This partially automated approach enables Lilt to provide translation that is cheaper than using human translators and at the same time more accurate than using AI alone.

The interesting questionfor Lilt and for the entire industryis whether and how quickly the humans in the loop can be phased out in the years ahead.

One last startup worth mentioning in this category is NeuralSpace. NeuralSpace was founded on a simple but powerful insight: the vast majority of cutting-edge research in NLP is conducted in English, yet 95% of the world does not speak English. NeuralSpace provides a no-code NLP platform that enables users around the world to build NLP models in low-resource languages, from Armenian to Punjabi to Zulu.

Our vision at NeuralSpace is to break down the language barrier in AI for millions of low-resource language speakers, said NeuralSpace cofounder/CEO Felix Laumann. We give software developers the ability to train and deploy state-of-the-art large transformer-based language models and easily integrate them into their products, no matter where in the world they are or what language their audience speaks.

Sales is more of an art than a science. Yet certain repeatable principles and tactics do exist that, if systematized, can meaningfully improve a sales teams performance.

Is a rep spending the right amount of time on the right topics in sales calls, from product to pricing to small talk? Is she letting the customer ask enough questions? Has she engaged the right senior stakeholders at the customer organization at the right times over the course of the sales process? Is she following up with prospects on the right cadence?

By ingesting vast troves of unstructured data from video calls, phone calls, email exchanges, CRMs and other communication channels, todays language AI can extract actionable insights about how salespeople are performing and what they can do to improve.

There are few applications of language AI that can more directly affect a companys top line. Not surprisingly, therefore, the market for sales intelligence AI is booming.

The runaway leader in this category is Gong, which has raised close to $600 million in venture funding. According to the company, its technology boosts average revenue per sales rep by 27%, translating into massive ROI for its customers.

Gongs closest competitor Chorus.ai exited to ZoomInfo last year in a $575 million sale, further solidifying Gongs status as the category leader.

Gong is an impressive business, with incredible revenue growth and a long list of blue-chip customers. The company seems destined to debut on public markets before long. Yet by most accounts, the core NLP in Gongs product offering is not particularly advanced.

This raises an interesting question: might an opportunity exist for an upstart to build a more cutting-edge version of Gong, powered by the latest transformer-based advances in language AI, and take market share from the category leader by offering a more intelligent product?

A handful of young startups have popped up that are nipping at Gongs heels, though none have yet broken out.

Aircover, which raised a seed round last year, and Wingman, which came out of Y Combinator in 2019, are two examples. Unlike Gong, which provides analytics only after sales calls are finished, both of these startups provide real-time in-call coaching for sales reps. And while Gong has had major success selling to large enterprises, Wingman instead targets small- and medium-sized businesses.

We all experience it in our daily lives: when we communicate digitally with companies and brands these daysvia text message, web chat, social media, and so forththese interactions are increasingly fielded by automated agents rather than humans.

These AI-powered conversational interfaces are commonly known as chatbotsthough some startups today prefer to avoid that terminology and its mixed connotations, given a premature hype cycle for chatbot technology about five years ago.

Notwithstanding earlier false starts, chatbots today have begun to gain real market adoption, thanks to improvements in the underlying NLP as well as in companies understanding of how to best productize and deploy these bots.

Companies are now using chatbots to engage with customers in real-time wherever those customer interactions occurfor instance, fielding questions on their websites, automating routine customer support requests, giving customers updates on their orders, or supporting sales efforts.

Most organizations interested in using conversational AI interfaces to interact with their customerssay, a bank, a hotel chain, an airlinelack the requisite technical resources to navigate the latest NLP technologies and build their own chatbot platforms from scratch.

And a lot goes into building an enterprise-grade conversational AI interface: handling data privacy and security requirements, integrating with third-party applications, building the infrastructure to support deployment at scale, providing a graceful fallback mechanism when the bot is stumped and human intervention is necessary.

A promising group of startups has emerged to provide the technology and infrastructure for companies across industries to create and operationalize chatbots.

The most well-funded of these competitors is Ada Support, a Toronto-based startup that has raised close to $200 million from blue-chip venture capitalists. Ada powers automated interactions for enterprises in customer support and sales across text-based channels including web chat, SMS, and social media, intelligently looping in a human agent when needed. The company claims its technology can reduce customer wait times by 98%. With a long list of marquee clients including Zoom, Shopify, Verizon and Facebook, Ada powers over one billion customer interactions annually.

Another leading player in this category is Rasa. A close Ada competitor, Rasas product caters to more technically savvy users, with a greater focus on chatbot configurability. Rasas AI stack is open-sourced, with over 600 contributors and over 10 million downloads. This open-source strategy gives Rasas customers greater transparency and control over the conversational AI interfaces that they build and deploy.

Other noteworthy startups in this space include Forethought, a well-capitalized competitor that boasts NLP luminary Chris Manning as an adviser; Clinc, a conversational AI platform built specifically for banks; and Thankful, which focuses on e-commerce.

One specific type of enterprise chatbot has proven to be a sufficiently large market opportunity that it gets its own section: chatbots to automate employee help desks.

Every day, in every company around the world, employees have routine questions that they need help with: how to reset their email password, whether they can expense an enterprise software subscription, how to enroll in a health insurance plan, what the companys vacation policy is.

Conversational AI platforms can automatically field and resolve many of these employee support requests, reducing the need for human intervention and saving organizations vast amounts of time and money in the aggregate.

The leading player in this category is Moveworks, which raised a $200 million Series C from Tiger Global last year. Another well-funded competitor is Espressive. Espressive claims that its chatbot platform can resolve between 50% and 70% of all employee helpdesk tickets without human assistance, recouping over a week of productivity per employee per year.

Given the size of the market, plenty of smaller startups have emerged with similar AI-driven product offerings. One worth noting is Bay Area-based Rezolve.ai.

When Google debuted its new Duplex technology in mid-2018, it wowed the public (and generated its fair share of controversy).

Duplex is an AI system that, in a remarkably human-sounding voice, can place phone calls on behalf of human users to complete routine tasks like booking a dinner reservation or a hair appointment.

At the time, Googles Duplex was just a demo, still heavily reliant on human-in-the-loop support.

Four years later, this technology is ready for primetime.

Following in Duplexs footsteps, a handful of startups have developed voice AI technology that can engage in nuanced automated phone conversations. While Googles Duplex is a consumer-facing tool (it is widely available today through apps like Google Maps), these startups go-to-market efforts focus on the enterprise. And no enterprise opportunity looms larger for this technology than contact centers.

Contact centers (also referred to as call centers) are an unglamorous back-office function that happen to also be a staggeringly massive marketan estimated $340 billion in 2020, on its way to $500 billion by 2027.

Replicant is one promising startup applying voice AI to automate contact center agent activity, reducing wait times for customers and cutting costs for companies. Replicant spun out of Atomic, the high-profile startup studio that has produced companies like Hims and OpenStore.

Like Duplex, Replicants voice AI is designed to sound as natural as a human (the companys name is a tribute to the bioengineered robots from Blade Runner that are indistinguishable from humans). Replicants technology is equipped to handle a wide range of call center use cases, from billing to customer surveys to subscription renewals. When its AI encounters a complex conversation topic that it cannot resolve on its own, it pulls in a human agent.

A close Replicant competitor is AI Rudder, a Singapore-based company that just raised $50 million from Sequoia, Coatue and Tiger Global.

AI Rudder sells to customers in financial services and e-commerce, two industries that make extensive use of call centers. The pandemic has driven rapid growth for AI Rudder, whose revenue quadrupled last year. The companys AI system can not only speak a wide range of different languages but can also adopt the appropriate regional accent depending on the caller.

One last startup of note in this category is Resemble AI, which specializes in generating realistic human voices using generative adversarial networks (GANs). Resembles synthetic voices can speak with all the nuance and range of a humanfor instance, whispering or communicating with various emotionsand are finding use cases from video games to advertising. The company recently made headlines when its technology was used to reproduce Andy Warhols voice for an upcoming Netflix documentary.

As the previous section highlighted, contact centers are a massiveand massively underdigitizedmarket. There is tremendous opportunity to transform the world of contact centers with software and machine learning.

See more here:

A Wave Of Billion-Dollar Language AI Startups Is Coming - Forbes