 |
|
|
|||||
Giving money away has never been so easythanks to AI. Daffy, a platform that facilitates charitable giving, is rolling out a suite of new AI-powered tools thats making it easier than ever to donate to charity. So easy, in fact, that a Daffy user can feel like a billionaire making a quick donation to their chosen charity without having to fill out forms, mail checks, or any of the other tedium that can slow the giving process downsimply hit a button, or make a verbal command, and make a donation. Specifically, Daffys new tools include a Quick Donate feature, which converts free text or voice commands into an immediate donation. Daffy will need some direction (users choose a charity, donation amount, etc.), but from there, you can simply say to the application make a donation to the ACLU, or something similar, to facilitate the donation. The idea was to leverage AI to improve the giving experience, says Daffy CEO Adam Nash. We looked at the real world to see what benefits the wealthy getthey get concierge service. They dont need to fill out a bunch of forms or track down an EIN from a database. They tell an assistant they want to make a donation, and it gets done, he says. The goal, then, was to get as close to that experience as possible while leveraging AI to make it happen. Over time, too, the feature will learn the specifics of a users desired causes or charities, so a user could tell it to make a donation to their childs school, for example, and Daffy can handle the rest. And by allowing Daffy to handle the rest, Nash believes that people will give more. Because friction is the enemy of generosity, he says. In other words, the easier it is to make a donation, the more donations people will make. If the process is tedious and time-consuming, fewer people are going to do it. We feel like weve proven the hypothesis that technology can help people be more generous, Nash says. And we think AI has a role to play. Users can also use the AI features to set up recurring donationslike a donation to a local food bank every year on Thanksgiving, for example. In all, Nash thinks that the AI features could open the floodgates to potentially millions of dollars more in donations every year. A lot of people are using AI right now and are just playing with it, Nash says. Were trying to use it for something important.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its only 9 a.m. and Michelle, a middle manager in a government organization, just received her eighth panicked email from a team member asking about the impending layoffs that were announced yesterday afternoon. People are clearly worried, and Michelle is beginning to feel overwhelmed. Shes in an unfortunate, yet common, position. She wants to keep people calm and focused, but information comes in drips from leaders above her. The culture she worked so hard to build is becoming flooded with uncertainty. People are scared. What can Michelle do to minimize feelings of threat and help the team keep running smoothly? Layoffs arent the only context in which uncertainty reigns. It shows up wherever theres rapid change, which research suggests has become the norm within organizations. One study shows that organizational change accelerated by 183% between 2020 and 2024, and by 33% in 2024 alone. In other words, change isnt just increasingit’s increasing faster every year. All this flux makes working life feel much riskier and less stable, as people fear for their livelihoods amid ever-evolving governmental reductions and corporate restructurings. With so much uncertainty in the air, is it any wonder employee engagement hit an 11-year low in 2024? People cant predict whats coming next, so theyre checking out entirely. To help team members perform their essential tasks, leaders must learn to reduce uncertainty, minimize threat, and, ideally, create productive feelings of comfort and safety in an increasingly volatile world. Provide clarity if you cant provide certainty A feeling of certainty isnt just a nice-to-have. In life and in work, humans crave a sense of predictability about their environmentand we can think of this craving as a genuine psychological need. Thousands of years ago, a need for certainty kept us physically safe, whether from predators or suspicious-looking berries. Our sense of certainty was rewarded with survival. Today, a need for certainty shows up less in matters of survival and more in being able to predict whats coming next in our professional, social, and personal lives. Thats why C stands for certainty in the NeuroLeadership Institutes SCARF Model of social threat and reward: When we can predict certain outcomes in our environment, we feel a sense of reward, which motivates us to take action. When we feel uncertain, however, we tend to feel threatened, which makes us freeze or retreat from the situation. At work, uncertainty leads to impaired judgment and reduced productivity. If a team faces a large amount of uncertainty, the task for leaders is to manage peoples sense of threat. There are several ways to go about this. In the best-case scenario, a leader in Michelles position could immediately send certainty rewards by sharing whos safe from layoffs and whos not. This would address the uncertainty head-on, and it would have the side benefit of minimizing the spread of office rumors, which only amplifies the uncertainty. Even delivering bad news to the people who are getting laid off will send a small reward signal, as research shows uncertainty tends to feel worse than the bad news itself. One study, for example, showed people experienced more dread about the possibility of a small electric shock than people who knew for certain a shock was coming. Uncertainty is that uncomfortable. And yet, providing certainty isnt always feasible. A leader wont necessarily have all the answers right when employees need them most. Sometimes, a leader can only share some of what they know, or they might not know anything at all. Here, neuroscience suggests the best practice is to share what you do know and what you dont, both in terms of information as well as the ongoing process. Michelle, for example, might be able to share that while other departments have received the news of whos being laid off, shes still waiting on her supervisor to tell her. She might also share that the list of names is supposed to be shared with her in the next couple weeks, giving team members a window into the process. While not as rewarding as certainty, this sense of clarity sets peoples expectations, which creates a calming sense of predictability in the brain. Clarity is best offered in a three-pronged approach: making timelines explicit, taking unlikely outcomes off the table, and reminding employees about the organizations key values, as a way to recommit to a higher purpose and shared vision. In practice, clarity acts as a helpful substitute for certainty. For instance, even if people dont know if theyll have a job next month, having the clarity theyll find out in two weeks is easier to deal with than waking up each day wondering if todays the day. Thats the wisdom of offering clarity when certainty is in short supply: When people know what to expect, they feel more oriented and secure in the situation, putting their minds at ease. Offset the threat by reassuring in other areas Providing clarity about information and processes isnt the only tool available to leaders dealing with uncertainty. They can also work to boost peoples sense of reward in the other four SCARF domains: status, a feeling of prestige within the group; autonomy, a sense of control over our environment; relatedness, a feeling of belonging and connection to the group; and fairness, a sense of just and equal treatment within the group. Sending these reward signals creates whats known as an offsetting effect. If one domain is threatened, we can compensateor offset itby amplifying feelings of reward in the other domains. That said, offsetting effects wont make everything better, especially against very strong threats. But they can soften the blow. For example, heres how Michelle could offset a certainty threat through the other four SCARF domains in an all-hands meeting about the layoffs: Status: Michelle emphasizes that the layoffs have nothing to do with peoples individual performancethey are purely a cost-cutting measure. Autonomy: Prior to the meeting, Michelle asks people to submit questions via an anonymous form. She sorts the questions and answers a handful during the meeting. Relatedness: Michelle announces a partnership shes leading with HR to help outgoing employees with résumé coaching and finding their next job. Fairness: Michelle explains how the process of creating severance packages was based on a standard rubric across all employees, based on their tenure with the company.&nbp; Again, none of these efforts will make the pain of losing their job any easier for employees to bear. The goal with offsetting is to reduce the pain brought on by the uncertainty of the situation. A leader might not be able to save an employee from getting laid off, but they can at least make the process of waiting feel more dignified, less isolating, and, hopefully, less threatening. Finding a balance In a rapidly changing work environment, including public-sector downsizing, uncertainty becomes a default state of mind. It becomes the air people breathe. But the constant vigilance needed to cope with uncertainty is exhausting. So unless leaders can replace uncertainty with certainty, their responsibility falls to offering clarity whenever possible, as well as boosting other SCARF signals to offset peoples negative feelings. Otherwise, one thing that is certain is employees will struggle to be effective at their jobs. Theyll spend enormous amounts of cognitive energy resolving the feelings of threat, leaving them feeling drained and slow to respond to works many challenges, rather than being energized and proactive. This is also a drain on the organization as it struggles to maintain a high level of performance. However, when employees feel those rewarding signals being sent, despite how painful a situation may be, theyre much more likely to navigate uncertainty with a calm and focused mind. For creatures highly sensitive to social threat, that serenity counts for a lot.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youre at all unsettled by the amount of power that Elon Musk wields on Earth, dont look up. There are now essentially three big players controlling what goes into space and who gets access to increasingly valuable space-based communications and surveillance services: Russia, China, and Elon Musk.In 2024, Musks rocket company SpaceX accounted for more than half of all orbital launch attempts globallymore than all countries outside the U.S. combinedwith 134 successful launches of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. His Starlink constellation of more than 7,000 satellites provides high-speed internet connectivity to more than 4.6 million customers worldwide, including residential users, businesses, federal agencies, and foreign governments. A classified Starlink offshoot, called Starshield, has a contract to provide the U.S. government not only with military-grade communications but space-surveillance capabilities, too.The turbulent global politics of the past few yearsfrom the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the reelection of Donald Trumphave shown the risks of overreliance on any one country (or person) for access to space resources. And in the wake of the administrations breakup with NATO allies, Europe and Canada are accelerating their efforts to achieve space independence, boosted by new investment and cross-border cooperation.Europe has always had a preference to buy local, but [it] didnt always happen, says Justus Kilian, partner at New York City-based venture firm Space Capital. Now that theres an urgency and necessity to develop domestic capabilities, local companies will get strong preference. (Though his firm focuses on North American startups, he says U.S.-based companies can set up shop in Europe to take advantage of the boom.) Jussi Sainiemi, partner at Helsinki-based Voima Ventures, an early-stage deeptech fund thats invested in hyperspectral satellite startup Kuva Space, says that European interest in dual-use technologywith civilian and military applicationshas grown since the start of the war in Ukraine. Now its peaking. Since the Trump administration has indicated decreasing support to Ukraine and Europe, he says, the rise of defense-related investment programs has dominated European news flow.In the next year, governments and companies in Europe and elsewhere will take major steps toward space sovereignty by launching new rockets and rapidly building out satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit. Heres how some of the best-positioned players are chipping away at Musks near monopolies in launch services, communications, and earth monitoring. SpaceX Launch CompetitorsOn March 30, a 92-foot-tall, two-stage Spectrum rocket made by German company Isar Aerospace crashed into the sea off the Norwegian Island of Andoya in spectacular fashion about 40 seconds after taking off. It was the first vertical orbital rocket launch ever attempted from Western Europe. (French company Arianespace launched its missions on behalf of the European Space Agency from French Guiana.) In 2025, there could be several more launch attempts. All will be small-lift rockets designed to get small satellites into low-earth orbitavoiding the hassle of shipping across the Atlantic to get up in space.Daniel Metzler, Isars chief executive and cofounder, called the recent attempt a great successwith a clean liftoff, 30 seconds of flight, and successful deployment of the rockets Flight Termination System, which safely scraps the flight in case of system failures. The Norwegian space agency has already tapped Isar to launch two Arctic Ocean spy satellites before 2028, assuming it can get its rockets up without exploding.Later this year, the action will move to SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland, Scotland. There, the Scottish startup Orbex Space plans to attempt the first vertical rocket launch into orbit from UK soil. Its U.K.-manufactured rocket, called Orbex Prime, is a two-stage vehicle designed to be reusable, and powered by a renewable bio-fuel that produces 96% lower CO2 emissions than fossil-fuel systems. [Photo: courtesy of RFA]German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) also aims for a 2025 commercial launch of its multistage vehicle from SaxaVord. (These northern launch sites are good for getting imaging satellites into sun-synchronous polar orbits that put them in continuous daylight, which is better for imaging.) Another German company, HyImpulse, hopes to launch its multistage SL1 orbital rocket this year; no launch site has been announced. Isar, Orbex, RFA, and HyImpulse were joint recipients of $48 million in funding from the European Space Agencys (ESA) Boost program in 2024; the German government committed an additional 95 million to Isar, RFA, and HyImpulse.Meanwhile, Rocket Lab, which was founded in New Zealand but is headquartered in Long Beach, CA, continues to offer the most reliable small-lift alternative to SpaceX. The companys Electron rockets have already launched five commercial payloads in 2025, after 15 successful launches in 2024, most from Rocket Labss Complex 1 launch site on New Zealands North Island. It plans to test-launch its larger, medium-lift Neutron rocket later this year. [Photo: Courtesy of Rocket Lab]For larger payloads, European and other international customers can look to future launches of the Ariane 6 heavy-launch rocket, operated by Arianespace and developed in partnership with the ESA and the French national space agency. The Ariene 6 made its second commercial flight this March, lifting off from Europes Spaceport in French Guiana. Five more launches are lanned in 2025. Satellite communications alternativesIt will take time for any competitor to catch up with Starlinks advantage in low-earth-orbit (LEO) broadband satellites. But Europe and Canada are ratcheting up their efforts with some major investments. Funded by the EU, the ESA, and private backers, IRIS2 is an $11.1 billion project to build a constellation of some 290 satellites in low- and medium-earth orbits. The constellation, expected to be operational by 2030, will provide secure and resilient connectivity for government applications and commercial services. IRIS2 is being developed and deployed by three European satellite network operators: Luxembourg-based SES, Madrid-based Hispasat, and Eutelsat. The Paris-based Eutelsats OneWeb subsidiary also happens to be Starlinks biggest competitor in government and commercial markets, with a LEO constellation of nearly 700 satellites. OneWebs constellation is already being used by Ukraines armed forces as a supplementand potential replacementfor Starlink service. In Canada, the Ottawa-based Telesat is aggressively building out its Lightspeed Network, a planned constellation of 198 LEO satellites that will provide high-speed broadband to underserved communities in Canada and beyond, and help governments modernize their satellite communications technology and bolster NATO defense capabilities. Telesat has contracted 14 launches starting in mid-2026 to deploy all of these satellites within a year. The launch provider will be SpaceX. New approaches to monitoring and surveillanceIn early March, the Trump administration abruptly cut off Ukraines access to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agencys (NGA) commercial satellite imagery platform, which had provided the country with images aggregated from commercial providers. (The platform is managed by U.S. aerospace firm Maxar Technologies, which confirmed that it blocked Ukrainian users access.) Access was restored 11 days later, but the episode underscored the need for countries to diversify their sources of satellite intel. Several key players have emerged/are emerging to cater to the interests of anxious democracies in Europe and elsewhere.Founded in 2010, San Francisco-based Planet Labs sells satellite imagery from its constellation of cubesats to customers in industry and government. In the first few months of 2025, the company announced a multiyear contract worth an undisclosed amount with ESA and a $230 million contract with another, unspecified customer in the Asia-Pacific region. Planet operates more than 200 satellites that can image the entire Earth daily, using high-resolution electro-optical sensors, which detect light in the visible spectrum. It launched its first next-gen Pelican-2 satellite, featuring Nvidias Jetson edge AI platform, on a SpaceX rocket this January, part of a planned constellation of 32 such satellites.Iceye Gen 4 [Rendering: Iceye]Interest in imagery from Finnish-Polish satellite maker and operator Iceye is also surging. The companys constellation of microsatellites is equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which can see through clouds and darkness. Iceye has launched nearly 50 of its satellites into orbit since 2018, including nine in 2024, and plans to launch more than 20 per year in 2025 and subsequent years. Its customers include Ukraines Ministry of Defense, the Greek Space Agency, and the Polish Armament Group, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense. Paris, France SAR images [Image: Iceye]Another Finnish company, Kuva Space, launched its rectangular Hyperfield-1 hyperspectral nanosatellite last July, the first in a planned constellation of 100. Its hyperspectral camera and onboard AI allow it to distinguish Earth materials and conditions based on distinct spectral signatures, and to detect threats and anomalies for defense applications, such as creating an alert if a ship or vessel does not transmit an Automatic Identification System signal. With a second launch this year, the company aims to provide daily observation by 2027 and even more frequent monitoring by 2030. In January 2025, Czech startup TRL Space successfully launched its own hyperspectral TROLL satellite, and is supervising work on a second Czech-made satellite designed specifically for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in cooperation with Ukrainian specialists.Hyperfield 2 [Animation: Kuva Space]Finally, SkyWatch, based in Waterloo, Ontario, is a go-to source for earth observation data for business and government customers around the globe. It pulls together imagery from the worlds leading providers in one pay-as-you-use application, enabling European and other government customers to use sophisticated tip and cue services thatstitch together data coming from multiple sensor platforms to track areas of interest without contracts or major capital investments.The importance of fundingSpace infrastructure is hard to build and has traditionally required a level of investment well beyond anything thats been seen before in Europe. Funding is notching upin 2024, Europe accounted for four of the 15 largest private space funding deals globally. And last month, the European Commission introduced ReArm Europe, a $876 billion investment to strengthen Europes sovereign defense capabilities, including in space. Historically, Europe has invested much less in space than the U.S., devoting just 3% of total defense budget to space, versus 9% in the U.S. The European Space Agencys 2025 budget of around $8.4 billion is roughly a third of NASAs $25 billion budget request for 2025, which is not yet approved. Support from the U.S. government was key to establishing Musks space dominance: In 2006, SpaceX secured $278 million in NASA seed money to help fund the development and flight demonstration of the Falcon 9s Dragon capsule; in 2008, the company received a $1.6 billion contract with the agency to fly resupply missions to the ISS. I hope Europe is successful, says Kilian, of Space Capital. Its important that they are. But Europe is more than 10 years behind us. He notes that since fewer companies get funding in Europe, theres less competition driving results. Even so, he says, new companies serving sovereign needs will emerge and become decent investments. But it will take these companies more time and more money to achieve similar outcomes.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||