The Morning After: Monday, February 20 2017
Go get 'em, champ.
Welcome to the week. The Pacific Ocean might be hiding a whole other continent, Bill Gates wants to tax the robots, and some other robots crash in the midst of a road race. A pretty thrilling Monday morning, we'd say.
Bill Gates wants a robot tax to compensate for job losses
How would you deal with the likelihood that robots and automation will lead to many people losing their jobs? For Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the answer is straightforward: tax the robots. In an interview with Quartz, Gates argues that taxing worker robots would offset job losses by funding training for positions where humans are still needed, such as child and senior care.
NBA player gets some Slam Dunk Contest help from an Intel drone
Isn't this cheating?
Airbnb sued by major US apartment landlord
Denver's Apartment Investment & Management Co. (AIMCO) has sued the rental service for "helping tenants breach their leases," according to The Wall Street Journal. AIMCO, one of the biggest landlords in the US, owns and manages over 50,000 apartments across the country. Real-estate research firm Green Street Advisors told the WSJ that this is the first time Airbnb has been sued by a major landlord. Other apartment owners might now feel emboldened to follow suit if the service refuses to cooperate with them. The plaintiff says short-term rentals are against their leases, and Airbnb is helping its tenants break that rule.
Self-driving car race finishes with a crash
Fans attending Formula E's Buenos Aires ePrix got a nice treat: the first 'race' between self-driving cars on a professional track, courtesy of Roborace. It didn't go according to plan, however. Roborace's two test vehicles (known as DevBots) battled it out on the circuit at a reasonably quick 115MPH, but one of the cars crashed after it took a turn too aggressively.
The Pacific Ocean is hiding a whole continent
Researchers have confirmed the existence of Zealandia, a giant land mass (roughly two thirds the size of Australia) hiding in the Pacific Ocean, with New Zealand is its peak. Academics have long suspected that the mass was a continent, but they only recently gathered enough information to make a convincing case.
