Things You Can't Live Without

Hod Lipson’s Graphics Processing Unit: AI, robots eating robots and the unsung material that helps power our computers

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Episode notes

Hod Lipson - Columbia University professor and award-winning robotics researcher - shares with Dr. Anna the one item he can’t live without - his Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). 

The conversation reveals how much GPUs underpin our electronic world, and how one somewhat unsung element - boron - is at the heart of making them work. Rio Tinto’s Chief Executive, Minerals, Sinead Kaufman, unpicks what boron is, how it’s extracted, and what needs to be done to keep us having the electronic devices so many of us rely on. We also look at how AI might have a role to play in the future of mining, why boron is “the WD-40 of the world” and what’s being done to help sustainability by “robots eating robots”!

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