Darren O'Hara Duggan

derisking

[Tom @carthymctom]

I spent much of the past year reading about quantum computing and talking to researchers, trying to figure out how & when it will start to work. Write up below.

Some people think QC is a scam and others think it's a panacea. The field is progressing, but the money rolling into it today is premature - IonQ valued at $24B, Rigetti at $14B, PsiQuantum just raised $1B... But there are no signs of exponential growth in qubit counts yet. What's going on?

[Christian Keil @pronounced_kyle]

Ulysses is coming out of stealth today with:
‣ $1 million in revenue
‣ $2 million raised
‣ 5 hardware generations

...one year after their founding.

They're building autonomous underwater drones — first to restore seagrass, and someday to counteract narco-subs.

@UlyssesEcoEng co-founder and CEO Akhil Voorakkara met me at my office in San Francisco to talk through the technical details.

HD Version at the link in my bio.

Timestamps:
00:00 — Introducing Ulysses
02:20 — What is their robot capable of?
04:20 — How are they iterating so quickly through hardware prototypes?
12:57 — Why not buy more off the shelf?
16:15 — What technical requirements drove the hardware design?
21:06 — What other designs inspired this one?
23:28 — Underwater Design 101
30:38 — Why make it autonomous?
32:39 — What is their approach to autonomy?
36:44 — How did Ulysses decide to focus on sea restoration?
44:47 — Who else is building underwater drones?
47:57 — How do their drones differ from the more expensive existing ones?
49:05 — What limits drone working lifetime?
50:35 — How can you make technical progress with <5 employees?
54:51 — What's the next technical milestone to clear?

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@TaraConnollyEU https://t.co/5VYhwPjzJK

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@EpsilonTheory https://t.co/qhx2WhctDy

@CanavanCathal 🫡

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@willob this wasn’t on my é/acc bingo card but we’ll take it!

[Adam Moynihan @AdamMoynihan]

Kerry footballer and Pittsburgh Steelers fan Paudie Clifford announces a Steelers pick in the #NFLDraft

Pretty cool! @Kerry_Official

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@KeithMillsD7 @RoryDempsey6

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

Gold dust 😮‍💨

[Des Traynor @destraynor]

From yesterday's Off Script...

Solutions are temporary.
Problems last forever.
Obsess accordingly.

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@CanavanCathal @eoghan @djohns38 +1 on this, @djohns38 sounds like this was written for you

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@patjfin @CanavanCathal 👋

[NBA @NBA]

JOKER HAS EYES IN THE BACK OF HIS HEAD 🃏

Knicks-Nuggets | Live on the NBA App
📲 https://t.co/Thu9toUSIY

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

In all seriousness, this is very cool

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

Finally we’ll be able to get to the bottom of this

[Charlie Taylor @ChasTaylor]

Getty

@OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has teamed up with @DubCityCouncil on the development of a new prototype tool to provide tailor-made travel itineraries for visitors via generative AI

https://t.co/8ZFAl3iZdk

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

The opening monologue 🔥🔥

Listen to the end to hear @willob shoot his shot with @davidmcw 🍻

https://t.co/iIY7LWuRJh

[David McWilliams @davidmcw]

A New Positive vision for Ireland? We talk accelerationism with @willob - hope you enjoy it.
https://t.co/H6TwIq4sKZ

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

We fumbled the bag so hard

[Satya Nadella @satyanadella]

Today we announced our plans to expand our investments in Spain, as we continue partnering to promote responsible AI across the public and private sectors.

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@_PeterRyan It’s tough to find arguments against “we all should to go nuclear”,

However French in particular seem uniquely competent and generally committed to nuclear.

They’re playing to their strengths, whereas we are sitting on GWs of untapped offshore wind

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@TheOisinMoran If that’s what it’s gonna take, I’ll do it

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

Wind from Ireland,
Solar from Spain,
Nuclear from France,
Big grid,

That’s it.

[Brian Gitt @BrianGitt]

EU energy policy is truly insane.

An EU commission is pressuring France to raise its renewable energy target to at least 44%.

~70% of France's electricity is produced by nuclear power.

A shift to solar &amp; wind would increase emissions.

https://t.co/CWxGCoDH9d

[spor @sporadica]

how it feels to wake up this morning and go about my business

[Darren O'Hara Duggan @Darren_OHD]

@TheOisinMoran @mrjakephillips You’ve gotta be list-maxing