On June 8, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Mindanao in the Philippines, followed by widespread power outages. It happened to be the first day of classes for many public schools here. Certainly not the kind of start anyone had in mind.
Over 800,000 households were affected, including my hometown in Davao City. Feeling the aftershocks in the dark reminded me of why localized tech matters so much.
For instance, I've known Klimatech (klimatech.ph) for a while. They originally developed their VORTEX wind turbine to give Filipino fishermen reliable power in unpredictable waters.
Seeing how that same ecosystem evolved into SALBA (which means "to rescue" in our language) is a great example of adapting technology for a crisis. It's an AI platform that maps real-time hazard data to help local governments coordinate faster during emergencies, sometimes syncing with field hardware to keep communication and basic power alive.
Experiencing this firsthand makes it clear that decentralized energy shouldn't just be our emergency fallback. It’s time to start looking at it as foundational infrastructure.
What does resilient energy look like in your community?
AI just designed a vaccine. For real this time. 🚀
Cambridge researchers fed genetic sequences from multiple coronaviruses into an AI algorithm. It came up with a super-antigen that teaches the immune system to recognize the whole coronavirus family (variants included).
It will obviously need to go through all the standard trials. But if this methodology scales, we could be looking at much faster development cycles for pandemic threats.
Would you actually bond with a robot? 🤔
The team behind Roomba just launched Familiar Machines & Magic, building what they call "Consumer Physical AI." Their first prototype, a four-legged robot called a Familiar, senses your mood through touch and facial cues and follows you from room to room.
The idea clicks for some more than others. For people who can't have real pets, or an elderly person living alone where the alternative is simply nothing, designed warmth still has real value.
And yet, can you really engineer a genuine bond?
The safety case for elderly care is compelling. So is the privacy concern of adding another camera and microphone into your home.
Would you buy one? For what use?
I used to think the Philippines was behind on clean energy. Turns out we were 50 years ahead.
For nearly 4 decades, we held the #2 spot in geothermal energy production globally, right behind the United States. It started from desperation during the 1970s oil crisis, when a Filipino scientist first proved that volcanic steam could actually generate electricity. Indonesia only overtook us in 2018.
Geothermal is clean, runs 24/7, and doesn't depend on weather. At its peak, it powered 17% of our national grid. Today, AI data centers have an enormous and growing appetite for exactly this kind of power, making geothermal relevant all over again.
For a country that figured this out in the 1970s, the Philippines remains one of the most underrated players in the clean energy transition. The foundation is already there. The story just needs more people telling it.
A lot of interesting things get shared in this community so I want to add something to the conversation.
What's the one AI use case you actually want to see go mainstream in the next few years?
Mine is proactive, agentic AI that operates in the physical world. Ambient and context-aware in real environments, not just digital ones.
World Labs raising $1 billion this February to build spatial world models, feels like a meaningful infrastructure bet in that direction.
Sharing their launch video below because it shows their first product Marble actually demonstrating this rather than just describing it.
