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Werk Week News Update - Humanoids, Higher Ed DEI Shakeups & Microsoft’s Quantum Leap

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A significant societal shift is underway as executive orders challenge the stability of DEI programs in education, the race for humanoid robotics accelerates, and Microsoft achieves a breakthrough in quantum computing. We explore how these developments intersect and impact marginalized communities, job markets, and the future landscape of technology and education.

• Discussion on executive orders affecting DEI programs
• Impact on historically Black colleges and universities and community organizations
• The rise of humanoid robots and their implications on jobs
• Major tech investments in robotics and automation
• Microsoft’s breakthrough in quantum computing

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back, architects. This is your work week news update. The date is February 19th, 2025. As always, we have three topics to discuss today. One is the ending of DEI programs and educational institutions. So that is an executive order that came down, so we'll talk a little bit about that impact. We also have the race to develop humanoid robots. Humanoid robots it is on the horizon, so we will discuss that in a few. And, last but not least, microsoft had a breakthrough in quantum computing. So they had a breakthrough with the new chip and we want to make sure we take a moment to discuss that as well. Let's get started.

Speaker 1:

So there are a bunch of different executive orders being flown around all over the place impacting so many different things. We've talked about this around federal funding, immigration, all kind of different initiatives. The most recent one that came out this last week was an executive order, essentially a mandate that colleges and K through 12 schools eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs or face potential funding cuts. And you know these institutions get the bulk of their money from federal or state funding, so they're going to, you know, pretty much face potential funding cuts. And this directive, in a lot of ways, is going to truly reshape the educational landscape by removing some of these initiatives that were for specific students. Its impact is going to be felt all over the place, not just, in my opinion, black History Month programs and things like that but, honestly, at a much higher level. When you think about HBCUs and I did not go to an HBCU, I went to a PWI, but love the concept of HBCUs, I love the idea of it, I truly, truly do and these historically black colleges and universities may end up facing significant challenges as some of these DEI programs that are truly integral to their mission in terms of supporting underrepresented students. They can see a removal of these programs and that could absolutely hinder efforts to provide what I believe is important, culturally relevant education and support services to students of color that go to those HBCUs and those colleges and universities of color that go to those HBCUs and those colleges and universities and even beyond HBCUs.

Speaker 1:

I'm a member of Omega, psi Phi fraternity, very, very proud QDawg. But when you think about the Divine Nine organizations, these Black, greek-led organizations, they play such a critical role in our community, all nine of those organizations, even at a graduate level, outside of college, and you know just a lot of leadership within our communities and particularly, again, on these college campuses where a majority of members are joining these fraternities and sororities and sororities. So the ending of DEI programs, I think, might even end up jeopardizing their ability to be on these campuses, because the majority of the students that joined the Divine Nine organizations are Black, african-american students. So what does that look like, either A, them staying on campus and it no longer being primarily Black students, or, b not being able to be on these college campuses and how that might affect their recruitment and retention as it relates to the Divine Nine organizations and their ability to just operate and have a presence on campus and even beyond HBCUs and Divine Nines. I think that this directive is going to impact scholarships that's specifically set aside for certain groups that need assistance to get to college, mentoring programs, academic courses focused on Black history and culture, focused on black history and culture. This can truly lead to, you know, really a diminished, at least, emphasis on diversity in curriculum, in extracurricular activities on campus. Matter of fact, I am a part of a or on an advisory committee for a college that really focuses on trying to retain black students in the STEM colleges and degree programs. You know these students are coming to college. They need support, not just in general, but specifically as it relates to their computer science or their engineering degrees. Those programs are going to be, sounds like, eliminated, or there's going to be challenges, at the very least, in trying to keep those programs moving forward.

Speaker 1:

So, again, there's a lot of executive orders going around. I think it is meant to keep people almost unstable in terms of their attention span, but we have to be mindful. We have to actually start thinking about what are some of the workarounds or what are some of the ways that we can frame these things to get through what I believe is just an attack on, on communities of color, marginalized communities. That is going to come as a part of this administration. Next up is we've I've been saying this, I've been I've been saying this for a while, but we are going to be moving to an automated, robotic, ai driven society economy. Again, I'm never the one to promote it, I'm simply sharing some of the things that we've come across.

Speaker 1:

But there is a deliberate race to develop humanoid robots, humanoid robots and you know you have tech giants like Meta, tesla, apple. All of these companies are heavily investing in the development of AI driven humanoid robots right, robots capable of performing tasks such as household chores or even, you know, really complex industrial operations, things like that. There will be humanoid robots here in our very near future. This is not a sci-fi movie. This is 2025. This is kind of real life.

Speaker 1:

There has been significant financial commitments towards this effort and, you know, if we have financial commitments to something more than likely, you're going to see it in your near future. Meta and Facebook obviously plans to allocate $65 billion this year just this year towards AI infrastructure and robotics development. Tesla is advancing its humanoid project. They've been claiming it's going to come out for a while now, but the plan is to produce thousands of these units, hopefully by the end of 2025. So thousands of these humanoid robots they're hoping to deploy by the end of this year, and they know what I guess we all should know by now there's going to be a market for this. Matter of fact, the AI robotics market is projected to grow from $19 billion in 2024 to $35 billion over the next five years, and so this expansion truly reflects kind of a new demand for automation and AI integration across a lot of different sectors.

Speaker 1:

So this is not going anywhere and these robots are going to have very distinct capabilities. You're talking about being able to maybe mimic human form and function, so maybe not looking exactly like a human, but being able to somewhat move like a human. They're going to probably be expected to perform tasks such as cleaning or cooking, or maybe even providing care services In the industrial settings, which is where I believe it's really going to onboard first, that they're going to be able to handle hazardous materials, operate machinery and just provide enhanced productivity all across the board. We've mentioned on this podcast so many times the impact in terms of jobs. I think there's going to be a lot of jobs that's going to go away. There's going to be a lot of jobs that's going to go away. There's going to be a lot of new jobs that's going to be created.

Speaker 1:

There's going to be a lot of upskilling that needs to happen, but these humanoid robots are absolutely going to be coming to a theater near you, for sure, and developing these humanoid robots, there's still some challenges. There's some significant hurdles in getting to where these companies ultimately want to be. You need advanced AI capabilities for decision making. You need a lot of sophisticated sensor systems so that these robots can interact with their environment Clearly, clearly and if any of us have seen any sci-fi movie, safety is going to be a big part of this human-robot interaction and collaboration. So a lot of things still need to be completed, but I think that is why we need absolute diversity in terms of the tech, space and some of these other fields, because these robots will be coming to our homes and doing some of these tasks that, again, we're used to always doing ourselves, and I can easily see 15, 16 years from now, things like chores and cooking and those types of things, oh yeah, yeah, that's not something that the new generation even worries about anymore. And then, last but not least, microsoft has made a huge, huge breakthrough on quantum computing with its new computer chip. So just just a little background, I guess, on quantum computing, and I'm going to do an episode about this probably over the next couple of weeks.

Speaker 1:

Quantum computing at its most basic level really kind of leverages these principles of what's really kind of quantum mechanics, so the ability to process information in ways that our current classical computers just cannot do right now. So anybody who's done anything with computers you know that at the end of the day, they really only understand like zeros and ones. For the most part. You know, they don't understand human language. They understand zeros and ones. Now we can obviously talk to the computer, we can interact with the computer, we can do a lot of different things on computers, clearly, but at its core, when it breaks down and the computer is understanding it, it's really only understanding zeros and ones. It breaks down and the computer is understanding it, it's really only understanding zeros and ones. But quantum computing, quantum computing introduces this thing called quantum bits, quibbets. Then they can kind of exist in literally multiple states at the exact same time. So they can kind of exist and it sounds, sounds weird and crazy Again, I'll get into more detail in a different episode but they can exist in two places and in multiple states at the same time. And so what this does from a computing perspective is it actually enables the ability for these computers to solve very, very, very complex problems more efficiently, very, very complex problems more efficiently.

Speaker 1:

And when you think about solving complex problems, somebody's you know what are you talking about. Like a math problem, ronnie, what are you referring to? Well, you know, if we had like, let's say, covid, that came out of nowhere and we're trying to find a cure for COVID. You have to feed the computer lots and lots of data so that it can run lots and lots of different scenarios, so that we can come up with a vaccine or something to combat that right. And so when we say problems, complex problems, we're talking about complex problems like that, or the ability to understand how the brain works, or how cancer works, or any of these things Very, very complex problems. Cancer works, or any of these things Very, very complex problems.

Speaker 1:

This quantum computing will allow us to make leaps and bounds in that area, and so Microsoft just unveiled a new quantum processor that utilizes these quantum bits based on different particles and things like that. But ultimately this design is able to kind of reduce errors and enhance stability and really kind of address some common challenges that folks that's researching quantum computing are trying to face. And so the development of this chip, though by Microsoft, does suggest, though, that kind of practical, large scale quantum computing could become a reality maybe within years, rather than decades like most people thought. We thought this wasn't going to come in for several decades. Looks like we might get there a lot, lot sooner than that, and from a business perspective, it really puts Microsoft kind of in the forefront of this quantum computing race, and so some of the applications that can happen with this quantum computing could be around fields such as cryptography, material science, pharmaceuticals by enabling the processing of complex simulations, data analysis at unprecedented speed, so on and so forth.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of potential applications from having this kind of new way of computing when it comes to quantum computers, quantum processing. So, at the end, why does this matter? Well, achieving kind of reliable quantum computing software, quantum computing hardware, could lead to breakthroughs in solving a lot of science and technological mysteries. We have a lot of them, especially from a health perspective, that we absolutely need to figure out as a species, and so the ability for companies to have these quantum computers can really drive innovation in a lot of different ways, and you'll hear some people actually say that we are entering into an age.

Speaker 1:

Now, with AI, with quantum computing and all these other different things, people are trying to solve mysteries of life, nature, health, space you name it, and you know it can be scary, but it can be exciting depending upon how you look at it and depending upon who's actually controlling some of these things. I see it again as an exciting time in the history of mankind, but however you feel about it. It is important, I believe, to just think through how this might impact the broader community, particularly the community that that you may be a part of and that you care about, and, more specifically again, the next generation and generations to come after us. And that is it for this week's Workweek News Update. Please do not forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast. And until next time, keep up the scratch work, keep building, bye.