On August 5, 2013, Mark Post of Maastricht University unveiled the first lab-grown burger, made from cultured cattle cells and funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The $330,000 burger was tasted publicly in London by two experts who found it bland but textured, sparking a global rush of 140+ companies and $3 billion in investment into cellular agriculture as a potential solution to climate change and food sustainability.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $102 million to a political nonprofit backing ballot measures designed to block California's proposed wealth tax on billionaires. Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on assets of those worth $1 billion or more to fund healthcare, education, and food aid, while competing Propositions 41 and 42 could nullify it. The November ballot fight reflects broader tensions over taxing ultra-wealthy residents and California's social safety net.
Around August, Google co-founder Sergey Brin directed resources toward Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI) in the company's AI efforts. Google DeepMind is reportedly near achieving RSI, where AI systems recursively improve themselves. The upcoming Gemini Pro model may be announced this month.