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

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

Please do not forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcast. 

Send us a text

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome back, architects.
This is your work week newsupdate.
The date is February 19th, 2025.
As always, we have three topicsto discuss today.
One is the ending of DEIprograms and educational
institutions.
So that is an executive orderthat came down, so we'll talk a

(00:36):
little bit about that impact.
We also have the race todevelop humanoid robots.
Humanoid robots it is on thehorizon, 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 withthe new chip and we want to
make sure we take a moment todiscuss that as well.

(00:57):
Let's get started.
So there are a bunch ofdifferent executive orders being
flown around all over the placeimpacting so many different
things.
We've talked about this aroundfederal funding, immigration,
all kind of differentinitiatives.
The most recent one that cameout this last week was an

(01:17):
executive order, essentially amandate that colleges and K
through 12 schools eliminatediversity, equity and inclusion
programs or face potentialfunding cuts.
And you know these institutionsget the bulk of their money
from federal or state funding,so they're going to, you know,

(01:38):
pretty much face potentialfunding cuts.
And this directive, in a lot ofways, is going to truly reshape
the educational landscape byremoving some of these
initiatives that were forspecific students.
Its impact is going to be feltall over the place, not just, in
my opinion, black History Monthprograms and things like that

(01:59):
but, honestly, at a much higherlevel.
When you think about HBCUs andI did not go to an HBCU, I went
to a PWI, but love the conceptof HBCUs, I love the idea of it,
I truly, truly do and thesehistorically black colleges and
universities may end up facingsignificant challenges as some

(02:21):
of these DEI programs that aretruly integral to their mission
in terms of supportingunderrepresented students.
They can see a removal of theseprograms and that could
absolutely hinder efforts toprovide what I believe is
important, culturally relevanteducation and support services
to students of color that go tothose HBCUs and those colleges

(02:43):
and universities of color thatgo to those HBCUs and those
colleges and universities andeven beyond HBCUs.
I'm a member of Omega, psi Phifraternity, very, very proud
QDawg.
But when you think about theDivine Nine organizations, these
Black, greek-led organizations,they play such a critical role
in our community, all nine ofthose organizations, even at a

(03:08):
graduate level, outside ofcollege, and you know just a lot
of leadership within ourcommunities and particularly,
again, on these college campuseswhere a majority of members are
joining these fraternities andsororities and sororities.

(03:29):
So the ending of DEI programs,I think, might even end up
jeopardizing their ability to beon these campuses, because the
majority of the students thatjoined 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 beingprimarily Black students, or, b
not being able to be on thesecollege campuses and how that

(03:51):
might affect their recruitmentand retention as it relates to
the Divine Nine organizationsand their ability to just
operate and have a presence oncampus and even beyond HBCUs and
Divine Nines.
I think that this directive isgoing to impact scholarships
that's specifically set asidefor certain groups that need

(04:15):
assistance to get to college,mentoring programs, academic
courses focused on Black historyand culture, focused on black
history and culture.
This can truly lead to, youknow, really a diminished, at
least, emphasis on diversity incurriculum, in extracurricular

(04:35):
activities on campus.
Matter of fact, I am a part ofa or on an advisory committee
for a college that reallyfocuses on trying to retain
black students in the STEMcolleges and degree programs.
You know these students arecoming to college.
They need support, not just ingeneral, but specifically as it

(04:55):
relates to their computerscience 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 movingforward.
So, again, there's a lot ofexecutive orders going around.
I think it is meant to keeppeople almost unstable in terms
of their attention span, but wehave to be mindful.

(05:18):
We have to actually startthinking about what are some of
the workarounds or what are someof the ways that we can frame
these things to get through whatI believe is just an attack on,
on communities of color,marginalized communities.
That is going to come as a partof this administration.
Next up is we've I've beensaying this, I've been I've been

(05:45):
saying this for a while, but weare going to be moving to an
automated, robotic, ai drivensociety economy.
Again, I'm never the one topromote it, I'm simply sharing
some of the things that we'vecome across.
But there is a deliberate raceto develop humanoid robots,

(06:08):
humanoid robots and you know youhave tech giants like Meta,
tesla, apple.
All of these companies areheavily investing in the
development of AI drivenhumanoid robots right, robots
capable of performing tasks suchas household chores or even,
you know, really complexindustrial operations, things

(06:31):
like that.
There will be humanoid robotshere in our very near future.
This is not a sci-fi movie.
This is 2025.
This is kind of real life.
There has been significantfinancial commitments towards
this effort and, you know, if wehave financial commitments to
something more than likely,you're going to see it in your
near future.
Meta and Facebook obviouslyplans to allocate $65 billion

(06:56):
this year just this year towardsAI infrastructure and robotics
development.
Tesla is advancing its humanoidproject.
They've been claiming it'sgoing to come out for a while
now, but the plan is to producethousands of these units,
hopefully by the end of 2025.
So thousands of these humanoidrobots they're hoping to deploy

(07:16):
by the end of this year, andthey know what I guess we all
should know by now there's goingto be a market for this.
Matter of fact, the AI roboticsmarket is projected to grow
from $19 billion in 2024 to $35billion over the next five years
, and so this expansion trulyreflects kind of a new demand

(07:41):
for automation and AIintegration across a lot of
different sectors.
So this is not going anywhereand these robots are going to
have very distinct capabilities.
You're talking about being ableto maybe mimic human form and
function, so maybe not lookingexactly like a human, but being

(08:03):
able to somewhat move like ahuman.
They're going to probably beexpected to perform tasks such
as cleaning or cooking, or maybeeven providing care services In
the industrial settings, whichis where I believe it's really
going to onboard first, thatthey're going to be able to
handle hazardous materials,operate machinery and just

(08:25):
provide enhanced productivityall across the board.
We've mentioned on this podcastso many times the impact in
terms of jobs.
I think there's going to be alot of jobs that's going to go
away.
There's going to be a lot ofjobs that's going to go away.
There's going to be a lot ofnew jobs that's going to be
created.
There's going to be a lot ofupskilling that needs to happen,
but these humanoid robots areabsolutely going to be coming to

(08:46):
a theater near you, for sure,and developing these humanoid
robots, there's still somechallenges.
There's some significanthurdles in getting to where
these companies ultimately wantto be.
You need advanced AIcapabilities for decision making
.
You need a lot of sophisticatedsensor systems so that these
robots can interact with theirenvironment Clearly, clearly and

(09:09):
if any of us have seen anysci-fi movie, safety is going to
be a big part of thishuman-robot interaction and
collaboration.
So a lot of things still needto be completed, but I think
that is why we need absolutediversity in terms of the tech,
space and some of these otherfields, because these robots

(09:31):
will be coming to our homes anddoing some of these tasks that,
again, we're used to alwaysdoing ourselves, and I can
easily see 15, 16 years from now, things like chores and cooking
and those types of things, ohyeah, yeah, that's not something
that the new generation evenworries about anymore.
And then, last but not least,microsoft has made a huge, huge

(09:58):
breakthrough on quantumcomputing with its new computer
chip.
So just just a littlebackground, I guess, on quantum
computing, and I'm going to doan episode about this probably
over the next couple of weeks.
Quantum computing at its mostbasic level really kind of
leverages these principles ofwhat's really kind of quantum

(10:23):
mechanics, so the ability toprocess information in ways that
our current classical computersjust cannot do right now.
So anybody who's done anythingwith computers you know that at
the end of the day, they reallyonly understand like zeros and
ones.
For the most part.
You know, they don't understandhuman language.
They understand zeros and ones.

(10:43):
Now we can obviously talk tothe computer, we can interact
with the computer, we can do alot of different things on
computers, clearly, but at itscore, when it breaks down and
the computer is understanding it, it's really only understanding
zeros and ones.
It breaks down and the computeris understanding it, it's
really only understanding zerosand ones.
But quantum computing, quantumcomputing introduces this thing

(11:06):
called quantum bits, quibbets.
Then they can kind of exist inliterally multiple states at the
exact same time.
So they can kind of exist andit sounds, sounds weird and
crazy Again, I'll get into moredetail in a different episode
but they can exist in two placesand in multiple states at the
same time.
And so what this does from acomputing perspective is it

(11:28):
actually enables the ability forthese computers to solve very,
very, very complex problems moreefficiently, very, very complex
problems more efficiently.
And when you think about solvingcomplex problems, somebody's
you know what are you talkingabout.
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 tofind a cure for COVID.

(11:52):
You have to feed the computerlots and lots of data so that it
can run lots and lots ofdifferent scenarios, so that we
can come up with a vaccine orsomething 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 howcancer works, or any of these

(12:15):
things Very, very complexproblems.
Cancer works, or any of thesethings Very, very complex
problems.
This quantum computing willallow us to make leaps and
bounds in that area, and soMicrosoft just unveiled a new
quantum processor that utilizesthese quantum bits based on
different particles and thingslike that.
But ultimately this design isable to kind of reduce errors

(12:38):
and enhance stability and reallykind of address some common
challenges that folks that'sresearching quantum computing
are trying to face.
And so the development of thischip, though by Microsoft, does
suggest, though, that kind ofpractical, large scale quantum
computing could become a realitymaybe within years, rather than

(13:02):
decades like most peoplethought.
We thought this wasn't going tocome in for several decades.
Looks like we might get there alot, lot sooner than that, and
from a business perspective, itreally puts Microsoft kind of in
the forefront of this quantumcomputing race, and so some of
the applications that can happenwith this quantum computing

(13:23):
could be around fields such ascryptography, material science,
pharmaceuticals by enabling theprocessing of complex
simulations, data analysis atunprecedented speed, so on and
so forth.
There's a lot of potentialapplications from having this
kind of new way of computingwhen it comes to quantum

(13:46):
computers, quantum processing.
So, at the end, why does thismatter?
Well, achieving kind ofreliable quantum computing
software, quantum computinghardware, could lead to
breakthroughs in solving a lotof science and technological
mysteries.
We have a lot of them,especially from a health

(14:06):
perspective, that we absolutelyneed to figure out as a species,
and so the ability forcompanies to have these quantum
computers can really driveinnovation in a lot of different
ways, and you'll hear somepeople actually say that we are
entering into an age.

(14:27):
Now, with AI, with quantumcomputing and all these other
different things, people aretrying to solve mysteries of
life, nature, health, space youname it, and you know it can be
scary, but it can be excitingdepending upon how you look at
it and depending upon who'sactually controlling some of
these things.
I see it again as an excitingtime in the history of mankind,

(14:53):
but however you feel about it.
It is important, I believe, tojust think through how this
might impact the broadercommunity, particularly the
community that that you may be apart 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'sWorkweek News Update.

(15:14):
Please do not forget to followus on Apple Podcasts, spotify or
wherever you listen to yourpodcast.
And until next time, keep upthe scratch work, keep building,
bye.