Where's Spot?

This week, we look at Boston Dynamics as it faces the dreary task of commercializing its incredible robot tech, and the amazing career of Eric Emerson Schmidt – who has just donated $150 million to fund a center dedicated to AI for biological research. We begin by the latest from Boston Dynamics: having recently charged ownership, the robotics wunderkinder have launched what could be considered their first true commercial product – Stretch the warehouse robot. Next we talk about a brand new research center that will study the intersection of machine learning and biology. Set up by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center was funded with a $150m endowment from its namesakes, as well as a matching $150m from The Broad Foundation. Who is Eric Schmidt? How did he make his money, and what is he doing at the moment? All these questions (and many more) are answered by our dedicated billionaire-watcher Sebastian Moss.