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GM Raided Silicon Valley to Build Its New AI Team. Here’s What It’s Doing

William Attardi on August 21, 2025

In the last eight months, GM has made nearly a dozen hires from top tech companies—from Google to Meta to AWS—with the aim of building a small but elite AI center of excellence, much of it based in Mountain View, CA. For many companies, the challenge posed by artificial intelligence rests in how to make practical use of it in operations. For many companies, the challenge posed by artificial intelligence rests in how to make practical use of it in operations. For a company like GM, that could mean incorporating AI into back-office workflows, but also into future fleets of autonomous vehicles, manufacturing robots and even motor sports. Using robots and other tech to make manufacturing more efficient—a goal GM has worked on for decades—will be even more critical as the company looks to bump up U.S. production and mitigate the cost of President Trump’s tariffs. GM Raided Silicon Valley to Build Its New AI Team. Here’s What It’s Doing. – WSJ

The Great Reshoring: Wake Up, America, Your Factory Floor Is Calling by Alexander De Ridder

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

The real AI revolution isn’t happening in Silicon Valley conference rooms — it’s about to explode on America’s factory floors. This isn’t your standard automation upgrade. AI-powered manufacturing is like giving every worker a superpower. Suddenly your maintenance tech isn’t just fixing machines — it’s preventing breakdowns before they happen. Your quality control is catching defects that human eyes can’t even see. Your production planning is adjusting to market changes in real time. But here’s the best part: AI turns your biggest cost center—labor—into your greatest asset. Instead of replacing workers, AI elevates them. It handles the mind-numbing routine tasks while your people focus on what humans do best: innovating, problem-solving, and making the kind of judgment calls no algorithm can match. This approach not only creates new jobs but also transforms existing roles into hybrid positions that synergize human and AI capabilities.    The great reshoring: Wake up, America, your factory floor is calling

Remembering the Solemn Purpose of Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the last Monday in May to honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. The holiday traces its roots to the years immediately following the American Civil War (1861–1865), which caused massive casualties—roughly 620,000 soldiers dead, about 2% of the U.S. population at the time. Communities across the North and South began spontaneously decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, wreaths, and flags, a practice that gave rise to the original name: Decoration Day. On May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)—a powerful Union veterans’ organization—issued General Order No. 11. This proclaimed May 30, 1868, as a nationwide “Decoration Day” to honor those who died in the Civil War. After World War I, the holiday expanded to honor all American service members who died in any war, not just the Civil War.  In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to create more three-day weekends for federal employees. This moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, effective in 1971, when it was also officially named “Memorial Day.” As one 1868 quote put it: “That Nation which respects and honors its dead, shall ever be respected and honored itself.”