Tech News
‘Moon to Mars—That’s our outlook’: NASA astronaut Suni Williams on her hopes for the future

For NASA’s Sunita “Suni” Williams, a scheduled eight-day trip to the International Space Station last summer has instead become a nine-month work assignment.
Williams, 59, and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore initially remained at the ISS last June after the Boeing Starliner craft they were aboard malfunctioned. Officials ultimately decided to return the Starliner to Earth uncrewed last September, while William and Wilmore, now fully integrated into the crew of Expedition 72 at the ISS, stayed in space.
A veteran of two previous space missions, Williams has served as the station’s commander since September. She and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon as early as Tuesday, March 18, according to NASA. A replacement crew arrived at the space station over the weekend, following a scrubbed launch attempt by NASA and SpaceX last week due to a ground system issue at the launch pad.
By the time of their scheduled landing, Williams and Wilmore’s mission will clock in at nearly 290 days, one of the longer assignments in our history of space travel. Once on terra firma, though, Suni Williams likely will be thinking of space again. And she appears certain of the next move by the U.S. in that regard: a trip back to the future.
“The moon to Mars—that’s our outlook,” Williams says.
In an extensive interview with Fortune months before her mission began, Williams expanded on that idea—and the short- and longer-term outlook for space travel.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Fortune: First of all, why space, and why now?
Suni Williams: It’s just what the human body does—it explores, among other things. We all have curiosity; we’re born with it. Maybe some of that gets pushed down a little bit by society and things going on around us, but we’re all curious and we want to explore. As a nation, this is one of those things that gives people hope and understanding about things that are bigger than themselves.
What is out there that we still want to know about?
I think we want to know where our place in the universe is. When you’re here on Earth, you’re driving around thinking things like, “I’ve got to get to work. I’ve got to get in line at Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks.” We’re pretty myopically focused on the here and now. When you go out into space, and you actually see that this is just the little island that we all live on, it becomes more philosophical: What is our purpose here? What happened to our planet, and what is happening to our planet now?
That’s where Mars comes in to play?
If we went there, we might get some insights on what’s going to happen eventually here. How we keep our planet viable, and all of those other questions, may be answered when we just start to think and expand our horizon a little bit more by going to space.
And that starts with going back to the moon?
I don’t know how we’re going to go to Mars, and I don’t think anybody really knows exactly. But in the process of actually trying to get back to the moon sustainably and (then) onto Mars, I’d say we are going to learn something. We’re going to learn a lot about how to do things physically—engineering—but we’re also going to learn about us as human beings and how we tackle problems, and how we face problems in the future with other countries and cultures as we start to leave.
So what does that look like?
The moon to Mars—that’s our outlook. We want to go back to the moon sustainably, which means we need to have a lander presence there. We need to probably have a space station—we’re designing Gateway as a jumping-off point to get to the moon and off the moon, where we do science experiments, where we could build something on the moon sustainably. It seems a little bit like science fiction, a little bit crazy when we think about landers and spacecraft and all that stuff. But when I first got to the NASA building, the International Space Station seemed like it was crazy idea, too. We’ve done that. I don’t put anything past the human mind to be able to do.
When will we have a station on the moon, and then on Mars?
It’s not a quick thing. I think in this decade we will be having people on the moon, and I think the idea would be that as soon as we can get it going, we would want to start having some type of presence on the moon sustainably. As soon as we put people there, we’ll understand how hard it is to do it. Remember, we’re not going to the same place that we did for the Apollo program. It’s a little bit trickier. We’re at the pole, so it’s a different orbit. It’s a different environment.
That will get us ready. Some of the people who are building rockets that might go to some of these places, they are leaving them out in the environment, not necessarily a clean room, so that they can understand what a terrible environment would do to them. People are already thinking about leaving stuff on the moon for a little while and then trying to get it off of the moon. We’re already in the baby steps of understanding how this process is going to work.
Going to the moon would be a common occurrence?
Our idea is to be able to take people regularly to the moon and build our space station there. It’d be the practice ground for how we’re going to then understand how we could take people to Mars…We’ve gotten comfortable with going to low earth orbit (like the ISS). We know how to do it. It’s rockets. It’s dangerous, but we know how to do it. Let’s let companies be able to do that on a regular basis, and we can take the next step of exploration.
Speaking of companies, there’s been explosive growth in the private sector of space travel and production. Does that factor in to all this?
We got a taste of it here at NASA with space tourism, as the Russians were bringing some tourists up to the International Space Station. We embraced it and got on with it, and we started to understand that there’s an avenue here for commercialism. We were then contracting for commercial space supply, and then looking at commercial crew options for the International Space Station. So all of that sort of started to crack open around in the 2000’s, and it has really accelerated in the last decade.
Is there a benefit to the public?
Folks have recognized that this is an interesting way to get things to space, a little bit cheaper for the tax dollar, potentially. But the bigger and better thought is, let’s let these people design the spacecraft the way they want to. Let their creativity guide the way. They could do something and not perhaps be hindered by the way we’ve always done it, because times are changing. So there have been advances in manufacturing processes, 3D printing of metals on a large scale, friction stir welding, other types of processes like that.
And computing power as well?
It’s crazy how much computing power can be in a phone, for example—much more than the computers on the space shuttle. All these types of technological advancements, materials, chemicals, new ideas of using fuels for rocket engines—that’s all sort of been opened up as we’ve opened up to the commercial side. It’s like, let’s let people be creative and try to do this better and smarter. Of course, it’s expensive. The U.S. government has helped some of these companies along the way by rewarding contracts.
What are the main sectors where we might see future growth with regard to space exploration?
Rockets, of course. But also materials, suits, landers. If you’re going to put a human someplace, every aspect of that person going there for a long period of time needs to be adapted. So it’s food, it’s exercise, it’s clothing, some of these little basic things. We have to come up with creative ways to do all of that. Whenever I’m talking to any kids and they’re thinking about what they want to do as a career, I say, ‘You can do anything and be in the space business.’ You do not have to be an astronaut, an engineer or a doctor.
There is still so much we don’t know.
We’ve been able to come back (from space) and be okay. But you want to see how people are going to do when they live in space for a long period of time. The moon’s not that far, but that mission would be a couple of weeks long. They’ll be in microgravity the whole time. As we go further than that—going to Mars is going to be a long trip. Being on Mars is going to be a while, and it’s not going to be Earth gravity. So we have to learn. We have to figure it out.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Russia’s fallen giant Gazprom selling off luxury properties as group swings to reported $12.9 billion loss

Gazprom is looking at every avenue to cut costs, including its portfolio of luxury hotels, after the group fell to its second successive year of losses as Russia’s war with Ukraine continues to hammer energy exports.
The group’s net losses on Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) hit 1.076 trillion roubles ($12.89 billion) last year, largely attributable to a decline in the market value of shares in Gazprom’s oil division, Gazprom Neft, according to Interfax, Reuters reported.
The same RAS figure in 2023, which doesn’t include the results of subsidiaries, gave Gazprom a profit of 695.6 billion roubles ($7.51 billion).
Gazprom Group fell to its first loss in 24 years in 2023 as EU sanctions took their toll on the group, with gas exports to the EU plunging 55% compared with 2022.
An internal Gazprom report obtained by the Financial Times last year suggested the group may not recover its pre-war export revenues until 2035 as it struggles to find alternatives to the lucrative European market.
The company has started to cut costs as a result of continued losses, reeling back years of exuberant purchases as the company basked in outsized energy revenues. In January, Gazprom confirmed it was considering laying off administrative staff amid reports headcount could fall by up to 40%.
Last year, Gazprom said it was selling off some of its luxury property assets, including a range of Gazprom-owned hotels, which it used to reward employees with holidays and to host conferences.
According to a report by Reuters, Gazprom is now considering selling off its palazzo-style export headquarters in St Petersburg, a direct result of falling demand to the West.
Indeed, Reuters’ report suggests Gazprom Export has reduced its number of employees from 600 prior to the invasion of Ukraine to a few dozen.
A representative for Gazprom didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
As revenues for the once-crucial energy sector dry up and Russia’s war with Ukraine moves into its fourth year, hopes are increasing for a peace deal to prevent a financial crash as Russia’s non-war related sectors come under strain.
Russia has attempted to offset the loss of its vital European energy export business by increasing trade with China. However, it hasn’t been able to replace the quantity of exports it enjoyed in Europe, while China has had more leverage to negotiate prices as Russia struggles to find buyers for its energy.
Vladimir Putin is due to speak with Donald Trump over the phone on Tuesday to continue peace talks over the war in Ukraine. Trump’s election has increased the likelihood of a peace deal as the U.S. threatens to pull military support for Ukraine. A ceasefire could open the door to the lifting of sanctions.
However, analysts are skeptical that Europe would return to become a willing buyer of Russian energy in the event that sanctions are lifted, with new suppliers being identified and alternative forms of energy receiving more funding since 2022.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Arizona’s Supreme Court says it created two ‘quite realistic’ AI-generated avatars to deliver every ruling from the justices

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s highest court has created a pair of AI-generated avatars to deliver news of every ruling issued by the justices, marking what is believed to be the first example in the U.S. of a state court system tapping artificial intelligence to build more human-like characters to connect with the public.
A court in Florida uses an animated chatbot to help visitors navigate its website, but the Arizona Supreme Court is charting new territory with the creation of Victoria and Daniel. Made of pixels, the two avatars have a different job in that they serve as the face of news coming from the court just as a spokesperson made of flesh and blood would do — but faster.
The use of AI has touched nearly every profession and discipline, growing exponentially in recent years and showing infinite potential when it comes to things as simple as internet searches or as complex as brain surgery. For officials with the Arizona Supreme Court, their venture into AI is rooted in a desire to promote trust and confidence in the judicial system.
What helped solidify the court’s need for more public outreach?
There was a protest outside the state Capitol last April and calls for two justices to be booted after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a Civil War-era law that banned nearly all abortions, except when a woman’s life is in jeopardy, could be enforced. Emotions flared on both sides of the issue.
When Chief Justice Ann Timmer took over the court last summer, she made public trust a key pillar of her platform. She had already been thinking about ways to reach out to the public using digital media for a few years, and the abortion ruling, among other rulings, helped her to solidify the idea that the court needs to be part of the narrative as people learn about opinions and what they mean.
“We serve the public better by saying, OK, we’ve issued this decision,” she said. “Now, let us help you understand what it is.”
Timmer told The Associated Press earlier this year that if the court had to do the abortion ruling over again, it would have approached the dissemination of information differently. In a Wednesday interview, she said that a news release and avatar video could have helped the public better understand the legal underpinnings of the lengthy decision — possibly including what it didn’t do, which she said some misunderstood.
“We got a lot of backlash for it and probably deservedly so, in terms of how can we complain that people don’t understand what we did when we didn’t really do enough to give a simplified version,” she said in the January interview, explaining that people want to know the basis for the court’s decisions and what they can do, such as lobbying state lawmakers for whatever changes in law would support their positions.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a repeal of the ban last May, and in November, Arizona voters approved a constitutional amendment expanding abortion access up to the point of fetal viability.
Who are Daniel and Victoria, and how do they work?
Created with a program called Creatify, Daniel and Victoria in a way bring to life the court’s news releases. Videos featuring one or the other are being posted for every ruling by the high court, and may be used for Access to Justice projects, community programs and civics information in the future.
The court has been sending out releases since October to summarize and explain rulings. After seeing success with the releases, it began exploring options to convey that information through video.
The AI-generated avatars were the most efficient way to produce videos and get the information out, said court spokesperson Alberto Rodriguez. Producing a video usually can take hours, he said, but an AI-generated video is ready in about 30 minutes. The court might introduce more AI-generated reporters in the future, Rodriguez said in a news release.
The justice who authors the legal opinion also drafts a news release, the wording of which must be approved by the entire bench. The justice then works with the court’s communications team to craft a script for the avatars — the avatars aren’t interpreting original court decisions or opinions, Rodriguez said.
Daniel and Victoria’s names and physical appearances were designed to represent a wide cross-section of people, Rodriguez said. He said they aren’t meant to come off as real people and the court emphasizes their AI origins with disclaimers. The court is exploring different emotional deliveries, cadences and pronunciations as well as Spanish translations for the avatars, Rodriguez said.
Will the avatars resonate with their audience?
Mason Kortz, a clinical instructor at the Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, described the court’s new cyber employees as “quite realistic.” While their voices might give them away, he said some people could be fooled into thinking that Daniel and Victoria are real reporters if viewers are only reading the subtitles and looking at the characters’ movements and facial expressions.
Kortz also said it would be better for the language of the disclaimer that is in the videos’ text description to be featured more prominently.
“You want to make it as hard as possible for someone to advertently or inadvertently remove the disclaimer,” he said.
Asheley Landrum, associate professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, said the avatars feel robotic. She said a format that mimics real dialogue and storytelling might be more engaging than an AI reading of a news release.
“Because it’s not just about using AI or even creating videos,” she said, “but about doing so in a way that really resonates with audiences.”
Still, it’s fine line. She said engaging characteristics can help to build trust over time but the danger is that content could appear biased.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
The marketing executive who curates your pre-flight ads says traveling for business is crucial to his career success: ‘I travel to learn’

Dan Levi knows a thing or two about finding his way around an airport.
As executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Clear Channel Outdoor—the largest airport advertising company in the country, with a presence in more than 55 commercial airports nationwide—Levi applies his 38 years of experience in media and advertising to helping bring digital innovation to out-of-home (OOH) campaigns. During his nearly 10-year career at Clear Channel, he has spearheaded the company’s mission to be first to market in the OOH sector, with game-changing planning and measurement solutions going back to 2016. The company reaches 130 million Americans weekly with some 70,000 roadside and airport displays in more than 65 markets, and saw revenue in its airports segment jump 16% in 2024, on the back of record-breaking passenger volumes through U.S. airports last year.
Levi averages two trips a month, many of which take him to Clear Channel’s 30 offices across the U.S. While he’s never in one place for long, having his Kindle and iPad handy and the refuge of an airport lounge at the ready helps him maintain an even keel.
He spoke with Fortune about a singular adventure in Cambodia, the virtues of feather pillows, and the impact of travel on both work and life.
The transcript below has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
What’s the best trip you’ve ever taken?
My wife and I went to Antarctica last year for our 30th anniversary, which was the most amazing trip we’ve done recently. I don’t have a bucket list, but it was one of those bucket-list experiences. It’s such a different part of the planet, and unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before, no matter how much you’ve traveled.
We left on a cruise from Argentina and crossed the Drake Passage, which is legendary for being two days of seasickness and very rough seas. We were really fortunate because it was relatively calm, which the crew told us happens about 1% of the time, so we did it in a day and a half. Since we had that half-day head start, we were able to go farther south than the cruise had ever gone before. We saw parts of Antarctica that even the crew had never seen, and so many penguins, which are hysterical—they just look at you and walk right by.
My other favorite was our honeymoon in Cambodia in 1993, a few months after the U.N. peacekeeping forces—which had been there for two years to support the creation of a functioning democracy—had left. I like to say that I’ve never met anyone else who’s heard machine-gun fire on their honeymoon. Cambodia was truly independent for the first time in a very long time, and it was so spectacular not only to visit Angkor Wat and the nearby temples and other sites, but also to be there with almost no other tourists. We flew on a Russian surplus plane from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap with a pilot we were convinced was drunk, and then stayed at the nicest hotel in Siem Reap, which was basically a hostel with shared bathrooms. There are luxury hospitality brands there now, but this was a very, very different time. It’s such a wonderful memory, and marked the first time I had that kind of adventure travel experience. And it laid the foundation for much of what we’ve done since then, including moving to Southeast Asia for five years.
If you could go anywhere in the world you haven’t yet been, where would it be, and why?
I have this running joke with my wife that with all the travel we’ve done together, we still haven’t been to Ireland. I’ve suggested it so many times when we’ve talked about where we should go, but we haven’t made it there yet, so I’m going with that to keep the joke going and put a little more pressure on her. I love the U.K.–I studied abroad in England, and have spent time in Scotland, Wales, and lots of other places there. Between the nature and landscapes, and everything I’ve been told about the people, Ireland just seems like a really cool place to hang out for a week.
What’s your favorite/most memorable meal you’ve had while traveling?
I was working for MTV in the early 90s, and they asked me to move to Singapore in 1995 to help launch MTV Asia. India was a very important market for MTV to develop–I ended up living in Bangalore for three months to get the business going–but the first time I went was before we had any infrastructure there. My wife came with me to Delhi, where it was more than 120 degrees–nobody wanted to do anything but sit inside and not move. But having never been there before, we wanted to see the sites. MTV had only one person on the ground then, the daughter of a very well-known Indian author, and we dragged this poor woman along to help us see the Red Fort and all these other places. Then we went to her grandparents’ home and had the best vegetarian meal I’ve ever had in this cute little house in Delhi, with one air conditioner in the bedroom. We all sat in there on the corners of the bed and had this unbelievable meal together. I’ll never forget it. I love India.
What are a few of your favorite travel hacks?
If I can bring my own pillow, I will. There’s almost always room in a suitcase for a feather pillow—I’ll squish the air out of it and shove it into a corner, or I’ll put it on top of everything I’ve packed and force the suitcase closed.
I have TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, Clear, Digital ID—and if a new program comes out that will get me through airport security faster, I’ll register for that one too.
Though I once swore I would never pay for a credit card, after getting stuck in the Dallas airport for six hours due to storms a number of years ago, I now have an American Express Platinum Card so that I can access the Centurion and Delta lounges—I’m a Delta frequent flyer. To have a place to work and not have to deal with the overall stress of the airport experience makes a huge difference.
What three things do you never travel without?
I’m a tech nerd, so this one is easy. I never travel without my Kindle, because I need to be able to read on something other than my phone.
Second is my iPad—it’s my favorite device, and gives me the ability to work as well as watch video if I want to get online.
Over the years, I’ve curated this collection of chargers and cords that’s the first thing I pull out when I start packing for a trip. It’s in its own little case, and I know that wherever I go, whatever I need is in there.
Do you have any hard and fast travel rules?
I definitely strive to carry on, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that sometimes it’s better not to spend so much time on having to pack perfectly, and I’ll check my bag. But if I can, I prefer to carry on.
I’ll only take a connecting flight if there’s no other way to get there.
I like to get to the airport early, and not have the stress of running for the gate. When I lived in Singapore, I worked for a guy whose mission was to be the last person on the plane every time. When I traveled with him, we’d be paged and I’d have to do the walk of shame to the gate, then we’d be the last people to board—they’d shut the door behind us. I don’t like being that guy.
What’s the most important life lesson you’ve learned from travel?
I think that in life, as in travel, there’s no such thing as a bad experience. You can have a good experience or a good story, and if you’re lucky, they’re one and the same. Bad travel experiences are the ones you tell friends about over drinks to lots of laughs.
One of my favorites is when we lived in Singapore, and were meeting my brother and his wife in Chiang Mai after they’d visited us and then traveled a bit on their own. I was in Bombay for business, and the only way I could get to Chiang Mai in time to meet them was to fly overnight via Delhi, Hong Kong, and Bangkok in one journey. I don’t like taking sleeping pills, so my brother, an anesthesiologist who trained in the Air Force, gave me a sleeping pill that’s approved for pilots because it doesn’t make them groggy. He told me exactly when to take it so that I’d get the maximum amount of sleep, which I did as we took off for Hong Kong, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I went to the lounge during my two-hour layover there and started getting tired so I put my head back, then fell asleep and woke up 10 minutes before my flight was scheduled to take off. So I became that guy running through the airport, with my bag bouncing from wheel to wheel behind me and my coat hanging off. It was a bus gate, and the bus had already left, so I somehow convinced them to get another bus for me. I was barely awake, and did that walk of shame onto the plane, where everyone else who managed to get there on time was waiting. It was a bad experience, but a great story.
Are there any lessons from your own travel experiences that you’ve applied to your work at Clear Channel Outdoor?
The first pertains to our airport business. If you’ve flown through LaGuardia Airport in the last couple years, and also before it was redeveloped, you realize the difference between a great passenger experience and a horrific one. Traveling so much and passing through so many different airports, and especially having had Changi Airport in Singapore—which for many years was regarded as the best in the world—as my home airport for five years, for me has really reinforced the importance of the airport experience, and how much it matters both to travelers and to the marketers who are trying to reach them.
The bigger one is that travel is about experiencing new things—it’s about learning. I travel to our branches and to our local markets to learn. Our business isn’t driven by the people in New York and the big agencies—it’s driven by our people who work across our 30 local offices, and by our customers in those markets. If I can’t speak to what’s going on in our markets—to what our local clients’ and salespeople’s needs are, and how my team and I can support them—then I can’t effectively do my job. I think about it the same way I think about personal travel, and what I take away from these incredible trips to Antarctica and India and all these other amazing destinations: I travel to experience our business where it happens, so that I can do my job better.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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