Forget the cage match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck is stepping into the ring with Twitter instead.

Meta launched Threads, a “public conversations app” that looks an awful lot like Twitter, one day early on July 5. Zuckerberg boasted that the app gained 10 million users within seven hours of launching.

Threads is far from the first challenge to Twitter since Musk bought the company – remember Mastodon? – but one day in, it’s already leaps and bounds ahead of the rest.

The business behind the latest social craze

In less than one day, Zuckerberg said Threads processed more than 30 million sign-ups. But his target user number has a ‘B,’ not an ‘M.’

“It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

Twitter, meanwhile, has roughly 400 million users worldwide.

Threads’ big leg up is its companion app, Instagram, which boasts more than 2 billion active monthly users. Instagram users can sign up for Threads using their existing Instagram account, keeping the same handle and verification status if they already have a blue checkmark.

When Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, many questioned the costly move for an app that was barely off the ground. But it turned out to be one of Facebook’s best moves. Time will tell whether Threads becomes a serious competitor to Twitter.

Musk is less than impressed, laughing at a tweet that suggests Threads is a carbon copy of Twitter.

Ads: The bottom line

Twitter has been on shaky ground with advertisers since Elon Musk bought the company. Global ad revenue this year is estimated to be 28% lower than it was in 2022 at around $3 billion, according to research firm Insider Intelligence.

And an exclusive New York Times report citing internal documents said Twitter’s U.S. advertising for five weeks starting April 1 was $88 million, down 59% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Meta is looking at 40 times Twitter’s ad revenue for 2023 between Facebook and Instagram, at around $121.9 billion, Insider Intelligence reports. But don’t expect Threads to be inundated by ads anytime soon.

“Our approach will be the same as all our other products: make the product work well first, then see if we can get it on a clear path to 1 billion people, and only then think about monetization at that point,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post.

Advertising experts said when that time comes, Meta has a clear advantage with built-in commercial relationships with its existing partners.

Meta’s own ad troubles

The company lost at least one advertiser this week. Canada’s government pulled ads from Meta over the company’s refusal to carry and pay for news content, a result of the country’s Online News Act.

Meta is facing another blow from the EU with a court ruling that threatens the company’s highly-lucrative practice of targeted ads.

Americans interact with artificial intelligence (AI) products daily, from talking to Amazon’s Alexa to scrolling through Netflix recommendations. However, artificial intelligence is a broad term that encompasses a range of technologies.

Here are four types of AI, from the most basic to the entirely theoretical.

Reactive AI

Reactive AI is the most basic form of AI. It is designed to respond to inputs in a specific way. For example, an email spam filter is reactive AI. It is programmed to identify specific patterns in spam emails and block them.

Limited memory AI 

Limited memory AI is more sophisticated than reactive AI. It can remember past events and learn from them.

For example, semi-autonomous vehicles use limited memory AI. They can use cameras and sensors to detect nearby traffic, pedestrians and stoplights, and they can store this information in their memory. This allows them to make smarter, safer decisions on the road.

Theory of mind AI 

Theory of mind AI is even more sophisticated than limited memory AI. It can understand the thoughts and emotions of people and animals, and adjust its own behavior accordingly.

For example, some experts say that ChatGPT has demonstrated theory of mind, but many remain skeptical.

Self-aware AI 

Self-aware AI is the most advanced form of AI. It would have its own thoughts, feelings and aspirations. Some would call it sentient.

While it has the potential to streamline many aspects of society, many fear that this AI could see humans as a threat and decide to take over.

At this point, self-aware AI is largely theoretical. No one can guarantee that this level of technology will ever be achieved. For now, the frontier of AI lies between limited memory and theory of mind. But it is evolving fast, and it is important to stay aware of the potential risks and benefits of this technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) likely played a role in securing some applicants’ current jobs or excluding them from consideration for the position they missed out on. Human resources departments have been using automated tools to assist in recruitment for some time now. However, in February of 2023, one of the first allegations of discrimination based on an employer’s use of AI in the hiring process emerged.

Derek Mobley has become the face of a class action lawsuit against Workday, Inc. Mobley claimed that since 2018, he has applied for positions at up to 100 companies through Workday’s application platform but he has not been able to secure a job.

“All things being equal, you know, he’s qualified,” Mobley’s attorney Rod Cooks said.

According to Cooks, Mobley alleges that he has been discriminated against because he is African American, over 40 years old and has a disability.

“We believe this lawsuit is without merit,” a Workday spokesperson said in an email. “At Workday, we’re committed to responsible AI. Our decisions are guided by our AI ethics principles, which include amplifying human potential, positively impacting society, and championing transparency and fairness.”

This is not the first time AI-based recruitment tools have faced bias concerns.

In 2015, Amazon discontinued its own recruiting engine after it was discovered that the system had developed a preference for male applicants over women.

John Rood is the founder of Proceptual, a company that works with HR departments to ensure compliance with emerging legislation. Rood emphasized the significant harm caused if protected minority classes, such as racial, gender, or sexual orientation minorities, systematically fail to secure jobs.

Rood explains that when using an automated employment decision tool, the technology picks which applicants should advance to the next phase based on predetermined criteria. Hiring managers often rely on these system recommendations, especially in large-scale hiring processes.

“The computer has not like decided who to hire, but at a part of that funnel, it’s made a very specific decision about who should be advancing to the next phase,” Rood said. “And most hiring managers are not going to, like look at that and be like, ‘oh, well, I need to carefully go through every single resume,’ especially when it’s, you know, an enterprise company, and they’re hiring for hundreds of roles.”

To address bias concerns, Rood’s company conducts “bias audits” for organizations using automated tools. These audits evaluate whether an algorithm selected applicants at a lower rate based on race, gender, national origin, or other factors.

New York City passed Local Law 144 in 2021, which requires employers to conduct bias audits and disclose the results publicly. Enforcement of the law will commence on July 5, 2023.

However, Rood says the law is far from perfect. While it sets the standard for what an audit should entail, he highlights that no one is entirely satisfied with the criteria outlined.

Critics include Matt Scherer, senior policy counsel for Workers’ Rights and Technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Scherer said that the audit requirement is redundant, pointing out that the law references federal regulations that already mandate companies to collect information on race, sex and national origin.

“The law is not doing anything for this bias audit that companies should not already be doing anyway,” Scherer said.

New York City’s law also necessitates employers to disclose their use of AI in the hiring process and the manner in which it is employed. However, a narrow version of the law passed, requiring that companies follow these rules if their automated employment decision tools completely replace human decision making.

Because many companies use such technology to assist in human decision-making, and not replace it entirely, those companies may not be affected by Local Law 144.

“I do not think that New York Law 144 is a very good law, I hesitate to call it regulation, or certainly new regulation,” Scherer said. “And I am not at all keen on the idea of that being kind of a model for the rest of the country for how these tools are regulated.”

As New York’s regulation takes effect, it shines a spotlight on a sector that has been utilizing AI products for years, potentially impacting the demographic composition of the workforce.

The U.S. automobile market recently saw overall new car sales jump nearly 25% over the last year. But while electric vehicles have received a push from the government and seen a boost in sales, many car buyers remain hesitant to go electric.

Concerns about infrastructure, “range anxiety” and high costs in an uncertain economy have kept EV sales lower than advocates had hoped.

“Right now, the average price of an electric vehicle is about $66,000, the average price of a gasoline powered vehicle is $49,000,” Lauren Fix, automotive analyst and founder of Car Coach Reports, told SAN.

She added that not only do EVs carry a higher sticker price they also, she said, cost more to insure. The reason for that, according to Fix, is because of replacement costs. 

“Don’t let anyone kid you that there’s no maintenance because the tires wear out quicker … and there’s going to be maintenance,” Fix said. “You may have eliminated the engine, but you still have other components that need to be repaired. And when you total it all up, it takes about 10 years to recoup the cost of an electric vehicle over a gasoline powered vehicle.”

The consumer hesitancy naturally has a direct impact on auto dealers, who have to decide what types of vehicles they’re going to keep in stock by weighing government incentives while also preparing for governmental regulations.

In Delaware, for instance, the state is pushing car dealers to sell more electric vehicles and has announced that it wants to phase out gasoline-fueled new car sales by 2035.

Jim Ursomarso, vice president of Union Park Automotive Group in Wilmington, Delaware, doesn’t see buyers’ habits changing in the near future. And it all comes down to cost and reliability.

“The vast majority are still going to choose an ICE vehicle, a gasoline engine vehicle, because it’s less expensive in the price, and then that translates to lower monthly payments,” Ursomarso told SAN.

“They’ve got a budget, a monthly budget for their car payment, and they’re trying to stay within that,” he added.

Dealers don’t have anything against EVs, according to Ursomarso. They simply hope to provide what customers want. Right now, that’s not EVs.

“What works best for them is a car that’s less expensive and that will take them where they need to go when they need to get there without having to worry about stopping for an hour or three hours to charge and whether the charging station will be open or available,” he said.

The fear of running out of power before finding the next charging station, also known as range anxiety, has been and continues to be a major roadblock in the EV market.

Adding to that concern are the ongoing technical problems with existing public charging stations. According to J.D. Power, in the first quarter of 2023, 20.8% of EV drivers using public charging stations said they experienced charging failures or equipment problems that kept them from being able to charge their vehicles.

While the national development of charging stations is ongoing, the infrastructure comes up short in the face of growing demand. One company that is focused on addressing that issue and democratizing EV charging is a startup called Chargenet Stations.

Chargenet Chief Commercial Officer Sharmila Ravula said her company is creating an infrastructure that will make sure every charger the company deploys is always working.  

“We are focused on bringing fast electric vehicle charging in very convenient locations to the entire population of the U.S. in places they live and visit frequently,” Ravula said.

The company, she said, has a “very narrow focus” on fast-food, quick-serve restaurants that are everywhere across the U.S. 

Chargenet Stations has one station currently operating at a Taco Bell between two popular freeways in San Francisco. The company plans to have 25 stations operational by the end of 2024, and thousands of stations across the U.S. by 2035.

The Biden administration declared that it wants to see 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. 

But experts told SAN it will never happen. 

“There is no way that you’re going to see electric cars increase to that substantial percentage by 2030 or 2050,” Fix said. “Not a chance.”

Fix pointed to the current situation in California, where the state recently banned the sales new gas-powered cars by 2035.

“The perfect proof is California here today in 2023,” she said. “They can’t even support all the electric grid because there’s not enough wind and solar power. And they’d need nuclear power, coal and natural gas, which California doesn’t want to do.”

Ursomarso said he sees his Delaware customers pushing back against EV requirements.

“We’re hoping that Delaware does not adopt the [zero-emission vehicles] requirement, the electric vehicle requirements,” he told SAN. “If they do, I think it’s not going to go over well.”

“The average person in Delaware is not going to be very happy that they now must spend a lot more to get a vehicle.”

The Biden administration’s push to get more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road as a means to reduce CO2 emissions and achieve long-term environmental benefits has received billions of dollars in funding. However, while EVs emit less carbon during their operational phase, their production process can be significantly carbon-intensive, as highlighted in a recent MIT study on the carbon footprint of electric cars compared to gas-powered vehicles.

“Producing electric vehicles leads to significantly more emissions than producing petrol cars. Depending on the country of production, that’s between 30% to 40% extra in production emissions, which is mostly from the battery production,” said Florian Knobloch, a fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance.

The MIT study revealed that building an EV, when factoring in the mining of minerals required for lithium-ion batteries, results in nearly double the carbon footprint of constructing a gas-powered car before either vehicle drives a single mile. Yet, once the tires hit the road, the emissions gap gradually diminishes.

Research by the Union of Concerned Scientists indicated that once EVs reach approximately 15,000 miles, their carbon footprint equals that of internal combustion engine vehicles.

Over the lifespan of a vehicle, typically around 200,000 miles, the carbon emissions from an electric option will be 52% lower than those from a gas-powered vehicle. Although, if the goal is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, as indicated by the White House, additional efforts are required to accelerate progress. A working group of 17 government agencies, chaired by presidential climate advisors to lead the Net-Zero Game Changers Initiative, has said that “success will require nearly complete transformation of today’s energy system” and that it will require “unprecedented effort, scale and creativity.”

As the energy grid becomes greener, with an increasing share of renewable sources such as solar and hydro power, the carbon reduction benefits of EVs are expected to grow further. Studies project that electric cars will generate over 75% fewer emissions per mile than their gas-powered counterparts as countries adopt cleaner energy alternatives.

“Currently, the electric vehicle in the U.S., on average, would emit about 200 grams of CO2 per mile,” Sergey Paltsev, a senior research scientist at the MIT Energy Initiative, said. “We are projecting that with cleaning up the grid, we can reduce emissions from electric vehicles by 75%, from about 200 (grams) today to about 50 grams of CO2 per mile in 2050.”

Nevertheless, challenges remain regarding the lifecycle of EV batteries. While driving an EV brings savings in emissions and fuel costs, the beginning and end of a car battery’s life present complex problems that have yet to be fully resolved. Recycling technologies for batteries are being developed globally, but profitability remains elusive, and many methods are energy-intensive.

The accumulation of dead car batteries necessitates recycling to prevent toxic materials from seeping into the environment at waste sites, as well as to reduce the costs associated with their initial production.

Extracting the materials for batteries, such as cobalt, also raises concerns beyond pollution, including human rights abuses, toxic waste and water depletion. The Democratic Republic of the Congo alone reportedly employs around 40,000 children in dangerous conditions to extract cobalt, a crucial component of battery cells. Similar violations have been found in mineral supply chains worldwide, with major car manufacturers like Toyota, General Motors and Tesla, among others, relying on these resources.

“The boom in electric vehicles sales should be an opportunity to pull Congo’s people out of poverty but the desperate accounts from workers at Congo’s cobalt mines tell a different story,” said Josué Kashal of CAJJ, a Congolese legal aid centre specializing in labor rights. “The switch to clean energy must be a just transition, not one built on the backs of exploited Congolese workers.”

Efforts to address these challenges are underway, with the European Union leading the charge. The EU has introduced legislation that, if globally adopted, could reduce annual demand for raw materials by over a quarter within the next 30 years through recycling. The proposed measures include increased transparency from EV manufacturers regarding material sourcing and the obligation for companies to mitigate social and environmental risks within their supply chains.

“The urgency of the climate crisis demands bold action from both industry and governments that sacrifice neither people nor the planet,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, executive director of the corporate watchdog Rights and Accountability in Development. “Producing truly ‘ethical’ batteries free from workers’ exploitation, human rights abuses and environmental harm, which contributes to a just transition and does not repeat the injustice of the fossil fuel based economy, is vital.” 

Generative artificial intelligence has exploded since ChatGPT hit the mainstream late last year. Five For Friday has covered the jobs AI could replace and even the ways it could be sued. But technology advancement has already graduated past theoretical applications. Here are the real-world businesses already using generative AI in this week’s Five For Friday. 

#5: Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes’ current voice assistant MBUX operates like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri. The inclusion of ChatGPT in 900,000 vehicles promises a more intuitive and natural conversation with your car.

The company says you can ask more complex questions. The voice assistant can give you information about your destination or even make restaurant suggestions for when you get there; anything to keep drivers from looking down at their cell phones while on the road. 

#4: Night Shift Brewing

Craft brewers spend countless hours coming up with interesting concoctions with equally quirky names. But the team at Night Shift Brewing just outside of Boston decided to outsource the process to readily-available AI. Apparently it’s becoming a trend in the industry.

The team used ChatGPT to come up with the name and formulate the recipe for a New England Hazy IPA. They also used Midjourney to design the label for AI-P-A. Humans were involved in the creation to make sure the robot brewers didn’t get too out of control. The brew has a rating above 3.5 on Untappd — not too bad considering how particular craft beer drinkers can be. 

#3: Wendy’s

Wendy’s says its drive-thru AI is so good, you might not be able to tell whether it’s a human or chatbot. The chain is testing out the chatbot, developed with Google, starting with one Columbus, Ohio-area restaurant this June.

The company took extra care to make sure it is as accurate as possible and can understand their customers’ complex orders. Wendy’s says it knows that if someone says, “JBC,” they mean a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, and that if someone asks for a milkshake, they’re looking for a Frosty. It will even upsell a customer before handing the order off to its human coworkers.

#2: Duolingo

Duolingo gamified learning a new language and adding GPT-4 to the mix is making it that much more robust.

Duolingo Max allows users to practice real-world conversations with the bot to boost their skills. You can practice making plans with friends or ordering a beverage at a cafe. The “Explain My Answer” feature helps you get to the bottom of why you may have gotten an answer wrong. For now, the feature is only available for those learning French or Spanish and IOS users. Again, the real people at Duolingo are behind the scenes making sure the bot is correct and isn’t too rude. 

#1: Live 95.5 FM

Portland Oregon’s Live 95.5 is breaking ground with the technology in the form of an AI DJ.

The station used RadioGPT to create a robot version of its very real radio personality Ashley Elzinga. AI Ashley sounds just like the real deal and can even talk with listeners. The station says the real Ashley’s job is safe and her salary will stay the same. If this sounds familiar, it’s because The Simpsons did it all the way back in 1994. 

As the federal government continues to deliberate on how to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), states are taking action. Here are some examples of bills and laws that states have introduced and passed to regulate AI.

Colorado

Colorado’s law, SB21-169, is called Protecting Consumers from Unfair Discrimination in Insurance Practices. The law, which took effect in 2021, prohibits insurance companies from using algorithms or predictive models that could unfairly discriminate against people based on their race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, or other factors.

The Colorado Division of Insurance is working on specific rules that insurance companies will need to follow to comply with the law.

California

California Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan has introduced a bill, AB 331, that would set some rules for anyone using automated tools to make “consequential decisions.”

According to the bill, “‘consequential decision’ means a decision or judgment that has a legal, material, or similarly significant effect on an individual’s life relating to the impact of, access to, or the cost, terms, or availability of” employment, education, housing, health care, the criminal justice system and more.

This bill would require companies to disclose when they’re using such tools, and it would require the companies to do annual impact assessments. The bill would also allow applicants and employees who believe they’ve been discriminated against to sue the company that used the algorithmic decision tool.

Connecticut

Connecticut’s governor recently signed SB 1103. The bill would require the state to take inventory of its AI tools and set policies for using them. It would also establish an AI task force to develop recommendations for an AI bill of rights.

Texas

There is a law in Texas called HB 2060. The bill would create an AI advisory council which would study AI and how the state government can use it.

The bill has passed the House and the Senate.

Illinois

Illinois has a law, HB 2557, called the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act. The law was enacted in 2020, and pertains to employers who use AI to analyze video job interviews.

Those employers have to tell applicants when they’re using such tools and how they work. They also have to get consent, and delete the videos within a month if the applicants ask them to. Maryland has passed a similar law.

The era of work-from-home is winding down for many. New York City offices just hit 50% occupancy for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Dreading those stale cubicle walls? Here are some of the coolest offices on the planet in this week’s Five For Friday.

5: Bahnhof

Swedish internet service provider Bahnhof repurposed a nuclear bunker for its Stockholm-based headquarters.

It took two years of blasting to hollow out the facility, which is located 100 feet under Vita Bergen Park. It needed the extra space to house the company’s data centers. Its CEO said he was hoping to replicate the vibe of the 1970s science fiction film Silent Running.

Imagine having a meeting in this floating glass conference room that looks like it was built for a James Bond villain. Talk about high stakes.

4: T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Washington, headquarters looks more like a trendy up-and-coming neighborhood than the home of the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier.

Outdoor space is paramount to keeping talent happy and T-Mobile has tons of it to be utilized (when it’s not raining). The office features a refurbished Airstream offering frozen yogurt, a coffee shop, and even a dry cleaner in case employees need to take care of that errand while on the job.

All of the amenities are clad in the company’s trademark “New Magenta.”

3: Inventionland

Pittsburgh-based incubator Inventionland knows its artists need inspiration and hopes its lab can do the trick. The artists work with inventors to develop and market products for a fee.

The Inventionland office includes 16 themed areas including a pet shack, a pirate ship and a castle. It also hosts tours for tens of thousands of aspiring creators every year. The product list on the website doesn’t scream million-dollar deals featured on Shark Tank, but this spout could help you have milk every day.

2: Lego

Lego is known for making some of the world’s most iconic toys, so its campus has to be blast. It officially opened its new headquarters in Billund, Denmark, last year.

It features wall-to-wall bricks and is designed so no one could be confused about what makes up its business. Lego’s People House allows builders to relax and recharge in its workshop and fitness studio. It even includes a homestay for visiting employees. The company also focused on sustainability: All of the outdoor furniture is made from recycled Lego bricks.

The new digs must be working: Lego increased its revenue by 17% in 2022 and the product is also a pretty good investment.

1: Bark

At Bark’s Columbus, Ohio-area offices, every day is bring your dog to work day. In fact, they say there are as many as 50 furry friends in the facility on any given day.

The pet toy market is expected to nearly double by 2032 so the BarkBox maker will need the space. The office has a work-and-play lounge with ramps for the pups to run on, an amenity bar with nooks where your pal can curl up with you while you work, and all the toys they can handle. Everything is made of durable dog-friendly materials for longevity and safety.

A concerted effort to increase the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States is positioned as a significant driving force behind the nation’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. To support this clean transportation initiative, the Biden administration has allocated over $24 billion. However, as the funding for EV proliferation grows, so does the demand for nickel, a crucial component of the batteries these vehicles utilize.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk emphasized the need for increased nickel mining during a 2020 earnings call, calling on “any mining companies out there” to “please mine more nickel.”

The global surge in nickel demand has led to a more environmentally harmful extraction process, with China seizing the opportunity to expand its mining efforts for this increasingly valuable metal.

“If you look at some of the predictions that the World Bank, the International Energy Agency have put out there, then there’s no way we can even move towards carbon neutrality without mining a heck of a lot of stuff,” said Simon Jowitt, an economic geologist and assistant professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, of this ongoing predicament surrounding nickel. 

Multiple Chinese companies have made substantial investments in Indonesia, a country that while rich in nickel, possesses a lower-quality grade of the metal than that found in other regions.

Indonesian mining companies were eager to welcome Chinese assistance due to a 2020 policy that banned the export of raw nickel and required domestic processing. Collaborations with Chinese companies have allowed Indonesian mining groups to convert their nickel into EV battery materials using a process known as high-pressure acid leach (HPAL).

Consequently, Indonesia has experienced a sharp increase in nickel production for electric vehicles.

According to the CRU Group, a commodities business intelligence firm, Indonesia accounted for zero to 5% of all nickel used for EV batteries in 2017, just before the announcement of the first Chinese HPAL plant. Fast forward to 2022, and that percentage has surged to around half of all EV battery nickel used worldwide, as CRU projects that this percentage could exceed 80% by 2027.

Although this trend has facilitated the production of more electric vehicles, the HPAL process raises serious environmental concerns. It involves dousing nickel ore in sulfuric acid and subjecting it to extreme pressures at temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Producing nickel through this method is nearly twice as carbon-intensive as mining and processing nickel elsewhere. HPAL facilities, which utilize coal-powered furnaces, can be six times as carbon-intensive, according to the International Energy Agency.

“Mining is critical to the just transition towards carbon neutral economies, but we can’t be complicit to the exploitative ways that natural resources are being extracted within vulnerable nations,” said Angela Asuncion, a researcher at University of Guelph who studies the impact of mining on the Global South.

Additionally, Indonesia has passed laws allowing companies to obtain permits to discard mineral processing waste into the ocean due to the difficulties of safely sequestering hazardous materials on land amid the country’s frequent heavy rains.

Environmentalists have campaigned against these practices, as some groups have urged Tesla to terminate its investment plans in Indonesia’s nickel industry, citing concerns over deforestation, pollution of water bodies, and disruption to the livelihoods of indigenous people as a result of nickel mining.

“Our deep concern is based on evidence and studies that demonstrate that the nickel industry and its supply chain have caused systemic, large-scale environmental damage, a rise of criminalization threats against indigenous communities and the environmental defenders protecting their lands from nickel mines, triggered harmful impacts on vulnerable groups such as women, and the violations of law that are perpetrated by the upstream and downstream actors of the nickel industry,” representatives from The Indonesian Forum For Environment wrote in a letter to Tesla shareholders.

These concerns have all prompted Indonesia to promise increased oversight and the establishment of military and police posts near nickel industry operations in an attempt to ensure accountability. Indonesian officials have also ordered companies to manage nurseries to reforest depleted mines and given existing facilities using coal power deadlines to change their energy sources into renewables.

“The most important thing is monitoring. The management control system must be strengthened,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said of the country’s nickel mining industry. “Routine evaluations must be conducted.”

However, despite the country’s response, concerns persist regarding China’s involvement in a significant and growing percentage of the world’s EV nickel production. In total, China controls 61% of the total national nickel production in Indonesia, while state-owned enterprises only control about 5%, according to Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies.

“We can see that the energy transition depends on batteries, batteries depend on nickel and nickel growth depends on Indonesia,” Steven Brown, an independent nickel consultant, said. “However, the ESG risk in Indonesia is perceived to be higher than in other places around the world.”

As China continues to employ environmentally harmful tactics to extract nickel in Indonesia, questions arise about whether EVs are genuinely more eco-friendly than gas-powered vehicles, considering the environmental impact of their production. Part two of this Straight Arrow News series addressing the issue will further examine these concerns and the impact of nickel mining on EVs’ environmental footprint.