April- Tech, Events and Enlightenment!

#INTRO

-Deba

Before the month started, we already had plans mapped out. This meant that we as a community expected the month to be a very busy one. And just as we had envisioned, the month presented a lot of vigor and excitement. In this edition, RADAR would highlight all of these events as well as the groundbreaking achievements we accomplished.

And of course we’d start with ORBIT😏

In April, humans were going back around the Moon🚀

NASA successfully launched Artemis II on April 1, sending four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon. It was the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years since Apollo 17.

"While we were in our own orbit at Babcock, four astronauts were doing it for real."

Jump in to our recap with us, explore our Orbit and learn a lot more about things you probably had no idea about before now. Welcome to April’s edition of RADAR

#Progress… But At What Cost?

-Blossom

Two things AI is doing that nobody's having an honest conversation about.

Let's be real for a second.

We talk about AI like we have it figured out. Like it's just a tool—a calculator that learned to write essays. We share the outputs, laugh at the hallucinations, use them to fix code at 2 am, and move on.

But here's what nobody's really saying out loud: the people who built it don't fully understand how it works either.

Nobody Who Built AI Fully Understands It

That's not a conspiracy theory. That's a published research problem.

The term is "interpretability". It is the science of understanding why an AI model makes the decisions it makes. And right now, it is still an open, unfinished field. A large language model learns from hundreds of billions of data points, produces outputs that can be shockingly accurate, and does so through a process that even its own engineers cannot fully trace or audit.

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the literal godfathers of deep learning, a Turing Award winner, left Google in 2023 specifically so he could speak freely about how much this concerns him. Not because AI is stealing jobs, but because we are already deploying something we don't fully understand into decisions that matter. Healthcare diagnostics. Legal research. Educational tools. Credit scoring.

A 2024 study from MIT and Stanford found that AI-assisted doctors in certain diagnostic workflows were 19% more likely to miss rare conditions than those working without AI. This is not because the AI was wrong, but because doctors began deferring to it rather than thinking independently. The tool became the crutch.

The gap between “it works” and “we know why it works” is larger than most people are comfortable admitting.

We built the plane. We're flying it. We're still writing the manual mid-air.

AI Is Learning to Feel (And We're Letting It)

Now here's the second thing. And this one is quieter, but somehow, it hits different.

Millions of people are forming emotional attachments to AI chatbots. Not just using them. Bonding with them. Telling them things they'd never say to a friend. Logging on daily. Some, more than once an hour.

As of 2024, Replika reported over 10 million registered users. Character.AI crossed 20 million monthly active users, with average session times longer than TikTok. These aren't utility apps. They're the emotional infrastructure for millions of people.

Apps like these were designed around engagement, which in practice means they optimize for attachment. The warmer the AI, the longer you stay. And the longer you stay, the better the numbers look on a dashboard somewhere.

It feels good in the short run. The AI is patient, always available, never dismissive. And for someone going through loneliness, grief, and anxiety, that could be very genuinely soothing.

But a 2023 peer-reviewed study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that users who relied heavily on AI companions over 6 months reported increased social anxiety and decreased relationship satisfaction compared to control groups. The ease of talking to something that never misunderstands you quietly makes human relationships feel harder, messier, and less worth the effort.

One researcher described it as junk food for the soul. Satisfying in the moment, yet quietly depleting over time.

The apps know this. They're just not measuring it.

So What Are We Actually Saying?

Here's the thread tying both of these together:

We are at a moment where the technology is moving faster than our understanding of it and faster than our honesty about what it's doing to us. Not because the people building it are evil, but because "it works" tends to beat “but what does it cost" when there's a product to ship and metrics to hit.

Progress is real. The breakthroughs are real. The potential is genuinely extraordinary.

But so is the cost. And right now, most of us are paying for it without even realizing we signed up.

Thoughts? Drop them in the comments. Or don't— we know you'll probably ask your AI first.

#

#Jerusalem's Most Chaotic Weekend: A MessiahTimesTV Easter Report

-Tayo

We’re coming to you live from outside the inn said to host Jesus of Nazareth and his followers. Well, folks, this is sure to be a treat! Many believe this Jesus to be the prophesied Messiah! This religious figure has definitely caused much unrest in Capernaum, across Palestine, and even in Samaria and Gentile lands! Invoking the title “Son of God,” he has made friends and foes alike throughout his ministry. The night certainly promises to be eventful, especially after Jesus’ “glorious” entry into Jerusalem just the other morning! Trust MessiahTimesTV to get you all deets on everything!

Oh! Breaking news, ladies and gentlemen. We just received intel from the inn that there’s been some commotion at the supper! It is believed that Jesus said one of His 12 followers would betray him! Oh! One of his followers is approaching now. Excuse me!

You are Judas Iscariot! A follower of Jesus! Is that right?

JUDAS: Ehen. And so?

Ahh, so why are you leaving supper so early? It doesn’t seem to be over.

JUDAS: Mechie onu! Wetin dey worry you sef? You just approach me open your mouth wah! Commot abeg! All of una just wan vex me.

Oh! Alright… It seems the supper is setting tempers ablaze. Judas just stormed off, like a man after money. Anyways folks, new intel says Jesus has been predicting the future. He says, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” We don’t know what He means by this, folks. Apparently, neither do His disciples!

Oh my! It’s Jesus and his followers. Jesus! Over here! Spare a few words for the viewers!

JESUS: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
So make una chill…

I don’t know what He meant. I don’t know if you did, folks. But I believe I heard a disciple say they’d be crossing the Kidron Valley toward a garden. We’ll be taking a little break, but stay tuned because we will be right back!

~~

Breaking News, Ladies and gentlemen! Jesus of Nazareth was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane! The prophesied traitor was none other than Judas Iscariot! He allegedly sold his master for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave! We’re told he's currently at the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest. We’re on our way there now. Trust we’d keep you updated!

~~

Outside the house of Annas right now, and boy! You can really feel the tension tonight. There are a bunch of his workers by a fire right now. We’re heading over to interview… wait! A disciple is there!

Excuse me! You’re Simon Peter, a follower of Jesus, yes?

SIMON PETER: Jesus? Who be dat? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Oh, come off it, sir. We saw you at the inn moments ago! It’s definitely you!

SIMON PETER: It’s like you’re not understanding the words coming out of my mouth, abi? I said I no know the guy!

Ahan! But we saw you nau! They even said you cut off a Roman soldier’s ear when they arrested Jesus…

SIMON PETER: SHUT UP! You dey ment!? You wan make I change am for you abi? Kini gbogbo rada rada bai? I DON’T KNOW THE GUY!

*kukuruku*

CAMERAMAN: Una dey rear foul for here?

Oh! Well, folks, it seems the man has gone off crying… We’re waiting outside the house to see what will be done to Jesus; hopefully, we’ll get a chance to interview… Oh! Jesus! Over here! Can you tell us what’s happening to you? Why were you arrested? What will become of you!?

JESUS: My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest. But now my kingdom is from another place. You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.

Well… the Man is definitely known for speaking in riddles. Oh! New intel folks! Jesus is being escorted to see Pontius Pilate! It seems to me that the religious leaders are seeking a gruesome verdict for this so-called Messiah. While we await more information on Jesus, our reporters are on the trail of some of the disciples at this very moment! We’ll be switching transmission so you can hear their perspective on matters. Stay with us!

~~

REPORTER: Stop running away, please! We just want a few words on the arrest…

SIMON THE ZEALOT: Leave me jare!! This one no be press matter abeg. *runs faster than flash*

~~

REPORTER: So Matthew, what happens now?

MATTHEW: abeg abeg don't ask me ohh...go find Peter ask am make I find where to hide before that one comot my ear too.
~~

Well, folks… emotions are definitely high right now. If you’re a friend of any of Jesus’ disciples, now would be a good time to check in, especially for Matthew. We’re currently waiting for the verdict that Pilate will pass. It is Passover, and it is customary for a prisoner to be released by Rome. Perhaps Jesus would be set free. We’re off on another break now, but don’t go anywhere! We’ll be right back!

~~

Ladies and Gentlemen, customs were fulfilled, and a prisoner was released, but not the prisoner we were expecting. The crowd present chanted for Barrabas, a renowned murderer and thief, to be released while Jesus remains in custody. Our source says even Pilate could find no reason to condemn Jesus. He even tried many times to set Jesus free, but to no avail, as the religious leaders were unyielding in their efforts. They are currently pushing for Jesus to be crucified. We’re outside Pilates’ palace right now, awaiting his judgement.

Oh! Pilate is on the balcony right now! He seems to be… washing his hands?

PONTIUS PILATE: Crucify Him.

Oh my goodness! Jesus of Nazareth is to be crucified and put to death! Emotions are certainly at their peak right now. We can hear cheers and laughter as well as the wails of his followers. The scene is quite charged at the moment, so we will return to you at the scene of the crucifixion. Stay tuned, folks!

~~

Good morning, folks. I’m so sorry for the lack of transmission at the crucifixion scene. It was… a very… uh… We weren’t sure if it’d be… respectful to transmit. You see, Jesus of Nazareth endured quite a lot on Friday. We couldn’t transmit on Saturday because of Shabbat, so I’ll be giving you an overview of the events.

We’ve been informed that Jesus was whipped brutally while He was in custody and stripped of His clothing. When we saw him again, He looked… unrecognizable. It was hard to tell if He was male or female. And He was made to carry His cross up Golgotha. Fortunately, an African man stepped in to help when He couldn’t anymore.

The scene is a gruesome one to recollect, so I will spare our young viewers from too many details. You see, when He was nailed, it severed the muscles connecting His wrists to His body. So on the cross, He would have to push up on the nail in His feet just to breathe because of how scrunched up and twisted He was.

His female followers and mother were at the scene, as well as a disciple named John. Now we didn’t record footage, but we did record the audio of our interactions. We had a brief one with John. I’ll put that on now.

~~


REPORTER: What is going through your mind right now? Seeing your Master like this must be hard for you.

JOHN: Omo. As I dey talk to you so.. everywhere just dey blur. Wetin my eyes don see, my mouth no fit talk.

REPORTER: If Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, why doesn’t He save Himself?

JOHN: thank you o. Na wetin we dey tell him so. But he no wan gree… He doesn’t want to.

~~

Now, just before Jesus died, He uttered the haunting words, “It is finished.” Immediately after this, there was a massive earthquake, and the sky turned pitch black! We were scrambling to get to safety and got separated. Then one of us had an experience he would’ve thought was a fever dream if it wasn’t accidentally recorded. Switching transmission now.

~~

REPORTER: Where did the others go? I should wait by this tomb until things calm down… AH!

*ground rumbles*
*tombstone splits in two*

VOICE FROM TOMB: Hello? Is anyone there?

REPORTER: *runs for his life* *faints after seeing a body walk out of the tomb*

~~

We’ve been told dead bodies were raised all over Israel. A source in the temple also informed us that the veil demarcating the Holy of Holies was supernaturally split in two that night as well. With all these occurrences, one can only wonder if Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and what His death means for all of us. We’ll be at Simon Peter’s house soon to get their perspective on recent developments. Stay with us!

~~

Hello, folks! We’re outside Simon Peter’s house right now. There seems to be some commotion on the inside, so we’ll go take a look and… JESUS! HE… HE’S ALIVE!

CAMERAMAN: No way…

JESUS: Yah-weh.

MARY MAGDALENE: Shebi I said it

THOMAS: As how?! Mbanu! It’s not possible. Person wey talk “it is finished” for cross. Wetin he dey find again?

JESUS: Haba! Thomas, na so your faith no strong reach? Oya see my hands, come and touch them.

THOMAS: (faints)

Omo! This development is proof! Jesus is! He’s the Son of God! The man is alive, for goodness sake! And we watched Him die! I watched Him die! They even pierced the guy to make sure blood no dey again! Why am I even talking to you people!? I’m off to surrender my life oo abeg. Bye guys!

~~~~

Happy Easter to all our readers. While crafting this piece, we came across a beautiful chapter that we believe would do us all some good to read.


John 17:1-26 (NIV) - Jesus’ prayer for us | YouVersion

#From Ground Control to ORBIT

The Vision, Pressure, and Purpose Behind ORBIT 1.0: a conversation with the brain behind ORBIT 1.0

-Tejiri

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." — Isaac Newton.

As students at Babcock University, we can all agree on one fundamental truth about our existence here: we are, at the end of the day, students at Babcock University. That's it. That's the whole sentence. We show up to lectures, we absorb theory, and we go home. Then the cycle repeats. And for most of us, the gap between what we learn inside a classroom and what the real world of tech actually looks and feels like remains exactly that—a gap.

Because here's the thing about the tech industry: it does not wait. It does not pause its evolution while you finish your coursework. Frameworks change, tools become obsolete, new roles get created, renamed, and disrupted before some of us have even declared a niche we’d like to belong to. In a world moving that fast, head knowledge alone is roughly as useful as the wooden cutlery fast food restaurants now distribute for some reason.

Then came one particular evening.

Fresh off attending GDG Lagos DevFest—one of the biggest developer gatherings in the country, a certain organizer found himself in the kind of deep, restless thought that only hits you when you've just experienced something incredible and immediately thought of everyone back home who couldn't be there. The gap wasn't abstract anymore. It was glaring. And then, a simple idea formed: “If most students can't make it to DevFest Lagos, why not bring it to them?”

What followed was a slightly chaotic, entirely electric quest to do exactly that.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen or heard something about ORBIT 1.0 by now. It's been about three weeks since we entered orbit, and the only way I can describe the experience is: out of this world. Yes, that's a space pun. There will be more, so buckle up!

ORBIT was never just another campus event dressed up in a nice flyer. Although I think we can all agree that each ORBIT 1.0 flyer that was released was an absolute banger (Shout out to Xavier, Deola and Bassey!) It wasn't about that temporary motivational high that evaporates approximately forty-eight hours after the closing remarks, or about giving students something polished to drop on their LinkedIn profiles, or even—and I say this with love- about the merch. For the record, the ORBIT merch was some of the finest I have ever seen on this campus. Am I being biased? Perhaps. But see for yourself…

Anyways, what ORBIT 1.0 actually did was pull over 300 students into a full-day conference, send 70 of them through the doors of major Lagos tech companies for real office visits, and drew more than 1,000 people to a career fair all across three days, on and off Babcock's campus. In the span of a long weekend, something that had never quite existed here before suddenly did.

I could walk you through how all of it came together. I was there after all as one of the organizers, behind the scenes, watching the pieces click into place one stressful, thrilling day at a time. But this story isn't mine to tell.

It belongs to the person who first saw the gap, dreamed up the bridge, and then actually built it—GDG Organizer, the man, the myth, the legend (his words, not mine): Chukwuneku.

Ahead, RADAR sits down with Neku to talk about the idea that started it all, what was really happening behind the scenes while you were busy enjoying the panels and refreshments, and how it feels now that the rocket has landed.

Every powerful name has a story. What's ORBIT's?

It started at DevFest Lagos, around November of last year. Neku and a few friends from the GDG family made it out, but only for the last two days. Exams, logistics, and accommodation for students who don't live in Lagos. The barriers were real and familiar. But DevFest itself was something else entirely, and on the ride back, one question wouldn't leave him alone: “If the students can't come to the event, why not bring the event to the students?”

The concept was clear. The name, less so. They couldn't call it DevFest because that license belongs to the larger GDG chapter. So, the team went back and forth. Axis. Nexus. Canvas (I know, right, very questionable names) was all considered, none quite right.

"In the end, we settled on ORBIT," he says, "which basically signified pulling opportunities into our campus." The name had weight. More importantly, it had longevity. They wanted to start a tradition, something that would outlast them.

He pauses, then adds: "The initial theme was actually Gravity. I'm lowkey glad we moved away from that. Reading it now sounds…" He trails off.

"Corny."

Was there a version of ORBIT that almost happened but didn't?

The original plan was five days.

"I wonder what we were thinking," Neku says, with the tone of a man gently roasting his past self. GDG On Campus has no authority to clear anyone's timetable. When Student Activities came back with the reality check of three days, take it or leave it, the team tore the program apart and rebuilt it from scratch. Every session had to earn its place. Every hour had to pull its weight.

What survived the restructure was ORBIT as you experienced it, plus a virtual hackathon that was meant to round out the week. That part didn't make it this time, for reasons largely out of the team's control.

"Definitely next time," Neku says. And the way he says it, it sounds like a promise already being planned.

How did you think of the event itinerary? What was the idea behind each day?

Every piece of ORBIT was architected with a specific purpose. Nothing was filler.

The hackathon was a talent pipeline. "In my first year, one of the winners of the Cavista hackathon was offered a placement," he says. That memory stuck. Companies identify the best students in a live, high-pressure environment. Students showcase skills a CV can't capture, and someone walks away with more than a certificate.

The conference brought the industry directly to students. Professionals who had navigated the exact crossroads most Babcock students are currently standing at, are now on a stage, making the path a little clearer. Inspiration, yes, but also practical clarity on the many fields tech students might want to venture into, and the chance to network with the people already in them.

The career fair was the most immediately practical; targeted at final-year students staring down graduation and students hunting for internship placements. No middlemen. Just companies and students in the same room having real conversations.

And then there was the field trip; seventy students inside actual Lagos tech offices, seeing how companies started, grew, and survived. "Especially useful for students who want to found startups," Neku says. But more than that, it was a chance for students who had been within Babcock's gates for months to simply look up and see the world they were building toward.

What kept you up at night the most, and how did you communicate the vision to the team?

“The approval from Student Activities came late, and until it did, we couldn't reach out to anyone. When it finally came through in late January, we were already behind, and what followed was months of letters to companies, pitches to speakers, follow-ups to follow-ups”. Neku recalls.

"We reached out to no fewer than 200 companies," he says, "and that's even underselling it." Many said the event was too close. Many didn't reply at all.

Meanwhile, he had classes at 7 am. "If I told you I knew what was going on in them, I'd be lying." And then, in what he now acknowledges was spectacularly ill-timed, he stopped going to the caf sometime in early March. "Terrible choice of side quest timing, by the way. Would not recommend." Underfed, underslept, yet still showing up. He lasted a week before the experiment had to be abandoned.

Getting the team aligned was its own challenge. In the early stages, it was three, maybe four people trying to move a mountain. Then came a particular meeting. A disagreement. The kind of moment where things either collapse or something shifts.

But something shifted. "It was sort of a blessing in disguise," he says. "It went up from there."

"So yay," he adds. It lands exactly like he means it to.

With something this big, there are a hundred directions you could go. How did you decide what ORBIT should and shouldn't be?

Two words: continuity and reproducibility.

ORBIT was never meant to be a moment. It was meant to be a model, something the next set of organizers could pick up, learn from, and build higher than before. Every decision was filtered through that lens. Does this work this year? But can this work again?

"We want to make sure the next generation doesn't face the same problems," he says, while reaching for a Newton quote almost naturally: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

The goal was to become the shoulder. To make ORBIT 2.0's organizers taller than ORBIT 1.0's ever got to be. The mistakes have already been made, and the hard lessons have already been paid for.

Was there a moment where it hit you—"Wow. We really did this?"

It didn't come from the stage or the numbers or the crowd. It came from his phone.

During the field trip, Neku got a text. Then another. Students reaching out unprompted, privately, just to say thank you. The kind you type out on your own because something actually moved you and you need someone to know.

"It hit me like—this is what ORBIT was for," he says.

The text messages from students who had spent a day inside a real company and felt, maybe for the first time, like the world they were studying toward was real and reachable.

That was the whole point.

Walk me through what planning actually looked like behind the scenes.

Unglamorous. Letter writing. Venue approvals. Calls that went nowhere. Emails that got ghosted. The formal approach was doing what formal approaches often do for student-run organizations: not enough, not fast enough.

So as the event drew closer, the team made a pivot.

I ask him to elaborate. He smiles.

"Nepotism."

He clarifies before I can react: “to get sponsors”. Not the eyebrow-raising kind, but the kind that just means knowing people, calling in favors, leaning on relationships that existed before any of this started. A door that had been closed to a cold email swung open for a warm introduction.

"Behind all the hard work," he says, almost gleefully, "the cherry on top was the nepotism that put everything together."

One of the oldest networking lessons in existence—delivered, appropriately, by the organizer of a networking event.

Now that it's over, what do you think ORBIT truly became?

He doesn't hesitate. "The groundwork."

Not a highlight or a milestone to frame and occasionally point at with pride. The groundwork. As in: “the thing everything else gets built on top of” he says.

"It's not just something to look back on and say that was cool," he says. "ORBIT is here to stay." It proved that a student-run organization at Babcock could pull 300 people into a conference, send 70 into real Lagos tech offices, and draw over a thousand to a career fair. It proved the appetite was there. And in doing that, it created something that didn't exist before it: a precedent.

"There are opportunities that will arise for GDG, for students here, and for Babcock as a whole because ORBIT happened and proved that it could."

Now that it's done, what does ORBIT mean to you personally?

He thinks about it for a moment. Just enough to make sure he means what he's about to say.

"That it's possible."

For GDG and for Babcock. That the thing a handful of sleep-deprived students dreamed up after a DevFest they could only attend for two days could actually become something real. Something that moved people enough to send a thank you text from a field trip.

"A lot of people didn't know what to expect from us," he says. "Now they do."

He says with a quiet, settled satisfaction of someone who carried a vision through every obstacle and came out the other side with something to show for it.

Neku and I wrap up the way most good conversations do. Not with a clean ending, but with the sense that there's still more that could be said. He has places to be, and so do I. ORBIT, after all, set a lot of things in motion.

What strikes me most, sitting with everything he's shared, isn't the scale of what ORBIT became. It's the stubbornness of the idea at the beginning. The refusal, by a small group of people with no guarantee of anything, to let the gap between what Babcock students had access to and what they deserved just quietly remain a gap.

They didn't wait for permission to build something meaningful. They wrote letters, made calls, lost sleep, leaned on the right people, and even argued in a meeting and came out more aligned than before. And then, on a perfectly ordinary stretch of days on and off this campus, they pulled an industry into ORBIT around a student community that had always deserved that kind of GRAVITY (get what I did there? If you didn’t, go back and read it.)

They also brought major big names like Moniepoint, Paystack, Risevest, Digital Encode, AICL Education, NitHub, and the likes into the ORBIT of Babcock students.

ORBIT 1.0 is over. The merch has been worn, the LinkedIn posts have been made, the thank you texts have been sent and received.

But the thing that clearly matters most to Neku isn't any of that. It's the next organizer. The next team. The next person with a wild, slightly unrealistic idea about what's possible here, who needs to know, before they even begin, that it can be done.

It can.

ORBIT proved it.

And if you know Neku at all, ORBIT 2.0 is probably already being planned.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Read all about what went down at every ORBIT 1.0 event in our X article series here:

https://x.com/gdgbabcock/status/2040865403044249787 - DAY 1

https://x.com/gdgbabcock/status/2043021118169096534 - DAY 2

https://x.com/GDGBabcock/status/2045455260420813225 - DAY 3

Toodles <3

#The Power Shift: Who’s Really In Control

-Ayo

It’s me again.
While drafting out this piece, I was at a block, a crippling one. Would bedrot for hours on end after getting back from work and just stare at the blank page. And no, I didn’t get any spark or just have a lit bulb over my head— this was forced out through…

(Deba threatened me)

From the topic, your mind should cycle through a plethora of topics—emerging technologies, data privacy for one, and don’t tell me you believe it’s ‘end-to-end encrypted—’cause it isn’t, climate change, the next ‘oil boom’, the conflict between decentralization and traditional systems, arsenal or city (they’re gonna bottle), freedom of speech against content regulation, or just plain geopolitical dominance and global order.

And you wouldn’t be wrong.

For this article, though, what we’re going to touch on is:

Big Tech Is Going Nuclear To Power AI

Just to provide context before diving in,

Climate change.

It has been a discussion since the 1800s, the period of the First Industrial Revolution; a span in time that was characterised by the transition from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system.

And for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

The Industrial Revolution has long been criticized for leading to immense ecological and habitat destruction. It has led to an immense decrease in the biodiversity of life on Earth, and has been historically debated to be inherently unsustainable, eventually leading to the collapse of society, mass hunger, starvation, and scarcity of resources.

So that you understand that the topics of ecosystem collapse, environmental harm, and destruction on a planetary scale didn’t just rise. These concerns have existed for at least centuries, and have only gotten exacerbated in recent times.

Lore drop.
Remember Roxxon Corp. From Marvel?

Big bad guys that function as a conglomerate and have all this money and influence, they were modeled after Exxon, an oil and gas corporation.


In 2015, investigative journalists uncovered evidence that their executives had known as early as the late 1970s that burning fossil fuels would raise global temperatures and that by the 1980s, the oil giant knew that the continued use of their products could have "potentially catastrophic" effects.

In 2023, Harvard researchers published a new report revealing that Exxon predicted the exact amount of global warming we're now experiencing with remarkable accuracy. Subsequent reporting revealed that the oil and gas industry likely knew about these risks as early as the 1950s.

The duality of man, am I right?

If you want to read the whole thing, check out https://exxonknew.org/

Now, you’d ask.

How does this whole thing relate to AI as an emerging technology and the infrastructure built around it?

An AI data centre is a specialized facility designed for the computationally intensive tasks of training and running inference for artificial intelligence and machine learning models, with central issues being the energy consumption and the potential environmental impact it contributes to.

Now I want you to understand, traditional data centres being at the middle of environmental controversies has always been a thing. After all, there are other niches it caters to—social media platforms, cloud computing, healthcare, e-commerce, and almost any other you could think of.

In the case of artificial intelligence, however, it is becoming even more worrying due to the:

Scale at which they are being built,
The speed at which more and more AI data centres are popping up,
And the perceived value of why so many have to be built.

So basically, these centres are being built at a rate and pace faster than can be comfortably adjusted to, diminishing the ability to completely factor in renewable energy sources and instead focus on fossil fuels as a primary component for power generation.

To get a more precise picture,

Yes.
Cement.

Then if we’re speaking logically, AI data centres today barely even crack the top 10—oh, and I accept arguments, mail me at aesir913@gmail.com

Where it does get scary is when you try to project 5-10 years into the future and begin to weigh the costs.

Or when we look at the water consumption, cause that’s where it gets monstrous.

“A 2024 report from the United States Department of Energy stated that data centers overall used 17 billion gallons of water per year in the United States, primarily due to ‘rapid proliferation of AI servers’, and that this usage was forecasted to grow to nearly 80 billion gallons by 2028. Researchers estimated that AI data centers in the United States would emit 24-44 metric tons of carbon dioxide and use 731–1,125 million cubic meters of water per year between 2024 and 2030.”

(Wikipedia)

“Larger centers can consume up to 5 million gallons (18.9 million liters) a day, according to an article from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. That’s roughly the same as the daily water demand for a town of up to 50,000 people.”

(AP News)

So I don’t go completely down the rabbit hole, take some of the work—here’s a 24-minute video on the water use of AI data centres.

#Choosing Your GDG Track: A Beginner’s Guide

-Tami

Getting started in tech can feel very overwhelming, especially when you’re faced with multiple paths and you’re unsure which one fits you best or which would pay more. 8 out of 10 tech bros or sisses have felt this way, and they are probably still unsure of what the future holds for their tech path, but it all starts from somewhere, and for you, let it start with GDG!

At GDG, we care about you, so we have organized four major tracks to help you focus, grow, and rub minds with fellow tech bros and sisses— and who knows, maybe you’d find the love of your life along the way. This guide will shed light on our tracks and convince you, and not confuse you, on which track you should join and where you’d feel like you belong.

1. Software Development and Engineering

Let’s talk about the track that everybody new to tech thinks that it’s all about the tech space, which is a lie. Software devs are always aura farming, “I’m a dev.” You can be like them too, and aura farm if you’re interested in exploring this track. Stay with me.

Let me break down the sub-tracks we have:

• Frontend Development: This deals with creating user interfaces, creating what users see and interact with. Everything you see, “oh, this website is so cool, the UI is clean and fine”, that is what this track is about.
• Backend Systems: This deals with handling servers, application logic, and ensuring no loopholes in the application. Backend devs work behind the scenes to ensure everything works well on the frontend.
• Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA): This deals with solving problems efficiently and improving coding skills.
• Quality Assurance: This deals with testing applications to ensure they work correctly and ensuring there are no issues with the application; they also weigh the quality of applications.
• Mobile Development: This deals with building apps for mobile devices (Android and iOS devices). Those bank apps, games, and the rest you have on your phones are built by mobile devs.

If you enjoy building things, solving problems, breaking things and fixing them, or turning ideas into real projects that can tackle real issues in the world, you should really consider exploring and joining this track.

Be ready to get frustrated and to debug codes where the issue is one single character, such as a semicolon, but hey, it adds to character development.

2. Data & AI

Data and AI is a very wonderful space that is constantly evolving, and for some reason, people neglect and feel it’s not worth exploring, but omo there is a lot of money and potential in this space, hear me out.

Let me break down the sub-tracks we have:

• Data Science: This deals with analyzing and interpreting complex data to find patterns and drive insights.
• Data Engineering: This deals with building systems that collect, store, and process data efficiently.
• Data Analytics: This deals with using tools to clean, analyze, and visualize data for decision-making.
• Machine Learning: This deals with creating and training models that learn from data and make predictions.

If you, as a person, enjoy working with numbers, spotting trends, or asking “why and how did this happen?”, this track might just be the perfect fit for you.

One thing I love personally about this space is that you can always transition because all paths are intertwined, yet have distinct characteristics.

3. Infrastructure & Security

This track focuses on and deals with how systems run, communicate, stay secure, cloud infrastructure, and blockchain technology.

This is another wonderful track brought to you by GDG. Once again, let’s dive into the available sub-tracks.

Breaking them down, we have:

• Networking: This deals with understanding how devices and systems connect and communicate. Everything is built on the OSI and TCP/IP model.
• Web3 & Blockchain: This deals with exploring decentralized systems and digital assets. This is for my crypto gurus.
• Cybersecurity: This deals with protecting systems, data, and users from cyber threats.

If you’re curious about how things work behind the scenes, how to protect people from attacks and vulnerabilities, how coins work in the blockchain, and how it relates to tech. Also, if you’re the type who wants to understand how to hack (legally, please), then this track is for you, and it would be worth your time.

4. Design & Management

This track is my personal fav because art and creativity are beautiful and should be adored. This track focuses on a blend of art, creativity, design, and tech, all in one.

Let’s dive into it’s creative sub-tracks:

• Product Design: This deals with designing user-friendly and visually captivating interfaces for products.
• Product Management: This deals with planning, scheduling, and managing products from ideation to launch.
• Games & Interactive Media: This deals with creating engaging digital experiences for users through gaming.
• 2D Animation: This deals with bringing ideas to life in a 2-dimensional manner through motion and storytelling.

If you enjoy creativity, art, storytelling, designing, and management, this would be a wonderful track for you.

Still don’t know where to start? I’d give you tips on how to figure out your starting point, and don’t worry, you are not alone. Many people don’t know where to start from, and that’s completely okay, which is why this piece was brought to life (GDG Radar is always here for you!)

Firstly, identify what you enjoy doing; careers should be born from your passion and what you really enjoy. We should break the African cycle of picking career paths just because of our parents.

Secondly, how do you think? How do you reason? Is it analytical, logical, curious, or creative?

Thirdly, what type of problems excite you and the approach you would love to tackle problems?

After you answer these questions, take the mini quiz provided below to know the track meant for you!

You should start your tech journey with GDG, and who knows, you could be a part of the Core Team that makes all this possible. We can’t be GDG without you. Join a track, stay consistent, start learning, and watch how your tech journey transforms.

And beyond the learning, GDG Babcock provides an essential part of everyone’s journey, which is community. Life isn’t meant to be done alone, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, take this as your sign. You promised yourself this year that you were going to step out of your comfort zone anyway.

#

#Outro

-Deba

This April I have seen a different side to things, not entirely good but not fully bad either.

As members of the Radar Team, we have worked under immense pressure and understandably so.

Many of us have had to juggle our final year projects with our supervisors, some of us have gotten accustomed to the life of a 9-5 professional and some of us have just had to handle the most intense period of school while attempting to balance everything else.

But that is genuinely the beauty of it all. Getting an idea of the kind of lives that lie ahead and doing it all with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts.

I hope that regardless of the hustle and the bustle of life, the RADAR team has been able to consistently deliver in the best ways for you. And if you have enjoyed us so far, stick around because we are only getting started.

With love,

Commit & Push,

The GDG RADAR Team. ❤