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Apple excited its fans with wireless charging pad for iPhone 8 and iPhone X last week, but people realized later that the on the pad solution . Moreover, in the case of the pad, taking out wires doesn’t make charging that much easier.

, the startup that won TechCrunch Disrupt SF’s Startup Battlefield this year, claims to solve all of the above problems. The company was founded by two MIT students, who their creation after their alma mater’s celebrated symbol. John MacDonald (a doctor at MIT’s Media Lab) and Lixin Shi (a PhD student at MIT’s Computer Science & AI Lab), both of whom were looking into wireless charging solutions, met at the school and immediately clicked.

Using his research on magnetic fields, Shi and his team designed Pi in a way that allows you to charge multiple devices at any direction within a foot.

The startup plans to generate revenue through directly selling hardware to customers and partnering with electronics companies. On the Battlefield stage, MacDonald revealed that ten consumer electronics brands worldwide have reached out to them, and over 8,500 people have reserved the Pi charger online. Though the team has not yet set an exact retail price, they expected it to be under $200 and out by 2018.

To date, Pi has raised a $3 million seed round from four investors: , , , and .

However, generous funding does not shield Pi from its competitors, who are also trying to optimize wireless charging. , which spun out of a lab at MIT in 2007, uses magnetic resonance; the firm has gone beyond mobile devices, bringing wireless charging to cars and laptops. at CES this year. Utilizing radio waves, the charger can power your device up to 15 feet away.

Whether Pi will stand out amongst various players seeking to commercialize wireless charging still remains to be seen. In addition, the company probably needs to address portability somewhere down the line; as of now, the bulky cone is not ideal for carrying to a cafe or the office.

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Many wonder how Uber is doing, and whether it will be able to recover from the scandals.

In June, was as its first-ever Chief Brand Officer. She previously worked as the Head of Global Consumer Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes.

At TechCrunch Disrupt today, Saint John was able to satisfy the audience’s curiosity surrounding why she ended up at Uber and what her job involves on a daily basis.

Rather than being poached, Saint John revealed that her taking the position resulted from a series of unexpected events. She first met Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member, and talked to Huffington about her ride experiences and her thoughts on how Uber can do better. Later, she was referred to Travis Kalanick, with whom she had an eight-hour conversation on how Uber can approach its brand. John then realized that she wanted to take on the challenge.

“Apple [was about] how to create a brand, [whereas] Uber [was about] evolving a brand,” Saint John explained.

Saint John wants to “take all the stories,” both good and bad, and “create a balance of conversation.” Through storytelling, she aims to humanize drivers, riders, and the product.

One recent campaign under her featured superfan drivers dressed in jerseys and bobbleheads to kickoff the Patriots NFL game, hoping to show that Uber drivers are “also part of the community.”

Saint John realized that riders are not only concerned about getting from A to B but also “about how people are treated.” Though she admitted that she is not involved with the legal side of Uber’s various fallouts, she indicated that her colleagues are working very hard toward repairing relations with drivers, riders, and Uber employees.

In addition to making the hiring pool more diverse, Uber’s diversity and inclusion team is reaching out to organizations they can support. Just this August, Uber to Girls Who Code, and Saint John joined the nonprofit’s board of directors. Uber’s toward Black Girls Code was turned down.

According to Saint John, Uber’s efforts do not stop there, whether it is making the company itself more inclusive, or supporting more organizations to push for diversity in tech overall.

“I’m not satisfied just yet. I want us to keep working at it. I think it’s really important to work toward this and make sure that other people also come along the journey,” she said.

iStockPhoto / NicolasMcComber

After in March, where he served as Chief Scientist, Ng launched . It’s still unclear what his new venture does exactly, aside from the fact that it has created deep learning courses and is currently hiring software engineers. In August, reported that Ng is raising a $150 million AI fund, which fall under the broader picture of Ng’s AI-focused endeavors.

Today on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, Ng shared his thoughts on how we can eventually achieve an AI-powered society, where AI tools truly benefit humans.

“AI is the new electricity,” Ng said, detailing how the rise of electricity has transformed transportation, communication, and agriculture. Likewise, Ng believes that AI will be able to revolutionize every industry imaginable. Ng calls these transformable industry “verticals,” areas like healthcare and transportation, which he is most excited about.

One example is Coursera using with machine learning to personalize education. By collecting data from learners, its ML team connects users to courses that will help them on their career paths.

When asked whether if he thinks startups stand a chance against big tech companies that have already made huge investments in AI, Ng gave a definite yes. In fact, he thinks that “no one company could do all the work that will enable society to use AI better.”

However, Ng warned startups against entering into verticals such as web search, where large companies already possess better data asset and learning algorithms. Instead, latecomers should find their own niche by repeating the virtuous cycle of building a product, gathering user data, and improving their product.

“There’s plenty of opportunities for [both] existing companies and small startups,” Ng observed.

Finally, Ng addressed some of the concerns surrounding lack of transparency in AI-decision making. He foresees that upcoming research that makes AI more explainable will be able to bridge the gap between developers and consumers, though it might be harder for some sectors than others.

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Their discussion focused on a pressing and important topic given that Silicon Valley has, over the past year, seen a storm of sexism and harassment scandals—fueled by more women speaking up and advocating for change.

Some of the most well-known stories include Susan Fowler’s about Uber HR punishing her instead of the offender, Sarah Kunst David McClure’s sexual misconduct, which was followed by his from 500 Startups, and Ellen Pao’s of disparate treatment toward female partners at KPCB.

While trying to define their place in tech, most women have experienced discrimination and harassment on a certain level, whether it is , , or .

Steps Toward A Better Workplace

Kunst, Scott, and Gosher shared some of the ways that they think will be able to reverse Silicon Valley’s toxic culture or prevent it from happening in your workplace.

In Kunst’s opinion, the hiring process is crucial, especially since your employees make up your company’s culture.

“[I found] hiring people who aren’t just white dudes [helps a lot],” Kunst told the audience at TC Disrupt. “When you onboard people, be very clear about your values. I don’t think it’s impossible to build a great culture if you care and if you’re aware.”.

Gosher thinks that culture and change come from the top:

“The CEO and management team set the tenor. The board also [makes a difference]. For example, Uber board turned a blind eye [to sexual harassment allegations]. The board needs to have a zero tolerance policy. [The one rule is] ‘If you’re a man in the position of power, don’t hit on women.’ ”

Scott advises companies to “proactively look for gender biased language” in their policies. Scott gave an example of when she worked with tech firms, they would look at performance reviews and identify areas where they think gender bias exists.

“The subtle stuff is material,” said Scott.

In addition to advocating for change on the management level, pushing companies to become more responsive toward gender discrimination, women themselves should continue speaking up, including when instances of unconscious biases occur.

“Many of us are being bystanders,” Gosher said. She also pointed out how women stay silent when they are asked to do office housekeeping by men, even though it’s not part of their job. “If we want to change the industry, we need to stand up.”

And Scott thinks that if women were to bring up situations in which they feel uncomfortable, they should do it early.

“Teaching people the importance of bringing it up early is gonna prevent explosive blow-ups later,” Scott explained.

With more women sharing their stories, sexism in Silicon Valley can no longer be considered as a dispersed set of incidents. As a result, more companies are re-evaluating their culture, and onto fostering a more inclusive workplace.

iStockPhoto / Mikolette

Day Two of Disrupt SF featured some innovators who are changing the game by applying tech to solving tough societal problems.

Tiffani Ashley Bell (The Human Utility), Andrew Frame (Citizen), and Rosanne Haggerty (Community Solutions) spoke with former DC mayor Adrian Fenty on how they are leveraging tech to make social impacts. First, let’s take a took at what each founder does:

• A few months ago, launched Citizen, a public safety app which helps users keep track of incidents around them, in New York City. Today, Frame just announced that the app is coming to San Francisco.

• founded (previously known as the Detroit Water Project) back in 2014 with the goal of helping low income and elderly families with their water bills. To Bell, water is a human right and should be accessible for everyone.

• Rosanne Haggerty heads , an organization helps communities address homelessness by optimizing their existing resources.

The three civic tech leaders share the vision of using tech to improve individual lives and bring positive change to the world.

In fact, Frame recognizes the trend that more people are asking themselves the questions of “what, if any ,will be the consequence of what I’ve built?” and “is this ultimately gonna be good for the world?”

When asked how they plan to scale and reach more people, the three panelists all prefer to expand city by city, and community by community, unlike the typical sentiment in Silicon Valley to move fast and scale.

“We’re looking at other cities, but mostly just Detroit and Baltimore. We want to try to understand what’s happening in each community, who the community partners with etc. Our job is not to keep paying water bills. People need to become self-sufficient and governments need to see the problems,” said Bell.

The panelists brought up the idea of using data and analytics to facilitate their work and efforts similar to theirs. Data can not only help characterize the problem but also serve as a good starting point for helping affected people.

Bell gave an example from her own experience: “If we have 200 [people] applied this quarter, and 120 don’t have jobs right now, what can you do for these people? [The next step would be] connecting [them] with workforce development agencies.”

Haggerty realizes that after understanding the numbers, her team can then get a lot done by getting down to the suffering individuals: “Once we identified specific people and problems, we can form a team to change the situation.” The , one of Community Solutions’ main programs fits this model. Collaborating with workforce agencies and social services organizations, Community Solutions helps more people in Brownsville, Brooklyn find jobs, and thus reduces homelessness.

According to these founders, tech for good’s ultimate goal is for them to lose their necessity, since the existence of their organizations means that there are still societal issues to be solved.

Maybe it’s time for the tech community to look outside its bubble of trying to personalize people’s news feed or shopping preferences, and start thinking about how it can contribute to social good.

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But like many startups and drug companies looking to disrupt healthcare, 23andMe stagnated at the FDA checkpoint. In 2013, the FDA its DNA test kits, warning the company of health consequences caused by false assessments. But the company has since rebounded with new product offerings.

Testing And Research

After four years of maneuvering their way through regulations, this April, 23andMe has finally gotten the FDA testing for 10 diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

Wojcicki also announced several other paths that 23andMe has been focusing on. The company is working with the FDA to get other classes of diseases approved, and it is looking into detecting other common diseases such as breast cancer. Furthermore, the drug research arm wants to innovate the process through which drugs are discovered and made, leveraging its database to develop therapeutics more efficiently.

The company has attracted over worldwide. However, that hasn’t exactly gone smoothly. On top of FDA approval woes, 23andMe spent some time for its lack of genetic diversity. While the DNA test has worked well for people of European descent (which make up 75 percent of its customer base), the same could not be said for people of color. Addressing this issue at Disrupt, the CEO revealed on stage that they are working on bringing in more economic and ethnic diversity.

Despite the hurdles, Wojcicki is confident that her company will help more customers “get access to their health information directly,” and eventually transform healthcare into a more “consumer direct marketplace.” And it has a lot of money in the bank to do so.

23andMe just raised round led by Sequoia this September, and the CEO has already looked passed fundraising.

“23andMe is about how is there a consumer revolution in healthcare. We [hope to become] a voice for what consumers want, and what kind of research we want to do,” said Wojcicki.

Wojcicki describes herself as “a huge believer in the potential of the individual.” Unsurprisingly, 23andMe has aligned itself with this individualism, educating people about the meaning of their genetic information, and trusting that this awareness will help improve their lives.

iStockPhoto / xubingruo

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Udacity partners with tech companies to co-design courses and provide scholarships to its service. In response to the tech industry’s needs, Udacity is currently focusing on teaching the mechanics of AI. Luckily, its teacher is well-suited to the task.

Thrun is known as the godfather of AI and machine learning. In 2005, his team won the with their robot “Stanley.” He also founded Google X in 2010 and led its self-driving car team. It just so happens that one of Udacity’s most well-known and competitive programs concerns , which has received 50,000 applicants.

Due to the program’s high barrier of entry and prerequisites including advanced programming knowledge, Thrun admitted that not everyone will make the cut. However, Udacity teaches aspiring applicants what they need to do to get accepted into the course. To address financial challenges, Udacity has also (which has its own self-driving car ambitions) to provide 400 full scholarships for the “Intro to Self-Driving Cars” program.

But like many tech leaders in Silicon Valley, Thrun has a passion for projects outside of self-driving cars.

AI For Everything

Thrun not only wants self-driving cars, he’s working on making flying cars a reality. As CEO of , Thrun envisions that everyone should have access to flying as a means of personal transportation, given that air is “free of stuff,” “safer than rail,” and helps people avoid bad traffic.

While Thrun agrees that there’s a lot of opportunity in the drone delivery space, he thinks that “[flying] should not just be for packages, but also for people.” Thrun sees that flying cars will take place in the near future, since “there’s no technical reason why it can’t be done; it’s more of a societal reason.”

Thrun also got to talk about a project led by students from his lab at Stanford. Using the open-source ML library Tensor Flow, the team classify cancerous skin patches better and more accurately than top-notch dermatologists.

Thrun truly believes that AI has limitless applications, and brought his innovator spirit on stage: “I love thinking about the world as a playground where everything interesting has not been invented yet.”

Perhaps, the Udacity course on self-driving cars will attract competitors, or the company may have a flying car program just around the corner.

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Over time, Pinterest has carved out a niche distinct from other social giants like Facebook and Twitter, becoming a visual discovery platform where people get inspirations for their daily life.  People often use Pinterest to look up what clothes to wear, where to go for their next vacation, or how to decorate their home.

Recently, the company crossed the mark, growing both in the US and internationally.

During the discussion, Silbermann shared a lesson learned from their international expansion: each country has specific lifestyle needs and interests. Users in Brazil, for example, like to get inspiration on Pinterest for their next tattoo. To understand different cultures and local needs, Pinterest has set up small teams in various countries to talk to the local users about their experience.

When asked if the company has plans for an IPO in the near future, Silbermann said that Pinterest will remain private for now. The company just raised a round in June and is currently valued at . According to its CEO, Pinterest chose to stay private to focus on building its core products and user base.

Besides from its advertising system, Pinterest is working on its . The company Visual Graph in 2013 to bring their strong computer vision engineers on board. “Camera might become the next keyboard,” said Silbermann.

Silbermann also revealed to the audience how he keeps his employees motivated in lieu of liquidity.

“We make sure that the stories of people behind the numbers are brought into the building,” said Silbermann. “We make sure the whole company understands how the business is doing and what is the underlying logic.”

For those that think Pinterest is flying under the radar or past its time, Silbermann responded with explanation and some advice for entrepreneurs: “Silicon Valley focuses on very short-term success but a lot of great things take a long time to build. Having a little bit of a long view on certain bets is important if you want to build something new.”