He said he was "shocked by resistance" to San Francisco's Proposition C, which called for higher taxes on businesses to raise funds for addressing homelessness. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, is a prominent opponent, arguing the measure is unfair to Square and fintech startups. San Francisco voters approved Proposition C in November 2018, though the city has said it won't spend the money raised until legal questions are settled. On WeWork, whose plans for an initial public offering were derailed recently, Mr. Benioff said that "an IPO is like a spiritual cleanse." That's because going public earlier in its life forces a startup to do things like find a top CEO, he said.

Many fear the potential for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to be weaponised against humanity, but Australian lifesavers are showcasing the positive power of the technology with a drone that can prevent crocodile attacks. On Thursday, lifesavers in Queensland demonstrated how a drone backed by a'CrocSpotter' AI-algorithm can reveal the presence of crocs before they become a danger to humans. Developed by researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in collaboration with Westpac Little Ripper and Amazon Web Services, the technology was initially designed to protect beachgoers from sharks. CrocSpotter and SharkSpotter are two of five'spotter' AI algorithms developed by The Ripper Group and UTS. In 2018, a Westpac Little Ripper drone performed the world's first rescue by a drone at Lennox Head in NSW, dropping an inflatable pod to save two teenagers in massive surf.

X is the "moonshot factory" for Google parent Alphabet Inc.--a place to work on projects, like autonomous vehicles, that have the potential to radically reshape the world. To get insights into how the operation works, and why it celebrates failure, The Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Blumenstein spoke with Astro Teller, captain of the factory. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation. BLUMENSTEIN: How do you decide which projects to tackle? TELLER: There has to be some huge problem with the world that we can name and say that we're excited about going to tackle.