The Download: tracking animals, and biotech plants

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

How tracking animal movement may save the planet

Animals have long been able to offer unique insights about the natural world around us, acting as organic sensors picking up phenomena invisible to humans. Canaries warned of looming catastrophe in coal mines until the 1980s, for example.

These days, we have more insight into animal behavior than ever before thanks to technologies like sensor tags. But the data we gather from these animals still adds up to only a relatively narrow slice of the whole picture. Results are often confined to silos, and for many years tags were big and expensive, suitable only for a handful of animal species.

This is beginning to change. Researchers are asking: What will we find if we follow even the smallest animals? What if we could see how different species’ lives intersect? What could we learn from a system of animal movement, continuously monitoring how creatures big and small adapt to the world around us? It may be, some researchers believe, a vital tool in the effort to save our increasingly crisis-plagued planet. Read the full story.

—Matthew Ponsford 

This story is from the upcoming print issue of MIT Technology Review, dedicated to exploring hidden worlds. Buy a subscription to get your hands on a copy when it publishes on February 28th! Deals start at just $8 a month.

These are the biotech plants you can buy now

—Antonio Regalado

This spring I am looking forward to growing some biotech in my backyard for the first time. It’s possible because of startups that have started selling genetically engineered plants directly to consumers, including a bright-purple tomato and a petunia that glows in the dark.

This week, for $73, I ordered both by pressing a few buttons online.

Biotech seeds have been a huge business for a while. In fact, by sheer mass, GMOs are probably the single most significant product of genetic engineering ever. But the difference now is that people are able to plant and grow GMO houseplants in their homes. Read the full story. 

Watch this robot as it learns to stitch up wounds

The news: A new AI-trained surgical robot can make stitches on its own. A video taken by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, shows the two-armed robot completing stitches in a row on a simple wound in imitation skin. It managed to make six stitches before a human had to intervene. 

Why it matters: It’s common for surgeons today to get help from robots, but we’re a long way from them being able to fully replace many tasks. This new research marks progress toward robots that can operate more autonomously on very intricate, complicated tasks. Read the full story. 

—James O’Donnell

Three frequently asked questions about EVs, answered

Transportation is a critical part of the climate change puzzle: it accounts for something like a quarter of global emissions. And the vehicles that we use to shuttle around to work, school, and the grocery store in many parts of the world are a huge piece of the problem.

Last week, MIT Technology Review hosted an event where we dug into the future of batteries and the materials that go into them. We got so many great questions, and we answered quite a few of them (subscribers should check out the recording of the full event). 

But there were still a lot of questions, particularly about EVs, that we didn’t get to. So let’s take a look at a few of those. 

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter all about the technology that could combat the climate crisis. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The first US moon landing for over 50 years is due today
If all goes to plan, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus spacecraft will touch down at 5.30pm ET. (WP $)
+ Here’s how you can watch it. (NYT $)

2 ChatGPT had a meltdown yesterday
Which is not necessarily worrying in itself… but it isn’t great that we have no idea why. (Ars Technica)
+ Gab’s racist chatbots have been trained to deny the Holocaust. (Wired $)
+ Soon, we might be using AI to do all sorts of tasks for us. (NPR)

3 You can buy Vision Pro headsets in Russia 
Two years after Apple quit the country. (NBC)

4 Google is racing to fix a new “overly woke” AI-powered tool 
It was returning women and people of color when asked to produce images of America’s founding fathers, for example. (BBC)
+ It’s pausing the ability for Gemini AI to generate images until it’s fixed the issue. (The Verge)
+ These new tools let you see for yourself how biased AI image models are. (MIT Technology Review) 
+ How it feels to be sexually objectified by an AI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 American winters are getting warm
They’re also getting shorter, and less predictable. (Insider $)

6 Instagram is a news site, whether it likes it or not
And that means it has a responsibility to do content moderation properly. (NYT $)

7 Inside the weird world of Instacart’s AI-generated recipes
It’s becoming harder and harder to work out what’s been made by a human versus a machine. (404 Media)
+ Why Big Tech’s watermarking plans are some welcome good news. (MIT Technology Review)

8 We need protection from companies building tech to read our minds
It’s not such a concerning issue right now, but it could be sooner than you know. (Vox)
+ How your brain data could be used against you. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Why AM radio lingers on 
A surprisingly diverse group of people still rely on it, even as it heads towards obsolescence. (The Atlantic $)

10 Writing by hand has a positive impact on memory and learning 
I knew it! (Scientific American $)

Quote of the day

“Happy listening! Happy listening! Happy listening! Happy listening! ”

—An example of how ChatGPT went off the rails yesterday, screenshotted and shared by a user on X. 

The big story

Inside the app Minnesota police used to collect data on journalists at protests

<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/23/1047899/secret-police-app-minnesota-police-journalists-protests-data/?truid=<>&utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=<>&utm_content=02-22-2024&mc_cid=8d2404be49&mc_eid=UNIQID#:~:text=The%20state%20patrol%20disclosed%20that,data%20from%20the%20state%20patrol.”>

MS TECH

March 2022

Photojournalist J.D. Duggan was covering a protest in Minnesota in April 2021 when police officers surrounded him and others, and told them to get on the ground.

Officers sorted the press from the protesters, walked them to a parking lot, and began photographing them, one by one, with cellphones, which they told Duggan would be stored in an app. 

An investigation by MIT Technology Review found the data was collected using a tool called Intrepid Response, an easy way to almost instantly de-anonymize protest attendees and keep tabs on their movements. For some, the tool’s use is a dangerous step in the direction of authoritarianism. Read the full story.

—Sam Richards & Tate Ryan-Mosley

+ Fascinated by the stories in this grisly interactive map, which details murders committed in medieval London, York and Oxford. 
+ Terrible night’s sleep last night? Fear not, it’s possible to salvage your day. (NYT $) 
+ This athletic fluffy cat is bound to bring a smile to your face.
+ Some simple ways to make your diet healthier.

The Download: deep diving, and virtual power plants in China

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go

Two hundred thirty meters into one of the deepest underwater caves on Earth, Richard “Harry” Harris knew that not far ahead of him was a 15-meter drop leading to a place no human being had seen before. 

Getting there had taken two helicopters, three weeks of test dives, two tons of equipment, and hard work to overcome an unexpected number of technical problems. But in the moment, Harris was hypnotized by what was before him: the vast, black, gaping unknown. 

Staring into it, he felt the familiar pull—maybe he could go just a little farther. Instead, he and his diving partner, Craig Challen, decided to turn back. They weren’t there to exceed 245 meters—a depth they’d reached three years earlier. Nor were they there to set a depth record—that would mean going past 308 meters. 

They were there to test what they saw as a possible key to unlocking depths beyond even 310 meters: breathing hydrogen. Read the full story. 

—Samantha Schuyler

This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review, all about exploring hidden worlds. Want to get your hands on a copy when it publishes next Wednesday? Subscribe now.

Why China’s EV ambitions need virtual power plants

Virtual power plants (VPPs) are an idea whose time has arrived. They’re basically a layer on top of resources like electric vehicle chargers, solar panels, and battery packs, which allow you to coordinate energy consumption and supply. This lets utility companies handle times of higher energy demand by adjusting the end use of electricity, for example reducing the efficiency of an EV charger so it takes longer to finish and thus puts less burden on the grid.

In China, which is adopting electric vehicles faster than any other country, VPPs could be transformational. The country has just started testing programs which incentivize EV owners to charge their vehicles late at night, when there’s less demand on the grid. 

It’s also piloting bidirectional charging stations, which would let EV owners not only use electricity, but even sell it back into the grid at times of peak demand, earning them a little extra cash. Read the full story.

—Zeyi Yang

This story is from China Report, our weekly newsletter giving you behind-the-scenes insights into China and its tech scene. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are ‘children’
It’s a worrying development, especially for people seeking infertility treatments. (CNN)
+ The first IVF babies conceived by a robot have been born. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Inside AI startup Anthrophic’s funding spree 
Investors cannot hand money over to promising AI companies quickly enough right now, it seems. (NYT $)
+ OpenAI is now valued at a staggering $86 billion. (Bloomberg $)
+ Why the New York Times could win against OpenAI. (Ars Technica)

3 The EU is setting up rules for sucking CO2 out of the sky
It’s creating a first-of-its-kind certification framework for carbon removal technologies. (The Verge)
+ How carbon removal technology is like a time machine. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Researchers are imbibing AI with human-like qualities
No one is immune from anthropomorphism, it seems. (New Scientist $)
+ If you’ve posted on Reddit, your words are probably being used to train AI. (Ars Technica)

5 What mind-reading devices can teach us
They’re restoring functions like speech and movement. But they’re also shining a light on how the brain works. (Nature)
+ Elon Musk claims the first Neuralink patient can now control a computer mouse with their thoughts. (CNBC)

6 Fake funeral livestream scams are proliferating on Facebook
Beyond grim, and Meta’s doing almost nothing to prevent it. (404 Media)

7 A spacecraft is about to try to snag some space junk
If it works, it’ll be an important development for the effort to clear Earth’s orbit of debris. (Ars Technica) 

8 People are breeding pythons to have ‘emoji’ patterns 
But, as always amid a gold rush, some of them are doing some deeply unethical things in the process. (New Yorker $)

9 How scientists predicted Iceland’s vast volcanic eruption
And saved a lot of lives in the process. (Quanta)
+ How machine learning might unlock earthquake prediction. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Older people are among VR’s most enthusiastic adopters
And studies suggest spending time in virtual reality can produce positive effects, too. (AP)
+ Virtual reality can be used as a painkiller. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“People say AI is overhyped, but I think it’s not hyped enough.”

—Puneet Chandok, who leads Microsoft India and South Asia, says we should get even more excited about AI, the Economic Times reports.

The big story

The open-source AI boom is built on Big Tech’s handouts. How long will it last?

STEPHANIE ARNETT/MITTR | ENVATO

May 2023

Last year a leaked memo written by a senior engineer at Google said out loud what many in Silicon Valley must have been whispering: an open-source free-for-all is threatening Big Tech’s grip on AI.

New open-source large language models—alternatives to Google’s Bard or OpenAI’s ChatGPT that researchers and developers can study, build on, and modify—are dropping like candy from a piñata. These are smaller, cheaper versions of the best-in-class AI models created by the big firms that (almost) match them in performance—and they’re shared for free.

In many ways, that’s a good thing. AI won’t thrive if just a few mega-rich companies get to gatekeep this technology or decide how it is used. But this open-source boom is precarious, and if Big Tech decides to shut up shop, a boomtown could become a backwater. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

+ Paul McCartney has been reunited with a beloved bass guitar that was stolen 51 years ago. 
+ How to have a better relationship with money.
+ Obsessed with Nimbus and his marvelous piano skills. 
+ Cracking up at this game where you have to guess if a name refers to antidepressants or a character from Tolkien.

The Download: hunting for new matter, and Gary Marcus’ AI critiques

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Inside the hunt for new physics at the world’s largest particle collider

In 2012, using data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, researchers discovered a particle called the Higgs boson. In the process, they answered a nagging question: Where do fundamental particles, such as the ones that make up all the protons and neutrons in our bodies, get their mass?

When the particle was finally found, scientists celebrated with champagne. A Nobel for two of the physicists who predicted the Higgs boson soon followed. 

But now, more than a decade later, there is a sense of unease. That’s because there are still so many unanswered questions about the fundamental constituents of the universe. 

So researchers are trying something new. They are repurposing detectors to search for unusual-looking particles, squeezing what they can out of the data with machine learning, and planning for entirely new kinds of colliders. Read the full story.

—Dan Garisto

This story is from the upcoming print issue of MIT Technology Review, dedicated to exploring hidden worlds. Want to get your hands on a copy when it publishes next Wednesday? Subscribe now.

I went for a walk with Gary Marcus, AI’s loudest critic

Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at NYU, is a prominent AI researcher and cognitive scientist who has positioned himself as a vocal critic of deep learning and AI. He is a divisive figure, and can often be found engaged in spats on social media with AI heavyweights such as Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton (“All attempts to socialize me have failed,” he jokes.) 

Marcus does much of his tweeting on scenic walks around his hometown of Vancouver. Our senior AI reporter Melissa Heikkilä decided to join him on one such stroll while she was visiting the city, to hear his thoughts on the latest product releases and goings-on in AI. Here’s what he had to say to her. 

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter all about AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 A new class of satellites could change everything 
They’re armed with cameras powerful enough to capture peoples’ individual features. (NYT $)
+ A big European satellite is set to return to Earth tomorrow. (Ars Technica)
+ A new satellite will use Google’s AI to map methane leaks from space. (MIT Technology Review)

2 How much electricity does AI consume?
It’s a lot—but working out exact sums can be tricky. (The Verge)
+ Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone. (MIT Technology Review)

3 How Silicon Valley learned to love the military
The world is feeling like a more dangerous place these days, and that’s drowning out any ethical concerns. (WP $)
+ Why business is booming for military AI startups. (MIT Technology Review)
+ SpaceX is getting closer to US intelligence and military agencies. (WSJ $)
+ Ukraine is in desperate need of better methods to clear land mines. (Wired $)

4 The EU is investigating TikTok over child safety
It alleges the company isn’t doing enough to verify users’ ages. (Mashable)

5 It’s hard to get all that excited about Bluesky 
It’s just more of the same social media. (Wired $)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Why millions of people are flocking to decentralized social media services. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Ozempic is taking off in China
A lack of official approval there yet isn’t stopping anyone. (WSJ $)
+ We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Meet the people trying to make ethical AI porn
Sex work is a sector that’s already being heavily disrupted by AI. (The Guardian)

8 Why we need DNA data drives
We’re rapidly running out of storage space, but DNA is a surprisingly viable option. (IEEE Spectrum)

9 You don’t need to keep closing your phone’s background apps
It does nothing for your battery life. In fact, it can even drain it further. (Gizmodo)
+ Here’s another myth worth busting: you shouldn’t put your wet phone in rice. (The Verge)

10 The mysterious math of billiard tables
If you struggle to play pool, take comfort in the fact mathematicians get stumped by it too. (Quanta $)

Quote of the day

“We realized how easy it is for people to be against something, to reject something new.” 

—Silas Heineken, a 17-year-old from Grünheide, a suburb near Berlin in Germany, tells the New York Times why he’s in favor of Tesla’s plans to expand there.

The big story

Meet the wannabe kidfluencers struggling for stardom

<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/12/27/238167/wannabe-kidfluencers-struggling-youtube-stars/?truid=<>&utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=<>&utm_content=02-20-2024&mc_cid=67ad425db8&mc_eid=UNIQID”>

December 2019 

On YouTube, children can become millionaires—seemingly overnight. The highest paid of them, eight-year-old Ryan Kaji, made $22 million in 2018 by playing with toys on his channel Ryan ToysReview (now Ryan’s World). 

There are now thousands of similarly famous child YouTubers: babies who have been vlogged since the moment of their birth, 10-year-old streamers showing off video-game tricks, teenage girls giving acne advice from their bedrooms.

Why do so many kids want to be YouTubers? How are their parents helping them? And what happens if, after spending thousands of dollars or dropping out of school, it doesn’t work out? Read the full story.

—Amelia Tait

We can still have nice things

+ Cillian Murphy sounds like he’s got life pretty much figured out. 
+ Some quick, simple ways to instantly lower your stress levels. 
+ My love for PG Wodehouse is pure and eternal. 
+ Carrots can be a real standout ingredient—here’s how to put them to work.

The Download: missions to Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Uruguay’s screwworm gene drive

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

The search for extraterrestrial life is targeting Jupiter’s icy moon Europa

Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, is nothing like ours. Its surface is a vast saltwater ocean, encased in a blanket of cracked ice, one that seems to occasionally break open and spew watery plumes into the moon’s thin atmosphere. 

For these reasons, Europa captivates planetary scientists. All that water and energy—and hints of elements essential for building organic molecules —point to another extraordinary possibility. Jupiter’s big, bright moon could host life. 

And they may eventually get some answers. Later this year, NASA plans to launch Europa Clipper, the largest-­ever craft designed to visit another planet. The $5 billion mission, scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2030, will spend four years analyzing this moon to determine whether it could support life. Read the full story.

—Stephen Ornes

This story is from the upcoming print issue of MIT Technology Review, dedicated to exploring hidden worlds. Buy a subscription to get your hands on a copy when it publishes on February 28th! Deals start at just $8 a month.

Uruguay wants to use gene drives to eradicate devastating screwworms

The New World screwworm, a parasite common in parts of South America and the Caribbean, is a disaster for cattle. It burrows into their flesh, eventually killing them. In Uruguay alone, it costs farmers between $40 million and $154 million a year. However, work is underway to fight back.

A group of researchers in Montevideo Uruguay have used the gene-editing system CRISPR to develop what’s known as a gene drive: tweaks to the screwworms genes that, if they spread, will cause a population crash.

They are about to move into the next stage of caged trials in the lab, with a view to eventually using the genetic tool to decimate the screwworm fly population. Read the full story. 

—Abdullahi Tsanni

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The White House will spend $1.5 billion on a new chip factory
The money will go to semiconductor giant GlobalFoundries to produce advanced chips not currently made in the US. (WP $)
+ But work to expand US chip manufacturing keeps being plagued with problems. (NYT $)
+ Can the massive infusions of money rebuild the US’s industrial base? (MIT Technology Review)

2 Apple is facing its first EU fine
The EU says its music streaming services violate antitrust law. (FT $)

3 A judge ruled that Air Canada had to honor its chatbots’ discount error
This sets an important precedent as companies start to adopt AI tools. (WP $)
+ Judges, not politicians, are starting to dictate AI rules. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Should you trust an AI chatbot to plan a trip for you? (The Atlantic $)
+ It’s surprisingly tricky to work out when and how we’ll use generative AI. (FT $)

4  Is AI going to change how we define videos? 
Systems like OpenAI’s Sora don’t make recordings. They render ideas. (New Yorker $)
+ Sora looks amazing—but the rest of us will have to wait to try it out. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Don’t blindly trust Google search results 
AI-generated content, adverts, and ranking algorithms are really starting to spoil searches. (WSJ $)

6 The days of fast, free shipping may be coming to an end
Blame interest-rate hikes, and growing impatience from startup investors. (Insider $)

7 How New York’s legal weed revolution got derailed 
The state’s plans ended up in an unholy mess. (New Yorker $)
+ The feud between a weed influencer and scientist over puking stoners. (MIT Technology Review)

8 A gun influencer’s conviction has done nothing to dent his popularity
In fact, YouTube is still running adverts on his channel. (NBC) 
+ Hated that video? YouTube’s algorithm might push you another just like it. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Phone cases are getting jazzed up 
They can do so much more than just protect your phone—for example, holding your lip balm. (Wired $)
+ Sharp-cornered smartphone cases are all the rage too. (WSJ $)

10 3D-printed chocolate sounds delicious 
It’s something to do with the ridges and textures. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“Everyone is looking around, talking about when layoffs are coming next, at what company.”

—A tech worker tells Insider that no job in the industry feels safe right now. 

The big story

Longevity enthusiasts want to create their own independent state. They’re eyeing Rhode Island.

GETTY IMAGES

May 2023

—Jessica Hamzelou

Earlier this month, I traveled to Montenegro for a gathering of longevity enthusiasts, people interested in extending human life through various biotechnology approaches. All the attendees were super friendly, and the sense of optimism was palpable. They’re all confident we’ll be able to find a way to slow or reverse aging—and they have a bold plan to speed up progress.

Around 780 of these people have created a “pop-up city” that hopes to circumvent the traditional process of clinical trials. They want to create an independent state where like-minded innovators can work together in an all-new jurisdiction that gives them free rein to self-experiment with unproven drugs. Welcome to Zuzalu. Read the full story.

We can still have nice things

+ Finding this funny New Yorker piece almost painfully relatable. 

+ I don’t need another cat, I don’t need another cat…..oh. Hmm. Maybe I do. 

+ Let this clip of Weird Al Yankovic conducting an orchestra brighten up your day. 

+ When people say the English are eccentric, I guess this is the sort of thing they mean.

The Download: impressive new AI capabilities

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

OpenAI has built a striking new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a detailed, high-definition film clip up to a minute long. It’s seriously impressive-looking. 

Based on four sample videos that OpenAI shared with MIT Technology Review,  the firm has pushed the envelope of what’s possible with text-to-video generation (a hot new research direction that we flagged as a trend to watch in 2024).

It’s hard to know exactly how impressive a step this is until we get more information from OpenAI—and we may have a wait on our hands. The company has no plans to release it to the public currently, though it does hope to in future. For now, mindful of the potential for misuse, OpenAI will be doing extensive safety testing. Read the full story—and check out some of the videos! 

—Will Douglas Heaven

Google’s new version of Gemini can handle far bigger amounts of data

The news: Google DeepMind has launched the next generation of its powerful artificial-intelligence model Gemini, which has an enhanced ability to work with large amounts of video, text, and images.

For example: In one demonstration video shown by Google, the model was fed the 402-page transcript of the Apollo moon landing mission. Then they showed Gemini a hand-drawn sketch of a boot, and asked it to identify the moment in the transcript that the drawing represents. The model was also able to identify moments of humor. 

What it means: These sorts of AI capabilities are very impressive, Oren Etzioni, former technical director of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, told us. However, he did give one major caveat: “Never trust an AI demo.” Read the full story. 

—James O’Donnell

How bacteria-fighting viruses could go mainstream

Lynn Cole had a blood infection she couldn’t shake. For years, she was in and out of the hospital. Each time antibiotics would force the infection to retreat. Each time it came roaring back.

In the summer of 2020, the bacteria flooding Cole’s bloodstream stopped responding to antibiotics. She was running out of time. Her doctors decided they had to try a different approach: phages, which are tiny viruses that infect and destroy bacteria.

The phages worked. Cole recovered with remarkable speed. But then the therapy failed. Cole’s case highlights the enormous promise of phage therapy, but it also shows just how much we have to learn. Read the full story. 

—Cassandra Willyard

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter all about biotech and health. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The Senate could be about to pass some major tech regulation
If it passes, the Kids Online Safety Act will be the biggest piece of tech regulation in the US in decades. (WP $)
+ Why child safety bills are popping up all over the US. (MIT Technology Review)
+ New York City is suing TikTok and Instagram for ‘addicting’ kids. (NBC) 
 
2 A new era of deepfakes is colliding with pivotal elections 
And it’ll be very hard to figure out how big an impact AI-generated content has on results, even after the fact. (WSJ $)
+ A Chinese influence campaign is using AI-generated content to amplify division in the US. (NYT $)
 
3 TikTok has released an app for the Vision Pro
YouTube says it’s building an app for the headset too. (The Verge)
 
4 AI is nothing to fear for white collar workers
That’s because it’s not really a substitute for expertise—it’s a lever for its application.  (Noema)
+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Here’s how AI is shaking up the way we work. (The Verge)
 
5 What it’s like to be a content moderator in Pakistan
Pretty soul-crushing—and with little hope of a promotion or transferable skills. (Rest of World)
 
6 Hardware still matters
In fact, in the AI era, it’s about as important as it’s ever been. (FT $)
 
7 Discredited health claims are getting a second airing on TikTok
It’s giving new life to lectures by a woman permanently banned from providing health services in Australia. (Vox)
 
8 Electric vehicles aren’t great at handling extreme heat
But they could get better, thanks to new materials. (Scientific American $)
+ Tesla’s stainless steel Cybertrucks are already rusting. (Futurism)
 
9 Meat-injected rice, anyone? 
I have some serious beef with this new foodstuff (sorry, sorry.) (CNN)
 
10 Some young people want landlines 
There are some upsides to having a landline phone, but they’re disappearing fast. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Critics are trying to write our obituary and are working to ban our industry in its infancy.”

—Uma Valeti, CEO of cultivated meat company Upside Foods, responds to criticism and pushback towards his industry from lawmakers, Wired reports.

The big story

This scientist is trying to create an accessible, unhackable voting machine

ALICIA FERNáNDEZ

November 2022

For the past 19 years, computer science professor Juan Gilbert has immersed himself in perhaps the most contentious debate over election administration in the United States—what role, if any, touch-screen ballot-marking devices should play in the voting process.

While advocates claim that electronic voting systems can be relatively secure, improve accessibility, and simplify voting and vote tallying, critics have argued that they are insecure and should be used as infrequently as possible. 

As for Gilbert? He claims he’s finally invented “the most secure voting technology ever created.” And he’s invited several of the most respected and vocal critics of voting technology to prove his point. Read the full story.

—Spencer Mestel

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ It’s Friday! These recipes can become either cocktails or mocktails, if that’s more your thing.
+ Why ‘Wonderboy’ was John Lennon’s favorite Kinks track. 
+ Reckon I pretty much had this exact chat with my Dad when I was a kid. 
+ Soup doesn’t have to be a faff, as this recipe shows.
+ Turns out more money really can mean more problems. 
+ Some weird and wacky ways people with busy jobs relax.

The Download: why batteries rock, and Apple’s VR headset returns problem

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Three things to love about batteries

It’s hard to pick favorites when it comes to climate technologies. Really, anything that helps us get closer to tackling climate change is worth writing about, both to share the potential upsides and to carefully examine for pitfalls.

Our climate reporter Casey Crownhart, however, does have a special place in her heart for one in particular: batteries. Why? Well, they play a crucial role in climate action, there are a million different kinds that can meet basically any need, and they’re at least a little bit magical. Read the full story. 

—Casey Crownhart 

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter that explains the tech that could combat the climate crisis. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

If you’re curious about batteries too, join our Roundtable event at 12.30pm ET today to hear from our editors and reporters discuss battery technologies, and what it’ll take for them to reach their full potential to combat climate change. 

And read more from us:

+ Sulfur could cut both the weight and cost of batteries—if it can overcome some big technical barriers.

+ Sodium could also be a game-changer for batteries.

+ If you want to know where batteries are going, look at their ingredients. + Discover why we chose battery recycling as one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies in 2023.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 People are returning their Apple Vision Pro headsets
Their main complaints are that it’s uncomfortable, gives them headaches, and triggers motion sickness. (The Verge)
+ Should Apple be worried? (Mashable)
 
2 We shouldn’t be so surprised by big leaps in AI performance
Impressive new abilities, a new paper argues, are actually neither unpredictable nor sudden. (Quanta $
+ AI hype is built on high test scores. Those tests are flawed. (MIT Technology Review)
+ AI chatbots are getting tamer—and a bit lamer. (NYT $)
 
3 Russia is moving towards building space-based nuclear weapons
US intelligence officials say the threat isn’t imminent—but it’s a worrying development. (NYT $)
+ A globetrotting influencer sent missile and drone parts to Russia, as part of an effort to dodge US sanctions. (Vice)
+ AI is becoming a powerful tool for hacking, Microsoft says. (WP $)
 
4 Self-driving car firm Waymo is recalling its software 
The bad news just keeps on coming for the autonomous vehicle sector recently. (Quartz $)
+ Robotaxi companies face an uphill battle to restore public trust, and prove their business models work. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Carmakers are ditching hybrid cars too quickly. (Vox)
 
5 Meta cut funding for fact-checking on WhatsApp
The timing couldn’t be worse, in a year with so many elections around the world. (The Information $)
 
6 X has been accepting payments from terrorist groups
Directly violating US sanctions in the process. (BBC)
 
7 How a virus beat back a woman’s ‘zombie’ bacteria 
Viruses called phages can help people for whom antibiotics no longer work—but they can be tricky to deploy. (Wired $)
+ We’ve known the dangers of antimicrobial resistance for years. It’s time for action. (MIT Technology Review)
 
8 AI has been used to bring back children killed in shootings
It’s aimed at pushing lawmakers into action—but it’s a controversial way to go about it. (WSJ $)
 
9 Bitcoin’s on a tear again
It’s the highest price it’s been since December 2021 right now. (CNBC)
+ But don’t get too sucked into the hype. (Gizmodo)
+ It’s okay to opt out of the crypto revolution. (MIT Technology Review)
 
10 A guy made a dating app where you can only date one person: him
My lord, the chutzpah. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“Quest is the better product, period.”

—Mark Zuckerberg’s review of Apple’s Vision Pro headset, posted to his Instagram account. 

The big story

The new US border wall is an app

ALICIA FERNáNDEZ

June 2023

Keisy Plaza, 39, left her home in Colombia seven months ago. She walked a 62-mile stretch with her two daughters and grandson to reach Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, on the border with Texas.

Plaza has been trying every day for weeks to secure an appointment with Customs and Border Protection so she can request permission for her family to enter the US.

So far, she’s had no luck: each time, she’s been met with software errors and frozen screens. When appointment slots do open up, they fill within minutes. A new app, called CBP One, is supposed to help alleviate the sorts of issues Plaza has encountered. But will it? Read the full story.

—Lorena Rios

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ When chefs are off-duty, these are the kinds of dishes they cook for themselves. 

+ Everyone seems to be loving Mr and Mrs Smith right now.

+ How many of these famous self-portraits were you able to identify? 

+ A home in London with a built-in Russian-style sauna and spa? Be still, my beating heart.

The Download: China’s digital red packet jamboree, and a methane-leak mapping satellite

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

How the internet pushed China’s New Year red packet tradition to the extreme

If you ask any child in China what’s the most exciting thing about the Lunar New Year, they are likely to answer: the red packets. It’s a festive tradition: During the holidays, people give out red envelopes of cash to young members of the family. You can reliably get cash gifts every year until you graduate from school and start working full-time.

In the digital age, however, they’ve become a way for Chinese tech companies to make a stack of money and attract new users and traffic. 

In return, users have to follow increasingly complicated rules to get a few bucks, for example rewards for inviting friends to join the app, or spinning wheels of coupons. And these sorts of tactics are coming to the US and beyond, as apps like Temu expand. Read the full story. 

—Zeyi Yang

This story is from China Report, our weekly newsletter all about China’s tech scene and its impact on the wider world. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday.

How sulfur could be a surprise ingredient in cheaper, better batteries

The key to building less-expensive batteries that could extend the range of EVs might lie in a cheap, abundant material: sulfur.

Addressing climate change is going to require a whole lot of batteries, both to drive an increasingly electric fleet of vehicles and to store renewable power on the grid. Today, lithium-ion batteries are the dominant choice for both industries.

But as the need for more batteries grows, digging up the required materials becomes more challenging. The solution may lie in alternatives like lithium-sulfur, which could soon reach a major milestone, as startup Lyten plans to deliver limited quantities of lithium-sulfur cells to its first customers later this year. Read the full story. 

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Is it worth paying for AI?
Tech giants have made huge bets that businesses will think it is—but some are unconvinced. (WSJ $)
+ AI hype is starting to look a bit like the telecoms boom and bust. (FT $)
+ OpenAI announced something that will make ChatGPT more useful: giving it a better memory. (NYT $)
+ It’s becoming clearer how AI is going to be sold to a skeptical public. (CNBC)

2 Chatbot ‘girlfriends’ are a privacy horror show
And the data they’re harvesting is about as intimate as it gets. (Wired $) 
+ If an AI chatbot dumped you, would you be able to tell? (WP $)
+ Please, do think carefully before outsourcing flirty texts to ChatGPT. (CNET)

3 EU climate policy is worryingly flawed
It looks good on the surface, but when you dig into it, it heavily relies on untested carbon-capture technology. (Nature)
+ Carbon removal hype is becoming a dangerous distraction. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Bots could be a big problem for this year’s elections
It’s not just deepfakes—there’s a whole gamut of new AI tools that’ll be used to wreak mayhem. (Scientific American $)
+ France says it’s uncovered a vast network of Russian disinformation websites in Europe. (The Economist $) 

5 A judge sided with OpenAI in a copyright lawsuit brought by authors
However, the lawsuit hasn’t reached a final conclusion yet. (Forbes)
+ How judges, not politicians, could dictate America’s AI rules. (MIT Technology Review)

6 It’s not a great idea to walk around while wearing your Vision Pro
For a whole stack of reasons, not least your own safety. (CNET)

7 The US military is targeting teen gamers for recruitment 
But there are questions hovering over whether their tactics are entirely ethical. (The Guardian) 

8 A private company called off its first attempt to land on the moon
Odysseus and NASA will try again on Thursday so we’ll see then. (NBC)

9 Jeff Bezos has sold over $4 billion in Amazon shares 
I’m honestly dying to know what he’s planning to do with it. (Axios)

10 What it’s like to eat a robot 
Deeply strange from the sounds of it! (IEEE Spectrum)

Quote of the day

“It’s something old that probably we think that we left behind, but that is coming back.”

—Father Benanti, AI advisor to the Vatican, tells the New York Times that unwavering beliefs in AI’s power are almost becoming a new religion. 

The big story

Why we can no longer afford to ignore the case for climate adaptation

BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES

August 2022

Back in the 1990s, anyone suggesting that we’d need to adapt to climate change while also cutting emissions was met with suspicion. Most climate change researchers felt adaptation studies would distract from the vital work of keeping pollution out of the atmosphere to begin with.

Despite this hostile environment, a handful of experts were already sowing the seeds for a new field of research called “climate change adaptation”: study and policy on how the world could prepare for and adapt to the new disasters and dangers brought forth on a warming planet. Today, their research is more important than ever. Read the full story. 

—Madeline Ostrander

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ It really is possible to think yourself happier—here’s how.
+ Panic-buying some flowers this Valentine’s Day? Don’t make these mistakes. 
+ I’ll be having nightmares about my poor, neglected notebooks after seeing this. 
+ What a champion: Bella can officially claim the title of world’s loudest purring cat. 
+ Hate to break it to you, but running really does seem to have the edge over walking if you want to get fitter. 

The Download: learning from environmental DNA, and why we should welcome watermarks

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world

Environmental DNA is a relatively inexpensive, widespread, potentially automated way to observe the diversity and distribution of life. 

Unlike previous techniques, which could identify DNA from, say, a single organism, the method also collects the swirling cloud of other genetic material that surrounds it. It can serve as a surveillance tool, offering researchers a means of detecting the seemingly undetectable. By sampling eDNA, or mixtures of genetic material in water, soil, ice cores, cotton swabs, or practically any environment imaginable, even thin air, it is now possible to search for a specific organism or assemble a snapshot of all the organisms in a given place.

It offers a thrilling — and potentially chilling — way to collect information about organisms, including humans, as they go about their everyday business. Read the full story.

—Peter Andrey Smith

Why Big Tech’s watermarking plans are some welcome good news

The world of AI has produced some depressing headlines recently, from the Taylor Swift AI-generated porn scandal to the proliferation of political deepfakes as election campaigns get underway in many countries around the world. But there’s a glimmer of good news in there, too: tech companies are stepping up and putting into place measures to better detect AI-generated content.

Meta has promised to start labeling AI-generated images on its platforms, and Big Tech is throwing its weight behind “provenance” tech that explains where content came from and who—or what—created it. These methods are not foolproof, but they’re a start. And even better, alongside these sorts of voluntary measures, we’re starting to see binding regulations. Read the full story. 

—Melissa Heikkilä

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Deepfakes are being used to resurrect dead politicians 
For example in Indonesia, where over 200 million voters will go to the polls tomorrow. (CNN)
+ And also in India, which has a general election around the corner. (Al Jazeera)

2 How BYD beat Tesla to become the world’s top electric vehicle maker
Its growth has been truly stratospheric. Now here comes the scrutiny. (NYT $)
+ BYD is getting into shipping in a big way—this is why. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Sports leagues are rolling out apps for Apple’s Vision Pro headset
Now we just have to wait to see if people enjoy using them. (NBC)
+ This is what it’s like to wear the headset every day for two weeks. (WP $)
+ The Vision Pro could help scientists conduct research. (Nature)

4 Vietnam is becoming instrumental in the US-China chip war
And it’s doubling down on its role by dangling tax breaks and other perks to companies. (Nikkei Asia)
+ Raising trillions of dollars is probably the easiest bit of Sam Altman’s chip plan. (WSJ $)

5 Estate agents are using AI to furnish people’s homes with fake furniture 
Which must reduce their workload. But… does it cross the line into outright deception? (Vice)
+ AI is being used for an even grimmer purpose: to generate obituaries. (The Verge)

6 We’re getting closer to blood tests to predict dementia
A giant study of over 50,000 volunteers has yielded some amazing insights. (The Guardian)

7 How Slack changed us
It made work feel more casual—but also arguably more all-consuming, too. (The Verge)

8 Fans are fuming after Spotify layoffs broke a musical encyclopedia 
This is a real reminder of just how fragile the digital world can be. (TechCrunch)

9 Temu is determined you are going to hear about it
The Chinese e-commerce company is spending a ton of money to get name recognition among Americans. (The Atlantic $)
+ Why the stress around Chinese apps in the US is overblown. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Musk allegedly bought Twitter because the private jet account annoyed him
I guess this is what pettiness looks like when you’re one of the richest men on the planet. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“It codifies your culture, your society’s intelligence, your common sense, your history – you own your own data.”

—Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, explains why he thinks every country should build its own ‘sovereign’ AI during the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

The big story

How megacities could lead the fight against climate change

GETTY

April 2021

In 2050, 2.5 billion more people will live in cities than do today. As the world grows more urbanized, many cities are becoming more populous while also trying to reduce carbon emissions and blunt the impacts of climate change.

In the coming decades, cities will be engines of economic growth. But they must also play a key role in confronting climate change. Learn how some of the world’s biggest cities—called megacities—are rising to this challenge. Read the full story.

—Gabrielle Merite & Andre Vitorio

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Here in the UK, it’s pancake day! The perfect excuse to treat yourself to a nice breakfast.
+ Surely this is how many of us sleep.
+ This comedy sketch about the inherent weirdness of waiters serving black pepper had me giggling. 
+ Fascinated by this list of the priciest books sold last year. 

The Download: join us at EmTech Digital Europe in London!

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Join us at EmTech Digital Europe in London

For over ten years, academics, policymakers, and business and technology leaders have gathered at our EmTech Digital event in Silicon Valley and on the MIT campus.

Now, for the first time ever, we are bringing EmTech Digital to London on 16-17 April for an exclusive gathering where we’ll hear about the most cutting-edge uses (and abuses) of AI from some of the most respected global names in the field, plus our own reporters and editors. There’ll also be plenty of time to network over food and drinks—this is London after all! 

Best of all, we’ve even got a hefty 30% discount on tickets for Download readers. So come and join us!

There are so many great speakers lined up. Here’s who I’m speaking to onstage:

+ I’m going to be speaking to Paul Murphy, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, about the impressive, growing cohort of AI companies emerging out of Europe, for example Mistral AI. 

+ I’ll also talk with Vincenzo Ciancaglini, Senior Threat Researcher at TrendMicro, about the booming business of AI within the criminal underground and the emerging risks he’s seeing.

+ And I’ll chat to Lee Glazier, Head of Digital Integrity at Rolls-Royce. He’s responsible for making sure AI is adopted as safely and ethically as possible, while remaining at the cutting-edge. 

We’ll also hear from: 

+ David Knott, Chief Technology Officer, UK Government
David will take a top-level look at the key concerns in the UK and Europe, along with some of the most pressing technology issues that leaders are facing with AI today and how to foster responsible AI innovation within their borders in the future. 

+ Zoubin Ghahramani, VP of Research, Google DeepMind
As AI continues its march into our everyday lives, Zoubin will discuss realistic timelines, new collaborations, and the need for an overall strategy to map out steps to a safe and productive AI future for Europe and beyond.

+ Victor Riparbelli, CEO and Cofounder, Synthesia
Digital humans are here, and people are replicating themselves for hire, blending physical and digital worlds. Victor will guide us through current and future use cases of 3D avatars, alongside exploring the potential risks associated with avatars that look, act, and sound like real human beings.+ Bonnie Kruft, Partner / Deputy Director of AI4Science, Microsoft
Generative AI is unlocking new research tools for bold scientific discoveries. Bonnie will cut through the hype and take a deep dive into the groundbreaking research enabled by generative AI—from small molecular inhibitors for treating infectious disease, to the discovery of new materials for energy storage. 

This chart shows why heat pumps are still hot in the US

Heat pumps are still a hot technology, though sales in the US, one of the world’s largest markets, fell in 2023. Even with the drop, the appliances saw their overall market share increase.

Heat pumps heat and cool spaces using electricity, and they could be a major tool in the effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (About 10% of global emissions are generated from heating buildings.) Check out this chart and accompanying story to learn more about where heat pump adoption in the US is set to go next. 

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The Biden campaign just joined TikTok
As part of an effort to get younger voters onside. (WP $)
+ Imran Khan used an AI voice to declare victory in Pakistan’s election from behind bars. (NYT $)
+ Instagram and Threads will let people decide if they want to see political content or not. (Quartz) 

2 A crowd destroyed an autonomous Waymo car in San Francisco 
This sort of incident has been brewing for a long time. (The Verge)
+ What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Why people might never use autonomous cars. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Climate change is ruining winter sports 
It’s doing far worse things, but this is one affluent people will notice. (Axios) 
+ For one competitive skier, climate change might have helped them achieve the incredible feat of going from last to first place. (Wired $)

4 What AI cannot do
It can assist with creative tasks, but it can’t generate them. (Wired $)
+ AI just beat a human test for creativity. What does that even mean? (MIT Technology Review)

5 What’s the Apple Vision Pro for?
Reviews so far seem to have converged on “work” being the answer. (WSJ $)
+ But there are so many other things VR can be used for. For example, pain relief. (MIT Technology Review) 
+ Sorry Zuck, Fortnite is winning the metaverse. (The Verge)

6 The first endometriosis drug in decades is within reach
Promising news for the hundreds of millions of women it affects. (The Economist $)
+ Tiny faux organs could crack the mystery of menstruation. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Cultivated meat might never make money 
As VC cash dries up, startups in the sector are having to reckon with the financial realities. (NYT $)
+ Here’s what we know about lab-grown meat and climate change. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Lab diamonds are becoming flawless
And it’s putting people off, as it makes it too obvious they’re not “real”. (The Atlantic $)

9 A spreadsheet error cost a Norwegian wealth fund $92 million 
For real. Ouch. (FT $)

10 Is artificial turf really safer for (American) football? 
It’s surprisingly hard to reach a firm conclusion. (Ars Technica)

Quote of the day

“You’ve basically got a faulty product here: they need to fix it.”

—Beeban Kidron, a UK lawmaker, tells The Guardian that campaigns to protect children’s rights online need to go deeper than just removing harmful content, into platforms’ underlying designs.

The big story

Future space food could be made from astronaut breath

INTERSTELLAR LAB

May 2023

The future of space food could be as simple—and weird—as a protein shake made with astronaut breath or a burger made from fungus.

For decades, astronauts have relied mostly on pre-packaged food during their forays off our planet. With missions beyond Earth orbit in sight, a NASA-led competition is hoping to change all that and usher in a new era of sustainable space food.

To solve the problem of feeding astronauts on long-duration missions, NASA asked companies to propose novel ways to develop sustainable foods for future missions. Around 200 rose to the challenge—creating nutritious (and outlandish) culinary creations in the process. Read the full story.

—Jonathan O’Callaghan

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ It seems as though we are living in the puppet age.
+ Celebrities love writing poetry. But are they any good at it?
+ Here’s why we find hold music so darned annoying.
+ Mountain Town Hockey sounds incredibly intense.
+ Teeny tiny dogs are back in style—maybe don’t lug them around in your handbag, though

The Download: solar geoengineering’s rocky road, and Apple’s driverless ambitions

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Solar geoengineering could start soon if it starts small

—David W. Keith, founding faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering initiative at the University of Chicago, and Wake Smith, a lecturer at the Yale School of Environment and a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.  

For half a century, climate researchers have considered the possibility of injecting small particles into the stratosphere to counteract some aspects of climate change. The idea is that by reflecting a small fraction of sunlight back to space, these particles could partially offset the energy imbalance caused by accumulating carbon dioxide, reducing warming as well as extreme storms and many other climate risks.

Cooling the planet with this form of solar geoengineering, called stratospheric aerosol injection,  would require a purpose-built fleet of high-altitude aircraft, which could take decades to assemble. This long lead time encourages policymakers to ignore the hard decisions about regulating its deployment.

Such complacency is ill-advised. Our analysis suggests a country could conceivably start a subscale solar geoengineering deployment in as little as five years, one that would produce unmistakable changes in the composition of the stratosphere. 

If we are correct, then policymakers may need to confront solar geoengineering—its promise and disruptive potential, and its profound challenges to global governance—earlier than is now widely assumed. Read the full story.

If you’re interested in learning more about solar geoengineering, take a look at:

+ A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate. Make Sunsets attempted to earn revenue for geoengineering back in 2022. Read the full story.

+ The flawed logic of rushing out extreme climate interventions. Forging too fast into controversial terrain can spark backlashes that stall research and limit our options. Read the full story.

+ This technology could alter the entire planet. These groups want every nation to have a say. Nonprofits and academic groups are working to help climate-vulnerable regions take part in the high-stakes global debate over solar geoengineering. Read the full story.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Apple’s self-driving car division is secretly racking up the miles
But it’s still lagging far behind its more advanced competition. (Wired $)
+ Chinese automaker Geely has launched new satellites to improve its cars. (Reuters)
+ Automakers are racing to get solid-state batteries off the ground. (The Guardian)
+ What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Google will no longer back up the entire internet
RIP web cache. (Ars Technica)

3 Microsoft’s AI chatbot will start developing news stories
But media startup Semafor’s human journalists will still do the actual writing. (FT $)
+ A new AI technique could slash training data requirements. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ ChatGPT can turn bad writers into better ones. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Facebook was launched 20 years ago
The site defined a strain of social network that’s started to die. (Economist $)
+ Its next two decades will be defined by the billions it’s spent on AI. (The Information $)
+ What the world thought of Facebook in 2004. (Fast Company $)

5 Sexual attacks in the metaverse are on the rise
And authorities are beginning to pay attention. (WP $)
+ We reported on this back in 2021. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Life near a bitcoin mine is a living nightmare
Constant noise is driving its neighbors to distraction, and a new law isn’t helping. (NYT $)
+ How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York town. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Bitcoin mining was booming in Kazakhstan. Then it was gone. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Gorillas, militias, and Bitcoin: Why Congo’s most famous national park is betting big on crypto. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Pig-butchering scam kits are for sale on the dark web
The kits contain web pages designed to connect to and drain a victim’s crypto wallets. (Bloomberg $)
+ The involuntary criminals behind pig-butchering scams. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Your perfect home has been dreamt up by AI
Impossibly spacious rooms, cozy nooks, and opulent interiors galore. (NYT $)

9 Sharing a Spotify account is a minefield
You never know when your peaceful playlist is about to be interrupted. (WSJ $)
+ Joe Rogan has thrashed out a multi-million dollar podcast deal. (Variety)

10 The best spots to look for alien life
Planets orbiting stable stars that aren’t too hot—or too cold—are good places to start. (The Atlantic $)
+ The best places to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system, ranked. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Experts are searching for dark matter in another dimension. (Quanta Magazine)
+ What celestial interlopers can teach us about exoplanets. (Knowable Magazine)

Quote of the day

“I thought it was a toy.”

—Derek Dennis, 56, a signal engineer on the New York subway, isn’t impressed by the city’s police department’s retired 400-pound robot, the New York Times reports.

The big story

How to fix the internet

October 2023

We’re in a very strange moment for the internet. We all know it’s broken. But there’s a sense that things are about to change. The stranglehold that the big social platforms have had on us for the last decade is weakening. 

There’s a sort of common wisdom that the internet is irredeemably bad. That social platforms, hungry to profit off your data, opened a Pandora’s box that cannot be closed. 

But the internet has also provided a haven for marginalized groups and a place for support. It offers information at times of crisis. It can connect you with long-lost friends. It can make you laugh. 

The internet is worth fighting for because despite all the misery, there’s still so much good to be found there. And yet, fixing online discourse is the definition of a hard problem. But don’t worry. I have an idea. Read the full story.

—Katie Notopoulos

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ This cat has no time for David Byrne.
+ How to grow an avocado plant—but you’ll be waiting a while for it to bear fruit.
+ Some people are really great at learning languages: up to 30 of them!
+ Why great white sharks get such a bad rap (here’s looking at you, Spielberg)
+ Tight shoulders? These stretches should help to sort you out.