The Download: what to expect in AI in 2024

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.

AI for everything: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, nobody knew what was coming. But that low-key release changed everything, and by January, ChatGPT had become the fastest-growing web app ever.

That was only the beginning. In February, Microsoft and Google revealed rival plans to combine chatbots with search—plans that reimagined our daily interactions with the internet. And while early demos weren’t great, the genie wasn’t going back in its bottle.

Never has such radical new technology gone from experimental prototype to consumer product so fast and at such scale. And what’s clear is that we haven’t even begun to make sense of it all, let alone reckon with its impact. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

AI for everything is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2024. Check out the rest of the list and vote for the final 11th breakthrough—we’ll reveal the winner in April.

+ If you’re interested in learning more, check out Will’s story on the six big questions that will dictate the future of generative AI, for better or worse.

What to expect from the coming year in AI

Looking to the year ahead, all signs point to there being immense pressure on AI companies to show that generative AI can make money and that Silicon Valley can produce the “killer app” for AI.

This year will also be another huge year for AI regulation around the world. In 2023 the first sweeping AI law was agreed upon in the European Union, Senate hearings and executive orders unfolded in the US, and China introduced specific rules for algorithms. If last year lawmakers agreed on a vision, 2024 will be the year policies start to morph into concrete action.

But even as the generative-AI revolution unfolds at a breakneck pace, there are still some big unresolved questions that urgently need answering. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter covering the latest AI developments. 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 We’ve finally got a release date for Apple’s Vision Pro headset
If you’ve got $3,499 spare, mark February 2 in your diary. (The Verge)
+ Apple is training its retail staff on how to demo the headset correctly. (Bloomberg $)
+ These minuscule pixels are poised to take augmented reality by storm. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Things aren’t looking great for the Peregrine lunar lander
A fuel leak means it’s highly unlikely to make it to the moon after all. (WP $) 
+ It started experiencing difficulty just hours after launch. (FT $)
+ The US company in charge is worried it won’t be able to control it much longer. (BBC)

3 The OpenAI and New York Times lawsuit is getting ugly
The AI company has accused the newspaper of not “telling the full story.” (FT $)
+ The Times is the first major US media organization to sue OpenAI. (NYT $)
+ How judges, not politicians, could dictate America’s AI rules. (MIT Technology Review)

4 China claims to have cracked Apple’s AirDrop feature
To reveal the phone numbers and email addresses of previously-anonymous senders. (Bloomberg $)

5 Our skies are chock-full of satellites
And they’re both a blessing and burden to astronomers back on Earth. (NYT $)
+ Amazon and SpaceX are head to head in a battle for satellite internet dominance. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Your body’s cells communicate with each other about aging
When they no longer talk to each other, the body starts to decline. (Quanta Magazine)
+ The debate over whether aging is a disease rages on. (MIT Technology Review)

7 What isn’t plant-based these days?
Cynics might say it’s an easy way for companies to bump up prices. (The Atlantic $)

8 A major fantasy games publisher was caught out using AI-generated content
The Magic: The Gathering maker had originally denied any generative involvement. (Motherboard)
+ This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it. (MIT Technology Review)

9 It’s not just you—dating apps really are getting worse
And users are ditching them in favor of IRL serendipity. (Bustle)
+ Looking for love on the apps is getting more and more expensive. (FT $)

10 Vinted wants to make secondhand clothing our first choice
No seller fees and fiddling around with postage, for starters. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We can be confident we haven’t seen a warmer year globally since the birth of Christ.”

—Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, reflects on 2023 being named as the hottest year on record, Sky News reports.

The big story

Computer scientists designing the future can’t agree on what privacy means

April 2023

When computer science students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Software Research returned to campus in the summer of 2020, there was a lot to adjust to.

The department had moved into a brand-new building, complete with experimental devices called Mites. Embedded in more than 300 locations throughout the building, these light-switch-size devices measure 12 types of data—including motion and sound.

The Mites had been installed as part of a research project on smart buildings, and were quickly met with resistance from students and faculty who felt the devices would subject them to experimental surveillance without their consent.

The conflict has deteriorated into a bitter dispute, complete with accusations of bullying, vandalism, misinformation, and workplace retaliation. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo & Tate Ryan-Mosley

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.)

+ I’d just love a helpful tidy mouse companion.
+ This Instagram account is a celebration of all kinds of jelly, and a thing of beauty.
+ The trick to making even the cheapest coffee beans taste better? It’s all in the tamping.
+ Happy birthday to Jimmy Page—80 years old today!
+ Man, they just don’t make choose your own adventures like they used to.

The Download: 2023’s worst tech failures, and the end of online anonymity 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.

The worst technology failures of 2023

Welcome to our annual list of the worst technologies. This year, one technology disaster in particular holds lessons for the rest of us: the Titan submersible that imploded in the shadow of the Titanic. 

Everyone had warned Stockton Rush, the sub’s creator, that it wasn’t safe. But he believed innovation meant tossing out the rule book and taking chances. He set aside good engineering in favor of wishful thinking. He and four others died. 

To us it shows how the spirit of innovation can pull ahead of reality, sometimes with unpleasant consequences. It was a phenomenon we saw time and again this year, like when GM’s Cruise division put robotaxis into circulation before they were ready. Others find convoluted ways to keep hopes alive, like a company that is showing off its industrial equipment but is quietly still using bespoke methods to craft its lab-grown meat.

The worst cringe, though, is when true believers can’t see the looming disaster, but we do. That’s the case for the new “Ai Pin,” developed at a cost of tens of millions, that’s meant to replace smartphones. It looks like a titanic failure to us. Read the full story to find out the seven worst technologies of 2023.  

—Antonio Regalado

How 2023 marked the death of anonymity online in China

There are so many people we meet on the internet daily whose real names we will never know. The TikTok teen who learned the trendy new dance, the anime artist who uploaded a new painting, the random commenter posting under the YouTube video you just watched. That’s the internet we are familiar with. 

In China, it’s already been impossible to be fully anonymous for a while now, thanks to a sophisticated system that requires identity verification to use any online services. Despite that, there were still corners of the Chinese internet where you could remain obscure. But lately, even this last bit of anonymity is slipping away. Read the full story.

—Zeyi Yang

Gene editing took center stage in 2023

Gene editing can be used to delete, insert, or alter portions of our genetic code. We’ve been able to modify DNA for years, but newer technologies like CRISPR mean that we can do it faster, more accurately, and more efficiently than ever before. 

In 2023, we saw the first approval of a CRISPR-based gene-editing therapy. And many more are to come. So let’s take a look at the developments that made news this year. What is the promise of gene editing, and what are the current pitfalls? Read the full story. 

In 2023, MIT Technology Review published a striking number of stories about gene editing. And really, that’s no surprise. Perhaps no technology has more power to transform medicine.

—Cassandra Willyard

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things health and biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

Is this the most energy efficient way to build homes?

When the Canadian engineer Harold Orr and his colleagues began designing an ultra-efficient home in Saskatchewan in the late ’70s, they knew that the trick wasn’t generating energy in a greener way, but using less of it. They needed to make a better thermos, not a cheaper coffee maker.

The result was the 1978 Saskatchewan Conservation House, a cedar-clad trapezoid that cut energy usage by 85%—and helped inspire today’s globally recognized passive-house standard for building design. It’s a marriage of efficiency and rigorously applied physics, and the associated benefits are vast. Read the full story. 

—Patrick Sisson

This story is from the next magazine edition of MIT Technology Review, set to go live on January 8—and it’s all about innovation. If you don’t already, subscribe to get a copy when it lands.

The must-reads

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

1 Hyperloop One is shutting down
Frankly, the ambition never made much sense—and now it’s unraveled entirely. (Bloomberg $)

2 What we learn about wars on TikTok
The videos that do well tend to be apocalyptic, alarmist, and full of propaganda. (WSJ $)
+ What it’s like to be a TikTok moderator. (The Guardian)
+ Misinformation is warping the debate in the US over Ukraine aid. (BBC)

3 Apple wants to catch up with AI research rivals
It’s focusing on work to shrink large language models to run more efficiently on smartphones. (FT $)
+ These six questions will dictate the future of generative AI. (MIT Technology Review)
+ The problem with America’s big AI safety plan? It’s likely to be woefully underfunded. (Wired $)

4 Twitter’s problems run so much deeper than Elon Musk
People were disengaging en masse before he even came on the scene. (The Atlantic $)

5 These were the biggest discoveries in computer science this year
From quantum computing to AI to cryptography, there was plenty to get excited about. (Quanta $)
+ A dispute about a quantum computing milestone shows just how tough it is to make them practical. (Wired $)

6 How e-scooter startup Bird crashed and burned
Safety concerns, issues with financial reporting and the pandemic all contributed. (Wired $) 
+ It owes money to more than 300 cities and towns, which shows just how rapidly it expanded before it collapsed. (Quartz $)

7 VR is becoming a hit in nursing homes
Which, in a way, makes a lot of sense. (WP $)

8 The beef industry is about to be hit by a demographic time bomb 
It’s a lot more popular with boomers than the rest of the US population. (Wired $)
+ Lab-grown meat just reached a major milestone. Here’s what comes next. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 YouTube has a big plagiarism problem
And creators say they want more than just apologies. (NBC)
+ This is how much money influencers make. (WP $)

10 This was the year millennials aged out of the internet
We’re just exhausted with it. Gen Z, over to you. Good luck. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“Governance got a bit loosey-goosey during the bubble.”

—Healy Jones, vice president of financial strategy at Kruze Consulting, tells the New York Times that a lack of due diligence by venture capitalists allowed startup fraud to thrive in the last decade.

The big story

How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York town

GABRIELA BHASKAR

April 2022

If you had taken a gamble in 2017 and purchased Bitcoin, today you might be a millionaire many times over. But while the industry has provided windfalls for some, local communities have paid a high price, as people started scouring the world for cheap sources of energy to run large Bitcoin-mining farms.

It didn’t take long for a subsidiary of the popular Bitcoin mining firm Coinmint to lease a Family Dollar store in Plattsburgh, a city in New York state offering cheap power. Soon, the company was regularly drawing enough power for about 4,000 homes. And while other miners were quick to follow, the problems had already taken root. Read the full story.

—Lois Parshley

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Thankfully, it’s probably too late to hand over control of your Christmas planning to ChatGPT.
+ It’s time to condense 2023 in 84 gloriously weird sentences.
+ Enjoy this sweet lil story about madeleines at the most wonderful time of the year.
+ Merry Christmas from Snoopy and the Peanuts gang! 
+ May baby Gromit bless your new year

The Download: recreating the early internet, and 2023 in climate data

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.

Recapturing early internet whimsy with HTML 

Websites weren’t always slick digital experiences. 

There was a time when surfing the web involved opening tabs that played music against your will and sifting through walls of text on a colored background. In the 2000s, before Squarespace and social media, websites were manifestations of individuality—built from scratch using HTML, by users who had some knowledge of code. 

Scattered across the web are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated approach. And the movement is anything but a superficial appeal to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human touch in digital experiences. Read the full story. 

—Tiffany Ng

This story is from the next magazine edition of MIT Technology Review, set to go live on January 8—and it’s all about innovation. If you don’t already, take advantage of our seasonal subscription offers to get a copy when it lands.

2023 is breaking all sorts of climate records

This has been quite the year for climate news, with weather disasters, technological breakthroughs, and policy changes making headlines around the world. There’s an abundance of bad news, but there are also some glimmers of hope, if you know where to look.

It’s a lot to make sense of, so we took a look back at the year, with the help of plenty of data. A “climate wrapped,” if you will. Check it out, and also read our story about why our climate team is more optimistic than you might imagine. 

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. 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 Child sexual abuse photos have been found in AI training data sets
It’s a shocking demonstration of how little we know about the massive amounts of data generative AI models are trained on. (WP $) 
+ The biggest AI image training data set, LAION, has been temporarily taken offline while it scrambles to respond. (404 Media)

2Apple’s headset could be ready as early as February 2024
Then we’ll find out the answer to the big question: who will buy it? (Bloomberg $)
+ These minuscule pixels are poised to take augmented reality by storm. (MIT Technology Review)

3 TikTok moderators are struggling to assess Israel-Gaza content
The big problem is a lack of local language skills in content moderation teams. (The Guardian)
+ Meta’s oversight board has said AI is leading the company to remove too many posts related to the conflict. (Quartz)
+ Search engines help to boost misinformation. (Scientific American $)

4 The US pumped more oil than any other country in history in 2023
Sounds dreadful, but the reality below the headline is complex. (The Atlantic $)
+ Fossil-fuel emissions are over a million times greater than carbon removal efforts. (MIT Technology Review)

5 What will Ozempic’s next act be? 
These types of drugs are being studied as treatments for everything from addiction to liver disease to infertility. (NYT $) 
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the internet. But what does this mean for people IRL? (MIT Technology Review)

6 YouTube is one of the last bastions of unbiased journalism in India
And even then, reporters who run their own channels work with few protections and a lot of fear. (Rest of World)

7 X went down for more than an hour
It’s not the only major outage for the site in recent days either. (The Verge)
+ How Twitter died in 2023. (Engadget)

8 Science fiction is kinda ruining the world
Billionaires grew up reading dystopian novels, and now they’re determined to make them a reality. (Scientific American $)

9 What happens to our planet when the sun dies?
Read this for a healthy helping of perspective over the holidays(!) (Quanta $)

10 How 2023 went down on social media
It wasn’t a vintage year in honesty, but there were still plenty of lolz—and drama—to go around. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“People have always been able to lie, but the effectiveness of those lies is now augmented and significantly increased.”

—Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes tells Wired how he expects AI to affect the 2024 elections. 

The big story

A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?

SAEED KHAN/APF/GETTY IMAGES

December 2022

In the fall of 2020, gig workers in Venezuela posted a series of images to online forums where they gathered to talk shop. The photos were mundane, if sometimes intimate, household scenes captured from low angles—including a revealing shot of a young woman sitting on the toilet, her shorts pulled down to mid-thigh.

The images were taken by development versions of a Roomba robot vacuum. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that contracts workers around the world to label data used to train artificial intelligence.

MIT Technology Review obtained 15 screenshots of these private photos, which had been posted to closed social media groups. The images reveal a whole data supply chain—and new points where personal information could leak out—that few consumers are even aware of. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ The new year is approaching, and with it: 30 days of yoga with Adriene!
+ The JWST has gifted us with a plethora of amazing images this year. Here are some of the most impressive.
+ There’s never a bad time to eat delicious pasta dishes.
+ Shout out to Sally Snowman, the Boston Light first and online female lighthouse keeper.
+ India’s oldest bookshop looks like a lovely place.

The Download: what we learned from COP28, and an advance for household robots

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 two words that pushed international climate talks into overtime

The annual UN climate negotiations at COP28 in Dubai have officially come to a close. Delegates scrambled to get a deal together in the early morning hours, and the meetings ended a day past their scheduled conclusion (as these things tend to). 

It’s understandable if you’ve tuned out news from the summit. The quibbles over wording—“urges” vs. “notes” vs. “emphasizes”—can all start to sound like noise. But these talks are the biggest climate event of the year, and there are some details that are worth paying attention to, not least the high-profile fight about those two words: fossil fuels.

As negotiators start their treks home, let’s sort through what happened at COP28 and why all these political fights matter for climate action. Read our story.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things energy and climate-related. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

This new system can teach a robot a simple household task within 20 minutes

The news: A new system can teach robots a domestic task in around 20 minutes. The system, called Dobb-E, was trained on iPhone videos of people carrying out a range of household jobs, recording data on movement, depth, and rotation—important information when it comes to training a robot to replicate the actions on its own. That data is then fed to an AI model which instructs the robot how to carry out the actions.

Why it matters: This new system could help the field of robotics overcome one of its biggest challenges: a lack of training data. While other types of AI, such as large language models, are trained on huge repositories of data scraped from the internet, the same can’t be done with robots, because the data needs to be physically collected. This makes it a lot harder to build and scale training databases. Read the full story. 

—Rhiannon Williams

Vertex will pay tens of millions to license a controversial CRISPR patent

The news: Vertex Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy rights to use a CRISPR patent owned by the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, avoiding a potential lawsuit over its new gene-editing treatment for sickle-cell disease.

Why it matters: The agreement allows Vertex to start selling its treatment, approved last Friday, without fear of patent infringement claims. Under an agreement with Editas announced today, Vertex agreed to pay it $50 million and annual fees of between $10 and $40 million a year until 2034. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

The bigger picture: read Antonio’s story from earlier this month explaining the background, and context, to the fight over the first CRISPR cure to be approved in the US.

The must-reads

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

1 Google’s AI search tool could upend the internet
Publishers in particular fear it could take a sledgehammer to their traffic. (WSJ $)
+ OpenAI is partnering with a major publisher. (The Guardian)
+ Chatbots could one day replace search engines. Here’s why that’s a terrible idea. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Tesla has to update nearly all 2 million of its vehicles in the US
To address a defect in the autopilot system. (The Verge)
+ Here’s what to do if you’re affected. (WP $)

3 What you need to know about plastic pollution
One fact stands out: the US produces more plastic waste than any other country. (one5c)
+ Think that your plastic is being recycled? Think again. (MIT Technology Review)

4 What’s the point of Meta’s smart glasses? 
Despite all the time and money thrown at them, they still lack a killer app. (NYT $)
+ Why Facebook is using Ray-Ban to stake a claim on our faces. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Amazon is under growing pressure
If tons of its products come from China anyway, why not buy from its Chinese competitors? (The Atlantic $)
+ The counterfeit lawsuits that scoop up hundreds of Chinese Amazon sellers at once. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Apple could sign X’s death warrant
Soon it could become such a toxic platform it violates Apple’s standards, triggering a removal from its app store. (Bloomberg $)
+ X’s ad revenue reportedly fell by $1.5 billion this year. (Ars Technica)

7 Why weight loss drugs are so significant
Their impact will ripple across our societies over the coming years. (New Yorker $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the internet. But what does this mean for people IRL? (MIT Technology Review) 

8 How much time should we spend on our phones at Christmas? 
I’d say that it really depends on how bearable your family is. (Wired $)
+ There still isn’t much evidence to back up claims that social media is bad for teens. (NBC)

9 AI astrology is getting out of hand 
It’s all fun and games until it starts instructing people to ditch things they find healthy and useful. (The Atlantic $)

10 Taylor Swift fans literally rocked the Earth
People danced so enthusiastically at her gig in Seattle that it was picked up by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. (The Economist $)

Quote of the day

“Grok is woke unfortunately.”

—Right-wing US podcaster Tim Pool expresses his annoyance at the fact that Elon Musk’s ‘anti-woke’ AI chatbot seems to express just as left-leaning views as any of its rivals.

The big story

Inside Australia’s plan to survive bigger, badder bushfires

SAEED KHAN/APF/GETTY IMAGES

April 2019

Australia’s colonial history is dotted with fires so enormous they have their own names. The worst, Black Saturday, struck the state of Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 people.

While Australia is notorious for spectacular blazes, it actually ranks below the United States, Indonesia, Canada, Portugal, and Spain when it comes to the economic damage caused by wildfires.

That’s because while other nations argue about the best way to tackle the issue, the horrors of Black Saturday led Australia to drastically change its response—one of the biggest of which was also one of the most basic: how fire risk is rated. Read the full story.

—Bianca Nogrady

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ I’m a big fan of this festive hip hop house. 
+ This kinetic PC case is a real feat of engineering.
+ There’s something seriously eerie about hearing voice recordings from the distant past.
+ It’s almost Christmas! Time to relax with a festive film or two.
+ All hail 2023, the year of the hat.

The Download: carbon removal concerns, and Yahoo’s China controversy 

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.

Two former Department of Energy staffers warn we’re doing carbon removal all wrong

The carbon removal industry is just starting to take off, but some experts are warning that it’s already headed in the wrong direction. 

Two former staffers of the US agency responsible for advancing the technology argue that the profit-driven industry’s focus on cleaning up corporate emissions will come at the expense of helping to pull the planet back from dangerous levels of warming.

They warn that carbon dioxide removal isn’t a product that any person or company “needs,” in the traditional market sense. Rather, it provides a collective societal good, in the way that waste management does, only with larger global stakes. Read the full story.

—James Temple

Yahoo’s decades-long China controversy and the responsibility of tech companies

Back in the early 2000s, Yahoo was operating a popular search engine and email service in China, and it was one of the first tech companies to be found sharing user information with the Chinese government, leading to the imprisonment of a number of Chinese citizens.

The ensuing attention and subsequent lawsuit against Yahoo from the families of two political prisoners landed a big blow against the company. But the consequences of the company’s actions are still very much felt today—and we’re still learning about how Yahoo failed to help the very cyber dissidents it was supposed to be protecting. Read the full story.

—Zeyi Yang

This story is from China Report, our weekly newsletter following technology in China. 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 The COP28 summit has agreed to transition away from fossil fuels 
But not all countries are happy about the wording of the deal. (BBC)
+ 2023 has been awful for the climate. What does 2024 hold? (New Yorker $)

2 Welcome to crypto utopia
Dryden Brown is fundraising to build a new crypto city. But does anybody need it? (NYT $)
+ Crypto hackers stole more than $1 billion this year. (Bloomberg $)
+ Crypto millionaires are pouring money into Central America to build their own cities. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Blue Origin is aiming to launch a rocket next week
After being grounded for more than 15 months due to engine issues. (TechCrunch)
+ SpaceX is the world’s second-most valuable startup. (Bloomberg $)

4 The ban TikTok movement is losing momentum
It’s almost like it never made sense in the first place. (WP $)

5 Microsoft is betting on nuclear power to run its AI operations
In turn, it plans to use AI to streamline nuclear regulatory approval. (WSJ $)
+ To avoid AI doom, learn from nuclear safety. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Twitter’s staff used to think they were making the world a better place
In hindsight, they’re not so sure. (The Verge)

7 Anti-drink drinking technology is coming to your new car
US auto-safety regulators want to force carmarkers to integrate it into new vehicles from next year. (The Guardian)
+ We need new ethics experiments for self-driving cars. (IEEE Spectrum)

8 Anxiety is content now
But our online mental health conversations aren’t always helpful or constructive. (The Atlantic $)
+ The therapists using AI to make therapy better. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Resy’s version of Spotify Wrapped was a total flop
Restaurant reservations aren’t that interesting, unfortunately. (Insider $)

10 Netflix will finally tell us what the world’s been watching
Its lack of transparency was heavily criticized during the writers’ strikes. (FT $)
+ The number one show? The Night Agent. (Bloomberg $)
+ How to prevent your smart TV from tracking your habits. (The Markup)

Quote of the day

“Fossils is not the future.”

—Dan Jørgensen, a Danish minister, is optimistic that COP28’s climate agreement will force oil companies to change, he tells the Financial Times.

The big story

House-flipping algorithms are coming to your neighborhood

April 2022

When Michael Maxson found his dream home in Nevada, it was not owned by a person but by a tech company, Zillow. When he went to take a look at the property, however, he discovered it damaged by a huge water leak. Despite offering to handle the costly repairs himself, Maxson discovered that the house had already been sold to another family, at the same price he had offered.

During this time, Zillow lost more than $420 million in three months of erratic house buying and unprofitable sales, leading analysts to question whether the entire tech-driven model is really viable. For the rest of us, a bigger question remains: Does the arrival of Silicon Valley tech point to a better future for housing or an industry disruption to fear? Read the full story.

—Matthew Ponsford

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.)

+ Buckle up dinosaur fans: we may have discovered an entirely new one in the cliffs of Dorset.
+ Play your favorite song forever and ever using this eternal jukebox app.
+ The different ways we perceive the world is absolutely fascinating.
+ It’s time to brush up on the best singles of the past year.
+ Try to relax: cooking over the holidays doesn’t have to be stressful (but it probably is)

The Download: cleantech 2.0, and ‘jury duty’ on Chinese delivery apps

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.

Climate tech is back—and this time, it can’t afford to fail

A cleantech bust in 2011 left almost all the renewable-energy startups in the US either dead or struggling to survive.

Over a decade on, the excitement around cleantech investments and manufacturing is back, and the money is flowing again. A recent analysis estimates that total green investments reached $213 billion in the US during the 12 months beginning July, 2022.

However, as ‘cleantech 2.0’ startups inch towards commercialization, many of them still face the same issues that tripped up the green revolution a decade ago. Can they succeed where their predecessors failed? Read the full story. 

—David Rotman

Users are doling out justice on a Chinese food delivery app 

Jury trials are plentiful on Chinese apps—especially Meituan, the country’s most popular food delivery service. 

Offered as a way for restaurants to appeal bad reviews they believe are unreasonable, Meituan crowdsources help from users by showing them the review, details of the order, and notes from the restaurant. Then users can vote on whether to take down the review from the restaurant’s public page. More than six million users have now participated in ‘jury duty’ on the app.

Even though it has existed for a few years, many people have only recently become aware of Meituan’s public jury feature. It’s now frequently a viral topic on social media—and a source of joy for those nosy enough to weigh in on other people’s business. Read the full story. 

—Zeyi Yang

Meet the 15-year-old deepfake victim pushing Congress into action

In October, Francesca Mani was one of reportedly more than 30 girls at Westfield High School in New Jersey who were victims of deepfake pornography. Boys at the school had taken photos of Francesca and her classmates and used AI to create sexually explicit images of them without their consent.

The practice is actually stunningly commonplace, but we rarely hear such stories—at least in part because many victims understandably don’t want to talk publicly. But, within just a day of learning about the violation, 15-year-old Francesca started speaking out and calling on lawmakers to do something about the broader problem. Her efforts are already starting to pay off with new momentum for legislation. 

Francesca and her mother, Dorota, say that their activism aims particularly to support women and girls who might be less equipped to push for change. Our senior reporter Tate Ryan-Mosley spoke to them both—read her write-up of their interview.

This story is from The Technocrat, our weekly newsletter all about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Friday.

The must-reads

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

1 Inside the bitter feuds that will shape the future of AI
It seems most of today’s top AI companies were born out of arguments between rich, egomaniacal men. (NYT $)
+ How Microsoft navigated the recent OpenAI board turmoil. (New Yorker $)
+ OpenAI agreed to buy $51 million of AI chips from a startup backed by Sam Altman. (Wired $)
+ Adam D’Angelo helped to fire Altman. Now he has to work with him. (WSJ $)
+ Not every AI expert thinks superintelligence is on its way. (CNBC)
 
2 Satellite images suggest nearly 98,000 buildings in Gaza are damaged
The pictures were taken before the seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended. (BBC)
+ Inside the satellite tech being used to reveal the extent of Gaza’s destruction. (Scientific American $)
 
3 A group of 56 nations have agreed to phase out coal
Including the US, which sends a strong signal. (AP $)
+ Why the UN climate talks are a moment of reckoning for oil and gas companies. (MIT  Technology Review)
+ Climate experts are furious with the head of COP28 for spreading misinformation. (Sky)
 
4 We badly need to regulate AI in medicine
Here’s how we might approach that mammoth task. (Proto.Life)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn’t let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 Ozempic makes people want to drink less alcohol 
Researchers need to collect more data to understand why, but it’s a potentially promising finding. (Wired $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the internet. But what does this mean for people IRL? (MIT Technology Review)
 
6 As X descends into chaos, news outlets are turning to Reddit
The trouble is, it’s a very different beast. (WP $)
+ X is still struggling to lure back advertisers. (The Guardian)
 
7 What it’s like to get your hamburgers delivered by drone
Fun… but probably not economically viable, in the long-run. (The Information $)
+ Food delivery by drone is just part of daily life in Shenzhen. (MIT Technology Review)
 
8 Kiss is becoming a ‘virtual-only’ band
Their avatars can stay on tour forever, while the actual members of the group put their feet up. (BBC)
 
9 You probably don’t need that shiny new tech gadget this Christmas 
The days of constant, rapid advancements in consumer tech are over. (The Guardian)
 
10 Inside the audacious plan to bring the dodo back from the dead
The plan is to reintroduce it to its once-native habitat in Mauritius. (CNN)
+ It might never work out. But wouldn’t it be cool if it did? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Other states are going to be watching and learning.”

—A former White House security official tells The Guardian that other nations are taking a keen interest in how Israel is using AI to select bombing targets in Gaza.

The big story

Ghost ships, crop circles, and soft gold: A GPS mystery in Shanghai

November 2019

On a sultry summer night in 2019, the MV Manukai was arriving at the port of Shanghai. The city would be the American container ship’s last stop in China before making its long homeward journey to California.

As the crew carefully maneuvered the 700-foot ship through the world’s busiest port, its captain watched his navigation screens closely. According to the Manukai’s screens, another ship was steaming up the same channel at about seven knots (eight miles per hour). Suddenly, the other ship disappeared from the AIS display. A few minutes later, the screen showed the other ship back at the dock. Then it was in the channel and moving again, then back at the dock, then gone once more.

Eventually, mystified, the captain picked up his binoculars and scanned the dockside. The other ship had been stationary at the dock the entire time. Now, new research and previously unseen data show that the Manukai, and thousands of other vessels, are falling victim to a mysterious new weapon that is able to spoof GPS systems in a way never seen before. Read the full story.

—Mark Harris

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ All aboard the booze train!
+ Treat yourself to these amazing BBC music performances, showcasing some of the best musicians of the past 50 years.
+ Gen Z is doling out dating advice to millennials, and it is savage.
+ Fortune telling with cheese? It doesn’t get much crazier than that.
+ The Conway Library archives are really quite remarkable.

The Download: generative AI’s carbon footprint, and a CRISPR patent battle

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.

Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone

The news: Generating a single image using a powerful AI model takes as much energy as fully charging your smartphone, according to a new study. This is the first time researchers have calculated the carbon emissions caused by using an AI model for different tasks. 

The significance: These emissions will add up quickly. The generative-AI boom has led big tech companies to integrate powerful AI models into many different products, from email to word processing. They are now used millions, if not billions, of times every single day. 

The bigger picture: The study shows that while training massive AI models is incredibly energy intensive, it’s only one part of the puzzle. Most of their carbon footprint comes from their actual use. Read the full story. 

—Melissa Heikkilä

The first CRISPR cure might kickstart the next big patent battle

By the middle of December, Vertex Pharmaceuticals is expected to receive FDA approval to sell a revolutionary new treatment for sickle-cell disease that’s the first in the US to use CRISPR to alter the DNA inside human cells. (Vertex has already received regulatory approval in the UK.)

But there’s a problem. The US patent on editing human cells with CRISPR isn’t owned by Vertex—it is owned by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, probably America’s largest gene research center, and exclusively licensed to a Vertex competitor, Editas Medicine, which has its own sickle-cell treatment in testing.

That means Editas will want Vertex to pay. And if it doesn’t, Editas and Broad could go to the courts to claim patent infringement, demand royalties and damages, or even potentially try to stop the treatment from being sold. Odds are we’re about to see a blockbuster lawsuit. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things health and biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

A high school’s deepfake porn scandal is pushing US lawmakers into action

On October 20, Francesca Mani was called to the counselor’s office at her New Jersey high school. A 14-year-old sophomore and a competitive fencer, Francesca wasn’t one for getting in trouble. But it turned out that over the summer, boys in the school had used artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit pictures of some of their classmates. The school administration told Francesca that she was one of more than 30 girls who had been victimized. 

Francesca didn’t see the photo of herself that day. And she still doesn’t intend to. Instead, she’s put all her energy into ensuring that no one else is targeted this way. 

And, in the past few weeks, her advocacy has already fueled new legislative momentum to regulate nonconsensual deepfake pornography in the US. Read the full story. 

—Tate Ryan-Mosley 

The must-reads

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

1 This is why we’re all sick right now
We’re contending with a lot more illnesses than we did in the pre-covid world. (The Atlantic $)
+ And covid hasn’t gone away either. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Climate disinformation is a big obstacle to action
And much of it is generated by influential nations, including China and Russia. (NYT $)
+ The US government has stopped warning social networks about foreign disinformation campaigns. (WP $)

3 Is the Turing Test dead? 
It was arguably never that reliable a measure of intelligence to begin with. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Mustafa Suleyman: My new Turing test would see if AI can make $1 million. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Hiring is still hot for prompt engineers, a year since ChatGPT launched. (Bloomberg $)

4 The long-delayed Tesla Cybertruck is finally on sale
And the price tag starts at $60,990. (The Guardian)
+ It has its detractors. But it has plenty of fans, too. (The Atlantic $)

5 College students are subject to alarming levels of surveillance 
Which is adding to their stress levels at an already stressful time in their lives. (The Markup)
+ Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University can’t agree on what privacy means. (MIT Technology Review)

6 How Huawei stunned the US with a new Chinese-made chip
Getting around sanctions will have been difficult, and very expensive. (FT $)
+ Huawei’s 5G chip breakthrough needs a reality check. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Anduril has launched a wild new jet-powered AI drone
The company says it could be used in Ukraine to intercept Russian drones. (Wired $)

8 Startups have had a bad year
Bankruptcies, layoffs, lower valuations and trouble fundraising have all featured heavily. (Bloomberg $)

9 AI is making LinkedIn even more boring
Its new AI features are convenient, but they have a flattening, homogenizing effect. (WP $)

10 What it takes to be in the 1%—of Taylor Swift fans 
More than 6,000 hours of listening to her music, for one. (WSJ $)
+ It seems Spotify Wrapped was subject to some form of hacking this year. (Vice)

Quote of the day

“It’s almost like election night.”

—Louisa Ferguson, Spotify’s global head of marketing experience, explains to The Guardian why the launch of the company’s Wrapped annual rundown is its busiest time of the year.

The big story

The uneasy coexistence of Yandex and the Kremlin

MARCIN WOLSKI

August 2020

While Moscow was under coronavirus lockdown between March and June 2020, the Russian capital emptied out—apart from the streams of cyclists in the trademark yellow uniform of Yandex’s food delivery service.

Often referred to in the West as Russia’s Google, Yandex is really more like Google, Amazon, Uber, and maybe a few other companies combined. It’s a Russian Silicon Valley unto itself. 

But Yandex’s success has come at a price. The Kremlin has long viewed the internet as a battlefield in its escalating tensions with the West and has become increasingly concerned that a company like Yandex, with the heaps of data it has on Russian citizens, could one day fall into foreign hands. Read the full story.

—Evan Gershkovich

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Remembering the legend that was Shane MacGowan (RIP).
+ The US Transportation Security Administration wins all the awards for the cutest calendar of the year, featuring some of their cutest canine colleagues.
+ We already know that spending time in the great outdoors is good for us, but here’s how and why it’s so important.
+ How to write a love poem like a pro.
+ Who’s who in American fine dining? Read this handy list to find out.

The Download: digital hide-and-seek, and AI for African languages

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.

This viral game in China reinvents hide-and-seek for the digital age

The “cat-and-mouse game” has gone viral in China this year, drawing thousands of people across the country to events every week. It’s a fun combination of a childhood game, in-person networking, the latest location-sharing technology, and meme-worthy experience. 

It’s not a typical hide-and-seek game, though, but rather one for the digital age: both the seekers and the hiders chase and evade each other by following their real-time locations on a map on their phones.Our reporter Zeyi Yang played a game with 40 strangers in a seven-acre park built on the site of the infamous Kowloon Walled City. Read about his experience here.

This company is building AI for African languages

Inside a co-working space in the Rosebank neighborhood of Johannesburg, Jade Abbott popped open a tab on her computer and prompted ChatGPT to count from 1 to 10 in isiZulu, a language spoken by more than 10 million people in her native South Africa. The results were “mixed and hilarious,” says Abbott, a computer scientist and researcher. 

Then she typed in a few sentences in isiZulu and asked the chatbot to translate them into English. Once again, the answers? Not even close.

Abbott’s experience mirrors the situation faced by Africans who don’t speak English. Many language models like ChatGPT do not perform well for African languages. 

But a new venture called Lelapa AI, a collaboration between Abbott and a biomedical engineer named Pelonomi Moiloa, is trying to use machine learning to create tools that specifically work for Africans. Read the full story.  

—Abdullahi Tsanni

A controversial US surveillance program is up for renewal. Critics are speaking out.

A debate is raging about the renewal of a controversial US surveillance program, created in 2008 to expand the power of US agencies to collect electronic “foreign intelligence information,” whether about spies, terrorists, or cybercriminals abroad, without a warrant. It compels tech companies to hand over communications records to US intelligence agencies. 

A lot of data about Americans who communicate with people internationally gets swept up in these searches. Critics say that is unconstitutional. Despite that, it’s been renewed in both 2012 and 2017. So is it likely to be renewed yet again? Here’s what you need to know. 

—Tate Ryan-Mosley

This story is from The Technocrat, our weekly newsletter all about politics, power, and Silicon Valley. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Friday.

The must-reads

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

1 Microsoft has hired former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
He’ll lead a ‘new advanced AI research team’ along with a bunch of his other former OpenAI colleagues. (The Verge)
+ Dozens of OpenAI employees have said they’ll quit. (The Information $)
+ Trouble had been brewing at OpenAI for a while. (The Atlantic $)
+ Altman had been raising money for a new chip venture in the Middle East before he was pushed out. (Bloomberg $)
+ Who’s who on OpenAI’s board, the group behind Altman’s ouster. (CNBC)
+ Read our recent interview with OpenAI’s chief scientist, reportedly one of the board members who pushed Altman out. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Our 2020 feature on OpenAI uncovered many of the tensions that have come to a head this week. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Robotaxi company Cruise’s CEO has resigned 
The company is in chaos after being forced to pull its entire driverless fleet over safety concerns. (WP $)
+ Why city employees tend to dislike driverless cars. (NYT $)
+ Robotaxis are here. It’s time to decide what to do about them. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Inside Ukraine’s invisible war
Both sides are using radio signals to overwhelm communications links to drones and troops, locate targets, and trick guided weapons. (NYT $)

4 Ad execs are urging X’s CEO to step down
They say that by staying, Linda Yaccarino is endorsing Musk’s anti-semitic diatribes. (Forbes)
+ This is the growing list of companies pulling ads from X. (WP $)

5 The southern hemisphere is in for a sweltering summer
It’s highly likely it’ll see record-breaking temperatures over the coming months, scientists say. (Nature)
+ The richest 1% are responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%, according to Oxfam. (The Guardian)

6 SpaceX’s Starship rocket reached space, but then exploded 
Or, as they like to put it, experienced a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’. (CNBC)

7 Teen boys are falling for a Snapchat nude photo scam
It’s a classic—but devastating—example of online sextortion. (WSJ $)

8 Italy’s parliament has banned lab-grown meat 
The right-wing government said it posed a threat to the country’s way of life. (Quartz $)
+ Read our review of lab-grown chicken at a Michelin-starred restaurant. (MIT Technology Review)

9 We may have to wait longer for Apple’s Vision Pro headset than planned
There’s no way it’s going to launch in January as originally planned, insiders say. (Mashable)

10 The argument for using AI to log every moment of your life
It’s a dream for some… but a total nightmare to others. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“OpenAI is nothing without its people.”

—Wording that’s being posted online by a growing number of OpenAI employees, indicating that further resignations are still to come.

The big story

How to befriend a crow

GETTY IMAGES

October 2022

Nicole Steinke feeds a family of the birds from her apartment balcony in Alexandria, Virginia, twice daily. Once there’s no food left, they’ll look for her as she walks around her neighborhood. When one crow finds her, it will call to the others, and they’ll surround her.

The crows have become minor TikTok celebrities thanks to CrowTok, a small but active niche that has exploded in popularity. CrowTok isn’t just about birds, though. It also often explores the relationships that corvids—a family of birds including crows, magpies, and ravens—develop with human beings.

They’re not the only intelligent birds around, but in general, corvids are smart in a way that resonates deeply with humans. But how easy is it to befriend them? And what can it teach us about attention, and patience, in a world that often seems to have little of either? Read the full story.

—Abby Ohlheiser

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.)

+ I can’t stop watching these extreme close-up videos of everyday objects.
+ Turn a clip of you singing into a roster of songs, thanks to this clever site.
+ Wildlife is everywhere in our cities, you just need to know where to look.
+ Start planning your escape for next year, courtesy of the best places to visit in 2024.
+ Brace yourself: it’s nearly Star Wars Holiday Special time.

The Download: teaching girls to build, and fixing government tech

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 nonprofit that lets girls build the world they want to see

Emily Pilloton-Lam didn’t grow up in a particularly handy household, but she did spend hours outside building treehouses out of logs and sticks. After years studying architecture at prestigious institutions, she realized she wanted to pursue what made her fall in love with building: working with her hands and with other people on projects that mattered. 

In 2008, at age 26, she founded a nonprofit that’s now called Girls Garage, to equip girls with both the personal power and the literal power tools to build the world they want to see.

The architecture, engineering, and construction industries are famously slow to innovate. But Girls Garage is helping to jump-start change. Read the full story.

—Allison Arieff

This piece is from the next magazine edition of MIT Technology Review, set to go live on Wednesday. It’s all about society’s hardest problems, and how we should tackle them. If you don’t already, subscribe now to get a copy when it lands!

How to make government technology better

Who hasn’t tried to fill in a government form online and run into at least one issue? Or even just thought, Hmm, why can’t I easily just do this basic civic activity online, like renewing your license? Can you even imagine a world where you could submit a digital request to fill a pothole in your neighborhood (and it actually got filled)?

All too often, online experiences with government agencies are painfully inefficient. At the same time, examples of dangerous, eye-roll-inducing techno-solutionist thinking run rampant. But it doesn’t have to be this way. To see how government tech could improve, it’s worth studying the example of Massachusetts, and Boston in particular. Read the full story.

—Tate Ryan-Mosley

Tate’s story is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly newsletter covering power and policy in Silicon Valley. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Friday.

2023 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Form Energy and its iron batteries

Form Energy is building iron-based batteries that could store renewable energy on the grid for long stretches, saving up for times when electricity sources such as wind and solar aren’t available. 

Iron, one of the most common metals on the planet, could help the company build batteries that are cheap enough to be practical. Read more about Form Energy, and check out the rest of the list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch.

25% off MIT Technology Review

For a limited time, we’re offering 25% off an annual subscription to MIT Technology Review. Subscribe for as little as $60 for digital access, or from $90 for both digital and print editions. 

The must-reads

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

1 Big Tech firms are being urged to take sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict
Blacklists of employees who’ve voiced support for Palestine are appearing online. (WP $)
+ Palestinians say that online censorship is endangering lives. (Wired $)
+ The CEO of a tech conference has resigned over his comments on the conflict. (Reuters)

2 Japan is investigating Google over potential antitrust violations 
It echoes the ongoing case the company is currently fighting in the US. (Bloomberg $)

3 Inside a cash-for-bitcoin laundering ring in New York
The scheme, which ran for years, raked in millions of dollars for criminals. (404 Media)

4 The US military hopes AI will give it the edge over China
But experts fear that startup ScaleAI’s ambitions could rush advanced AI onto the battlefield before it’s ready. (WP $)
+ Inside the messy ethics of making war with machines. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Chinese authorities are investigating iPhone maker Foxconn
The Taiwan-based firm is being investigated over tax and land use. (FT $)
+ Apple can’t shake its dependence on third parties to make iPhones. (WSJ $)

6 Sustainable aviation is edging closer to taking off
But you have to cut through a whole load of greenwashing to get to the truth. (Vox)
+ Everything you need to know about the wild world of alternative jet fuels. (MIT Technology Review)

7 How to make your food last longer
Expiration dates aren’t always accurate. Algorithms can fill in the gaps. (The Atlantic $)

8 This startup wants to use a headset to induce lucid dreaming
The problem is, there’s no proof it will work. (Slate $)
+ I taught myself to lucid dream. You can too. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Meet the teens who actually want their parents to track them
However, knowing where someone is not the same as knowing they’re safe. (WSJ $)

10 The uncanny reality of AI-generated newsreaders
They don’t need breaks or salaries, but they can’t meet their fans, either. (The Guardian)
+ Deepfakes of Chinese influencers are livestreaming 24/7 (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Religion is all about spirituality… If AI writes a sermon from A to Z, it can’t be soulful.”

—Kim Min-joon, CEO of AI bible chatbot company Awake Corp, which uses ChatGPT to answer its users’ faith-based questions, tells the Financial Times why he cautions pastors against lifting entire sermons from its app

The big story

What does breaking up Big Tech really mean?

June 2021

For Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet, covid-19 was an economic blessing. Even as the pandemic sent the global economy into a deep recession and cratered most companies’ profits, these companies—often referred to as the “Big Four” of technology—not only survived but thrived.

Yet at the same time, they have come under unprecedented attack from politicians and government regulators in the US and Europe, in the form of new lawsuits, proposed bills, and regulations. There’s no denying that the pressure is building to rein in Big Tech’s power. But what would that entail? Read the full story.

—James Surowiecki

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.)

+ Galapagos giant tortoises are being put to work: as dedicated ecosystem engineers.
+ These extreme close ups demonstrating how pens distribute ink are going to give me nightmares.
+ Ancient Egypt’s ‘mummy portraits’ are really quite remarkable.
+ There’s only one Eric Cantona, who, not content with going down in history as a European footballing legend, is turning his hand to singing.
+ How to make a gigantic Mars Bar, because why not?