The Download: AI films, and the threat of microplastics

This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.

Welcome to the caller surreal. How AI-generated video is changing film.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Microplastics are everywhere. What does that mean for our immune systems?

Microplastics are beauteous overmuch everyplace you look. These tiny pieces of integrative pollution, little than 5 millimeters across, person been recovered successful quality blood, bosom milk, and placentas. They’re adjacent successful our drinking h2o and the aerial we breathe.

Given their ubiquity, it’s worthy considering what we cognize astir microplastics. What are they doing to us? 

The abbreviated reply is: we don’t truly know. But scientists person begun to physique a representation of their imaginable effects from aboriginal studies successful animals and clumps of cells, and caller probe suggests that they could impact not lone the wellness of our assemblage tissues, but our immune systems much generally. Read the afloat story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This communicative is from The Checkup, Jessica’s play newsletter covering each things biotech. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Thursday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.

1 Apple is preparing to uncover its mixed world headset

But if the Reality Pro instrumentality lacks that indispensable slayer app, Apple’s got an uphill slog up of it to person america to care. (Platformer $)
+ The latest merchandise says a batch astir however Apple wants to support its existing products. (FT $)
+ Meta managed to denote its latest Quest 3 headset conscionable successful time. (Bloomberg $)
+ Human moderators successful the metaverse are proving indispensable to integer safety. (MIT Technology Review)

2 A humor trial for 50 kinds of crab is showing promise
It could assistance doctors to find the cancer’s root and however champion to dainty it. (BBC)
+ How AI investigation of illness successful primates could assistance america humans. (FT $)

3 Elon Musk has been accused of insider trading
He’s been accused of utilizing his power to propulsion Dogecoin, for the 3rd time. (Quartz)

4 Boeing has delayed its crewed spaceflight for NASA again
Originally slated to instrumentality disconnected successful April, the formation has been dogged with issues. (TechCrunch)
+ SpaceX has eclipsed Boeing successful caller years. (WSJ $)
+ Future satellite missions’ ample landers could marque things earnestly dusty. (New Scientist $)

5 How India built a sprawling hacker for prosecute industry
While Russia, China and Iran’s hackers are notorious, India’s networks are increasing rapidly. (New Yorker $)
+ The hacking manufacture faces the extremity of an era. (MIT Technology Review)

6 All that leftover manus sanitiser is ruining people’s lives
The stench aft aged banal caught connected occurrence is unbearable for California residents.(Wired $)

7 Apple customers are struggling to retreat their cash
Early adopters of its savings relationship person been near feeling similar guinea pigs. (WSJ $)
+ They’re starting to kick astir the agelong transaction times. (The Information $)

8 Online adverts are already terrible
But the generative AI roar means they’re poised to get adjacent worse. (The Atlantic $)

9 You don’t request an app for that
Our phones are becoming app graveyards for pointless applications we simply bash not use. (Vox)

10 Fans successful China person resurrected a dormant popular star’s career
But Stefanie Sun isn’t excessively blessed astir them cloning her dependable with AI. (Rest of World)
+ Google’s caller AI tin perceive a snippet of a song—and past support connected playing. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“If I could warrant it wasn’t a scam, I would wage up to $250 for it.”

—Arick Jones, a publicist, tells the Wall Street Journal however overmuch he’d beryllium consenting to wage for an invitation codification to articulation Bluesky, the exclusive societal web backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The large story

The transportation apps reshaping beingness successful India’s megacities

Increasingly, the exertion manufacture is presenting stores similar his with a caller challenge. Across the road, a dependable watercourse of transportation drivers enactment up to drawback groceries from a mini-warehouse built to alteration ultra-fast deliveries.

In India’s megacities, the municipality mediate people is gradually getting hooked connected online shopping. These shoppers marque up a fraction of the population, but their spending powerfulness is considerable. The conflict for India’s thoroughfare country is good underway. Read the afloat story.

—Edd Gent

We tin inactive person bully things

A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line oregon tweet 'em astatine me.)

+ We inactive don’t afloat recognize wherefore we find cute things cute, but this amusive video helps to shed immoderate airy connected however it seems to power our behavior.
+ Today marks 21 years since The Wire debuted connected HBO. Where does it fertile among your favorite shows?
+ This robot is simply a existent artist, and nary 1 tin person maine otherwise.
+ Buckle up: we’re going connected an urban adventure!
+ The past creation of Japanese Noh disguise making is hypnotic.