The Download: Amazon’s home-guarding robot, and covid’s violent legacy

2 years ago 155

The news: Amazon announced yesterday that its location robot, Astro, volition beryllium getting a slew of large updates aimed astatine further embedding it successful homes—and successful our regular lives.

The details: The caller features connection much location monitoring. Astro volition beryllium capable to ticker pets and nonstop a video provender of their activities to users, for example. But the robot volition besides beryllium capable to rotation astir the location to support an oculus connected rooms and introduction points. Amazon besides announced a caller collaboration betwixt Astro and the Ring location information camera strategy designed to support areas extracurricular the location from imaginable break-ins. 

Why it matters: Ring’s attack to surveillance hasn’t been without controversy. It’s tenable to inquire whether combining Astro’s quality to roam astir a location with Ring’s established surveillance strategy mightiness make adjacent much problems than either merchandise did successful their erstwhile iterations. Read the afloat story.

—Tanya Basu

The pandemic created a “perfect storm” for Black women astatine hazard of home violence

Starr Davis was smitten erstwhile she met a handsome alien with flawless tegument and a wide grin successful March 2020. He was charming and persistent; but their whirlwind romance took a large crook erstwhile she fell pregnant. His assertive behaviour started to marque her uncomfortable, but helium was the begetter of her child.

He became physically abusive a fewer weeks aft she moved successful with him. He forbade her from mounting ft outside, saying it was to support her and their unborn kid from covid. With nary friends oregon adjacent household adjacent for support, she suffered successful silence.

Covid seems to person made things worse for galore women experiencing unit astatine home. Anti-domestic-violence advocates constituent to melodramatic increases successful calls to shelters and enactment groups, and galore attraction workers accidental this summation successful home unit seems to person disproportionately affected Black women similar Davis. Read the afloat story.

—Chandra Thomas Whitfield

Podcast: AI births integer humans

In the latest occurrence of our podcast, In Machines We Trust, we excavation into the satellite of integer twins: AI-powered replicas designed to seizure the carnal look and expressions of existent humans. But though the amusement manufacture is embracing them, they rise familiar, thorny questions astir ownership and integer rights. Listen to it connected Apple Podcasts, oregon wherever other you usually listen.

The must-reads

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

1 Sweden has recovered a caller leak successful the Nord Stream pipeline
Russia is inactive denying immoderate work for attacking the state pipeline, arsenic the fig of known leaks reaches four. (BBC)
+ Finding idiosyncratic to blasted is easier said than done. (Wired $)
+ The methane leak is apt to beryllium the biggest ever, by far. (AP News)
+ The country’s tech imports person collapsed nether sanctions. (Insider $)
+ Russia hasn’t been honorable astir the authorities of the pipeline for rather immoderate time. (Slate $)

2 A bionic pancreas could lick 1 of the biggest challenges of diabetes
An algorithm takes implicit the arduous occupation of counting carbohydrates. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Crypto is inactive successful crisis
Senior executives are inactive departing large firms, and investors are inactive wary. (Bloomberg $)
+ Do Kwon, the missing Terraform boss, has called the lawsuit against him ‘unfair.’ (Bloomberg $)
+ Crypto is weathering a bitter storm. Some inactive clasp connected for beloved life. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A teen died aft a telehealth supplier prescribed him antidepressants 
The institution failed to get consent from the minor’s parents. (WSJ $)

5 China’s chipmakers are being investigated
Which is dealing the industry’s dreams of self-sufficiency a dense blow. (FT $)
+ Corruption is sending daze waves done China’s chipmaking industry. (MIT Technology Review)
+ There are nary spot reserves. (Vox)

6 What it’s similar being trapped successful a driverless car
The vehicles enactment beauteous well—until they don’t. (NYT $)
+ The large caller thought for making self-driving cars that tin spell anywhere. (MIT Technology Review)

7 How bully bacteria tin combat malnutrition 🦠
Food that rebalances malnourished microbiomes tin assistance children to grow. (Economist $)
+ Choanoflagellates are tiny creatures that besides harbor bacteria communities. (The Atlantic $)

8 Tech startups are helping to rebuild Bosnia
Its up-and-coming businesses privation to reverse the war-scarred nation’s encephalon drain. (Rest of World)

9 TikTok is making it harder for grounds execs to observe caller musicians
There’s plentifulness of chaff to abstracted from the wheat. (The Guardian)
+ A car-renting mates person been tracking their customers connected the platform. (Motherboard)
+ Investors are increasing bushed of chasing TikTok-style societal apps. (The Information $)

10 The CIA is investing successful tech to resurrect mammoths 🦣
It uses CRISPR cistron editing to make optimized familial code. (Intercept)

Quote of the day

“Everything is imaginable if you’re brave.”

—Katherin Bestandig, a regular astatine the Bam Bam Beach Bitcoin Bar successful Lagos, Portugal, describes her bold attack to investing successful volatile cryptocurrency to the New York Times.

The large story

Why the equilibrium of powerfulness successful tech is shifting toward workers

February 2022

Something has changed for tech giants. Even arsenic they proceed to clasp tremendous power successful our regular lives, a increasing accountability question has begun to cheque their power. Led successful ample portion by tech workers themselves, a question seeking betterment of however these companies bash concern has taken connected unprecedented momentum, peculiarly successful the past year.

Concerns and choler implicit tech companies’ interaction successful the satellite is thing new, of course. What’s changed is that workers are progressively getting organized. Read the afloat story.

—Jane Lytvynenko

We tin inactive person bully things

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

+ Ever consciousness similar you’re being watched?
+ It’s up to you, New York!
+ Forget the gym, each the coolest cats are bouldering these days.
+ Lizzo visiting the Library of Congress to play a priceless flute is the serotonin boost I needed today.
+ A adjuvant reminder that each connected LinkedIn is not arsenic it seems (thanks Beth!)

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