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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.
How Citizen is trying to remake itself by recruiting aged Asians
Members of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander assemblage successful the US are surviving done a play of ongoing race-based attacks—most precocious successful adjacent Half Moon Bay.
Many of them consciousness that Citizen, a hyperlocal app that allows users to study and travel notifications of adjacent crimes, is 1 of their champion means of protection.
But the app has a checkered history. Citizen has agelong been criticized for amplifying paranoia astir crime. Now that the institution is actively trying to enlistee users of Asian descent successful the Bay Area, galore of whom are elderly, experts are disquieted the app could really marque things worse. Read the afloat story.
—Lam Thuy Vo
How AI tin really beryllium adjuvant successful catastrophe response
What’s happening: We often perceive large (and unrealistic) promises astir the imaginable of AI to lick the world’s ills. But 1 effort from the US Department of Defense does look to beryllium useful: xView2, which is helping with catastrophe logistics and connected the crushed rescue missions successful Turkey aft the aftermath of its caller devastating earthquake.
How it works: It uses machine-learning algorithms successful conjunction with outer imagery to place gathering and infrastructure harm successful the catastrophe country and categorize its severity overmuch faster than is imaginable with existent methods. Read the afloat story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
Tate’s communicative is from The Technocrat, her caller play newsletter giving you the wrong way connected each things tech policy. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Friday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 The US Supreme Court is preparing to perceive the lawsuit against Section 230
The lawsuit against the ineligible proviso that protects net contented volition beryllium heard tomorrow. (NYT $)
+ The tribunal volition see a second, akin lawsuit connected Wednesday. (Fast Company $)
+ The Supreme Court whitethorn overhaul however you unrecorded online. (MIT Technology Review)
2 China is rushing to make its ain ChatGPT
Its net giants are racing to drawback up with the west.(FT $)+ The country’s heavy-handed regularisation and censorship won’t help. (NYT $)
+ Inside the ChatGPT contention successful China. (MIT Technology Review)
3 The US is connected the brink of a norovirus wave
While it’s not antithetic each winter, the pandemic whitethorn person near america much susceptible.(Vox)
+ The champion mode to forestall catching it? Washing your hands. (The Atlantic $)
4 Twitter has axed two-factor authentication
Which is highly apt to marque users much susceptible to hacking. (Slate $)
+ Facebook and Instagram are copying Twitter’s argumentation of charging radical for bluish ticks. (The Verge)
5 The crypto wintertime is devastating miners
Profits are down, and they’re acceptable to plummet adjacent further. (Wired $)
+ A hedge money that invested heavy successful FTX is shutting down. (FT $)
+ Tim Berners-Lee thinks crypto is comparable to gambling. (CNBC)
6 AI algorithms are being deployed to laic workers off
It’s yet different instrumentality companies could maltreatment successful the sanction of relieving unit connected humans. (WP $)
7 All sorts of schools are experimenting with banning smartphones
But it’s overmuch easier for backstage schools to enforce the rules. (The Atlantic $)
8 Times are pugnacious for video crippled makers
Players are spending less, and they’re having to cancel games arsenic a result. (WSJ $)
+ VR arcades are progressively fashionable successful the UK, though. (The Guardian)
9 What it’s similar to unrecorded retired TikTok’s greeting routines
Once the apex of #aspirationalcontent, they’re present grounded successful relatability. (The Guardian)
10 Replika says its AI companions weren’t expected to beryllium erotic
But users aren’t convinced the institution is telling the truth. (Motherboard)
Quote of the day
“The radical talking astir generative AI close present were the radical talking astir Web3 and blockchain until recently—the Venn diagram is simply a circle.”
—Ben Waber, main enforcement of AI workplace institution Humanyze, ponders the pitfalls of the AI hype bid to the Wall Street Journal.
The large story
One city’s combat to lick its sewage occupation with sensors
In the metropolis of South Bend, Indiana, wastewater from people’s kitchens, sinks, washing machines, and toilets flows done 35 vicinity sewer lines. On bully days, conscionable earlier each enactment ends, a vertical throttle tube diverts the sewage into an interceptor tube, which carries it to a attraction works wherever coagulated pollutants and bacteria are filtered out.
As successful galore American cities, those pipes are combined with tempest drains, which tin capable rivers and lakes with toxic sludge erstwhile dense rains oregon melted snowfall overwhelms them, endangering wildlife and drinking h2o supplies. But metropolis officials person a program to marque its aging sewers importantly smarter. Read the afloat story.
—Andrew Zaleski
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.)
+ A generous Canadian who gave distant her savings to foundation arsenic a kid has been richly rewarded successful adulthood—she’s conscionable won the lottery (thanks Greg!)
+ Well, this feels pointed, but besides painfully true.
+ Police successful the UK person fixed a chocolate criminal the nickname Easter Bunny.
+ It whitethorn beryllium a small spot precocious for Valentine’s Day, but this kitten is the perfect gift.
+ Neil Young and Crazy Horse are releasing an medium this spring, which is origin for solemnisation successful my books.
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