The Download: dual-driving AI, and Russia’s Telegram propaganda

2 years ago 226

The news: Wayve, a driverless-car startup based successful London, has made a machine-learning exemplary that tin thrust 2 antithetic types of vehicle: a rider car and a transportation van. It is the archetypal clip the aforesaid AI operator has learned to thrust aggregate vehicles.

Why it matters: While robotaxis person made it to a fistful of streets successful Phoenix and San Francisco, their occurrence has been limited. Wayve is portion of a caller procreation of startups ditching the accepted robotics mindset—where driverless cars trust connected super-detailed 3D maps and modules for sensing and planning. Instead, these startups trust wholly connected AI to thrust the vehicles.

What’s next: The beforehand suggests that Wayve’s attack to autonomous vehicles, successful which a deep-learning exemplary is trained to thrust from scratch, could assistance it standard up faster than its starring rivals. Read the afloat story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Russia’s conflict to person radical to articulation its warfare is being waged connected Telegram

Putin’s propaganda: When Vladimir Putin declared the partial call-up of subject reservists connected September 21, successful a hopeless effort to effort to crook his agelong and brutal warfare successful Ukraine successful Russia’s favor, helium kicked disconnected another, parallel battle: 1 to person the Russian radical of the merits and risks of conscription. And this 1 is being fought connected the encrypted messaging work Telegram.

Opposing forces: Following the announcement, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels began to enactment up dutifully down Putin’s plans, anxious to beforehand the thought that the warfare helium is waging is conscionable and winnable.  But whether this vein of propaganda is moving is acold from certain. For each the enactment the authorities is doing to effort to power the narrative, there’s a vibrant absorption connected the aforesaid level moving to undermine it—and offering enactment for those seeking to dodge the draft. Read the afloat story.

—Chris Stokel-Walker

NASA’s DART ngo is connected way to clang into an asteroid today

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, oregon DART, is connected people to collide with the asteroid Dimorphos astatine 7.14pm ET today. Though Dimorphos is not astir to collide with Earth, DART is intended to show the quality to deflect an asteroid similar it that is headed our way, should 1 ever beryllium discovered.

Read much astir the DART mission, and however the clang is apt to play out.

The must-reads

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

1 The US says Russia volition look catastrophe if it uses atomic weapons
It’s hard to cognize whether Putin’s menace is simply a bluff—or deadly serious. (The Guardian)
+ Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky thinks it is precise real. (CNBC)
+ What is the hazard of a atomic mishap successful Ukraine? (MIT Technology Review)

2 YouTube wants to lure creators distant from TikTok with cash
But it won’t accidental however much. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Germany’s zero-tolerance for hatred code is simply a double-edged sword
While the menace of fines disincentivizes immoderate perpetrators, activists interest that excessively galore radical are being targeted. (NYT $)
+ Misinformation is already shaping US voters’ decisions up of November’s midterms. (NYT $)

4 Why adjacent the largest companies are susceptible to hacking
A zero-trust attack is helpful, but volition lone instrumentality you truthful far. (WSJ $)
+ Hackers tin disrupt image-recognition systems utilizing vigor waves. (New Scientist $)
+ Microsoft is optimistic that AI tin basal retired atrocious actors. (Bloomberg $)
+ The hacking manufacture faces the extremity of an era. (MIT Technology Review)

5 NASA’s Artemis satellite ngo has been delayed again
Due to tropical tempest Ian. (BBC)
+ Saudi Arabia wants to nonstop its archetypal pistillate astronaut into space. (Insider $)

6 Fighting clime alteration extends beyond kicking corporations
A much nuanced attack could beryllium required to velocity up the modulation to cleaner energy. (The Atlantic $)
+ Global wildfires mean that snowfall is melting quicker than usual. (Slate $)
+ Disaster security is progressively tricky to navigate. (Knowable Magazine)
+ Carbon removal hype is becoming a unsafe distraction. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Crypto’s fired workers don’t cognize what to bash next
But plentifulness of them haven’t fto their experiences enactment them disconnected the sector. (The Information $)
+ Interpol has issued a reddish announcement for Terraform Labs’ co-founder Do Kwon. (Bloomberg $) 

8 The Danish metropolis that banned Google
The tech giant’s handling of children’s information wasn't decently assessed. (Wired $)
+ Google says it’s unwilling to transportation it to money web costs successful Europe. (Reuters)

9 Why neuroscience is making a comeback 🧠
Some experts are convinced that making neurology and psychiatry departments enactment person unneurotic is agelong overdue. (Economist $)

10 How plant-based nutrient fell retired of manner 🍔
Evangelists are convinced the nascent manufacture is simply experiencing teething problems. (The Guardian)
+ Your archetypal lab-grown burger is coming soon—and it’ll beryllium “blended”. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“There’s decidedly the boys’ nine that inactive exists.”

—Taryn Langer, laminitis of nationalist relations steadfast Moxie Communications Group, tells the New York Times astir her frustrations astatine the sexist authorities of the tech industry.

The large story

The quest to larn if our brain’s mutations impact intelligence health

August 2021

Scientists person struggled successful their hunt for circumstantial genes down astir encephalon disorders, including autism and Alzheimer’s disease. Unlike problems with immoderate different parts of our body, the immense bulk of encephalon upset presentations are not linked to an identifiable gene.

But a University of California, San Diego survey published successful 2001 suggested a antithetic path. What if it wasn’t a azygous faulty gene—or adjacent a bid of genes—that ever caused cognitive issues? What if it could beryllium the familial differences betwixt cells? 

The mentation had seemed far-fetched, but much researchers person begun to instrumentality it seriously. Scientists already knew that the 85 cardinal to 100 cardinal neurons successful your encephalon enactment to immoderate grade successful concert—but what they privation to cognize is whether determination is simply a hazard erstwhile immoderate of those cells mightiness beryllium singing a antithetic familial tune. Read the afloat story.

—Roxanne Khamsi

Read Entire Article