The Download: geothermal power’s potential, and AR for luxury jewelry

1 year ago 111

In precocious January, a geothermal powerfulness startup began conducting experiments wherever it pumped h2o heavy beneath the godforsaken level of bluish Nevada. 

The results—which MIT Technology Review is reporting exclusively—suggest that Houston-based Fervo tin make flexible geothermal powerfulness plants, susceptible of ramping energy output up oregon down arsenic needed.

Potentially much importantly, the strategy tin store up vigor for hours oregon adjacent days and present it backmost implicit akin periods, efficaciously acting arsenic a elephantine and precise long-lasting battery. 

There are remaining questions astir however good this method volition enactment connected larger scales. But if it succeeds, it could capable a captious spread successful today’s grids, making it cheaper and easier to destruct greenhouse-gas emissions. Read the afloat story.

—James Temple

Cartier and Tiffany are getting into AR to merchantability luxury to Gen Z

Our elder newsman Tanya Basu precocious tried connected a Cartier Tank ticker and a slew of Tiffany bracelets, watching the metallic and diamonds radiance successful the dim light. It wasn’t astatine a store, though; she was successful bed, barefoot and successful sweatpants, utilizing an AR acquisition connected Snap that fto her spot however the jewelry looked connected her wrist.

The Cartier and Tiffany AR campaigns are the latest successful a bid of collaborations Snap is making with brands to get Gen Z to put successful luxury utilizing virtual try-on experiences. There’s grounds that, portion they mightiness not thrust contiguous purchases, these campaigns tin alteration user attitudes and behavior. Read the afloat story.

The net is astir to get a batch safer

We accidentally included a atrocious nexus to yesterday’s communicative astir Europe’s large tech bills—sorry astir that! The 2 bills are rather revolutionary, and volition acceptable a caller planetary golden modular for regulating user-generated content. You tin read the afloat communicative here.

The must-reads

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

1 A azygous technologist managed to interruption Twitter
All those non-stop layoffs are taking their toll connected the embattled platform. (Platformer $)
+ Twitter’s links and images stopped moving entirely. (Engadget)
+ Here’s however a Twitter technologist says it volition break. (MIT Technology Review)

2 How the hype astir generative AI differs from the crypto craze
AI’s acold much accessible, for one. (Vox)+ Maybe we’re overhyping GPT-4 earlier it adjacent arrives. (The Atlantic $)+ Why reports of AI stealing our jobs are inactive a load of blistery air. (Economist $)
+ India’s crypto manufacture is connected beingness support. (Rest of World)
+ Generative AI is changing everything. But what’s near erstwhile the hype is gone? (MIT Technology Review)

3 Inside China’s crippled to bargain US concern secrets 
Theft of overseas intelligence spot is unofficial authorities policy. (NYT $)

4 Government algorithms are discriminating against women and radical of color
The inaccurate and biased payment fraud strategy is being utilized to marque consequential decisions successful Rotterdam. (Wired $)
+ AI has exacerbated radical bias successful housing. Could it assistance destruct it instead? (MIT Technology Review)

5 US peculiar forces privation to usage deepfakes successful psy-ops

After years of informing however overseas nations could bash precisely the aforesaid thing. (The Intercept)
+ Detecting deepfakes is simply a crippled of feline and mouse. (IEEE Spectrum)

6 EV startups are earnestly struggling
Their vehicles are inactive costly to manufacture, and galore businesses are being forced to standard back. (WSJ $)

7 Google’s offices are similar a shade town
According to CEO Sundar Pichai, that is. (CNBC)

8 Commercial surrogacy is booming 🤰🏻
Especially aft the pandemic delayed galore would-be parents’ plans. (CNBC)
+ I took an planetary travel with my frozen eggs to larn astir the fertility industry. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How to dismantle your proposal algorithms
What platforms propulsion america and what we really privation to work are 2 antithetic things.(The Atlantic $)

10 Why floppy discs conscionable won’t dice 💾
Despite naysayers’ champion efforts. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“The marketplace is blistery garbage close now.”

—Justine de Caires, a erstwhile elder bundle technologist astatine Twitter, discusses the difficulties of trying to find a occupation amid a monolithic tech manufacture downturn with CNN.

The large story

Inside Alphabet X’s caller effort to combat clime alteration with seagrass

November 2022

For years, Tidal, a task wrong Alphabet’s “moonshot factory” X division, has been utilizing cameras, machine imaginativeness and instrumentality learning to get a amended knowing of beingness beneath the oceans, including monitoring food disconnected the seashore of Norway.  

Now, Tidal hopes its strategy tin assistance sphere and reconstruct the world’s seagrass beds, accelerating efforts to harness the oceans to suck up and store distant acold much c dioxide. Read the afloat story.

—James Temple

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.)

+ This kitten is going to spell acold successful life.
+ I americium perfectly obsessed with this Jennifer Coolidge photoshoot.
+ How chill is this: researchers person utilized cosmic ways to representation a concealed corridor hidden wrong Giza’s Great Pyramid.
+ Why drummers are the canary successful AI music’s goldmine.
+ Gen Z loves a slogan shirt—but they don’t needfully mean what you deliberation they do.

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