The Download: how AI could change politics, and lifting the lid on Facebook

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.

Six ways that AI could alteration politics

—Bruce Schneier & Nathan E. Sanders

When it comes to however AI whitethorn endanger our democracy, overmuch of the nationalist speech lacks imagination. People speech astir the information of campaigns that onslaught opponents with fake images, audio oregon video due to the fact that we already person decades of acquisition dealing with doctored images and misinformation dispersed by overseas governments.

Threats of this benignant look urgent and disturbing due to the fact that we cognize what to look for, and we tin easy ideate their effects. But the information is, the aboriginal volition beryllium overmuch much interesting. Here are six milestones that volition herald a caller epoch of antiauthoritarian authorities driven by AI. Read the afloat story.

Interested successful AI and politics? Why not cheque out:

The must-reads

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

1 It’s tricky to cognize what to marque of caller studies into Facebook 
Meta disagrees with however autarkic researchers interpreted its data. (WSJ $)
+ The institution collaborated with them connected a multi-year project. (WP $)
+ The findings marque it adjacent much analyzable to discern societal media’s effects. (NYT $)
+ It besides means determination are nary elemental answers. (The Atlantic $)

2 Generative AI companies are hopeless for your data 
And it’s incredibly hard to halt them from scraping it. (Vox)
+ YouTube is dubbing videos with AI-generated voices. (Rest of World)
+ Meta’s Llama 2 mightiness not beryllium arsenic open-source arsenic it claims. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ It looks similar LinkedIn is processing an AI occupation exertion coach. (The Verge)
+ OpenAI’s hunger for information is coming backmost to wound it. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The quest for EV metals comes with a quality cost
Miners are dying successful Indonesia attempting to extract nickel. (Rest of World)

4 Won’t idiosyncratic delight deliberation of the kidfluencers?
Regulators are circling, and it’s harder to marque wealth than it utilized to be. (Economist $)
+ Meet the wannabe kidfluencers struggling for stardom. (MIT Technology Review)

5 US quality services are trying to sphere a spying loophole
They’re trying to person lawmakers to support telephone surveillance measures successful place. (Wired $)

6 Infusing older mice with young humor helps them unrecorded longer
However, it doesn’t beryllium it’d enactment for humans. (NYT $)
+ Aging clocks purpose to foretell however agelong you’ll live. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The Cook Islands don’t cognize what to bash astir deep-sea mining
Residents are reluctant to publically reason their government’s pro-mining stance. (Hakai Magazine)
+ These deep-sea “potatoes” could beryllium the aboriginal of mining for renewable energy. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Gene-edited nutrient is connected the rise
CRISPR works similar earthy breeding, conscionable overmuch faster. (Proto.Life)
+ How CRISPR could assistance prevention crops from devastation caused by pests. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Maybe aliens truly are retired determination 👽
That’s what a respected US quality authoritative told a committee earlier this week. (FT $)
+ The net didn’t look excessively bothered by the revelation, though. (NBC News)
+ Some UFO whistleblowers are much reliable than others. (Vox)

10 TikTok is simply a buying app now|
It’s fundamentally QVC for Gen Z. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“When it comes to polarization, oregon people’s governmental beliefs, there’s a batch much that goes into this than societal media.”

—Katie Harbath, Facebook’s erstwhile manager of nationalist policy, tells the Guardian wherefore it’s truthful hard to tease retired the effect societal media has connected people’s opinions. 

The large story

Inside Australia’s program to past bigger, badder bushfires

April 2019Australia’s assemblage past is dotted with fires truthful tremendous they person their ain names. The worst, Black Saturday, struck the authorities of Victoria connected February 7, 2009. Fifteen abstracted fires scorched the authorities implicit conscionable 2 days, sidesplitting 173 people.

While Australia is notorious for spectacular blazes, it really ranks beneath the United States, Indonesia, Canada, Portugal, and Spain erstwhile it comes to the economical harm caused by wildfires implicit the past century.

That’s due to the fact that portion different nations reason astir the champion mode to tackle the issue, the horrors of Black Saturday led Australia to drastically alteration its response—one of the biggest of which was besides 1 of the astir basic: taking different look astatine the mode occurrence hazard is rated. Read the afloat story.

—Bianca Nogrady

We tin inactive person bully things

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