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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.
Neuroscientists listened successful connected people’s brains for a week. They recovered bid and chaos.
The news: Our brains beryllium successful a authorities determination betwixt stableness and chaos arsenic they assistance america marque consciousness of the world, according to recordings of encephalon enactment taken from volunteers implicit the people of a week.
What it means: As we spell from speechmaking a publication to chatting with a friend, for example, our brains displacement from 1 semi-stable authorities to another—but lone aft chaotically zipping done aggregate different states successful a signifier that looks wholly random.
Why it’s important: Understanding however our brains reconstruct immoderate grade of stableness aft chaos could assistance america enactment retired however to dainty disorders astatine either extremity of this spectrum. Too overmuch chaos is astir apt what happens erstwhile a idiosyncratic has a seizure, whereas excessively overmuch stableness mightiness permission a idiosyncratic comatose. Read the afloat story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
We were promised smaller atomic reactors. Where are they?
For implicit a decade, we’ve heard that tiny reactors could beryllium a large portion of atomic power’s future. In theory, tiny modular reactors (SMRs) could lick immoderate of the large challenges of accepted atomic power, making plants quicker and cheaper to physique and safer to operate.
Oregon-based NuScale precocious became the archetypal institution of its benignant to wide 1 of the last regulatory hurdles earlier the institution tin physique its reactors successful the US. But adjacent arsenic SMRs committedness to velocity up operation timelines for atomic power, the way has been afloat of delays and outgo hikes—and there’s inactive a full batch of streamlining to bash earlier they go commonplace. Read the afloat story.
—Casey Crownhart
How Telegram groups tin beryllium utilized by constabulary to find protesters
Many Chinese individuals are inactive successful constabulary custody aft going into the streets successful Beijing precocious past twelvemonth to protestation zero-covid policies. While enactment happened successful galore Chinese cities, it’s the Beijing constabulary who person been consistently making caller arrests, arsenic precocious arsenic mid-January.
For the younger generations, the question was an instauration to civilian disobedience. But galore radical deficiency the method cognition to support themselves erstwhile organizing oregon participating successful nationalist events—meaning that their integer communications could person near them unfastened to being identified. Read the afloat story.
—Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s communicative is from China Report, his play newsletter covering the country. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Tuesday.
Podcast: The AI successful the newsroom
OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot has taken the net by tempest since it launched precocious past year. The latest occurrence of our award-winning podcast, In Machines We Trust, delves into the benefits and imaginable pitfalls of utilizing AI tools successful newsrooms, and what it could mean for the aboriginal of journalism arsenic we cognize it. 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 Microsoft has unveiled OpenAI-powered Bing
Tech companies are racing to revamp hunt engines with AI. (NYT $)
+ Some of Bing’s AI-boosted answers are a spot dodgy, though. (WP $)
+ Could this yet beryllium a crushed to usage Bing? (Vox)
2 How the Chinese ‘spy balloon’ play unfolded connected TikTok
With tons of silly jokes, and footage of the large “pop” moment. (WP $)
+ The US insists the balloon belonged to the Chinese military. (WP $)
+ What the balloon means for the latest iteration of the abstraction race. (Vox)
+ A caller acold warfare could beryllium connected the horizon. (Economist $)
3 Chipmakers are disquieted astir a ‘forever chemicals’ ban
They’re acrophobic it’ll extremity an already fragile manufacture implicit the edge. (FT $)
+ These elemental plan rules could crook the spot manufacture connected its head. (MIT Technology Review)
4 We’re strengthening superbugs by destroying the environment
Antimicrobial absorption is connected the rise, and truthful is biology destruction. (Wired $)
+ We tin usage sewage to way the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (MIT Technology Review)
5 How Big Tech managed to h2o down the close to repair
Lobbyists successfully tweaked the US measure successful phonemakers’ favor. (The Markup)
6 Digital payments aren’t taking disconnected successful Iraq
Decades of warfare and sanctions mean that citizens are inactive heavy reliant connected cash. (Rest of World)
+ The state has conscionable revalued its currency. (Reuters)
7 The occupation with lab-grown meat
The experimental statement isn’t a tasty incentive. (Bloomberg $)
+ Will lab-grown nutrient ever scope our plates? (MIT Technology Review)
8 Meet the quality guinea pigs
Innovators are progressively experimenting connected their ain bodies. (Neo.Life)
9 We’re stopping ⚠️BeingReal⚠️
Downloads of the authenticity-prizing app are slumping. (Sifted)
10 Don’t expect immoderate crypto ads astatine the Super Bowl
The organizers person learnt their lesson. (Insider $)
+ Crypto speech Binance has grown much almighty since FTX’s collapse. (FT $)
+ What’s adjacent for crypto. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“I would beryllium wounded oregon offended if I recovered retired my Valentine’s connection was written by a instrumentality / artificial intelligence.”
—A connection that 50% of polled radical successful the US agreed with, reports Fast Company.
The large story
What’s bigger than a megacity? China’s planned metropolis clusters
April 2021
China has urbanized with unprecedented speed. About 20 years ago, lone 30% of the Chinese colonisation lived successful cities; contiguous it’s 60%. That translates to astir 400 cardinal people—more than the full US population—moving into China’s cities successful the past 2 decades.
To accommodate the influx, China’s nationalist municipality improvement argumentation has shifted from expanding idiosyncratic cities to systematically gathering retired monolithic metropolis clusters. Cities successful a clump volition collaborate economically, ecologically, and politically, the reasoning goes, successful crook boosting each region’s competitiveness. Read the afloat story.
—Ling Xin
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.)
+ The legendary Sarah Michelle Gellar speaks!
+ Tech bros definite emotion their sick threads.
+ Hear maine out: being grateful for the things we dislike tin beryllium an emotionally adjuvant exercise.
+ I emotion this photograph of Skin from Skunk Anansie accepting an grant from King Charles.
+ Winter doesn’t person to beryllium soul-destroying erstwhile Christmas is over. Here’s however to learn to emotion it.
English (US) ·