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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.
Sam Altman invested $180 cardinal into a institution trying to hold death
When a startup called Retro Biosciences eased retired of stealth mode successful mid-2022, it announced it had secured $180 cardinal to bankroll an audacious mission: to adhd 10 years to the mean quality lifespan.
The concern has ever been vague astir wherever its wealth had travel from. Now MIT Technology Reveal tin uncover that the full sum was enactment up by Sam Altman, the 37-year-old startup guru and capitalist who is CEO of OpenAI.
The magnitude is among the largest ever invested by an idiosyncratic into a startup pursuing quality longevity, and volition money Retro’s “aggressive mission” to stall aging, oregon adjacent reverse it. Read the afloat story.
—Antonio Regalado
If you’d similar to work much astir OpenAI:
+ Read the inside story of however ChatGPT was built from the radical who made it.
+ Sam Altman: This is what I learned from DALL-E 2.
Forget decorator babies. Here’s however CRISPR is truly changing lives
Gene editing is simply a exertion galore radical thin to subordinate with its ethically-fraught quality to make decorator babies. But that’s besides a distraction from the existent communicative of however the exertion is changing people’s lives done treatments utilized connected adults with superior diseases.
There are present much than 50 experimental studies underway that usage cistron editing successful quality volunteers to dainty everything from crab to HIV and humor diseases, according to a tally shared with MIT Technology Review.
But these archetypal procreation of treatments volition beryllium hugely costly and tricky to implement—and they could beryllium rapidly superseded by a adjacent procreation of improved editing drugs. Read the afloat story.
—Antonio Regalado
How China takes utmost measures to support teens disconnected TikTok
The American radical and the Chinese radical person overmuch much successful communal than either broadside likes to admit. Take the shared interest astir however overmuch clip children and teenagers are spending connected TikTok (or its Chinese home version, Douyin).
Several US senators person pushed for bills that would restrict underage users’ entree to apps similar TikTok. But ByteDance, the genitor institution of TikTok, is nary alien to those requests. In fact, it has been dealing with akin authorities pressures successful China since astatine slightest 2018. Read the afloat story.
—Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s communicative is from China Report, his play newsletter covering China. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Google developed a almighty chatbot years earlier ChatGPT
However, it got spooked that the strategy didn’t conscionable information and fairness standards.(WSJ $)+ How tech’s AI obsession masks abuses of power. (Bloomberg $)
+ In theory, copyright instrumentality could derail generative AI. (Insider $)
+ ChatGPT is everywhere. Here’s wherever it came from. (MIT Technology Review)
2 A pro-Ukrainian radical whitethorn person orchestrated the Nord Stream pipeline attack
But there’s nary grounds that Ukrainian officials were involved. (NYT $)
+ Ukraine has denied immoderate engagement successful the onslaught past year. (BBC)
+ Here’s however the Nord Stream state pipelines could beryllium fixed. (MIT Technology Review)
3 How the FBI pushed for much almighty facial recognition
It could beryllium utilized to substance a immense surveillance network. (WP $)
+ Faked CCTV footage is connected the rise, too. (Wired $)
+ South Africa’s backstage surveillance instrumentality is fueling a integer apartheid. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Crypto startups are scrambling for funding
Times are tougher than ever since things went southbound for the industry’s favourite bank. (The Information $)
5 Meta’s ample connection exemplary been leaked connected 4Chan
It’s the archetypal exemplary from a large institution to leak. (Motherboard)
+ Why Meta’s latest ample connection exemplary survived lone 3 days online. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Japan was forced to stroke up its ain rocket
The vehicle’s 2nd motor failed to ignite during takeoff. (Ars Technica)
+ What’s adjacent successful space. (MIT Technology Review)
7 YouTube conscionable can’t get escaped of Andrew Tate
His misogynistic videos support being re-uploaded, contempt an existing ban. (The Atlantic $)
8 The hidden risks of the stock economy
When astir thing tin beryllium rented retired to strangers, not everyone is well-meaning. (The Guardian)
9 TikTok’s viral drinks permission a atrocious sensation successful the mouth
Users are making progressively outlandish concoctions successful a bid for views. (FT $)
+ The porcelain situation didn’t request to beryllium existent to get views. (MIT Technology Review)
10 The enactment telephone is making a comeback 📱
Partly due to the fact that of companies cracking down connected TikTok. (Bloomberg $)
Quote of the day
“I independently made my money, arsenic opposed to say, inherited an emerald mine.”
—Halli, a precocious laid-off Twitter worker, fires back astatine his erstwhile brag Elon Musk, who accused Halli of shirking his enactment responsibilities.
The large story
Why can’t tech hole its sex problem?
Despite the tech sector’s large wealthiness and loudly self-proclaimed firm commitments to the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and radical minorities, the manufacture remains mostly a straight, achromatic man’s world.
It wasn’t ever this way. Software programming erstwhile was an astir wholly pistillate profession. As precocious arsenic 1980, women held 70% of the programming jobs successful Silicon Valley, but the ratio has since flipped entirely. While galore things contributed to the shift, from the acquisition pipeline to the tiresomely persistent fabrication of tech arsenic a gender-blind “meritocracy,” nary explicate it entirely. What truly lies astatine the halfway of tech’s sex occupation is money. Read the afloat story.
—Margaret O’Mara
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.)
+ Aww, Dave Grohl has cemented his presumption arsenic the nicest antheral successful rock.
+ These photos of a cheetah cub and a puppy are the cutest happening you’ll spot today.
+ If you bask nosing done tech executives’ emails, this Twitter relationship is the 1 for you.
+ The 10 things that actor Jeremy Strong can’t unrecorded without are typically unhinged.
+ This story sent a shiver down my spine.
English (US) ·