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What’s happened: Meta has unveiled an AI strategy that generates abbreviated videos based connected substance prompts. Make-A-Video lets you benignant successful a drawstring of words, similar “A canine wearing a superhero outfit with a reddish cape flying done the sky,” and past generates a five-second clip that, portion beauteous accurate, has the aesthetics of a trippy aged location video.
How it works: Meta combined information from 3 open-source representation and video information sets to bid its model. Standard text-image information sets of labeled inactive images helped the AI larn what objects are called and what they look like. And a database of videos helped it larn however those objects are expected to determination successful the world.
Why it matters: Although the effect is alternatively crude, the strategy offers an aboriginal glimpse of what’s coming adjacent for generative artificial intelligence, and it is the adjacent evident measurement from the text-to-image AI systems that person caused immense excitement this year. But it besides raises immoderate large ethical questions. Read the afloat story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
China is betting large connected different state motor alternative: methanol cars
As the Chinese authorities works to scope ambitious c goals, the state has go a planetary person successful the adoption of electrical vehicles. But that’s not the lone greener car alternate it’s pursuing.
While methanol substance has been discussed and piloted successful China for a decade, its adoption has agelong lagged. Now the authorities is trying to accelerate the adoption of methanol cars, on with different authorities efforts successful the past twelvemonth to draught methanol car standards and enactment applicable industries, reaffirm its committedness to the alternate fuel.
This matters because, conscionable similar EVs, the exertion could go some a commercialized occurrence and a governmental boost to China’s climate-tech ambitions. Read the afloat story.
—Zeyi Yang
Can we find ways to unrecorded beyond 100? Millionaires are betting connected it.
Scientists and biotech companies person been networking with uber-wealthy investors astatine a swanky league successful Switzerland this week, making the lawsuit for longevity subject and anti-aging strategies. My workfellow Jess Hamzelou, our elder biomedicine reporter, joined them, and got a peek astatine immoderate of the astir cutting-edge enactment successful the field. Read astir what she discovered.
Jess’s communicative is from The Checkup, her caller play newsletter giving you the wrong way connected each things wellness and tech-related. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Hurricane Ian has near immense swathes of Florida underwater
As it heads towards South Carolina, Biden has warned it could go the deadliest successful Florida history. (The Guardian)
+ Coral reefs are an effectual earthy defence against hurricanes. (Vox)
+ The tempest is simply a potent premix of almighty and unpredictable. (The Atlantic $)
+ It could beryllium connected people to articulation the database of storms arsenic terrible arsenic Katrina. (New Yorker $)
2 Iran is ramping up net blackouts and censorship
Thus far, it’s not achieving the government’s desired outcome. (Slate $)
+ A niche tech steadfast is shining a airy connected China’s surveillance machine. (The Atlantic $)
3 What makes integrative truthful utile besides makes it a nightmare to recycle
A caller method of breaking it down could help. (Economist $)
+ A French institution is utilizing enzymes to recycle 1 of the astir communal single-use plastics. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Why Russia’s cyber warfare ne'er truly materialized
The attacks it did onshore didn’t present the intended consequences. (FT $)
+ Here’s however the warfare successful Ukraine could end. (New Yorker $)
+ Russian men are reportedly pretending to person HIV to flight conscription. (Rest of World)
5 Jack Dorsey tried to get Elon Musk a spot connected Twitter’s board
But the different members saw the assignment arsenic excessively risky. (CNBC)
+ The erstwhile CEO besides tried to get Musk and CEO Parag Agrawal disconnected connected the close foot. (WSJ $)
+ Musk wanted to hunt for ‘Trump’ successful his hunt for bot data. (Bloomberg $)
+ Musk besides toyed with appointing Oprah to Twitter’s board. (The Information $)
6 The Arctic Ocean is rapidly becoming much acidic
Unsurprisingly, clime alteration is the culprit. (Motherboard)
+ China, the world’s biggest greenhouse state emitter, is suffering. (Vox)
7 Reboosting the Hubble Telescope would springiness it a caller lease of life
NASA and SpaceX deliberation they could bash conscionable that. (BBC)
+ NASA has taken stunning photos of Jupiter’s satellite Europa. (New Scientist $)
8 Brace yourself for a caller question of at-home tests
They’re not conscionable for covid, either. (Neo.Life)
+ Genome sequencing has ne'er been truthful cheap, oregon easy. (Wired $)
9 Why dependable notes are truthful controversial
Send yours with caution. (WSJ $)
+ Lasers tin nonstop a whispered audio connection straight to 1 person’s ear. (MIT Technology Review)
10 AI is creating horrible caller Pokémon
Don’t accidental I didn’t pass you. (WP $)
+ This creator is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not blessed astir it. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“I conjecture you larn who your existent friends are erstwhile you can’t get allocation successful their effect circular :( ”
—Maia Bittner, an angel investor, jokily tweets astir the pitfalls of investing successful friends’ startups, Bloomberg reports.
The large story
Meet the wannabe kidfluencers struggling for stardom
December 2019
On YouTube, children tin go millionaires—seemingly overnight, without trying. The highest paid of them, eight-year-old Ryan Kaji, made $22 cardinal successful 2018 by playing with toys connected his transmission Ryan ToysReview (now Ryan’s World). There are present thousands of likewise celebrated kid YouTubers: babies who person been vlogged since the infinitesimal of their birth, 10-year-old streamers showing disconnected video-game tricks, teenage girls giving acne proposal from their bedrooms.
Why bash truthful galore kids privation to beryllium YouTubers? Do they lone question fame, oregon is determination much to it: creativity, community, and a aboriginal career? How are their parents helping them? And what happens if, aft spending thousands of dollars oregon dropping retired of school, it doesn’t enactment out? Read the afloat story.
—Amelia Tait
We tin inactive person bully things
A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line or tweet 'em astatine me.)
+ Francis Ford Coppola’s fantabulous chiller Bram Stoker’s Dracula is backmost successful movie theaters this Halloween. Enjoy the opulent 4K trailer here.
+ These scallops can’t get capable of agleam lights.
+ Cher’s sprawling home is each spot arsenic lavish arsenic you’d expect.
+ Nope, it’s not a joke, they truly are turning The Matrix into a dance show.
+ Controversial instrumentality klaxon: are these truly the best songs of the 90s?
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