1 year ago
87 —Tate Ryan-Mosley, elder tech argumentation reporter
I’ve ever been a super-Googler, coping with uncertainty by trying to larn arsenic overmuch arsenic I tin astir immoderate mightiness beryllium coming. That included my father’s pharynx cancer.
I started Googling the stages of grief, and books and world probe astir loss, from the app connected my iPhone, intentionally and unintentionally consuming people’s experiences of grief and calamity done Instagram videos, assorted newsfeeds, and Twitter testimonials.
Yet with each hunt and click, I inadvertently created a sticky web of integer grief. Ultimately, it would beryllium astir intolerable to untangle myself from what the algorithms were serving me. I got out—eventually. But wherefore is it truthful hard to unsubscribe from and opt retired of contented that we don’t want, adjacent erstwhile it’s harmful to us? Read the afloat story.
AI models spit retired photos of existent radical and copyrighted images
The news: Image procreation models tin beryllium prompted to nutrient identifiable photos of existent people, aesculapian images, and copyrighted enactment by artists, according to caller research.
How they did it: Researchers prompted Stable Diffusion and Google’s Imagen with captions for images, specified arsenic a person’s name, galore times. Then they analyzed whether immoderate of the generated images matched archetypal images successful the model’s database. The radical managed to extract implicit 100 replicas of images successful the AI’s grooming set.
Why it matters: The uncovering could fortify the lawsuit for artists who are presently suing AI companies for copyright violations, and could perchance endanger the quality subjects’ privacy. It could besides person implications for startups wanting to usage generative AI models successful wellness care, arsenic it shows that these systems hazard leaking delicate backstage information. Read the afloat story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 China is furious that the US changeable down its ‘spy balloon’
Relations betwixt the 2 countries person deflated arsenic fast. (BBC $)
+ US officials are racing to retrieve what they tin of the balloon. (NYT $)
+ Similar balloons person been spotted respective times successful US airspace. (WP $)
+ The incidental doesn’t bode good for US-China relations. (Vox)
2 The US system is successful a amended signifier than you whitethorn think
The numbers simply bash not lucifer the narrative. (Vox)
+ What goes up indispensable travel down. (The Atlantic $)
3 Meta is facing a contented moderation reckoning
A Kenyan tribunal is deciding whether it’s liable for moderators’ intelligence harm from gruesome content. (Wired $)
+ Social media is polluting society. Moderation unsocial won’t hole the problem. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Twitter isn’t sidesplitting disconnected bully bots aft all
Though what qualifies arsenic volition beryllium down to Elon Musk's whims. (Insider $)
+ Musk isn’t getting overmuch slumber these days. (WSJ $)
5 The Biden medication is shunning crypto
Congress is being discouraged from passing crypto-friendly bills. (Axios)
+ Inside the caput of Sam Bankman-Fried’s psychiatrist. (WSJ $)
+ The Bitcoin Embassy Bar sounds… interesting. (Slate $)
6 A US unreality institution is caught successful a planetary ransomware campaign
Thousands of servers crossed the satellite are being targeted. (Reuters)
+ Hackers are concentrating connected North America and Europe. (Politico)
+ What’s adjacent successful cybersecurity. (MIT Technology Review)
7 India is blocking hundreds of indebtedness apps with ties to China
In a bid to support citizens’ information from misuse. (TechCrunch)
8 EV artillery materials are successful precocious demand
Countries are rushing to fulfill US requirements for materials sourced extracurricular of China. (Nikkei Asia $)
+ What’s adjacent for batteries. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Meet the moms ghostwriting their kids’ texts
Really, this should beryllium each teen’s nightmare. (WSJ $)
10 How Duolingo knows what you know
Its connection learners implicit a staggering 1 cardinal exercises each day. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Why students successful the Bronx are critiquing chatbots. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
—Stacey Torman, a rotation people teacher, recounts the regular mendacious alerts her Apple Watch sends to exigency services for nary crushed to the New York Times.
The large story
Companies hoping to turn carbon-sucking kelp whitethorn beryllium rushing up of the science
One of the hottest clime alteration solutions that companies are touting is that kelp could suck up c dioxide and store it distant successful the depths of the sea, efficaciously reversing clime change.
But scientists are inactive grappling with cardinal questions astir this approach. How overmuch kelp tin we grow? What volition it instrumentality to guarantee that astir of the seaweed sinks to the bottommost of the ocean? And however overmuch of the c volition enactment determination agelong capable to truly assistance the climate? Read the afloat story.
