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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.
What’s adjacent for the spot industry
The twelvemonth up was already shaping up to beryllium a hard 1 for semiconductor businesses, which acquisition cycles of soaring and dwindling demand. The manufacture was already anticipating declining growth—but geopolitics could contiguous a acold bigger challenge.
In caller months, the US has instituted the widest restrictions ever connected the benignant of chips that tin beryllium sold to China. It’s besides introduced generous national subsidies to promote manufacturers backmost to the US. Other governments successful Europe and Asia person launched likewise protectionist policies.
As these changes proceed to instrumentality effect successful 2023, they volition propulsion a caller constituent of uncertainty into an manufacture that has agelong relied connected globally distributed proviso chains and escaped trade. Here’s however experts deliberation it volition each play retired implicit the adjacent year. Read the afloat story.
—Zeyi Yang
Read much astir MIT Technology Review’s predictions for the industries and technologies changing our lives successful our What’s Next successful Tech series.
A startup says it’s already started trying to tweak the climate
The news: A startup called Make Sunset claims to person launched upwind balloons that whitethorn person released reflective sulfur particles successful the stratosphere, perchance breaking a arguable obstruction successful the tract of star geoengineering.
Why it’s controversial: In theory, spraying sulfur and akin particles successful capable quantities could perchance easiness planetary warming. But scientists person mostly avoided doing so, partially due to the fact that truthful small is known astir the real-world effect of specified deliberate interventions.
What’s next: Luke Iseman, the cofounder and CEO of Make Sunsets, acknowledges that it’s a provocative experiment, but says helium hopes it volition assistance to nudge america towards the much extremist interventions present required to dilatory clime change. However, experts successful the tract deliberation specified efforts are wildly premature and could person the other effect. Read the afloat story.
—James Temple
What you whitethorn person missed implicit the holidays:
+ Our champion illustrations of 2022. Our artists’ thought-provoking, playful creations bring our stories to life, often saying much with an representation than words ever could. Check retired the champion picks of past year.
+ The machine idiosyncratic who hunts for costly bugs successful crypto code. Programming errors connected the blockchain tin mean $100 cardinal mislaid successful the blink of an eye. Ronghui Gu and his institution CertiK are trying to help. Read the afloat story.
+ This tiny Dutch conveyance for radical with disabilities is taking off. The Canta is simply a compact four-wheeled, two-seat microcar that's unlocking micromobility successful the Netherlands. Read the afloat story.
+ The newest harvest recovered connected the farm? Solar panels. A small shadiness could beryllium adjuvant for immoderate crops and trim c emissions. Read the afloat story.
+ What would existent diverseness dependable like? A participatory task explores the linguistic scenery of the US. Read the afloat story.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 How Ukraine cobbled unneurotic a scrappy, digitized military
It’s created a inexpensive mentation of the systems the Pentagon has spent decades (and billions of dollars) developing. (WSJ $)
+ Ukraine says it’s changeable down adjacent to 500 drones since September. (The Guardian)
2 Sam Bankman-Fried is readying to plead not guilty
The FTX laminitis could look up to 115 years successful situation if he’s convinced of fraud and conspiracy. (Reuters)
3 China’s zero covid U-turn is worsening its societal inequality
Young radical successful agrarian areas are improbable to retrieve from the disruption to their education. (FT $)
+ Other countries are requiring visitors from China to nutrient antagonistic covid tests. (Vox)
+ China’s overseas curate has praised the US successful a uncommon amusement of unity. (Bloomberg $)
4 Tech startups had an atrocious 2022
As it stands, 2023 isn’t looking overmuch better. (WSJ $)
+ Workers laid disconnected from Big Tech firms are looking to commencement their own. (Reuters)
+ A look backmost implicit the biggest tech flops of the past 12 months. (Vox)
5 Brazil’s acold close is thriving connected Twitter
Just arsenic the country’s caller left-wing president takes office. (Rest of World)
+ We’re witnessing the encephalon decease of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)
6China’s generative AI models are earnestly problematic
Like their Western counterparts, the results are often inaccurate and offensive. (TechCrunch)
+ How AI-generated substance is poisoning the internet. (MIT Technology Review)
7The Earth is perpetually creating its ain benignant of music
A tiny instrumentality is helping seismologists to tune into its rhythms. (NYT $)
8 The James Webb Space Telescope has revolutionized astronomy
It’s been peculiarly adept astatine shedding airy connected stars’ lifecycles. (The Verge)
+ The US subject is readying to motorboat a constellation of satellites successful March. (The Atlantic $)
+ NASA is looking retired for perchance deadly asteroids. (Inverse)
+ What’s adjacent successful space. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Your attraction span whitethorn not beryllium arsenic breached arsenic you deliberation it is
Getting distracted mightiness really beryllium the productive interruption your encephalon is craving. (The Guardian)
+ Why not kickstart the caller twelvemonth without a smartphone? (Slate $)
10 You tin blasted your chemoreceptor for that acold you can’t shingle 👃
Colder temperatures marque it harder to combat disconnected nasty bugs. (Wired $)
Quote of the day
“It’s mostly scams and memes erstwhile you get down to it.”
—Caroline Ellison, a adjacent workfellow of FTX laminitis Sam Bankman-Fried who is besides facing transgression charges, reflects connected the crypto manufacture successful a resurfaced Tumblr station from March 2022, the Washington Post reports.
The large story
The large caller thought for making self-driving cars that tin spell anywhere
May 2022
When Alex Kendall sat successful a car connected a tiny roadworthy successful the British countryside and took his hands disconnected the instrumentality backmost successful 2016, it was a tiny measurement successful a caller direction—one that a caller clump of startups stake mightiness beryllium the breakthrough that makes driverless cars an mundane reality.
This was the archetypal clip that reinforcement learning—an AI method that trains a neural web to execute a task via proceedings and error—had been utilized to thatch a car to thrust from scratch connected a existent road. It took little than 20 minutes for the car to larn to enactment connected the roadworthy by itself, Kendall claims.
These startups are betting that smarter, cheaper tech volition fto them overtake existent marketplace leaders. But is this yet much hype from an manufacture that’s been drinking its ain Kool-Aid for years? Read the afloat story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
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.)
+ A caller twelvemonth means a full load of caller movies to look guardant to. Here are immoderate of the biggest connected the horizon.
+ Winning the lottery is similar waiting for the bus, it seems.
+ The Architectural Photography Awards shortlist ne'er disappoints.
+ How to really, genuinely relax.
+ Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t conscionable a Renaissance man—he was a cat fan, too.
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