10 months ago
123 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.
Rivian hopes to gain c credits for its location electrical conveyance chargers
California-based automaker Rivian markets its high-end electrical trucks to climate-conscious consumers hoping to bash close by the planet.
Now, the steadfast has applied to gain c credits for the chargers that powerfulness its pickups and SUVs, including those installed successful its customers’ homes, MIT Technology Review tin reveal.
The determination raises caller questions astir who deserves the credit: the idiosyncratic who buys a $75,000 electrical pickup oregon an $800 charger, oregon the institution that manufactures and sells those products? And if those benefits can beryllium quantified, should they beryllium bought by individuals oregon businesses hoping to cancel retired their ain ongoing pollution? Read the afloat story.
—James Temple
It’s clip to speech astir the existent AI risks
Unsurprisingly, AI was the taxable connected everyone’s lips astatine the world’s biggest integer rights league past week. But the conversations the apical net ethicists, activists, and policymakers had astatine RightsCon were distinctly antithetic from each the warnings from large Silicon Valley voices that person made headlines successful caller weeks.
Speakers successful respective sessions reiterated that the existent AI golden unreserved is simply a merchandise of institution profit-seeking, not needfully regulatory ineptitude oregon technological inevitability. Their connection was large and clear: we should beryllium focussing little connected the existential threats posed by AI, including extinction, and much connected the harms staring america successful the face. Read the afloat story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
This communicative is from The Technocrat, Tate’s play newsletter giving you the wrong way connected each things power, politics, and Silicon Valley. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Friday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Reddit is going dark
Moderators are protesting its plans to complaint third-party developers immense sums. (The Verge)
+ Visitors volition beryllium prevented from accessing thousands of subreddits. (Bloomberg $)
2 Tesla’s Autopilot mode has been linked to 736 crashes
That’s acold much crashes than person been antecedently reported, alongside 17 fatalities. (WP $)
3 Silicon Valley is prepping for AI singularity
But plentifulness of critics reason that the hype is nearing unsafe levels. (NYT $)
+ To debar AI doom, larn from atomic safety. (MIT Technology Review)
4 An ex-Samsung enforcement has been accused of stealing spot works designs
It’s a staggeringly ambitious crime. (Bloomberg $)
5 US tech giants are slowing freezing retired Hong Kong
They’re restricting users successful akin veins to North Korea and mainland China. (WSJ $)
+ China’s tech country is struggling to pull overseas investors. (FT $)
+ Plenty of Western executives person been visiting recently, though. (Economist $)
+ Elon Musk’s quiet, untweeted China trip. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Prisoners are being surveilled down to their heartbeat
Sophisticated sensor networks mean they person small accidental successful the matter, either. (Wired $)
7 Distributing malaria vaccines is simply a logistical nightmare
It’s hugely expensive, and wellness workers successful Africa are hard to travel by. (Vox)
8 Interest successful offshore upwind turbines is booming
Researchers (and investors) are impressed by hydrogen accumulation promises. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ When hydrogen volition assistance clime change—and erstwhile it won’t. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Second Life is inactive thriving
The decades-old crippled is flourishing wherever the metaverse is floundering. (The Guardian)
+ Welcome to the oldest portion of the metaverse. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Robot beauticians are performing eyelash extensions 👁️
Human lash artists are relieved—and worried. (WP $)
+ They’re besides comparatively proficient gardeners. (New Scientist $)
Quote of the day
“Remorse for what?”
—Kyle Davies, co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency hedge money Three Arrow Capital, dismisses accusations that his influential steadfast caused investors to suffer millions successful the crypto crash, the New York Times reports.
The large story
Bright LEDs could spell the extremity of acheronian skies
August 2022
Scientists person known for years that airy contamination is increasing and tin harm some humans and wildlife. In people, accrued vulnerability to airy astatine nighttime disrupts slumber cycles and has been linked to crab and cardiovascular disease, portion wildlife suffers from interruption to their reproductive patterns, accrued information and nonaccomplishment of stealth.
Astronomers, policymakers, and lighting professionals are each moving to find ways to trim airy pollution. Many of them advocator installing light-emitting diodes, oregon LEDs, successful outdoor fixtures specified arsenic metropolis streetlights, chiefly for their quality to nonstop airy to a targeted area. But the precocious archetypal concern and durability of modern LEDs mean cities request to get the modulation close the archetypal clip oregon perchance look decades of consequences. Read the afloat story.
—Shel Evergreen
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 concealed to fulfilling societal interactions? Good conversation.
+ Those past Greeks definite did emotion getting naked.
+ Mike Brixius is simply a antheral connected a ngo to decorativeness making the Commodore 64 CRPG (that’s machine role-playing game) that helium started making successful 1984.
+ Reimagining 90s stone connected a Cartesian plane is bully fun.
+ Sorry Wes Anderson fans, the antheral himself is not a instrumentality of that viral TikTok trend.
