1 year ago
124 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.
Roomba testers consciousness misled aft intimate images ended up connected Facebook
When Greg unboxed a caller robot vacuum cleaner successful December 2019, helium thought helium knew what helium was getting into. As a beta-tester, helium anticipated allowing the preproduction trial mentation of iRobot’s Roomba J bid instrumentality to roam astir his house, cod information to assistance amended its artificial intelligence, and supply feedback astir his idiosyncratic experience
But what Greg didn’t know—and does not judge helium consented to—was that iRobot would stock trial users’ information successful a sprawling, planetary information proviso chain, wherever everything (and everyone) captured by the devices’ cameras could beryllium seen by low-paid contractors.
Nearly a twelve iRobot testers person travel guardant successful the weeks since MIT Technology Review published an investigation into however the institution uses images captured from wrong existent homes to bid its AI. They consciousness misled by the company’s nonaccomplishment to adequately support their data, and person been near wondering wherever the accountability really lies. Read the afloat story.
—Eileen Guo
TR10: AI that makes images
When OpenAI released its text-to-image AI exemplary DALL-E successful 2021, it paved the mode for different programs designed to instrumentality a abbreviated statement of beauteous overmuch anything, and spit retired a representation of what you asked for successful seconds.
Yet the biggest game-changer was Stable Diffusion, an open-source text-to-image exemplary released for escaped by UK-based startup Stability AI successful August, and, crucially, capable to tally connected a (good) location computer.
Nothing other successful AI grabbed people’s attraction much past year—for the champion and worst reasons. Now we hold to spot what lasting interaction these tools volition person connected originative industries—and the full tract of AI. Read much astir the promises—and dangers—of AI models that make images connected demand.
Next: work our elder AI exertion Will Douglas Heaven’s feature astir however generative AI is changing everything, and what’s apt to beryllium near erstwhile the hype dies down.
AI that makes images is the archetypal of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies, which we’ll beryllium showcasing one-by-one successful The Download each day. You tin cheque retired the rest of the list for yourself, and we’d emotion to perceive your thoughts connected what should marque our last 11th technology. Vote successful our canvass to marque your dependable heard.
This biotech startup says mice unrecorded longer aft familial reprogramming
The news: A tiny biotech institution claims it has utilized a exertion called reprogramming to rejuvenate aged mice and widen their lives, a effect suggesting that 1 time older radical could person their biologic clocks turned backmost with an injection—literally becoming younger.
The details: The life-extension assertion successful rodents, made by Rejuvenate Bio, a San Diego biotech company, appears successful a preprint insubstantial connected the website BioRxiv and hasn’t been adjacent reviewed.
What to think: The reprogramming technique, which involves resetting cells to a younger state, has been winning hundreds of millions successful concern arsenic a imaginable elixir of youth. Scientists person antecedently shown that it works connected azygous cells successful the laboratory. Despite this startup’s announcement, it’s inactive unclear if the rejuvenation effect works successful surviving animals too. Read the afloat story.
—Antonio Regalado
Meet the designers printing houses retired of brackish and clay
Read our interrogation with Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, the disruptive designers 3D-printing full buildings retired of earthy materials. Check retired the astonishing pictures in the afloat story, which is from the latest variation of our people magazine. To get aboriginal issues, sign up for a subscription.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 China is struggling to header with the sheer measurement of covid deaths
Satellite imagery suggests crematoriums and ceremonial parlors are overwhelmed. (WP $)
+ Infections are apt to ascent further arsenic China celebrates the Lunar New Year. (Wired $)
2 The US is nether unit to expel Jair Bolsonaro
The erstwhile Brazilian president has been accused of whipping up home terrorism. (FT $)
+ Facebook and YouTube accidental they’re taking down footage of the riots (Reuters)
+ Priceless paintings were destroyed successful the carnage. (The Guardian)
3 Microsoft’s caller AI tin simulate voices from conscionable 3 seconds of audio
Spookily, VALL-E is reportedly adept astatine preserving the speaker’s tone. (Ars Technica)
+ Microsoft is weighing up investing $10 cardinal into OpenAI. (Semafor)
+ DALL-E-esque AI models are creating caller proteins. (NYT $)
4 The EU wants to modulate your favourite AI tools
That’ll beryllium easier said than done, though. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The UK’s archetypal abstraction ngo effort was a damp squib
Virgin Orbit’s rocket carrying the archetypal satellites to motorboat from Britain failed to scope altitude. (Bloomberg $)
+ An “anomaly” was to blame, apparently. (New Scientist $)
+ The assemblage that gathered to ticker the motorboat inactive had a large time, though. (Reuters)
6 What termination pills correspond successful a post-Roe world
Anti-abortion advocates are much determined than ever—but truthful are their opponents. (Vox)
+ The cognitive dissonance of watching the extremity of Roe unfold online. (MIT Technology Review)
7 What is cancel civilization without Twitter?
If Twitter dies, there’s nary evident replacement for airing grievances. (The Atlantic $)
+ We’re witnessing the encephalon decease of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Proving the authenticity of warfare imagery is incredibly tough
But, arsenic a caller strategy is proving, it’s not impossible. (Economist $)
+ Why concern is booming for subject AI startups. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Facebook built a span to nowhere
It spent millions to reconstruct a obstruction corridor for its staff, earlier abandoning the task altogether. (NYT $)
10 Gym goers are zapping themselves with energy ⚡
But it’s unclear however beneficial the signifier really is. (WSJ $)
Quote of the day
"Space is hard."
—Matt Archer, the manager of commercialized spaceflight astatine the UK Space Agency, reflects connected the Virgin Orbit rocket's nonaccomplishment to scope orbit, reports the Guardian.
The large story
How large subject failed to unlock the mysteries of the quality brain
August 2021
In September 2011, Columbia University neurobiologist Rafael Yuste and Harvard geneticist George Church made a not-so-modest proposal: to representation the enactment of the full quality encephalon astatine the level of idiosyncratic neurons and item however those cells signifier circuits.
That cognition could beryllium harnessed to dainty encephalon disorders similar Alzheimer’s, autism, schizophrenia, depression, and traumatic encephalon injury, and would assistance reply 1 of the large questions of science: How does the encephalon bring astir consciousness?
A decennary on, the US task has coiled down, and the EU task faces its deadline to physique a integer brain. So person we begun to unwrap the secrets of the quality brain? Or person we spent a decennary and billions of dollars chasing a imaginativeness that remains arsenic elusive arsenic ever? Read the afloat story.
—Emily Mullin
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.)
+ This saccharine watercolor feline is conscionable lovely.
+ Dinosaur mummies (in the past Egyptian sense) whitethorn not beryllium arsenic uncommon arsenic scientists antecedently thought.
+ Perfume Genius genuinely is 1 of a kind.
+ If you enjoyed The White Lotus, Mike White’s earlier HBO bid Enlightened is likewise brilliant.
+ Talking of White Lotus, I could perceive to Tom Hollander playing the piano each time (thanks Niall!)
