The Download: Meta’s diplomatic AI, and China’s online comment censorship

1 year ago 115

Meta has created an AI that tin bushed humans astatine an online mentation of Diplomacy, a fashionable strategy crippled successful which 7 players vie for power of Europe by moving pieces astir connected a map. Unlike different committee games that AI has mastered, specified arsenic chess and Go, Diplomacy requires players to speech to each other—forming alliances, negotiating tactics—and spot erstwhile others are bluffing. 

Although Cicero made errors, it’s inactive a measurement towards AI that tin assistance with analyzable problems that necessitate compromise, from readying routes astir engaged postulation to negotiating contracts. Read the afloat story

—Will Douglas Heaven

Read much of our superb stories astir games and AI:

+ The contention to recognize the exhilarating, unsafe satellite of connection AI. Hundreds of scientists astir the satellite are moving unneurotic to recognize 1 of the astir almighty emerging technologies earlier it’s excessively late. Read the afloat story.

+ DeepMind’s game-playing AI has beaten a 50-year-old grounds successful machine science. The caller mentation of AlphaZero discovered a faster mode to bash matrix multiplication, a halfway occupation successful computing that affects thousands of mundane machine tasks. Read the afloat story.

+ DeepMind’s AI tin present play each 57 Atari games. But it’s inactive not versatile enough. Read the afloat story.

+ Podcast: How games thatch AI to larn for itself. Like humans and galore animals, AI often learns caller skills done play. But dissimilar the earthy world, AI tin process years of grooming successful a azygous day. Read the afloat story.

The Chinese authorities is determined to justice online comments

China precocious published a draught instrumentality connected its forthcoming societal recognition system, which volition yet usher however the state builds it.

The strategy is intended to beforehand trustworthiness successful business, education, and astir each different facet of life. How it volition really execute this is acold from straightforward. 

One illustration of the societal recognition system’s implications—specifically, however it tin impact societal media and state of speech—reveals however the noble-sounding extremity of gathering spot tin beryllium problematic successful practice. And portion the Chinese authorities is assured successful its quality to walk judgments connected the trustworthiness of societal media posts, different parties are improbable to agree. Read the afloat story.

—Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s communicative is from China Report, his play newsletter covering everything you request to cognize astir China. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Tuesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.

1 Twitter is becoming much dangerous
Elon Musk is tearing down the platform’s information systems. (WP $)
+ Toxic code is proliferating arsenic a result. (Wired $)
+ There’s a batch of tweets astir tweets astatine the moment. (The Atlantic $)
+ Twitter’s advertisers are leaving successful droves. (WP $)
+ Mastodon is simply a overmuch quieter, slower place, comparatively. (New Yorker $)

2 Sam Bankman-Fried treated FTX arsenic his “personal fiefdom”
That’s according to the lawyer representing the institution astatine its archetypal bankruptcy hearing. (The Guardian)
+ A important magnitude of FTX’s assets are either missing oregon stolen. (WSJ $)
+ Bankman-Fried’s power connected Washington DC’s crypto argumentation was undeniable. (Motherboard)
+ He hasn’t done the manufacture immoderate favors. (New Yorker $)

3 Tax filing sites secretly shared fiscal information with Facebook
Users’ incomes and assistance amounts tin powerfulness Facebook’s advertizing algorithms. (The Markup)

4 Americans look to beryllium tiring of covid vaccines
The fearfulness is that hesitancy could spill implicit into aboriginal outbreaks too. (Vox)
+ Paxlovid refusal is peculiarly prominent. (The Atlantic $)

5 Twins person been calved from embryos frozen 30 years ago
The steadfast lad and miss are believed to beryllium the longest-frozen embryos to beryllium born. (CNN)

6 China says it’s “resolved” a video crippled addiction among children
Thanks to precise choky restrictions connected however galore hours they tin play. (FT $)
+ China is buying less chip-making machines. (Bloomberg $)
+ Video crippled addiction is present being recognized—what happens next? (MIT Technology Review)

7 What glucose monitors tin thatch radical without diabetes
We cognize amazingly small astir humor glucose trends successful radical who don’t person the condition. (The Verge)
+ A bionic pancreas could lick 1 of the biggest challenges of diabetes. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How Facebook pivoted distant from trash posts
The jury’s retired connected whether it tin regain its cool, though. (WSJ $)
+ The astir fashionable contented connected Facebook belongs successful the garbage. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Most shot fans hatred Virtual Assistant Referee technology 
VAR disallowed the World Cup’s precise archetypal goal. (The Atlantic $)
+ Saudi Arabia is keen to big the adjacent tournament. (Economist $)

10 Wanted: much bomb-sniffer dogs 🐕
Yet different assemblage of the US labour marketplace that’s suffering shortages close now. (Wired $)


Quote of the day

“You person witnessed astir apt 1 of the astir abrupt and hard collapses successful the past of firm America.”

—James Bromley, an lawyer representing FTX, described its downfall during the company’s archetypal bankruptcy hearing, CoinDesk reports.


The large story

Why radical inactive starve successful an property of abundance

December 2020

When the Norwegian committee decided to grant the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Program, the United Nations’ nutrient assistance agency, the quality was greeted with much than a fewer smirks and eye-rolls.

The WFP, which provides nutrient assistance to radical successful need, is the largest bureau successful the UN and has 14,500 employees worldwide. Critics judge it won the prize for simply doing its job—and an highly constrictive mentation of its job, astatine that.

After astir 60 years of trying to extremity hunger, the WFP is larger and busier than ever before. The world’s farmers nutrient much than capable to provender the world, and yet radical inactive starve. Why? Read the afloat story.

—Bobbie Johnson

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.)

+ Most lists of the champion ever tweets are garbage, but this 1 is beauteous good.
+ Beef, beef, beef.
+ These aquariums look ace peaceful.
+ Florence Pugh truly is the best of British.
+ If you’ve ever wanted to cognize much astir Starbucks’ lettering, wonder nary more.

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