That is at this time’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.
Intro to AI: a newbie’s information to synthetic intelligence from MIT Expertise Assessment
It feels as if AI is shifting one million miles a minute. Each week, it appears, there are product launches, contemporary options and different improvements, and new issues over ethics and privateness. It’s loads to maintain up with. Possibly you want somebody would simply take a step again and clarify a number of the fundamentals.
Look no additional. Intro to AI is MIT Expertise Assessment’s first publication that additionally serves as a mini-course. You’ll get one e mail every week for six weeks, and every version will stroll you thru a distinct subject in AI.
Join right here to obtain it totally free. Or in case you’re already an AI aficionado, ship it on to somebody in your life who’s curious concerning the expertise however is simply beginning to discover what all of it means. Learn on to be taught extra concerning the subjects we’ll cowl.
OpenAI says ChatGPT treats us all the identical (more often than not)
Does ChatGPT deal with you an identical whether or not you’re a Laurie, Luke, or Lashonda? Nearly, however not fairly.
OpenAI has analyzed thousands and thousands of conversations with its hit chatbot and located that ChatGPT will produce a dangerous gender or racial stereotype based mostly on a consumer’s identify in round one in 1000 responses on common, and as many as one in 100 responses within the worst case.
These charges sound fairly low. However with OpenAI claiming that 200 million folks use ChatGPT each week, it may well nonetheless add as much as a number of bias. Learn the complete story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
Tremendous-light supplies that assist suppress EV battery fires simply received an enormous enhance
What’s new: An organization referred to as Aspen Aerogels, which makes supplies to go inside EVs’ batteries to cease fires spreading, simply received a $670.6 million mortgage dedication from the US Division of Power. The corporate will use the cash to complete constructing a brand new manufacturing facility in Georgia to supply its supplies.
Why it issues: As extra EVs hit the roads, concern is rising concerning the comparatively uncommon however harmful downside of battery fires. Supplies like Aspen Aerogels’ thermal limitations may assist enhance security. Learn the complete story.
—Casey Crownhart
MIT Expertise Assessment Narrated: Inside the hunt to engineer climate-saving “tremendous timber”
Biotech startup Dwelling Carbon is making an attempt to design timber that develop sooner and seize extra carbon than their pure friends, in addition to timber that resist rot, retaining that carbon out of the environment.
Final yr, the startup planted the primary forest in america that incorporates genetically engineered timber. However there’s nonetheless a lot we don’t know. How will these timber have an effect on the remainder of the forest? How far will their genes unfold? And the way good are they, actually, at pulling extra carbon from the environment?
That is our newest story to be became a MIT Expertise Assessment Narrated podcast. In partnership with Information Over Audio, we’ll be making a choice of our tales out there, each learn by an expert voice actor. You’ll be capable to take heed to them on the go or obtain them to take heed to offline.
We’re publishing a brand new story every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, together with some taken from our most up-to-date print journal. Simply navigate to MIT Expertise Assessment Narrated on both platform, and comply with us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at this time’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 How Meta suppresses your political posts
Democracy dies on Instagram. (WP $)+ The corporate is dealing with a number of lawsuits over social media habit amongst teenagers. (Reuters)
2 The best way to safeguard the Europa Clipper from failure
The spacecraft is on a multi-year mission, and the stakes are excessive. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is ready to search for life-friendly situations round Jupiter. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
3 The chip trade’s taking longer to bounce again than anticipated
Demand for AI chips remains to be there, however producers are nonetheless working by means of their stockpiles. (WSJ $)
4 The place all of it went unsuitable for 23andMe
The genetic testing firm is dealing with an ideal storm. (FT $)
+ The best way to delete your 23andMe knowledge. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
5 Google has backed a authorized transparency invoice
It desires to know who’s paying for—and benefiting from—taking authorized motion. (Bloomberg $)
6 Anybody could make an AI chatbot in your likeness
The dangerous information is, it’s nearly unattainable to cease them. (Wired $)
+ A bereaved father found that his murdered daughter has been became a bot. (WP $)
+ An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
7 Far-right Hindu nationalists are conspiring over WhatsApp
In a bid to transform Christians by pressure. (Remainder of World)
8 This man is suing a Welsh council for half a billion kilos
He by accident recycled a tough drive containing 8,000 bitcoin again in 2013. (Wales On-line)
+ His Welsh hometown would “appear to be Dubai” if he may discover it, he claims. (The Register)
9 What it’s prefer to journey in a robotaxi for six.5 hours
Surprisingly uneventful, apparently. (Insider $)
+ What’s subsequent for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
10 It’s time to rawdog iPhone pictures
Free from AI optimization. (New Yorker $)
Quote of the day
“I’m at a prime London hospital and but at instances I really feel as if we’re working within the stone age.”
—A pediatrician tells the Monetary Occasions concerning the challenges of working throughout the Nationwide Well being Service’s fragmented technological techniques.
The massive story
Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML
January 2024
Web sites weren’t at all times slick digital experiences.
There was a time when browsing the net concerned opening tabs that performed music in opposition to your will and sifting by means of partitions of textual content on a coloured background. Within the 2000s, earlier than Squarespace and social media, web sites have been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some data of code.
Scattered throughout the net are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated strategy. And the motion is something however a superficial enchantment to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human contact in digital experiences. Learn the complete story.
—Tiffany Ng
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Overlook Emily in Paris: right here’s the right way to breakfast because the French do, in keeping with a prime French chef.
+ It’s all kicking off in England, after a veteran conkers competitor denied dishonest within the sport’s highest degree.
+ As Titanic Celtic whistle impressions go, this one is up there. 
+ Brace your self for brat autumn.