That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of expertise.
How “personhood credentials” may assist show you’re a human on-line
As AI fashions grow to be higher at mimicking human conduct, it’s changing into more and more tough to differentiate between actual human web customers and complex techniques imitating them.
That’s an actual drawback when these techniques are deployed for nefarious ends like spreading misinformation or conducting fraud, and it makes it lots tougher to belief what you encounter on-line.
A bunch of researchers have developed a possible answer— a verification idea referred to as ‘personhood credentials’ that proves its holder is an actual individual, with out revealing any additional details about their id. Learn the total story to study the way it works.
—Rhiannon Williams
The race to switch the highly effective greenhouse gasoline that underpins the facility grid
The ability grid is underpinned by a single gasoline that’s used to insulate a variety of high-voltage tools. The issue is, it’s additionally an excellent highly effective greenhouse gasoline: a nightmare for local weather change.
Sulfur hexafluoride (or SF6) is much from the most typical gasoline that warms the planet, contributing round 1% of warming to this point—carbon dioxide and methane are rather more well-known and ample. However emissions of the gasoline are steadily ticking up yearly.
Now, corporations want to eliminate tools that depends on the gasoline and looking for replacements that may match its efficiency. Learn the total story.
—Casey Crownhart
Unveiling the 2024 Innovator of the 12 months
Yearly, MIT Expertise Evaluate acknowledges 35 Innovators Underneath 35. These younger entrepreneurs, researchers, and humanitarians are inventing supplies and constructing techniques to assist sort out the world’s most urgent issues in biotechnology, computing, and local weather science.
On Monday, September 9, we’ll introduce our 2024 Innovator of the 12 months dwell on LinkedIn. Be part of us at 12.30pm ET to search out out who it’s, and study their work and the impression they’re having on this particular broadcast forward of the checklist’s publication. Register right here to be among the many first to know!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you right now’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 X is lots quieter with out its Brazilian customers
The extraordinarily on-line nation ran lots of X’s hottest fan accounts. (NYT $)
+ Brazil’s Supreme Court docket is below fireplace from some quarters for banning entry to the platform. (FT $)+ The traders who helped Elon Musk purchase X are significantly out of pocket. (WP $)
2 China’s on-line surveillance web is widening
Influencers’ followers are more and more changing into targets for police interrogation. (The Guardian)
+ How 2023 marked the dying of anonymity on-line in China. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 Intel has a plan to revive its fortunes
The once-mighty chipmaker plans to shed as many pointless property as doable. (Reuters)
+ Its gross sales are shrinking, and rival Nvidia is flourishing. (Bloomberg $)
4 We want rather more grid storage
EVs haven’t absolutely taken off, so battery makers want to the grid as a substitute. (Economist $)
+ New iron batteries may assist. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 Courting apps are creating AI wingmen that can assist you flirt
Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Grindr’s new bots will counsel easy chat-up traces. (FT $)
6 US sanctions are pushing China and Russia to construct new fee techniques
To assist them skirt the US-dollar-dominated international monetary order. (Insider $)
+ Is the digital greenback useless? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
7 These scientists need to retailer organic samples on the moon
Seeds, plant, animal and microbial samples may very well be safer there than on Earth. (Wired $)
+ Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is making bizarre noises. (Ars Technica)
+ Future house meals may very well be created from astronaut breath. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
8 Making video calls from jail is significantly costly
However US regulators are lastly capping how a lot non-public corporations can cost. (WSJ $)
9 Pastime apps are exploding in recognition
Social media fatigue is actual, and Strava and Letterboxd are reaping the advantages. (Bloomberg $)
+ Need to see what your folks are as much as? Verify your Venmo. (The Atlantic $)
+ Methods to repair the web. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
10 Why AI is such a compelling film villain
From 2001: A Area Odyssey to the Terminator to the Matrix. (WP $)
Quote of the day
“Pls flip off historical past.”
—A Google worker tells others to show off their chat historical past whereas discussing delicate topics, which the US Federal Authorities claims is proof that employees knew to keep away from making a authorized paper path, 404 Media experiences.
The massive story
The race to supply uncommon earth supplies
Abandoning fossil fuels and adopting lower-carbon applied sciences are our greatest choices for keeping off the accelerating risk of local weather change. And entry to uncommon earth parts, key elements in lots of of those applied sciences, will partly decide which nations will meet their targets for reducing emissions.
Some nations, together with the US, are more and more nervous about whether or not the provision of these parts will stay secure. Consequently, scientists and corporations alike are intent on rising entry and enhancing sustainability by exploring secondary or unconventional sources. Learn the total story.
—Mureji Fatunde
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Now fall is formally on its manner, it’s time to replace your autumnal studying checklist ($)
+ I really like this picture of a neuroscientist and her child captured by an MRI machine.
+ My favourite Olympic sport? Snail racing! You possibly can learn extra about how the snails energy their little vehicles right here (thanks Claire!)
+ Marginal positive factors actually do work.
