HomeTechnologyThe Obtain: defending farmworkers from warmth, and AI’s Nobel Prize

The Obtain: defending farmworkers from warmth, and AI’s Nobel Prize

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Plus: NASA’s Europa Clipper has began its six-year lengthy journey to Jupiter

That is in the present day’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what is going on on on this planet of know-how.

The search to guard farmworkers from excessive warmth

On July 21, 2024, temperatures soared in lots of elements of the world, breaking the document for the most popular day ever recorded on the planet.

The next day—July 22—the document was damaged once more.

However at the same time as the warmth index rises every summer time, the folks working outside to choose fruits, greens, and flowers should maintain laboring.

The results might be extreme, resulting in diseases corresponding to warmth exhaustion, heatstroke and even acute kidney harm.

Now, researchers are growing an modern sensor that tracks a number of important indicators with a aim of anticipating when a employee is liable to growing warmth sickness and issuing an alert. If extensively adopted and constantly used, it may symbolize a option to make employees safer on farms even with out vital warmth protections. Learn the total story.

—Kalena Thomhave

This story is from the subsequent print problem of MIT Know-how Assessment, which comes out subsequent Wednesday and delves into the extraordinary world of meals. If you happen to don’t already, subscribe to obtain a duplicate as soon as it lands.

A knowledge bottleneck is holding AI science again, says new Nobel winner

David Baker is sleep-deprived however completely happy. He’s simply received the Nobel prize, in any case. 

The decision from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences woke him in the midst of the evening. Or fairly, his spouse did. She answered the cellphone at their residence in Washington, D.C. and screamed that he’d received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The prize is the last word recognition of his work as a biochemist on the College of Washington.

However there’s one drawback. AI wants lots of high-quality knowledge to be helpful for science, and databases containing that kind of knowledge are uncommon, says Baker. Learn extra about his ideas about AI’s position in the way forward for protein design.

—Melissa Heikkilä

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly e-newsletter exploring all the most recent developments in AI. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 NASA’s Europa Clipper is on its option to certainly one of Jupiter’s moons
It ought to contact down at its vacation spot in slightly below six years. (NYT $)
+ It’s set to search for life-friendly situations round Jupiter. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

2 Google will use nuclear vitality to energy its AI knowledge facilities
It’s backing the development of seven new small reactors within the US. (WSJ $)
+ It’s the primary tech agency to fee energy crops to satisfy its electrical energy wants. (FT $)
+ We have been promised smaller nuclear reactors. The place are they? (MIT Know-how Assessment)

3 We shouldn’t over-rely on AI’s climate predictions
Precisely forecasting the chance of flooding remains to be a problem. (Reuters)
+ Google’s new climate prediction system combines AI with conventional physics. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

4 Demis Hassabis’ drug discovery startup is ramping up spending
Isomorphic Labs is sinking more cash into employees and analysis. (FT $)
+ Hassabis not too long ago received a joint Nobel Prize in chemistry for protein prediction AI. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

5 Nudify bots are rife on Telegram
Thousands and thousands of individuals are utilizing them to create specific AI photographs. (Wired $)
+ Google is lastly taking motion to curb non-consensual deepfakes. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

6 Adobe has launched its personal AI video generator
Becoming a member of the crowded ranks of Meta, OpenAI, ByteDance and Google. (Bloomberg $)
+ It’s designed to mix AI-produced clips with present footage. (Reuters)
+ Adobe desires to make it simpler for artists to blacklist their work from AI scraping. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

7 Amazon is engaged on consolidating its disparate companies
It’s folding its acquisitions into its bigger present operations. (The Info $)

8 Scaling up quantum computer systems is a significant problem
Now, researchers are experimenting with utilizing gentle to just do that. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Google says it’s made a quantum computing breakthrough that reduces errors. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

9 The right evening’s sleep doesn’t exist 💤
And our preoccupation with sleep monitoring isn’t useful. (The Guardian)

10 A robotics startup owns the emblems for Tesla’s product names
‘Starship’ and ‘Robovan’ belong to Starship Applied sciences. Good luck Elon! (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“Sooner or later if the AI overlords take over, I simply need them to keep in mind that I used to be well mannered.”

—Vikas Choudhary, founding father of an AI startup, explains to the Wall Road Journal why he insists on being well mannered to ChatGPT.

The large story

This grim however revolutionary DNA know-how is altering how we reply to mass disasters

Could 2024

Final August, a wildfire tore via the Hawaiian island of Maui. The checklist of lacking residents climbed into the a whole lot, as pals and households desperately searched for his or her lacking family members. However whereas some have been rewarded with tearful reunions, others weren’t so fortunate.

Over the previous a number of years, as fires and different climate-change-fueled disasters have grow to be extra frequent and extra cataclysmic, the way in which their aftermath is processed and their victims recognized has been reworked.

The grim work following a catastrophe stays—however touchdown a optimistic identification can now take only a fraction of the time it as soon as did, which can in flip deliver households some semblance of peace swifter than ever earlier than. Learn the total story.

—Erika Hayasaki

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Why a bit of little bit of chaos is definitely good for us.
+ A calming daydreaming competitors seems like the most effective factor ever.
+ All of us want a sofa good friend, somebody we will chill and be absolutely ourselves with. 🛋️
+ Moo Deng the lovable child hippo has formally made it—she’s been immortalized as a Thai dessert.

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