That is right this moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what is going on on on this planet of expertise.

Bluesky has an impersonator downside 

—Melissa Heikkilä

Like many others, I just lately joined Bluesky. On Thanksgiving, I used to be delighted to see a personal message from a fellow AI reporter, Will Knight from Wired. Or no less than that’s who I assumed I used to be speaking to. I grew to become suspicious when the individual claiming to be Knight stated they had been from Miami, when Knight is, in truth, from the UK. The account deal with was nearly an identical to the actual Will Knight’s deal with, and used his profile picture.

Then extra messages began to seem. Paris Marx, a outstanding tech critic, slid into my DMs to ask me how I used to be doing. Each accounts had been finally deleted, however not earlier than attempting to get me to arrange a crypto pockets and a “cloud mining pool” account. Knight and Marx confirmed to us these accounts didn’t belong to them, and that they’ve been preventing impersonator accounts of themselves for weeks.

They’re not alone. The platform has needed to all of the sudden cater to an inflow of tens of millions of latest customers in current months as individuals depart X in protest of Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. However this sudden wave of latest customers —and the inevitable scammers — means Bluesky remains to be enjoying catch up. Learn the total story.

MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated: ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the financial system. We have to determine what that appears like.

You’ll be able to virtually hear the shrieks from nook places of work world wide: “What’s our ChatGPT play? How can we become profitable off this?”

Whether or not it’s based mostly on hallucinatory beliefs or not, an AI gold rush has began to mine the anticipated enterprise alternatives from generative AI fashions like ChatGPT.

However whereas corporations and executives see a transparent likelihood to money in, the doubtless impression of the expertise on employees and the financial system on the entire is much much less apparent.

That is our newest story to be was a MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated podcast, which 
we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated on both platform, and observe us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you right this moment’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Cruise is exiting the robotaxi enterprise
As soon as one of many largest gamers, it says it prices an excessive amount of to develop the tech. (Bloomberg $)
+ The information got here as a shock to Cruise workers. (TechCrunch)

2 Google requested the US authorities to kill Microsoft’s cloud cope with OpenAI
It desires the chance to host the agency’s fashions itself. (The Data $)

3 The season of coughs and sneezes is upon us
Right here’s what’s going to truly preserve a chilly at bay—and what received’t. (Vox)
+ RFK Jr’s different medication motion is unlikely to assist. (The Atlantic $)
+ Flu season is coming—and so is the chance of an all-new chicken flu. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

4 Trump’s new Commerce Secretary champions a stablecoin favored by criminals
Tether commonly crops up in worldwide legal circumstances. (FT $)
+ The crypto trade is obsessive about ‘debanking.’ (NBC Information)

5 A Russian affect operation in all probability used AI voice era fashions
ElevenLabs’ expertise was extremely more likely to have been abused by the marketing campaign. (TechCrunch)
+ How this grassroots effort might make AI voices extra various. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

6 These satellites are designed to create photo voltaic eclipses on demand
It’ll enable scientists to check the solar’s outer ambiance. (WP $)

7 WhatsApp is for a lot extra than simply messaging
It’s been repurposed by communities the world over. (Remainder of World)
+ How Indian health-care employees use WhatsApp to avoid wasting pregnant ladies. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

8 Paris is popping its parking areas into tiny parks
Vehicles are out, timber are in. (Quick Firm $)

9 How AI is shedding mild on an historic board sport
Oddly sufficient, they didn’t include directions 4,500 years in the past. (New Scientist $)

10 What a quarter-century of robotic canines has taught us
The Aibo is without doubt one of the few robots that’s made it into properties worldwide. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Generative AI taught a robotic canine to scramble round a brand new setting. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

Quote of the day

“In case it was unclear earlier than, it’s clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies.”

—Kyle Vogt, founding father of robotaxi agency Cruise, criticizes mother or father firm Normal Motors’ determination to exit the trade in a publish on X.

The massive story

Inside NASA’s bid to make spacecraft as small as doable

October 2023

For the reason that Nineteen Seventies, we’ve despatched plenty of massive issues to Mars. However when NASA efficiently despatched twin Mars Dice One spacecraft, the dimensions of cereal containers, in November 2018, it was the primary time we’d ever despatched one thing so small.

Simply making it this far heralded a brand new age in house exploration. NASA and the neighborhood of planetary science researchers caught a glimpse of a future lengthy sought: a pathway to rather more reasonably priced house exploration utilizing smaller, cheaper spacecraft. Learn the total story.

—David W. Brown

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

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

+ This fascinating device creates faux online game screenshots within the blink of a watch—give it a whirl.
+ The place and the way did the individuals of the submerged territory of Doggerland dwell earlier than rising seas pushed them away 1000’s of years in the past? We’re getting nearer to studying the solutions.
+ Residence Alone is a surprisingly brutal film, as these docs can attest.
+ Cats love containers. However why?