Afrigather That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what is going on on on the planet of expertise.
Google DeepMind’s new AI programs can now clear up advanced math issues
AI fashions can simply generate essays and different kinds of textual content. Nevertheless, they’re nowhere close to nearly as good at fixing math issues, which are likely to contain logical reasoning—one thing that’s past the capabilities of most present AI programs.
However which will lastly be altering. Google DeepMind says it has skilled two specialised AI programs to unravel advanced math issues involving superior reasoning. The programs labored collectively to efficiently clear up 4 out of six issues from this yr’s Worldwide Mathematical Olympiad, a prestigious competitors for highschool college students.
They received the equal of a silver medal, marking the primary time any AI system has ever achieved such a excessive success charge on these sorts of issues. Learn the total story.
—Rhiannon Williams
Why the US continues to be making an attempt to make mirror-magnified photo voltaic power work
The US is constant its decades-long effort to commercialize a expertise that converts daylight into warmth, funding a collection of recent tasks utilizing that power to brew beer, produce low-carbon fuels, or hold grids working.
The Division of Vitality has introduced it’s placing $33 million into 9 pilot tasks primarily based on concentrating photo voltaic thermal energy, MIT Expertise Evaluate can report solely. The expertise makes use of massive arrays of mirrors to pay attention daylight onto a receiver, the place it’s used to warmth up molten salt, ceramic particles, or different supplies that may retailer that power for prolonged intervals.
However early business efforts to supply clear electrical energy primarily based on this expertise have been bedeviled by excessive prices, low output, and different challenges. Learn the total story.
—James Temple
“Copyright traps” may inform writers if an AI has scraped their work
Because the starting of the generative AI growth, content material creators have argued that their work has been scraped into AI fashions with out their consent. However till now, it has been tough to know whether or not particular textual content has really been utilized in a coaching knowledge set.
Now they’ve a brand new method to show it: “copyright traps” developed by a crew at Imperial Faculty London, items of hidden textual content that permit writers and publishers to subtly mark their work so as to later detect whether or not it has been utilized in AI fashions or not. Learn the total story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
How our genome is sort of a generative AI mannequin
What does the genome do? You might need heard that it’s a blueprint for an organism. Or that it’s a bit like a recipe. However constructing an organism is far more advanced than setting up a home or baking a cake.
This week I got here throughout an concept for a brand new method to consider the genome—one which borrows from the sphere of synthetic intelligence. Two researchers are arguing that we should always give it some thought as being extra like a generative mannequin, a type of AI that may generate new issues.
You is likely to be conversant in such AI instruments—they’re those that may create textual content, photos, and even movies from varied prompts. However do our genomes actually work in the identical method? Learn the total story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This story is from The Checkup, our weekly well being and biotech publication. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 OpenAI’s search engine is right here
And it’s already getting stuff fallacious. (The Atlantic $)
+ SearchGPT will ultimately be folded into ChatGPT. (WP $)
+ Its launch is a transparent menace to Google’s long-held search engine dominance. (Wired $)
+ Why you shouldn’t belief AI search engines like google. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
2 The chip trade’s employees are demanding higher therapy
Because the sector’s income soar, its workers aren’t seeing the advantages. (WSJ $)
3 What finding out the human mind can train us about AI
Making an attempt to grasp why AI does the issues it does is essential to controlling it. (Vox)
+ What’s AI? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
4 Russia is throttling entry to YouTube
It’s trying as if a complete ban is imminent. (Bloomberg $)
5 Robots are lastly changing into extra helpful
And it’s all because of AI. (FT $)
+ Is robotics about to have its personal ChatGPT second? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
6 Voice actors are placing in opposition to online game firms
They declare the corporations have learnt nothing from the prior strikes in opposition to movie and TV. (NYT $)
+ They need studios to hunt actors’ consent for utilizing their voices with AI. (Bloomberg $)
7 Figuring out all of Mexico’s lifeless our bodies is a forensic disaster
Scientists are doing their greatest to harness tech to their trigger. (New Yorker $)
+ The moms of Mexico’s lacking are utilizing social media to seek for mass graves. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
8 New Jersey is angling to grow to be a serious AI hub
Bruce Springsteen’s hometown needs a slice of these hefty new tax credit. (Wired $)
+ The $100 billion wager {that a} postindustrial US metropolis can reinvent itself as a high-tech hub. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
9 Mexico’s supply employees are sick of meals orders
It’s much less ready round, and fewer irate clients. (Remainder of World)
10 Tips on how to discover serenity in a plant-identifying app
Take a minute to step exterior and scent the roses. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“Simply hug your IT people.”
—Jerry Leever, an IT director at accounting, tax and advisory agency GHJ, explains to the Washington Submit what it was like making an attempt to deal with final week’s CrowdStrike meltdown.
The large story
Brilliant LEDs may spell the tip of darkish skies
August 2022
Scientists have identified for years that mild air pollution is rising and might hurt each people and wildlife. In folks, elevated publicity to mild at evening disrupts sleep cycles and has been linked to most cancers and heart problems, whereas wildlife suffers from interruption to their reproductive patterns, and elevated hazard.
Astronomers, policymakers, and lighting professionals are all working to search out methods to scale back mild air pollution. Lots of them advocate putting in light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in out of doors fixtures reminiscent of metropolis streetlights, primarily for his or her potential to direct mild to a focused space.
However the excessive preliminary funding and sturdiness of recent LEDs imply cities have to get the transition proper the primary time or doubtlessly face many years of penalties. Learn the total story.
—Shel Evergreen
We will 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.)
+ Girl Gaga! Celine Dion! Snoop Dogg! It’s secure to say tonight’s Paris Olympics opening ceremony goes to be suitably bonkers.
+ Though nothing is ever going to high London 2012’s opening.
+ Candace Bushnell, you’ll by no means not be fabulous.
+ Who doesn’t love a very good Kubrick stare?
