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The Obtain: Amsterdam’s welfare AI experiment, and making humanoid robots safer

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Plus: chatbots cannot sustain with the LA riots

That is as we speak’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what is going on on on this planet of know-how.

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create honest welfare AI

Amsterdam thought it was heading in the right direction. Metropolis officers within the welfare division believed they may construct know-how that will stop fraud whereas defending residents’ rights. They adopted these rising greatest practices and invested an unlimited quantity of money and time in a challenge that ultimately processed dwell welfare functions. However of their pilot, they discovered that the system they’d developed was nonetheless not honest and efficient. Why?

Lighthouse Stories, MIT Expertise Overview, and the Dutch newspaper Trouw have gained unprecedented entry to the system to attempt to discover out. Examine what we found.

—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun

This story is a partnership between MIT Expertise Overview, Lighthouse Stories, and Trouw, and was supported by the Pulitzer Middle. 

+ Are you able to make AI fairer than a decide? Play our courtroom algorithm sport to search out out.

Why humanoid robots want their very own security guidelines

Whereas humanoid robots are taking their first tentative steps into industrial functions, the final word aim is to have them working in shut quarters with people.

One purpose for making robots human-shaped within the first place is to allow them to extra simply navigate the environments we’ve designed round ourselves. This implies they may want to have the ability to share area with individuals, not simply keep behind protecting obstacles. However first, they should be secure. Learn the complete story.

—Victoria Turk

MIT Expertise Overview Narrated: The shocking barrier that retains us from constructing the housing we’d like

Positive, there’s an excessive amount of pink tape, however there’s one more reason constructing something is so costly: the development business’s “terrible” productiveness.That is our newest story to be changed into a MIT Expertise Overview Narrated podcast, which 
we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Expertise Overview 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 search out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 Chatbots are getting info in regards to the LA riots fallacious
AI techniques can’t be relied upon at the very best of occasions, not to mention with fast-moving information. (Wired $)
+ What’s Trump’s aim right here, precisely? (NY Magazine $)

2 Gavin Newsom is changing into a meme
The California governor’s Trump clapbacks are profitable him a legion of on-line followers. (WP $)
+ He’s accused the President of “pulling a army dragnet” throughout town. (The Guardian)
+ Newsom has warned that different states are prone to be subsequent. (Politico)

3 Trump’s Large Lovely Invoice might result in greater than 51,000 deaths a yr
Because of the invoice’s provisions for public medical health insurance. (Undark)

4 How Ukraine’s AI-guided drones hit Russia’s airfields
However its opponent can also be stepping up its AI capabilities. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone protection. (MIT Expertise Overview)

5 US businesses tracked overseas nationals travelling to Elon Musk
Officers stored a watch on who visited him in 2022 and 2023. (WSJ $)

6 Snap’s new AR sensible glasses will go on sale subsequent yr
Its sixth technology of Specs will enter an more and more crowded subject. (CNBC)
+ Qualcomm has made a brand new processor to energy related glasses. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s subsequent for sensible glasses. (MIT Expertise Overview)

7 Every ChatGPT question makes use of ‘roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon’ of water
That’s in keeping with Sam Altman, not less than. (The Verge)
+ We did the maths on AI’s power footprint. Right here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Expertise Overview)

8 Loss of life Valley’s air may very well be a priceless water supply
Scientists proved their hydrogel methodology labored in the actual world. (New Scientist $)

9 Gen Z is selecting to skip faculty solely
Rising numbers of younger tech staff are opting out and coming into the workforce early. (Insider $)

10 How you can combat again in opposition to a world of AI-generated decisions
Good style is your good friend right here. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“We’re most likely going to have flying taxis earlier than we’ve got autonomous ones in London.”

—Steve McNamara, the overall secretary of the UK’s Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Affiliation, isn’t optimistic about London’s plans to trial autonomous automobiles, he tells the Guardian.

Another factor

Exosomes are touted as a classy cure-all. We don’t know in the event that they work.

There’s a classy new cure-all on the town—you might need seen advertisements pop up on social media or learn rave critiques in magnificence magazines.

Exosomes are being touted as a miraculous remedy for hair loss, getting older pores and skin, zits, eczema, ache situations, lengthy covid, and even neurological illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. That’s, after all, when you can afford the worth tag—which might stretch to hundreds of {dollars}.

However there’s a giant drawback with these large guarantees: We don’t absolutely perceive how exosomes work—or what they even actually are. Learn our story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

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

+ Right here’s how one can faucet into your circulate state and get issues DONE.
+ Try these must-see artwork exhibits and exhibitions of the yr.
+ Everyone’s free (to hearken to top-of-the-line hits of the 90s) ☀️
+ Seems 10CC frontman Graham Gouldman doesn’t similar to cricket—he’s simply watched his first ever sport and he actually does adore it 🏏

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