Plus: Google has unveiled a ‘mind-boggling’ new quantum chip
That is as we speak’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a day by day dose of what is going on on on this planet of know-how.
We noticed a demo of the brand new AI system powering Anduril’s imaginative and prescient for battle
—James O’Donnell
One afternoon in late November, I visited a weapons check web site within the foothills east of San Clemente, California operated by Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones and missiles that just lately introduced a partnership with OpenAI.
I went there to witness a brand new system it’s increasing as we speak, which permits exterior events to faucet into its software program and share knowledge as a way to velocity up decision-making on the battlefield.
If it really works as deliberate over the course of a brand new three-year contract with the Pentagon, it may embed AI extra deeply than ever earlier than into the theater of battle. Learn the total story.
Learn how to use Sora, OpenAI’s new video producing device
This story is the most recent in MIT Know-how Evaluate’s How To collection, which helps you get issues finished.
AI’s hype and antitrust downside is coming underneath scrutinyThe AI sector is affected by an absence of competitors and a number of deceit—or at the very least that’s one method to interpret the most recent flurry of actions taken in Washington.
The actions—from antitrust investigations to accusations of straight-up mendacity—characterize an effort to carry the AI trade’s hype to account within the ultimate months earlier than the Federal Commerce Fee’s chair, Lina Khan, is changed when Donald Trump takes workplace.
However whereas the FTC appears to have a far smoother transition of management forward than most different federal businesses, at the very least a few of Trump’s frustrations with Large Tech may ship antitrust efforts in a distinctly new path. Learn the total story.
—James O’Donnell
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly e-newsletter supplying you with the within monitor on all issues occurring within the fascinating area of AI. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Google has constructed a strong new quantum computing chip
But it surely doesn’t have any real-world functions—but. (Bloomberg $)
+ It takes 5 minutes to unravel an issue {that a} conventional supercomputer couldn’t grasp in 10 septillion years. (NYT $)
+ It’s a problem the quantum area has been making an attempt to crack for many years. (The Guardian)
+ We coated the work when it was a preprint in September. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
2 Nvidia is being investigated by China
It claims the chipmaking large has violated anti-monopoly legal guidelines. (BBC)
+ Nvidia’s greatest buyer within the nation? That might be ByteDance. (Insider $)
+ What’s subsequent in chips. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
3 TikTok has requested a US appeals court docket to halt the buy-or-sell regulation
Because it stands, the app faces a ban except it finds a brand new proprietor by January 19. (TechCrunch)
4 AI continues to be failing to ship on its financial guarantees
Is 2025 the yr we lastly begin to see some outcomes? (Quartz)
+ The US AI trade is in determined want of extra websites with energy grid entry. (FT $)
+ Learn how to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
5 The EU’s competitors guidelines are on the verge of an enormous shakeup
A brand new boss means a brand new method. (WSJ $)
+ European regulators wish to resolve a Meta and Google investigation. (FT $)
6 Weight-loss medication are making primary well being truths out of date
A nutritious diet and common train is dropping by the wayside. (The Atlantic $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for individuals IRL? (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
7 This bionic leg is managed by its wearer’s mind
Prosthetic limbs have gotten rather more succesful. (New Yorker $)
+ These prosthetics break the mildew with third thumbs, spikes, and superhero skins. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
8 An AI could make a fairly respectable Tokyo journey companion
Simply be sure to take its recommendation with a pinch of salt. (Wired $)
+ Learn how to use AI to plan your subsequent trip. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
9 Reddit is testing a brand new AI search function
Which the location’s customers are unlikely to take kindly to. (Ars Technica)
10 Jeff Bezos has a dinner with Donald Trump in his diary
Sounds cozy. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“It’s like manna from heaven.”
—Ari Morcos, chief govt of startup DatologyAI, explains to the Wall Road Journal why Reddit’s troves of textual content are so interesting to AI corporations.
The large story
Contained in the enigmatic minds of animals
October 2022
Greater than ever, we really feel an obligation and need to increase empathy to our nonhuman neighbors. Within the final three years, greater than 30 nations have formally acknowledged different animals—together with gorillas, lobsters, crows, and octopuses—as sentient beings.
A trio of books from Ed Yong, Jackie Higgins, and Philip Ball element creatures’ wealthy internal worlds and seize what has led to those developments: a booming area of experimental analysis difficult the long-standing view that animals are neither aware nor cognitively complicated. Learn the total story.
—Matthew Ponsford
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 tweet ’em at me.)
+ It appears we’ve got two varieties of chortle: one brought on by tickling, and the opposite by all the things else.
+ 2024 was a robust yr for fiction: take a look at among the finest new books.
+ There’s one thing completely mesmerizing about this assortment of previous residence movies.
+ Ukrainian artist Oleg Dron makes a speciality of expansive, haunting landscapes.