Afrigather Plus: Neuralink says it is able to implant a tool right into a second human affected person
That is immediately’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what is going on on on the earth of expertise.
AI is poised to automate immediately’s most mundane guide warehouse activity
Earlier than virtually any merchandise reaches your door, it traverses the worldwide provide chain on a pallet. Greater than 2 billion pallets are in circulation in the USA alone, and $400 billion value of products are exported on them yearly.
Nevertheless, loading bins onto these pallets is a activity caught previously: Heavy masses and repetitive actions depart employees at excessive danger of harm, and within the uncommon cases when robots are used, they take months to program utilizing handheld computer systems which have modified little for the reason that Eighties.
Jacobi Robotics, a startup spun out of the labs of the College of California, Berkeley, says it may possibly vastly velocity up that course of with AI. If profitable, Jacobi goals to exchange the legacy strategies clients are at present utilizing to coach their bots, whittling down the time it takes to code a paletting course of from months to a single day. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell
Right here’s the issue with new plastic recycling strategies
Look on the underside of a plastic water bottle or takeout container, and also you would possibly discover a emblem there made up of three arrows forming a closed loop formed like a triangle. Typically referred to as the chasing arrows, this stamp is used on packaging to recommend it’s recyclable.
These little arrows indicate a pleasant story, portray an image of a world the place the fabric can be recycled into a brand new product, forming an limitless loop of reuse. However the actuality of plastics recycling immediately doesn’t match as much as that concept. Solely about 10% of the plastic ever made has been recycled; the overwhelming majority winds up in landfills or within the setting.
Researchers have been working to handle the issue by developing with new recycling strategies, sometimes called advanced, or chemical, recycling. However this new strategy shares a couple of challenges with different recycling strategies. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is from The Spark, our weekly publication supplying you with the within observe on vitality and local weather expertise. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Neuralink’s second mind implant is imminent
It hopes to have a number of units implanted in human sufferers by the top of the 12 months. (Bloomberg $)
+ Elon Musk confirmed that the corporate is engaged on a next-gen implant, too. (Wired $)
+ Meet the opposite corporations creating brain-computer interfaces. (MIT Technology Review)
2 NASA’s astronauts have been purported to return to Earth weeks in the past
However they’re caught on the ISS till engineers are assured they’re secure to fly again. (Ars Technica)
+ Inside NASA’s bid to make spacecraft as small as attainable. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Tesla’s vehicles’ ‘full self-driving’ capabilities are beneath investigation
All of it hinges on whether or not the time period implies the automobiles are autonomous. (WP $)
+ EV startup Rivian is snapping at Tesla’s heels. (Bloomberg $)
+ The Chinese language authorities goes all-in on autonomous automobiles. (MIT Technology Review)
4 The US authorities is investing much less in nationwide safety startups
In comparison with the huge quantities enterprise capitalists are pouring into the ventures. (WSJ $)
5 Apple has agreed to offer its rivals entry to its funds tech system
The transfer meets EU calls for, and neatly swerves a hefty $40bn penalty. (FT $)
+ However Apple isn’t out of the woods fairly but. (Bloomberg $)
6 Starlink’s moveable Mini dish has gone on sale
The web-from-space equipment is sufficiently small to slot in a backpack. (The Verge)
7 Brace your self for the rise of neurocosmetics
They’re merchandise on your dermis and, err, your mind. (The Atlantic $)
8 Creators are turning hateful feedback into content material
It’s definitely a method of not letting the negativity get to you. (NYT $)
9 How Spotify turned itself right into a social community
Its adoption of polls, Q&As, and feedback suggests it has large ambitions. (TechCrunch)
10 It’s not simply you—TikTok Store actually is annoying
Let me scroll in peace! (Vox)
Quote of the day
“No trade can thrive with out regulation in the long term. It’s mayhem.”
—An AI startup founder tells the Financial Times that Biden and Trump’s lack of plans to control the rapidly-evolving expertise is sparking deep concern in Silicon Valley.
The large story
This grim however revolutionary DNA expertise is altering how we reply to mass disasters
Final August, a wildfire tore via the Hawaiian island of Maui. The listing of lacking residents climbed into the a whole bunch, as mates 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 develop into extra widespread 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—surveying rubble and ash, distinguishing a chunk of plastic from a tiny fragment of bone—however touchdown a optimistic identification can now take only a fraction of the time it as soon as did, which can in flip convey households some semblance of peace swifter than ever earlier than. Read the full story.
—Erika Hayasaki
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Take me to the world’s greatest ball of twine, somebody.
+ Duke Ellington Morris is one hard-working cat.
+ We’ve uncovered the world’s oldest known narrative art, relationship again greater than 50,000 years!
+ Dutch readers, look away now: England’s winning goal within the Euros semi-finals final evening was a magnificence ⚽
