That is at this time’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what is going on on on the planet of expertise.
Why Chinese language producers are going viral on TikTok
For the reason that video was posted earlier this month, tens of millions of TikTok customers have watched as a younger Chinese language man in a blue T-shirt sits beside a standard tea set and speaks on to the digicam in accented English: “Let’s expose luxurious’s largest secret.”
He stands and lifts what seems like an Hermès Birkin bag, one of many world’s most unique and costly purses, earlier than gesturing towards the cabinets full of extra baggage behind him. “You acknowledge them: Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci—all crafted in our workshops.” He ends by urging viewers to purchase straight from his manufacturing unit.
Video “exposés” like this—the place a gross sales agent breaks down the fabric price of luxurious items, from purses to perfumes to home equipment—are all over the place on TikTok proper now. And whether or not or not their claims are true, these movies and their virality communicate to a brand new, critical push by Chinese language producers to attach straight with American customers. Learn the complete story.
—Caiwei Chen
How AI is interacting with our artistic human processes
The speedy proliferation of AI in our lives introduces new challenges round authorship, authenticity, and ethics in work and artwork. Nevertheless it additionally affords a very human drawback in narrative: How can we make sense of those machines, not simply use them?
Three new books study what we achieve and lose once we let machines create, and pose the query: how do the phrases we select and tales we inform about expertise have an effect on the position we permit it to tackle (and even take over) in our artistic lives? Learn the complete story.
—Rebecca Ackermann
This story is from the most up-to-date version of our print journal, which is all about how expertise is altering creativity. Subscribe now to learn it and to obtain future print copies as soon as they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at this time’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Contained in the highly effective Sign chat shaping America
Marc Andreessen’s Chatham Home group unites figures throughout Silicon Valley, politics and journalism. (Semafor)
+ Many in tech might come to remorse their funding in Trump. (Vox)
2 RFK Jr’s autism research has obtained scientists nervous
They worry it’ll give credence to unproven theories. (Axios)
+ His claims that autism is attributable to environmental toxins are usually not backed by science. (PBS)
+ Specialists say lack of help is the largest problem going through autistic individuals. (The Guardian)
3 Solely Google can run Chrome correctly
That’s what the browser’s common supervisor advised the choose presiding over its antitrust trial. (Bloomberg $)
+ Firms are nonetheless expressing curiosity in shopping for it, although. (The Verge)
4 Meta’s chatbots will maintain express conversations with minors
Together with chatbots voiced by celebrities, together with wrestler-turned-actor John Cena. (WSJ $)
+ An AI companion website is internet hosting sexually charged conversations with underage celeb bots. (MIT Expertise Overview)
5 Right here’s why it will be so tough to construct an iPhone within the US
It’s not nearly the price of labor. (FT $)
+ His steep tariffs imply this Christmas shall be an much more costly affair. (Wired $)
+ Sweeping tariffs might threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Expertise Overview)
6 Mexico’s drug cartels have turn into influencers
Their posts are a few of the solely insights now we have into their actions. (The Atlantic $)
+ The moms of Mexico’s lacking use social media to seek for mass graves. (MIT Expertise Overview)
7 Folks with autism are utilizing AI to navigate on a regular basis conditions
However specialists warn that chatbots’ responses must be handled with warning. (WP $)
8 Clear vitality continues to be making progress
Regardless of these political and financial headwinds. (Vox)
+ Europe is dedicated to wanting past fossil fuels. (Politico)
+ 4 applied sciences that might energy the way forward for vitality. (MIT Expertise Overview)
9 What rats can educate us about starvation 🐀
We’re getting nearer to understanding what makes us begin and cease consuming. (NYT $)
+ We’ve by no means understood how starvation works. That may be about to vary. (MIT Expertise Overview)
10 It’s no marvel Trump loves AI slop
He’s been pushing a surreal, gaudy imaginative and prescient of the world for years.(New Yorker $)
+ AI slop infiltrated nearly each nook of the web final yr. (MIT Expertise Overview)
Quote of the day
“You understand the very best factor about this stuff is that nothing leaks…but it surely seems like that’s modified just a little.”
—A longtime attendee of the secretive intimate networking occasions favored by tech, media and finance bigwigs spills the beans to The Data.
Yet another factor
AI hype is constructed on excessive check scores. These checks are flawed.
Up to now few years, a number of researchers declare to have proven that giant language fashions can go cognitive checks designed for people, from working by means of issues step-by-step, to guessing what different persons are pondering.
These sorts of outcomes are feeding a hype machine predicting that these machines will quickly come for white-collar jobs. However there’s an issue: There’s little settlement on what these outcomes actually imply. Learn the complete story.
—William Douglas Heaven
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The Magic Circle has readmitted a feminine magician who was expelled 30 years in the past after she revealed she’d disguised herself as a person to achieve entry to the previously male-only society. 🪄
+ These Nationwide Parks are stunningly lovely.
+ The Worry of Flying Subreddit is without doubt one of the final pure locations remaining on the web.
+ Why Gen Z is so obsessive about iced espresso.
