Plus: the US and UK have very totally different concepts about how AI must be regulated
That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what is going on on on this planet of expertise.
How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy
The web loves a very good neologism, particularly if it may seize a purported vibe shift or clarify a brand new development. In 2013, the columnist Adrian Wooldridge coined a phrase that finally did each. Writing for the Economist, he warned of the approaching “techlash,” a revolt towards Silicon Valley’s wealthy and highly effective fueled by the general public’s rising realization that these “sovereigns of our on-line world” weren’t the benevolent bright-future bringers they claimed to be.
Whereas Wooldridge didn’t say exactly when this techlash would arrive, it’s clear at present {that a} dramatic shift in public opinion towards Massive Tech and its leaders did in reality occur—and is arguably nonetheless occurring.
Two new books function wonderful reminders of why it began within the first place. Collectively, they chronicle the rise of an trade that’s more and more utilizing its unprecedented wealth and energy to undermine democracy, they usually define what we will do to begin taking a few of that energy again. Learn the complete story.
—Bryan Gardiner
This story is from the forthcoming journal version of MIT Expertise Evaluate, set to go stay on January 6—it’s all in regards to the thrilling breakthroughs occurring on this planet proper now. When you don’t already, subscribe to obtain a replica.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at present’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Google has unveiled a brand new headset and good glasses OS
Android XR offers wearers hands-free management due to the agency’s Gemini chatbot. (The Verge)
+ It additionally revealed a brand new Samsung-build headset referred to as Undertaking Moohan. (WP $)
+ Google’s hoping to study from errors it made with Google Glass a decade in the past. (Wired $)
+ Its new Undertaking Astra may very well be generative AI’s killer app. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
2 The US and UK are on a AI regulation collision course
Donald Trump’s method to policing AI is in stark distinction to what the UK is planning. (FT $)
+ The brand new US FTC chair favors a lightweight regulatory contact. (Reuters)
+ How’s AI self-regulation going? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 We don’t fairly know what’s inflicting a world temperature spike
However scientists agree that we must be nervous. (New Yorker $)
+ The typical international temperature may drop barely subsequent yr, although. (New Scientist $)
+ Who’s accountable for local weather change? It’s surprisingly sophisticated. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
4 Trump’s administration is filling up with tech insiders
Extra enterprise capitalists and officers are prone to be a part of their ranks. (The Info $)
+ These crypto kingpins might be preserving an in depth eye on proceedings. (FT $)
5 What occurred after West Virginia revoked entry to weight problems medicine
Academics and state staff struggled after a pilot medicine program was deemed too costly. (The Atlantic $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for individuals IRL? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
6 Would you purchase a automotive from Amazon?
The e-retail big desires you to sidestep the dealership and buy from it immediately. (Wired $)
+ Whereas it’s restricted to Hyundai fashions, different producers will comply with. (Forbes $)
7 Silicon Valley’s perks tradition is basically lifeless
No extra free massages or artisanal chocolate, sob. (NYT $)
8 AI is instructing us extra in regards to the Berlin Wall’s murals
From the sorts of paint used, to software strategies. (Ars Technica)
9 For $69, you’ll be able to put money into a uncommon stegosaurus skeleton
The uncommon fossil is a reasonably excessive instance of an alternate funding. (Quick Firm $)
+ New Yorkers can swing by the American Museum of Pure Historical past to see it. (AP Information)
10 This New Jersey politician faked his Spotify Wrapped
To cover his kids’s outcomes and make him seem a much bigger Bruce Springsteen fan. (Billboard $)
+ What would The Boss himself make of the controversy? (WP $)
Quote of the day
“It may very well be far worse than any problem we’ve beforehand encountered — and much past our capability to mitigate.”
—Jack Szostak, a professor within the College of Chicago’s chemistry division, tells the Monetary Occasions in regards to the unprecedented hazard posed by artificial micro organism.
The massive story
A short, bizarre historical past of brainwashing
April 2024
On a spring day in 1959, warfare correspondent Edward Hunter testified earlier than a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the impact of Pink China Communes on the USA.”
Hunter launched them to a supposedly scientific system for altering individuals’s minds, even making them love issues they as soon as hated.
A lot of it was baseless, however Hunter’s sensational tales nonetheless turned an vital a part of the disinformation that fueled a “mind-control race”, with the US authorities pumping tens of millions of {dollars} into analysis on mind manipulation in the course of the Chilly Struggle.
However whereas the science by no means precisely panned out, residual beliefs fostered by this weird battle proceed to play a task in ideological and scientific debates to at the present time. Learn the complete story.
—Annalee Newitz
We are able to 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.)
+ Deep down within the depths of the Atacama Trench, a brand new crustacean has been found.
+ Dwelling on this picturesque Antarctic settlement comes with a catch—it’s important to have your appendix eliminated earlier than you’ll be able to transfer in.
+ Simply if you thought candy potato couldn’t get any higher, it seems it makes fairly tasty macaroons.
+ When you’re trying to introduce youngsters to the enjoyment of sci-fi, these motion pictures are a terrific place to begin.