That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what is going on on on the planet of expertise.
How the federal authorities is monitoring adjustments within the provide of avenue medication
In 2021, the Maryland Division of Well being and the state police had been confronting a disaster: Deadly drug overdoses within the state had been at an all-time excessive, and authorities didn’t know why.
Searching for solutions, Maryland officers turned to scientists on the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Know-how, the nationwide metrology institute for the US, which defines and maintains requirements of measurement important to a variety of commercial sectors and well being and safety functions.
There, a analysis chemist named Ed Sisco and his crew had developed strategies for detecting hint quantities of medicine, explosives, and different harmful supplies—methods that might defend regulation enforcement officers and others who needed to accumulate these samples. And a pilot uncovered new, vital info virtually instantly. Learn the total story.
—Adam Bluestein
This story is from the following version of our print journal. Subscribe now to learn it and get a duplicate of the journal when it lands!
Part two of army AI has arrived
—James O’Donnell
Final week, I spoke with two US Marines who spent a lot of final yr deployed within the Pacific, conducting coaching workouts from South Korea to the Philippines. Each had been liable for analyzing surveillance to warn their superiors about doable threats to the unit. However this deployment was distinctive: For the primary time, they had been utilizing generative AI to scour intelligence, by way of a chatbot interface much like ChatGPT.
As I wrote in my new story, this experiment is the most recent proof of the Pentagon’s push to make use of generative AI—instruments that may interact in humanlike dialog—all through its ranks, for duties together with surveillance. This push raises alarms from some AI security specialists about whether or not giant language fashions are match to investigate delicate items of intelligence in conditions with excessive geopolitical stakes.
Listed below are three open inquiries to preserve your eye on because the US army, and others all over the world, deliver generative AI to extra components of the so-called “kill chain.” Learn the total story.
This story initially appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly publication on AI. To get tales like this in your inbox first, enroll right here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 The FCC desires Europe to decide on between US and Chinese language expertise
Trump official Brendan Carr has urged Western allies to select Elon Musk’s Starlink over rival Chinese language satellite tv for pc corporations. (FT $)
+ China could appear like a much less erratic selection proper now. (NY Magazine $)
2 Nvidia desires to construct its AI supercomputers solely within the US
It’s a call the Trump administration has claimed credit score for. (WP $)
+ That stated, Nvidia hasn’t stated how a lot gear it plans to make in America. (WSJ $)
+ Manufacturing of its newest chip has already begun in Arizona. (Bloomberg $)
3 Mark Zuckerberg defended Meta within the first day of its antitrust trial
He downplayed the corporate’s determination to buy Instagram and WhatsApp. (Politico)
+ The federal government claims he purchased the corporations to stifle competitors. (The Verge)
+ Zuckerberg has beforehand denied that his purchases had damage competitors. (NYT $)
4 OpenAI’s new fashions are designed to excel at coding
The three fashions have been optimized to observe advanced directions. (Wired $)
+ We’re nonetheless ready for affirmation of GPT-5. (The Verge)
+ The second wave of AI coding is right here. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)
5 Apple has elevated its iPhone shipments by 10%
It’s a part of a pre-emptive plan to mitigate tariff disruptions. (Bloomberg $)
+ The tariff chaos has performed havoc with Apple shares. (Insider $)
6 We’re studying extra concerning the hyperlink between lengthy covid and cognitive impairment
Research recommend {that a} affected person’s age once they contracted covid could also be a key issue. (WSJ $)
7 Can’t be bothered to name your aged mother and father? Get AI to do it 📞
How totally miserable. (404 Media)
8 This video app hopes to capitalize on TikTok’s unsure future
However in contrast to TikTok, Neptune permits creators to cover their likes. (TechCrunch)
9 Meet the tech bros who wish to reside underwater
Colonizing the ocean is without doubt one of the closing frontiers. (NYT $)
+ Meet the divers making an attempt to determine how deep people can go. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)
10 Google’s new AI mannequin can decipher dolphin sounds🐬
In the event that they’re squawking, again away. (Ars Technica)
+ The best way whales talk is nearer to human language than we realized. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)
Quote of the day
“In case you do not like an advert, you scroll previous it. It takes a couple of second.”
—Mark Hansen, Meta’s lead lawyer, makes mild of the Federal Commerce Fee’s assertion that customers of its platforms are inundated with advertisements throughout the first day of Meta’s monopoly trial, Ars Technica experiences.
The large story
Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML
Web sites weren’t all the time slick digital experiences.
There was a time when browsing the online concerned opening tabs that performed music in opposition to your will and sifting by way of partitions of textual content on a coloured background. Within the 2000s, earlier than Squarespace and social media, web sites had been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some information of code.
Scattered throughout the online are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated method. And the motion is something however a superficial attraction to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human contact in digital experiences. Learn the total story.
—Tiffany Ng
