This is at the moment’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.
What is AI?
AI is attractive, AI is cool. AI is entrenching inequality, upending the job market, and wrecking training. The AI increase will enhance the economic system, the AI bubble is about to burst. AI will enhance abundance and empower humanity to maximally flourish within the universe. AI will kill us all.
What the hell is all people speaking about?
Artificial intelligence is the most well liked know-how of our time. But what’s it? It seems like a silly query, however it’s one which’s by no means been extra pressing.
If you’re keen to buckle up and come for a experience, I can inform you why no person actually is aware of, why all people appears to disagree, and why you’re proper to care about it. Read the total story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
The Chinese authorities is all in on autonomous automobiles
There’s been a lot information popping out of China’s autonomous-vehicle trade these days that it’s onerous to maintain monitor.
The authorities is lastly permitting Tesla to carry its Full Self-Driving characteristic to China. New authorities permits let firms check driverless vehicles on the street and permit cities to construct sensible street infrastructure that may inform these vehicles the place to go.
In brief, there are a whole lot of adjustments going down. And all of them level in the identical path: The Chinese authorities is throwing its weight behind the autonomous-vehicle trade and is keen to return out on prime whereas different nations take a extra cautious method. Read the total story.
—Zeyi Yang
This story is from China Report, our weekly publication masking tech and energy in China. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Microsoft and Apple will now not sit on OpenAI’s board
The transfer comes as regulators begin to pay shut consideration to Big Tech’s investments in AI startups. (FT $)
+ Microsoft claims its exit is all the way down to OpenAI’s newfound stability. (WSJ $)
+ OpenAI will replace its stakeholders with common conferences, as a substitute. (Bloomberg $)
2 The US has taken down a Russian bot farm on X
The propaganda mill used AI to scale up its operations. (WP $)
+ Google Search outcomes are stuffed with Russian AI spam, too. (Wired $)
+ The Kremlin is rewriting Wikipedia to swimsuit its personal agenda. (Economist $)
3 Amazon claims to have met a clear vitality purpose seven years early
Some specialists aren’t satisfied its calculation technique is as much as scratch, although. (NYT $)
+ Carbon seize wants to enhance if we’re ever to maneuver away from fossil fuels. (Knowable Magazine)
+ How electrical energy may clear up transportation, metal, and even fertilizer. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Rechargeable batteries come at an environmental price
They look like a rising supply of eternally chemical substances. (The Verge)
+ The race to destroy PFAS, the eternally chemical substances. (MIT Technology Review)
5 What occurs to your cash when your startup financial institution folds?
Plenty of consumers are discovering out the onerous manner. (NYT $)
6 Crypto followers are up in arms over Germany promoting confiscated bitcoin
But the state of Saxony doesn’t have a selection. (CoinDesk)
+ Crypto scams are alive and nicely. (Wired $)
7 How to arrange your own home for a hurricane
Stronger supplies, tighter seals, and an entire lot of labor. (Wired $)
+ The quest to construct wildfire-resistant houses. (MIT Technology Review)
8 No one solutions the cellphone anymore
And it’s an even bigger downside than you’d assume. (Slate $)
9 Philips Hue sensible lightbulbs appear to have a thoughts of their very own
Owners declare the bulbs are overriding settings to full brightness. (Insider $)
10 Gen Z makes use of the iPhone Notes app to generate outfits
All these little digital stickers are coming in useful. (Vogue Business $)
Quote of the day
“I confronted the problems of AI early, however it should occur for others. It might not be a cheerful ending.”
—Lee Saedol, the legendary Go participant who misplaced to Google DeepMind’s AI program in 2016, warns an viewers in Seoul concerning the dangers the know-how might pose, the New York Times stories.
The huge story
This super-realistic digital world is a driving college for AI
February 2022
Building driverless vehicles is a sluggish and costly enterprise. After years of effort and billions of {dollars} of funding, the know-how remains to be caught within the pilot part.
Autonomous know-how firm Waabi thinks it may possibly do higher. In 2021 it revealed the controversial new shortcut to autonomous automobiles it’s betting on. The huge concept? Ditch the vehicles.
Wasabi has constructed a super-realistic digital setting referred to as Waabi World. Instead of coaching an AI driver in actual automobiles, it plans to do it totally contained in the simulation. But simulation alone is a daring technique, and how far it may possibly go is dependent upon how practical Waabi World actually is. Read the total story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
We can nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ If this video doesn’t fill you with pleasure, I don’t know what is going to. 
+ Apo Whang-Od Oggay is the world’s oldest tattoo artist, and very cool.
+ The world’s most tough maze holds a really attention-grabbing secret.
+ Netflix’s Supacell options a number of the best of Black British expertise.
