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That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a day by day dose of what’s happening on the planet of expertise.
How “personhood credentials” might assist show you’re a human on-line
As AI fashions develop into higher at mimicking human habits, it’s turning into more and more troublesome to differentiate between actual human web customers and complex methods imitating them.
That’s an actual drawback when these methods are deployed for nefarious ends like spreading misinformation or conducting fraud, and it makes it rather a lot tougher to belief what you encounter on-line.
A bunch of researchers have developed a possible resolution— a verification idea known as ‘personhood credentials’ that proves its holder is an actual individual, with out revealing any additional details about their id. Learn the total story to study the way it works.
—Rhiannon Williams
The race to interchange the highly effective greenhouse gasoline that underpins the facility grid
The facility grid is underpinned by a single gasoline that’s used to insulate a spread of high-voltage gear. The issue is, it’s additionally a brilliant highly effective greenhouse gasoline: a nightmare for local weather change.
Sulfur hexafluoride (or SF6) is much from the most typical gasoline that warms the planet, contributing round 1% of warming to this point—carbon dioxide and methane are rather more well-known and plentiful. However emissions of the gasoline are steadily ticking up yearly.
Now, firms wish to put off gear that depends on the gasoline and trying to find replacements that may match its efficiency. Learn the total story.
—Casey Crownhart
Unveiling the 2024 Innovator of the 12 months
Yearly, MIT Expertise Evaluation acknowledges 35 Innovators Underneath 35. These younger entrepreneurs, researchers, and humanitarians are inventing supplies and constructing methods to assist deal with the world’s most urgent issues in biotechnology, computing, and local weather science.
On Monday, September 9, we’ll introduce our 2024 Innovator of the 12 months reside on LinkedIn. Be a part of us at 12.30pm ET to seek out out who it’s, and study their work and the impression they’re having on this particular broadcast forward of the checklist’s publication. Register right here to be among the many first to know!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 X is rather a lot quieter with out its Brazilian customers
The extraordinarily on-line nation ran a lot of X’s hottest fan accounts. (NYT $)
+ Brazil’s Supreme Courtroom is underneath hearth from some quarters for banning entry to the platform. (FT $)+ The traders who helped Elon Musk purchase X are critically out of pocket. (WP $)
2 China’s on-line surveillance web is widening
Influencers’ followers are more and more turning into targets for police interrogation. (The Guardian)
+ How 2023 marked the dying of anonymity on-line in China. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
3 Intel has a plan to revive its fortunes
The once-mighty chipmaker plans to shed as many pointless property as attainable. (Reuters)
+ Its gross sales are shrinking, and rival Nvidia is flourishing. (Bloomberg $)
4 We want rather more grid storage
EVs haven’t absolutely taken off, so battery makers wish to the grid as an alternative. (Economist $)
+ New iron batteries might assist. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
5 Courting apps are growing AI wingmen that can assist you flirt
Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Grindr’s new bots will counsel clean chat-up traces. (FT $)
6 US sanctions are pushing China and Russia to construct new cost methods
To assist them skirt the US-dollar-dominated international monetary order. (Insider $)
+ Is the digital greenback lifeless? (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
7 These scientists wish to retailer organic samples on the moon
Seeds, plant, animal and microbial samples may very well be safer there than on Earth. (Wired $)
+ Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is making bizarre noises. (Ars Technica)
+ Future house meals may very well be constituted of astronaut breath. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
8 Making video calls from jail is critically costly
However US regulators are lastly capping how a lot non-public firms can cost. (WSJ $)
9 Passion apps are exploding in reputation
Social media fatigue is actual, and Strava and Letterboxd are reaping the advantages. (Bloomberg $)
+ Need to see what your pals are as much as? Examine your Venmo. (The Atlantic $)
+ How you can repair the web. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
10 Why AI is such a compelling film villain
From 2001: A Area Odyssey to the Terminator to the Matrix. (WP $)
Quote of the day
“Pls flip off historical past.”
—A Google worker tells others to show off their chat historical past whereas discussing delicate topics, which the US Federal Authorities claims is proof that staff knew to keep away from making a authorized paper path, 404 Media experiences.
The massive story
The race to provide uncommon earth supplies
Abandoning fossil fuels and adopting lower-carbon applied sciences are our greatest choices for fending off the accelerating risk of local weather change. And entry to uncommon earth parts, key components in lots of of those applied sciences, will partly decide which nations will meet their objectives for reducing emissions.
Some nations, together with the US, are more and more nervous about whether or not the availability of these parts will stay secure. In consequence, scientists and firms alike are intent on rising entry and bettering sustainability by exploring secondary or unconventional sources. Learn the total story.
—Mureji Fatunde
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Now fall is formally on its method, it’s time to replace your autumnal studying checklist ($)
+ I like this picture of a neuroscientist and her child captured by an MRI machine.
+ My favourite Olympic sport? Snail racing! You possibly can learn extra about how the snails energy their little vehicles right here (thanks Claire!)
+ Marginal features actually do work.
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