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That is at the moment’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how.
These six questions will dictate the way forward for generative AI
The web modified every little thing—how we work and play, how we spend time with family and friends, how we study, how we eat, how we fall in love, and a lot extra. Its downsides grew to become clear solely when individuals began utilizing it in huge numbers, and killer apps like social media arrived.
Generative AI is more likely to be the identical. Folks will begin utilizing and misusing it in methods its makers by no means dreamed of. Generative AI was educated on the web and so has inherited a lot of its unsolved points. However we’re not stepping into blind. Listed below are six unresolved questions to remember as we watch the generative-AI revolution unfold. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
4 developments that modified AI in 2023
This has been one of many craziest years in AI in a very long time: limitless product launches, boardroom coups, intense coverage debates about AI doom, and a race to search out the subsequent massive factor.
However we’ve additionally seen concrete instruments and insurance policies aimed toward getting the AI sector to behave extra responsibly and maintain highly effective gamers accountable.
Melissa Heikkilä, our senior AI reporter, has achieved some reflecting on what the previous 12 months has taught her, and the place she thinks the sector is heading subsequent. Read the full story.
This story is from The Algorithm, MIT Expertise Assessment’s weekly AI publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Fb is being taken over by stolen trashy AI pictures
And it doesn’t appear to be the platform is doing a lot to stem the tide. (404 Media)
+ ‘Cheapfakes’ and different kinds of digital fakery are all over the place. (Wired $)
+ This new instrument may shield your photos from AI manipulation. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Excessive-profile TikTokers get particular allowances
Moderators are instructed to be lenient in terms of assessing content material from celebrities who get a lot of engagement. (The Guardian)
3 Apple is halting gross sales of sure Apple Watches within the US
After shedding a patent dispute over the machine’s blood oxygen sensor tech. (9to5 Mac)
+ Beforehand offered Apple Watches gained’t be affected by the ban. (WSJ $)
4 Google’s been ordered to pay $700 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit
It’s additionally agreed to alter the way in which its Android system works within the US. (FT $)
+ What’s subsequent for smartphone apps? (Slate $)
5 Grownup content material creators are embracing AI
Digital fashions that reply to requests 24/7 are lightening the load of digital intercourse work. (WP $)
+ Pakistan’s former chief is utilizing AI instruments to marketing campaign from jail. (WP $)
6 Amazon has set its sights on changing into a satellite tv for pc big
However its Venture Kuiper initiative wants a serving to hand—from rival SpaceX. (Bloomberg $)
+ It’s utilizing lasers to switch information swiftly over huge distances. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Starlink alerts might be reverse-engineered to work like GPS. (MIT Technology Review)
7 It’s getting tougher to know what’s occurring on-line
The social media city sq. is useless, and TikTok is a complete black field. (The Atlantic $)
+ It’s time we broke out of the technopoly we’re dwelling in. (New Yorker $)
+ The right way to repair the web. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Hurricanes are depositing microplastics far and broad
As in the event that they weren’t dangerous sufficient information already. (Wired $)
+ Microplastics are all over the place. (MIT Technology Review)
9 No person is aware of what number of nukes there are
So researchers are utilizing open supply intelligence-gathering strategies to try to discover out. (Motherboard)
10 Meet Santa’s robotic little helpers 
They’re environment friendly, however not fairly as cute as reindeer. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“The time of massive on-line platforms behaving like they’re ‘too massive to care’ has come to an finish.”
—Thierry Breton, the EU’s inner market commissioner, pronounces a proper probe into X’s dealing with of unlawful content material and disinformation, the Wall Street Journal studies.
The large story
Cash is about to enter a brand new period of competitors
To many, money now appears largely anachronistic. Folks internationally generally use their smartphones to pay for issues. This shift might appear like a possible driver of inequality: if money disappears, one imagines, that would disenfranchise the aged, the poor, and others.
In apply, although, cell telephones are almost at saturation in lots of international locations. And digital cash, if applied accurately, may very well be a drive for monetary inclusion.
The large questions now are round how we proceed, and whether or not the large digital cash shift finally advantages humanity at massive—or exacerbates current home and world inequities. Read the full story.
—Eswar Prasad
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Shoegaze is again, child.
+ This Lego Polaroid camera is severely cute (higher not shake it although) 
+ These classic book covers are nothing wanting iconic.
+ Czech sweet bread with almonds and raisins appears like the right Christmas accompaniment.
+ Mr Jingeling? Uncle Mistletoe? What number of of those obscure Christmas characters do you acknowledge?
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