The Download: how to talk about climate tech, and Sam Altman’s past

[ad_1]

That is immediately’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.

Your information to speaking about local weather tech over Thanksgiving

Ah, the vacations. Time for good meals, high quality moments with household, and exhausting questions on local weather change … or is that simply us?

Our local weather reporter Casey Crownhart has been in the midst of loads of heated conversations across the dinner desk. And though you is likely to be tempted to sneak away or change the topic, it is likely to be value sticking round and serving to folks to chop by way of the complicated issues they’ve heard on TV, or the web, or from their mates.

If you happen to resolve to try this, we’ve obtained you coated. Let’s dig into a number of questions on local weather change, and particularly local weather know-how, that may come up over the course of the vacations. Read the full story.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly publication supplying you with the within monitor on all issues vitality and local weather change. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 Sam Altman’s previous hints at why OpenAI’s board tried to fireplace him
The very qualities some admire deeply rankle others. (WP $)
+ Who’s in and who’s out on OpenAI’s board. (NYT $)
+ Behind the scenes of the OpenAI showdown. (WSJ $)
+ Who gained? The cash males. (NYT $)
+ Some OpenAI prospects have been contemplating switching to rival firms. (CNBC)
+ However the improvement of AI is now managed by a tiny cadre of corporations. (NBC)
+ Now you can voice chat with ChatGPT. (Engadget)

2 Binance customers have withdrawn at the least $1 billion within the final 24 hours
With the CEO pleading responsible to varied legal expenses, can you actually blame them? (CNBC)
+ One of many perks Binance supplied VIP prospects was a heads-up in the event that they had been being investigated by regulation enforcement. (CNBC)
+ However does all this drama imply crypto is likely to be about to develop into… boring? (Wired $)
+ What’s subsequent for crypto. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Gazans are desperately attempting to remain on-line
Even earlier than the siege, web connectivity was poor. Now the state of affairs is dire. (Vice)

4 Digital hate has a protracted, darkish historical past in India 
And we will anticipate issues to get a lot worse with an election looming early subsequent 12 months. (Wired $)

5 AI-generated images are proliferating on inventory picture websites
It’s tougher than ever earlier than to inform reality from fiction. (WP $)
+ Textual content-to-image AI fashions might be tricked into producing disturbing pictures. (MIT Technology Review)

6 A choose dominated that Elon Musk ignored Tesla Autopilot’s deadly flaws
Between this and the mess at Cruise, it’s a fairly dangerous week for the autonomous car sector. (Ars Technica)
+ Cruise claims it’s more likely to relaunch quickly in Texas or Arizona. (Axios)
+ A race for autopilot dominance is giving China the sting in autonomous driving. (MIT Technology Review)

7 TikTokers are posting movies of strangers gossiping about folks
Whereas, uh, doubtlessly harming everybody concerned within the course of. (The Guardian) 

8 We’re getting higher at utilizing tech to odor stuff 
However ‘e-noses’ are advanced to calibrate, and very costly. (BBC)
+ New analysis goals to convey odors into digital worlds. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Simply go forward and use your smartphone this Thanksgiving 
Positive, you don’t need to be glued to it, nevertheless it is likely to be a useful piece of distraction. (WSJ $)

10 Paris Hilton’s firm joined a protracted record of advertisers abandoning X
It’s turning into an ‘X-odus’ (sorry.) (CNN)

Quote of the day

“You could possibly parachute him into an island filled with cannibals and are available again in 5 years and he’d be the king.”

—Paul Graham on his fellow Y Combinator co-founder Sam Altman in a blog post from 2008. 

The large story

The FBI accused him of spying for China. It ruined his life.

June 2021

In April 2018, Anming Hu, a Chinese language-Canadian affiliate professor on the College of Tennessee, acquired an surprising go to from the FBI. The brokers needed to know whether or not he’d been concerned in a Chinese language authorities “expertise program,” providing abroad researchers incentives to convey their work again to Chinese language universities.

Not too way back, American universities inspired their teachers to construct ties with Chinese language establishments, however the US authorities is now suspicious of those packages, seeing them as a spy recruitment software. Regardless of Hu’s denial he was concerned in such packages, rather less than two years later, they confirmed up once more—this time to arrest him. Read the full story.

—Karen Hao & Eileen Guo

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ These hip horses are rockin’ all around the world  
+ Having a child and have to choose a reputation that works in two languages? MixedName is right here to assist.
+ Aww, the very shy Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna has been caught on digicam for the primary time.
+ What’s extra acceptable for Thanksgiving than an espresso martini? Nothing, that’s what.
+ Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving slasher movie is a field workplace hit for a motive.

[ad_2]