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That is right now’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.

Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML

Web sites weren’t at all times slick digital experiences. 

There was a time when browsing the net 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 have been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some data of code. 

Scattered throughout the net are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated strategy. And the motion is something however a superficial enchantment to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human contact in digital experiences. Read the full story. 

—Tiffany Ng

This story is from the subsequent journal version of MIT Know-how Evaluate, set to go reside on January 8—and it’s all about innovation. When you don’t already, make the most of our seasonal subscription offers to get a duplicate when it lands.

2023 is breaking all types of local weather information

This has been fairly the yr for local weather information, with climate disasters, technological breakthroughs, and coverage modifications making headlines world wide. There’s an abundance of unhealthy information, however there are additionally some glimmers of hope, if you realize the place to look.

It’s so much to make sense of, so we took a glance again on the yr, with the assistance of loads of knowledge. A “local weather wrapped,” if you’ll. Check it out, and likewise read our story about why our local weather group is extra optimistic than you may think. 

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, MIT Know-how Evaluate’s weekly local weather publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you right now’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Little one sexual abuse pictures have been present in AI coaching knowledge units
It’s a stunning demonstration of how little we all know in regards to the large quantities of knowledge generative AI fashions are skilled on. (WP $) 
+ The largest AI picture coaching knowledge set, LAION, has been quickly taken offline whereas it scrambles to reply. (404 Media)

2Apple’s headset might be prepared as early as February 2024
Then we’ll discover out the reply to the large query: who will purchase it? (Bloomberg $)
+ These minuscule pixels are poised to take augmented actuality by storm. (MIT Technology Review)

3 TikTok moderators are struggling to evaluate Israel-Gaza content material
The large downside is a scarcity of native language abilities in content material moderation groups. (The Guardian)
+ Meta’s oversight board has stated AI is main the corporate to take away too many posts associated to the battle. (Quartz)
+ Serps assist to spice up misinformation. (Scientific American $)

4 The US pumped extra oil than another nation in historical past in 2023
Sounds dreadful, however the actuality under the headline is complicated. (The Atlantic $)
+ Fossil-fuel emissions are over one million instances higher than carbon removing efforts. (MIT Technology Review)

5 What is going to Ozempic’s subsequent act be? 
A majority of these medicine are being studied as therapies for all the pieces from dependancy to liver illness to infertility. (NYT $) 
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Technology Review)

6 YouTube is among the final bastions of unbiased journalism in India
And even then, reporters who run their very own channels work with few protections and loads of worry. (Rest of World)

7 X went down for greater than an hour
It’s not the one main outage for the positioning in current days both. (The Verge)
+ How Twitter died in 2023. (Engadget)

8 Science fiction is kinda ruining the world
Billionaires grew up studying dystopian novels, and now they’re decided to make them a actuality. (Scientific American $)

9 What occurs to our planet when the solar dies?
Learn this for a wholesome serving to of perspective over the vacations(!) (Quanta $)

10 How 2023 went down on social media
It wasn’t a classic yr in honesty, however there have been nonetheless loads of lolz—and drama—to go round. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“Individuals have at all times been in a position to lie, however the effectiveness of these lies is now augmented and considerably elevated.”

—Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes tells Wired how he expects AI to have an effect on the 2024 elections. 

The large story

A Roomba recorded a lady on the bathroom. How did screenshots find yourself on Fb?

December 2022

Within the fall of 2020, gig employees in Venezuela posted a sequence of pictures to on-line boards the place they gathered to speak store. The pictures have been mundane, if typically intimate, family scenes captured from low angles—together with a revealing shot of a younger girl sitting on the bathroom, her shorts pulled right down to mid-thigh.

The photographs have been taken by improvement variations of a Roomba robotic vacuum. They have been then despatched to Scale AI, a startup that contracts employees world wide to label knowledge used to coach synthetic intelligence.

MIT Know-how Evaluate obtained 15 screenshots of those personal pictures, which had been posted to closed social media teams. The photographs reveal a complete knowledge provide chain—and new factors the place private data may leak out—that few shoppers are even conscious of. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

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.)

+ The brand new yr is approaching, and with it: 30 days of yoga with Adriene!
+ The JWST has gifted us with a plethora of fantastic pictures this yr. Here are among the most spectacular.
+ There’s by no means a foul time to eat delicious pasta dishes.
+ Shout out to Sally Snowman, the Boston Gentle first and on-line feminine lighthouse keeper.
+ India’s oldest bookshop appears like a beautiful place.

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