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That is at this time’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of know-how.
Meta’s new AI can flip textual content prompts into movies
What’s occurred: Meta has unveiled an AI system that generates brief movies based mostly on textual content prompts. Make-A-Video allows you to kind in a string of phrases, like “A canine carrying a superhero outfit with a crimson cape flying by means of the sky,” after which generates a five-second clip that, whereas fairly correct, has the aesthetics of a trippy outdated dwelling video.
The way it works: Meta mixed information from three open-source picture and video information units to coach its mannequin. Normal text-image information units of labeled nonetheless photographs helped the AI study what objects are known as and what they appear like. And a database of movies helped it learn the way these objects are supposed to maneuver on this planet.
Why it issues: Though the impact is somewhat crude, the system provides an early glimpse of what’s coming subsequent for generative synthetic intelligence, and it’s the subsequent apparent step from the text-to-image AI programs which have prompted enormous pleasure this yr. However it additionally raises some large moral questions. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
China is betting large on one other gasoline engine various: methanol vehicles
Because the Chinese language authorities works to succeed in bold carbon targets, the nation has develop into a worldwide chief within the adoption of electrical automobiles. However that’s not the one greener automobile various it’s pursuing.
Whereas methanol gasoline has been mentioned and piloted in China for a decade, its adoption has lengthy lagged. Now the federal government is making an attempt to speed up the adoption of methanol vehicles, together with different state efforts within the final yr to draft methanol automobile requirements and assist related industries, reaffirm its dedication to the choice gasoline.
This issues as a result of, similar to EVs, the know-how may develop into each a business success and a political enhance to China’s climate-tech ambitions. Read the full story.
—Zeyi Yang
Can we discover methods to stay past 100? Millionaires are betting on it.
Scientists and biotech firms have been networking with uber-wealthy traders at a swanky convention in Switzerland this week, making the case for longevity science and anti-aging methods. My colleague Jess Hamzelou, our senior biomedicine reporter, joined them, and received a peek at among the most cutting-edge work within the discipline. Read about what she discovered.
Jess’s story is from The Checkup, her new weekly publication supplying you with the within monitor on all issues well being and tech-related. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at this time’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Hurricane Ian has left huge swathes of Florida underwater
Because it heads in direction of South Carolina, Biden has warned it may develop into the deadliest in Florida historical past. (The Guardian)
+ Coral reefs are an efficient pure protection towards hurricanes. (Vox)
+ The storm is a potent mixture of highly effective and unpredictable. (The Atlantic $)
+ It may very well be on target to affix the checklist of storms as extreme as Katrina. (New Yorker $)
2 Iran is ramping up web blackouts and censorship
To this point, it’s not reaching the federal government’s desired end result. (Slate $)
+ A distinct segment tech writer is shining a light-weight on China’s surveillance machine. (The Atlantic $)
3 What makes plastic so helpful additionally makes it a nightmare to recycle
A brand new methodology of breaking it down may assist. (Economist $)
+ A French firm is utilizing enzymes to recycle one of the vital frequent single-use plastics. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Why Russia’s cyber conflict by no means actually materialized
The assaults it did land didn’t ship the supposed penalties. (FT $)
+ Right here’s how the conflict in Ukraine may finish. (New Yorker $)
+ Russian males are reportedly pretending to have HIV to flee conscription. (Rest of World)
5 Jack Dorsey tried to get Elon Musk a spot on Twitter’s board
However the different members noticed the appointment as too dangerous. (CNBC)
+ The previous CEO additionally tried to get Musk and CEO Parag Agrawal off on the fitting foot. (WSJ $)
+ Musk needed to seek for ‘Trump’ in his hunt for bot information. (Bloomberg $)
+ Musk additionally toyed with appointing Oprah to Twitter’s board. (The Information $)
6 The Arctic Ocean is quickly changing into extra acidic
Unsurprisingly, local weather change is the offender. (Motherboard)
+ China, the world’s largest greenhouse gasoline emitter, is struggling. (Vox)
7 Reboosting the Hubble Telescope would give it a brand new lease of life
NASA and SpaceX suppose they may do exactly that. (BBC)
+ NASA has taken beautiful photographs of Jupiter’s moon Europa. (New Scientist $)
8 Brace your self for a brand new wave of at-home checks
They’re not only for covid, both. (Neo.Life)
+ Genome sequencing has by no means been so low cost, or straightforward. (Wired $)
9 Why voice notes are so controversial
Ship yours with warning. (WSJ $)
+ Lasers can ship a whispered audio message immediately to 1 individual’s ear. (MIT Technology Review)
10 AI is creating horrible new Pokémon
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. (WP $)
+ This artist is dominating AI-generated artwork. And he’s not glad about it. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“I assume you study who your actual associates are when you may’t get allocation of their seed spherical 
”
—Maia Bittner, an angel investor, jokily tweets in regards to the pitfalls of investing in associates’ startups, Bloomberg studies.
The massive story
Meet the wannabe kidfluencers struggling for stardom
December 2019
On YouTube, kids can develop into millionaires—seemingly in a single day, with out making an attempt. The very best paid of them, eight-year-old Ryan Kaji, made $22 million in 2018 by taking part in with toys on his channel Ryan ToysReview (now Ryan’s World). There are actually 1000’s of equally well-known little one YouTubers: infants who’ve been vlogged for the reason that second of their start, 10-year-old streamers displaying off video-game tips, teenage ladies giving pimples recommendation from their bedrooms.
Why accomplish that many children wish to be YouTubers? Do they solely search fame, or is there extra to it: creativity, neighborhood, and a future profession? How are their dad and mom serving to them? And what occurs if, after spending 1000’s of {dollars} or dropping out of college, it doesn’t work out? Read the full story.
—Amelia Tait
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Francis Ford Coppola’s wonderful chiller Bram Stoker’s Dracula is again in film theaters this Halloween. Benefit from the opulent 4K trailer here.
+ These scallops can’t get sufficient of shiny lights.
+ Cher’s sprawling home is each bit as lavish as you’d count on.
+ Nope, it’s not a joke, they are surely turning The Matrix right into a dance show.
+ Controversial take klaxon: are these actually the best songs of the 90s?
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