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That is at the moment’s version of The Download, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.
The messy morality of letting AI make life-and-death selections
In a workshop within the Netherlands, Philip Nitschke is overseeing testing on his new assisted suicide machine. Sealed contained in the coffin-sized pod, an individual who has chosen to die should reply three questions: Who’re you? The place are you? And have you learnt what is going to occur if you press that button? The machine will then fill with nitrogen gasoline, inflicting the occupant to cross out in lower than a minute and die by asphyxiation in round 5.
Regardless of a 25-year marketing campaign to “demedicalize demise” by expertise, Nitschke has not been capable of sidestep the medical institution absolutely. Switzerland, which has legalized assisted suicide, requires that candidates for euthanasia reveal psychological capability, which is usually assessed by a psychiatrist.
An answer may come within the type of an algorithm that Nitschke hopes will permit individuals to carry out a form of psychiatric self-assessment. Whereas his mission could appear excessive—even outrageous—to some, he’s not the one one seeking to contain expertise, and AI particularly, in life-or-death selections. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
This fascinating piece is from our forthcoming mortality-themed concern, out there from 26 October. If you wish to learn it when it comes out, you may subscribe to MIT Expertise Overview for as little as $80 a 12 months.
Not possible Meals has a giant new providing within the works: filet mignon
Progress is being made on a very impossible-seeming space of plant-based meat merchandise: steak. And never simply any steak—filet mignon.
At MIT Expertise Overview’s ClimateTech occasion on Wednesday, Not possible Meals founder Pat Brown shared that whereas he couldn’t give an actual date for when the corporate’s steak product might be prepared for customers to buy, there’s a prototype—and he tried it out himself earlier this 12 months. Read the full story diving into the most important challenges of replicating the crème de la crème of steaks from crops, and tune in to our live blog protecting the second day of ClimateTech later this morning.
Elsewhere at Local weather Tech, our local weather reporter Casey Crownhart moderated a session on “Fixing the Exhausting-to-Remedy Sectors,” digging into the industries which are essential to combating local weather change, however are usually ignored.
She dived into the nitty gritty of what these sectors are, what’s so onerous about them, and the approaches firms are taking to wash them up in The Spark, her weekly e-newsletter supplying you with the within observe on all the newest local weather improvements. Learn this week’s edition, and sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.
Human mind cells transplanted into child rats’ brains develop and type connections
Human neurons transplanted right into a rat’s mind proceed to develop, forming connections with the animals’ personal mind cells and serving to information their conduct, new analysis has proven.
In a research revealed within the journal Nature yesterday, lab-grown clumps of human mind cells have been transplanted into the brains of new child rats. They grew and built-in with the rodents’ personal neural circuits, ultimately making up round one-sixth of their brains. It’s a growth that might make clear human neuropsychiatric problems. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 How China’s chipmakers are making ready for US sanctions
Stockpiling elements and planning to coach AI fashions abroad are simply a few of the instruments of their arsenal. (Wired $)
+ Samsung has been granted a year-long exemption from the principles. (WSJ $)
+ The laws come at a really making an attempt time for the business. (Bloomberg $)
2 A robotic exoskeleton adapts to wearers to assist them stroll quicker
Conventional exoskeletons are costly and hulking, however this one is actually a bit of robotic boot. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Amazon’s dream house is a surveillance nightmare
Its merchandise collect swathes of knowledge, detailing your routines and habits. (WP $)
+ Ring’s new TV present is a superb however ominous viral advertising ploy. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Alex Jones should pay the Sandy Hook victims’ households $1 billion
It’s a record-breaking quantity for a defamation lawsuit. (Vox)
5 Ukraine’s Starlink programs are coming again on-line
The gadgets have suffered outages up to now few days, leaving troopers with none option to talk. (FT $)
+ Odessa’s officers have eliminated Elon Musk’s image from a billboard. (Motherboard)
+ Russia’s practice reliance is a part of its downside through the struggle. (The Atlantic $)
6 The US midterms have a misinformation downside
Multilingual fact-checking teams are stepping as much as attempt to fight the falsehoods. (NYT $)
+ Why midterm “October surprises” are hardly ever the revelations they appear. (Vox)
7 An extended-standing malaria thriller has been solved 
Specialists merely couldn’t work out the place mosquitoes went throughout sizzling climate. (Economist $)
+ The brand new malaria vaccine will save numerous lives. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Pretend vaccination certificates are circulating in India
It doesn’t bode effectively for the nation’s claims of excessive vaccination charges. (Rest of World)
9 Even AI doesn’t like math
Some language fashions are failing to become familiar with difficult issues. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ A brand new AI instrument can detect sepsis. (Undark)
+ DeepMind’s game-playing AI has overwhelmed a 50-year-old document. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Shopper tech goes photo voltaic powered
If this Swedish startup has their means, that’s. (The Next Web)
Quote of the day
“Evaluate that to Lord of the Rings, once they scan your eyeballs simply to get in!”
—Charlie Vickers, the actor who performs Halbrand in The Rings of Energy, discusses the extreme biometric lengths that showmakers went to to be able to preserve the Tolkien present a secret with the Guardian.
The massive story
The uneasy coexistence of Yandex and the Kremlin
August 2020
Whereas Moscow was underneath coronavirus lockdown between March and June 2020, the Russian capital emptied out—other than the streams of cyclists within the trademark yellow uniform of Yandex’s meals supply service.
Typically referred to within the West as Russia’s Google, Yandex is actually extra like Google, Amazon, Uber, and possibly just a few different firms mixed. It’s not likely a part of Russia’s Silicon Valley, as a lot because it’s a Russian Silicon Valley unto itself.
However Yandex’s success has come at a value. The Kremlin has lengthy considered the web as a battlefield in its escalating tensions with the West and has develop into more and more involved that an organization like Yandex, with the heaps of knowledge it has on Russian residents, may someday fall into overseas fingers. In a world more and more involved with defending borders and regulating the tech business, Yandex’s dilemma might not be only a Russian story. Read the full story.
—Evan Gershkovich
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Hey, geese like baseball too! (thanks Craig!)
+ Right here’s all of the summer movies you might have missed the primary time round.
+ Guys, drop all the things—it’s squirrel awareness month.
+ This clip jogs my memory how a lot I have to up my pool sport.
+ John Lennon insisting all four Beatles were bald won’t ever not be humorous.
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