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The Obtain: combating covid, and the challenges of governing AI

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The Obtain: combating covid, and the challenges of governing AI

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That is right this moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on the earth of know-how.

What to find out about this autumn’s covid vaccines

Many individuals have began testing constructive for covid just lately. Hospitalizations for the illness within the US rose practically 16% through the third week of August, and even Jill Biden examined constructive this week.

Information recommend we’re originally of a fall wave. It’s been a 12 months since a covid booster was launched, and whereas the newest wave isn’t prone to be as unhealthy because the tsunami we skilled in 2021-2022, there’s lots of uncertainty about what the subsequent few months appear like. 

So, the place are the up to date photographs to assist shield us? And the way do they stack up towards the difficult new variants? Learn the total story.

—Cassandra Willyard

This story first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Know-how Evaluate’s weekly biotech e-newsletter. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.

My colleague Jessica Hamzelou just lately wrote about how covid hasn’t gone away. Test it out right here.

How ought to we regulate AI?

Deciding how one can regulate AI is among the largest challenges dealing with politicians and specialists alike. On September 12 we’re holding the second MIT Know-how Evaluate Roundtable: a 30-minute dialog with our writers and editors—and this one’s all about governing AI.

Melissa Heikkilä, our senior reporter for AI, will probably be chatting with information editor Charlotte Jee about what must be achieved to maintain AI firms in line. Roundtables are free for MIT Know-how Evaluate subscribers, so in case you’re not already, you’ll be able to develop into one right this moment from simply $80 a 12 months.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you right this moment’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 Elon Musk minimize off Starlink web to disrupt Ukrainian troops 
He scuppered a sneak assault Ukraine had deliberate on Russia’s naval fleet. (CNN
+ The information underscores the disproportionate energy that SpaceX wields. (WP $)
+ Musk’s famously impulsive choices typically come again to chew him. (WSJ $)
+ Starlink alerts might be reverse-engineered to work like GPS. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

2 Huawei has unveiled one other controversial smartphone
Officers are baffled how China seems to have sidestepped US chip sanctions. (Bloomberg $)
+ The brand new handset may very well be critically unhealthy information for Apple. (WSJ $)

3 US and UK authorities have sanctioned ransomware gang members
The infamous Trickbot group has evaded justice for years. (Wired $)

4 There are not any medicine to reliably deal with anorexia
Regardless of near 50 years of analysis, researchers have had little success. (The Atlantic $)

5 One other FTX govt has pleaded responsible
Ryan Salame made political contributions to the Republican celebration beneath the guise of loans. (CoinDesk)
+ If he’s discovered responsible, he faces as much as 10 years in jail. (NYT $)

6 Microsoft is engaged on the world’s largest cancer-detecting AI mannequin
The system examines pictures of tissues and flags anomalies to human docs. (CNBC)
+ A brand new blood check may diagnose ailments inside 10 minutes. (FT $)
+ Docs utilizing AI catch breast most cancers extra typically than both does alone. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

7 ChatGPT satisfied the Pentagon to spend money on AI-powered weapons
That’s in response to former VR CEO Palmer Luckey, who now builds army drones.  (Motherboard)
+ Contained in the messy ethics of creating battle with machines. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

8 Service workers have had sufficient of your TikTok gimmicks
They’re unwilling members in 1000’s of tedious meals skits. (WSJ $)

9 Australia is ditching handwritten signatures
Digital signatures and video hyperlink witnessing will exchange the necessity to signal on the dotted line in particular person. (The Guardian)

10 You most likely don’t have to improve your iPhone 📱
However Apple positive is sweet at convincing you that you must. (Vox)

Quote of the day

“Individuals are beginning to go away a hint. They’re forgetting the core ideas of the burn.”

—Jeffrey Longoria, who attended this 12 months’s mud-stricken Burning Man pageant, laments how guests are forgetting to clear up after themselves, Insider reviews.

The large story

VR is pretty much as good as psychedelics at serving to individuals attain transcendence

August 2022

After a near-death expertise, artist and physicist David Glowacki tried to recapture the hallucinatory transcendence he felt. A VR expertise known as Isness-D is his newest effort.

On 4 key indicators utilized in research of psychedelics, this system confirmed the identical impact as a medium dose of LSD or psilocybin (the principle psychoactive part of “magic” mushrooms).

Which means it may doubtlessly be used to alleviate the signs of psychological well being circumstances, together with obsessive-compulsive dysfunction, habit, post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and despair. Learn the total story.

—Hana Kiros

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.)

+ These drone photographs of marine creatures are fairly cool.
+ If monitoring murders in late medieval London, York, or Oxford is your factor, boy, do I’ve some maps for you.
+ These no-bake peanut butter bars sound like the right weekend deal with.
+ Ethan Lee is doing essentially the most: by porting our favourite indie PC video games to Linux.
+ Alien is filled with meticulously-designed semiotic requirements. Test them out.



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