That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of know-how.
We noticed a demo of the brand new AI system powering Anduril’s imaginative and prescient for conflict
—James O’Donnell
One afternoon in late November, I visited a weapons check web site within the foothills east of San Clemente, California operated by Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones and missiles that not too long ago introduced a partnership with OpenAI.
I went there to witness a brand new system it’s increasing at the moment, which permits exterior events to faucet into its software program and share information to be able to pace up decision-making on the battlefield.
If it really works as deliberate over the course of a brand new three-year contract with the Pentagon, it may embed AI extra deeply than ever earlier than into the theater of conflict. Learn the complete story.
The right way to use Sora, OpenAI’s new video producing device
OpenAI has simply launched its video era mannequin Sora to the general public. The announcement yesterday got here on the fifth day of the corporate’s “shipmas” occasion, a 12-day marathon of tech releases and demos. Right here’s what it’s best to know—and the way you should utilize the video mannequin proper now.
—James O’Donnell
This story is the most recent in MIT Expertise Evaluate’s How To sequence, which helps you get issues carried out.
AI’s hype and antitrust drawback is coming underneath scrutiny
The AI sector is affected by an absence of competitors and numerous deceit—or no less than that’s one option to interpret the most recent flurry of actions taken in Washington.
The actions—from antitrust investigations to accusations of straight-up mendacity—symbolize an effort to carry the AI trade’s hype to account within the remaining months earlier than the Federal Commerce Fee’s chair, Lina Khan, is changed when Donald Trump takes workplace.
However whereas the FTC seems to be to have a far smoother transition of management forward than most different federal businesses, no less than a few of Trump’s frustrations with Massive Tech may ship antitrust efforts in a distinctly new route. Learn the complete story.
—James O’Donnell
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly e-newsletter providing you with the within monitor on all issues taking place within the fascinating discipline of AI. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Google has constructed a robust new quantum computing chip
However it doesn’t have any real-world functions—but. (Bloomberg $)
+ It takes 5 minutes to unravel an issue {that a} conventional supercomputer couldn’t grasp in 10 septillion years. (NYT $)
+ It’s a problem the quantum discipline has been attempting to crack for many years. (The Guardian)
+ We lined the work when it was a preprint in September. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
2 Nvidia is being investigated by China
It claims the chipmaking big has violated anti-monopoly legal guidelines. (BBC)
+ Nvidia’s largest buyer within the nation? That will be ByteDance. (Insider $)
+ What’s subsequent in chips. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 TikTok has requested a US appeals courtroom to halt the buy-or-sell regulation
Because it stands, the app faces a ban except it finds a brand new proprietor by January 19. (TechCrunch)
4 AI remains to be failing to ship on its financial guarantees
Is 2025 the yr we lastly begin to see some outcomes? (Quartz)
+ The US AI trade is in determined want of extra websites with energy grid entry. (FT $)
+ The right way to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 The EU’s competitors guidelines are on the verge of a giant shakeup
A brand new boss means a brand new strategy. (WSJ $)
+ European regulators need to unravel a Meta and Google investigation. (FT $)
6 Weight-loss medication are making fundamental well being truths out of date
A nutritious diet and common train is throwing in the towel. (The Atlantic $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for individuals IRL? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
7 This bionic leg is managed by its wearer’s mind
Prosthetic limbs have gotten far more succesful. (New Yorker $)
+ These prosthetics break the mould with third thumbs, spikes, and superhero skins. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
8 An AI could make a reasonably first rate Tokyo journey companion
Simply be sure to take its recommendation with a pinch of salt. (Wired $)
+ The right way to use AI to plan your subsequent trip. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
9 Reddit is testing a brand new AI search characteristic
Which the positioning’s customers are unlikely to take kindly to. (Ars Technica)
10 Jeff Bezos has a dinner with Donald Trump in his diary
Sounds cozy. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“It’s like manna from heaven.”
—Ari Morcos, chief government of startup DatologyAI, explains to the Wall Avenue Journal why Reddit’s troves of textual content are so interesting to AI corporations.
The massive story
Contained in the enigmatic minds of animals
October 2022
Greater than ever, we really feel an obligation and want to increase empathy to our nonhuman neighbors. Within the final three years, greater than 30 international locations have formally acknowledged different animals—together with gorillas, lobsters, crows, and octopuses—as sentient beings.
A trio of books from Ed Yong, Jackie Higgins, and Philip Ball element creatures’ wealthy internal worlds and seize what has led to those developments: a booming discipline of experimental analysis difficult the long-standing view that animals are neither acutely aware nor cognitively complicated. Learn the complete story.
—Matthew Ponsford
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ It appears we’ve two kinds of snigger: one attributable to tickling, and the opposite by every part else.
+ 2024 was a robust yr for fiction: take a look at among the finest new books.
+ There’s one thing completely mesmerizing about this assortment of previous dwelling movies.
+ Ukrainian artist Oleg Dron makes a speciality of expansive, haunting landscapes.
