About: blatcho

Jordan Novet / CNBC: An interview with Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz, who became Asana’s majority owner after a post-listing share buying spree, on AI’s risks as a philanthropy focus  —  – Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz, who made billions from co-founding Facebook, has long been concerned about the risks of runaway artificial intelligence.

New York Times: As the use of AI-generated ads in political campaigns increases, lawmakers, political consultants, and election researchers push for creating new guardrails  —  Gaps in campaign rules allow politicians to spread images and messaging generated by increasingly powerful artificial intelligence technology.

After decades of frustration, researchers have determined how an airborne scent molecule links to shapeshifting olfactory receptors in the nose.

The Imani i2 comes with zero bells and whistles, but it gets the job done well.

What’s the difference between everyday and compact strollers? Do you need bassinet mode? Here’s everything you need to consider when shopping.

Julie Kim / MIT Technology Review: A look at the underwhelming state of augmentative and alternative communication tech, including a handful of iPad apps, for speech and language impaired users  —  For people who can’t speak, there has been depressingly little innovation in technology that helps them communicate.

Will Knight / Wired: A study of several EU countries finds the 2010s deep learning boom created job opportunities but says “these results may not be extrapolated into the future”  —  ChatGPT is stoking fears of mass layoffs, but a study of several EU countries found the deep-learning boom of the 2010s actually created job […]

Tom Warren / The Verge: FTC v. Microsoft: Phil Spencer says Xbox isn’t a “robust business”, failing to meet internal targets, and the Activision deal is a way to expand into mobile  —  FTC v. Microsoft day two was all about console wars and whether Xbox is really in a distant third place.

It’s one of the most affordable outdoor activities, but you’ll need a pair of lightweight, nimble shoes.

Plus: Microsoft’s Activision acquisition hits another roadblock, TikTok lets you shop for viral gadgets, and we go inside Amazon and Walmart’s battle for your dollars.

Plus: Discord has a child predator problem, fears rise of China spying from Cuba, and hackers try to blackmail Reddit.

Pew Research Center: A survey of ~305 experts on their expectations for digital advances by 2035, like AI systems and smart eyewear and earbuds, and concerns over the darker sides  —  They have deep concerns about people’s and society’s overall well-being.  But they also expect great benefits in health care, scientific advances and education

Lisa O’Carroll / The Guardian: The EFJ and media experts condemn the latest European Media Freedom Act draft that would let national security agencies place spyware on journalists’ phones  —  Move to allow spyware to be placed on reporters’ phones would have a ‘chilling effect’, say media experts

Bloonface / Café Lob-On: The Twitter-to-Mastodon migration that started in November 2022 failed because of Mastodon’s exclusionary culture, decentralization making the UX worse, more  —  I’ve been using fediverse stuff (Mastodon and, most recently, Calckey – I’m just going to use “Mastodon” as shorthand here …

A computer vision system uses photographs of someone’s face from different angles to reconstruct the scene they are viewing

There’s little reason to pay top dollar for a smartphone. These iPhones and Android devices—ranging from $150 to $500—stood up to WIRED’s testing.

The discovery of environmental DNA from fish species that have strayed far from their normal range is an ominous reminder of warming, changing seas.

The franchise wanted to grow up. But at its heart, the game is true to tradition, both for good and ill.

Rani Molla / Vox: Research: 81% of tech companies with under 5K employees allow remote work or have only remote options, while just 26% with 25K+ employees are fully flexible  —  How small tech companies are using remote work to compete with the big guys.  —  It used to be that Big Tech companies like […]

Wired: How military-grade AI, developed by US defense contractors for intelligence, has been repurposed to combat labor organizing, find internal leakers, and more  —  Spycraft developed by defense contractors are now being sold to employers to identify labor organizing.  Regulators must step up to protect workers’ privacy.

Nico Grant / New York Times: NetBlocks: at least five Russian telcos block Google News and several other ISPs are reducing access, as Russia’s feud with a mercenary leader intensifies  —  At least five telecommunications companies have blocked the service, which aggregates news from various sources, according to an analysis from NetBlocks, an internet observatory.

From Pray Away to The Boys in the Band, here are our picks for the best streaming titles to feast your eyes on.

Mark Matousek / The Information: Social media startup IRL is shutting down after an investigation by its board concluded that 95% of its claimed 20M MAUs were “automated or from bots”  —  Last year, the CEO of messaging app IRL repeatedly said it had 20 million monthly active users, who chatted about shared interests and […]

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: A US federal court sentences UK citizen Joseph James O’Connor to five years in prison for his role in the July 2020 Twitter hack affecting high-profile accounts  —  Prosecutors called for the British hacker to serve at least seven years  —  Three years after one of the most visible hacks …

Jay Peters / The Verge: Google adds a Perspectives tab to search results, with information that people have posted on YouTube, Reddit, and more, after announcing the feature in May  —  Google’s new search feature that shows you different perspectives (ideally, human ones) in search results will be available on Friday, the company said on […]

A soft, tubular robot can bend, twist, expand and contract when exposed to different intensities of light

Perhaps the most obvious feature of a neuron is the long branch called an axon that ventures far from the cell body to connect with other neurons or muscles. If that long, thin projection ever seems like it could be vulnerable, a new MIT study shows that its structural integrity may indeed require the support […]

Five speakers at a recent public panel discussion hosted by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and introduced by Deputy Director for Science and Technology Robert Stoner tackled one of the thorniest, yet most critical, questions facing the world today: How can we achieve the ambitious goals set by governments around the globe, including the United […]

Think back to the last time you had to wait for a bus. How miserable were you? If you were in Boston, your experience might have included punishing wind and icy sleet — or, more recently, a punch of pollen straight to the sinuses. But in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, where the effects of climate change […]

If your manager isn’t offering you guidance, ask for it.

Investing in innovation — not cutting costs — will position companies to thrive in the long run.

When it comes to sex toys, Satisfyer proves why iteration is sometimes better than innovation.

Despite its small size, this is an excellent desktop computer for power users.

The gray market for abortifacient sales to the US is evolving alongside a shifting legal landscape.

Drew Harwell / Washington Post: Internal records undercut claims that Twitter censored pro-Trump content before the Capitol riot and show a reluctance to suspend Trump’s account until Jan. 8  —  In the internal video call from Jan. 5, 2021, workers were told not to take tougher action against a growing wave of tweets they feared […]

Anna Irrera / Bloomberg: JPMorgan expands its JPM Coin, launched in 2019 for USD transactions, to euro payments; the digital token has been used to process ~$300B in transactions so far  —  JPMorgan Chase & Co. expanded one of the most high-profile projects to bring blockchain technology to traditional banking …

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: Lithuania announces Tech Zity, a €100M tech campus touted as Europe’s largest at ~592K sq. ft., with facilities for 5,000 workers, co-living spaces, and more  —  Lithuania is vying to become one of the major European tech hubs, bolstered by a growing number of so-called “unicorn” …

Amazon’s big sale event arrives in July, but the discounts have already started—including on the Apple Watch Series 8.

Wreckage matching the missing submersible was found by a remotely operated vehicle, and so far evidence points to a catastrophic implosion.

From CODA to Beastie Boys Story, here’s everything you should be watching on Apple’s streaming service.

Andrew Romero / 9to5Google: YouTube updates its policy for fan channels, requiring them to make it obvious in their name or handle that they’re fan accounts, effective August 21, 2023  —  Fan Channels that have a little too much in common with other accounts are going to be subject to YouTube’s updated policies …

Jordan Novet / CNBC: AWS is investing $100M in a new program to help companies, including Highspot and Twilio, build generative AI products by connecting them with AWS AI experts  —  – Amazon’s cloud unit said Thursday that it’s allocating $100 million for a center to help companies use generative artificial intelligence.

Anja Karadeglija / National Post: Meta will remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada after the country’s Senate passed the Online News Act, which goes for Royal Assent  —  With Bill C-18 on the verge of becoming law, Canadians could soon see news removed from their Facebook pages and Google searches

A ‘shocklingly simple’ design based on kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting, makes sticky tape 60 times stronger, but easy to peel off in one direction

IonQ has become the latest company to claim its quantum computer is more powerful than any other computer in existence – despite not having built it yet. But how exactly do you benchmark a quantum computer?

The MIT-Pillar AI Collective has announced its first six grant recipients. Students, alumni, and postdocs working on a broad range of topics in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science will receive funding and support for research projects that could translate into commercially viable products or companies. These grants are intended to help students explore […]

Under certain conditions — usually exceedingly cold ones — some materials shift their structure to unlock new, superconducting behavior. This structural shift is known as a “nematic transition,” and physicists suspect that it offers a new way to drive materials into a superconducting state where electrons can flow entirely friction-free. But what exactly drives this […]

The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that help to control feeding and other behaviors. This extensive communication network also influences our mental state and has been implicated in many neurological disorders. MIT engineers have designed a new technology for probing those connections. Using fibers embedded with a variety of […]

It’s never too early to start thinking about your legacy.

Six ways technologies like ChatGPT could change how we work.