About: blatcho

Bloomberg: Tech firms are increasingly hiring in South and Central America because remote hires there often accept lower pay than in the US but have similar time zones  —  Pandemic-era labor shortages made it hard for Austin-based Fetch Package Inc. to fill positions in the US.

In the countryside of northern Ghana, there is not much evidence of government in action. There are few paved roads, state buildings, or law enforcement officials. It is easy to think the state lacks the resources to control much of anything in such places.  “In the rural periphery of the developing world, we tend to […]

From new mobile hardware and AI enhancements to search and productivity tools, here are the key takeaways from the May 10 presentation.

From generative wallpapers to chatbot-enabled text messaging, your next Android phone will get a boost from Google’s tools powered by artificial intelligence.

This folding smartphone costs $1,799. It has two screens, five cameras, and a few unique software tricks.

Jennifer Maas / Variety: Disney Q2: Disney+ subscribers were down 2% QoQ to 157.8M, vs. 163.17M est., its second consecutive quarterly drop; ESPN+ rose 2% QoQ to 25.3M, Hulu hit 48.2M  —  On the bright side, the Mouse House also managed to narrow its streaming business losses by $400 million, down 26% year over year.

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk: Filings: the US Internal Revenue Service filed claims worth nearly $44B against FTX companies, including a $20.4B claim against Alameda in partnership taxes  —  The largest of the claims includes a $20.4 billion claim against Alameda Research LLC, which details nearly $20 billion in unpaid partnership taxes.

Allison Johnson / The Verge: Google Pixel 7a review: the best midrange Android phone, with wireless charging and good performance, camera, and screen, but a slow fingerprint scanner  —  It’s $50 more than the Pixel 6A, but some key upgrades keep Google’s A-series at the top of the midrange class.

A soft robot inserted through a hole in the skull can deploy six sensor-filled legs on the surface of the brain to monitor electrical activity. The design has been tested in miniature pigs and could someday help people who experience epileptic seizures

A biodegradable plastic-like wrap made from silk changes colour when exposed to rotting foods and degrades quickly in soil

In an effort to improve fairness or reduce backlogs, machine-learning models are sometimes designed to mimic human decision making, such as deciding whether social media posts violate toxic content policies. But researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that these models often do not replicate human decisions about rule violations. If models are not trained […]

Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin had some free advice for an at-capacity crowd of MIT students at the Wong Auditorium during a campus visit in April. “If you find yourself in a career where you’re not learning,” he told them, “it’s time to change jobs. In this world, if you’re not learning, you can […]

According to MIT’s charter, established in 1861, part of the Institute’s mission is to advance the “development and practical application of science in connection with arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce.” Today, the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) is one of the driving forces behind water and food-related research on campus, much […]

Three strategies.

A guide to responding with compassion — and a plan.

The neuroscientist, founder, and author discusses the alternatives for building better machine intelligence.

Elon Musk’s plan to reclaim accounts—including those of dead celebrities or failed brands—could start a free-for-all with dangerous and upsetting consequences.

More public parks are offering the rugged technology for visitors, expanding the ways that people with disabilities can engage with nature.

We talk to the Signal Foundation’s Meredith Whittaker about how the surveillance economy is newer than we all might realize—and what we can do to fight back.

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal: Sources: ByteDance postpones opening TikTok Shop to US sellers, planned for spring, to June at the earliest after the service struggled to attract merchants  —  Doubts over app’s future and tepid adoption of live-streaming e-commerce in the U.S. slow plans for full launch

Yogita Khatri / The Block: Binance launches Capital Connect to connect VIP clients and investment fund managers; the exchange has 128M users, of which VIPs are a “very small percentage”  —  – Binance has launched a new platform called Capital Connect to facilitate connections between its VIP clients and investment fund managers.

Bloomberg: How Japan-based Rapidus is trying to become a globally competitive chipmaker by 2027, aiming to mass produce 2nm chips just two years after TSMC and Samsung  —  Tetsuro Higashi is taking on what seems like an impossible task: Create a globally competitive semiconductor manufacturer in Japan from scratch – and do it in four […]

Robots that magnetically attach to the ceiling can rearrange living and working spaces by controlling different objects

As a car travels along a narrow city street, reflections off the glossy paint or side mirrors of parked vehicles can help the driver glimpse things that would otherwise be hidden from view, like a child playing on the sidewalk behind the parked cars. Drawing on this idea, researchers from MIT and Rice University have […]

From discounted weighted blankets to tablets, we’ve got you covered for Mom’s special day.

Lawmakers want to make online platforms more responsible for hate speech and misinformation. Google, Meta, and others are fighting back.

From Triangle of Sadness to The Hunger Games series, these are the movies you need to watch on the streaming service right now.

Washington Post: Tucker Carlson says he will relaunch his show on Twitter with help from ex-Fox News staff; Musk says Twitter has not signed a deal “of any kind whatsoever”  —  Elon Musk tweeted late Tuesday that Twitter had no deal with Carlson and urged people from both sides of the political spectrum to join […]

Elon Musk / @elonmusk: Elon Musk said Twitter has not signed a deal “of any kind whatsoever” with Tucker Carlson and he will be subject to the same rules as all content creators  —  @EdKrassen @TuckerCarlson On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever he […]

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: GitHub’s push protection feature, which automatically blocks the leak of sensitive data like API keys and access tokens, is now free for all public repositories  —  GitHub is now automatically blocking the leak of sensitive information like API keys and access tokens for all public code repositories.

A face mask can release nine different scents on demand to make VR experiences more immersive and multisensory

US healthcare organisations are trialling OpenAI’s GPT-3 for drafting clinician messages to patients. But not all patients are being informed and some AI researchers warn of errors creeping in

A group of 20 MIT students and postdocs from various departments traveled to Washington from March 27-29 to advocate for increased federal funding of scientific research for the 2024 fiscal year. The trip was part of the Congressional Visit Days program, organized by MIT’s Science Policy Initiative, a student-run organization that introduces the scientists of […]

In July 2022, Professor Per Urlaub joined MIT as the new director of Global Languages. A prolific researcher in second-language studies and on the role of technology in language and humanities education, he holds a teaching appointment in MIT’s literature section. He came to MIT after having served in a variety of faculty and leadership […]

Two faculty members from the MIT Department of Biology have been selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for the inaugural cohort of HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholars.  Seychelle Vos, the Robert A. Swanson Career Development Professor of Life Sciences, and Hernandez Moura Silva, an assistant professor of biology and core member of the Ragon […]

A new pricing model may help providers develop new treatments and improve access for patients.

Five patterns that get in the way of inclusion — and an antidote for each.

Zak Pym Williams, son of comedian and actor Robin Williams, had seen how mental health challenges had affected his family, and he wanted to break the cycle.

For a decade, a group called Big Pipes has worked behind the scenes with the FBI to target the worst cybercriminal “booter” services plaguing the internet.

Wildfires and human meddling are transforming the Arctic and its surroundings from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter, exacerbating the climate crisis.

The highest alerts are being unraveled globally. But with some 7 million people dead, there are hard lessons to learn from the pandemic—and a lot of work still to do.

Adi Robertson / The Verge: How Something Awful plans to archive the source images of millions of Imgur links by May 15, after Imgur announced it would delete nudity, porn, and old content  —  A long-running web community enlisted its goons to stop an Imgur extinction event.  —  It’s easy to forget how fragile …

Low De Wei / Bloomberg: Chinese authorities arrest a man for using ChatGPT to write and spread fake news articles, one of the first known instances, with one article having 15K+ views  —  Chinese authorities have detained a man for using ChatGPT to write fake news articles, in what appears to be one of the […]

Canalys: Global tablet shipments fell 18% YoY to 31.7M in Q1 2023, the lowest shipment volume since Q1 2020; Apple had 12.35M shipments, down 17% YoY, for a 38.9% share  —  According to the latest Canalys data, global tablet shipments fell 18% year on year in the first quarter of 2023 to 31.7 million units.

Imagine sitting on a park bench, watching someone stroll by. While the scene may constantly change as the person walks, the human brain can transform that dynamic visual information into a more stable representation over time. This ability, known as perceptual straightening, helps us predict the walking person’s trajectory. Unlike humans, computer vision models don’t […]

From hair tools and coffee machines to iPad accessories and game subscriptions, we have a pick for every type of mom and mom figure.

The AI pioneer is alarmed by how clever the technology he helped create has become. And it all started with a joke.

Are you struggling to find an effective, inexpensive workout that’s not in a gym? GoRuck’s small sandbag will solve all your problems.

Ryan Browne / CNBC: Ripple’s CEO says the company will have spent $200M fighting SEC’s lawsuit that accuses him, a co-founder, and Ripple of selling XRP as an unregistered security  —  – Ripple will have spent $200 million by the time its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is over, CEO Brad […]

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: Crypto exchange Bittrex files for bankruptcy in Delaware; filing: the company estimates both its liabilities and assets to be between $500M and $1B  —  Bittrex already announced its intention to exit the U.S., but also faces an SEC enforcement action.  —  Crypto exchange Bittrex has filed …