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Recent U.S. elections have raised the question of whether “microtargeting,” the use of extensive online data to tailor persuasive messages to voters, has altered the playing field of politics. Now, a newly-published study led by MIT scholars finds that while targeting is effective in some political contexts, the “micro” part of things may not be […]

Rescue teams are scrambling to find the sub, which has gone missing near the wreckage of the Titanic, before those aboard run out of oxygen.

From Silo to The Crowded Room, here’s everything you need to be watching on the streamer.

Games for every console, plus DLC and freebies—all in one spot.

Sean Hollister / The Verge: How Big Telecom lobbied US lawmakers to squeeze out new municipal networks, ensuring much of President Biden’s $41.6B broadband funding goes to big corporations  —  President Joe Biden’s internet access plan will hand $41.6 billion to internet service providers.  In many places, that money will get funneled into private hands.

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch: Twitch will require streamers to add new content labels for streams containing sexual themes, graphic violence, drugs use, gambling, or “significant” vulgarity  —  Twitch is rethinking the way it flags mature content, swapping its existing toggle for a more granular set of topic-specific labels.

Xinghui Kok / Reuters: Letter: Grab CEO tells staff the company plans to cut 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce, citing the need to manage costs and ensure more affordable services  —  Singapore-based Grab Holdings (GRAB.O), Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing and food delivery app, is cutting 1,000 jobs or 11% …

A centimetre-sized robot with a soft body and metallic scales inspired by pangolins can stop bleeding or destroy cells from inside the body using heat

Mining cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could be done using quantum computers, cutting their electricity use by 90 per cent

Christopher Voigt, the Daniel I.C. Wang Professor of Biological Engineering, has been named the new head of the Department of Biological Engineering effective Aug. 1. “Professor Voigt is truly a pioneer in the field of synthetic biology. His research is incredibly interdisciplinary, so he has extensive experience working across a diverse range of fields and […]

Eminent theoretical physicist and Dirac Medalist Roman Jackiw, MIT professor emeritus and holder of the Department of Physics’ Jerrold Zacharias chair, died June 14 at age 83. He was a member of the MIT physics community for 54 years. A leader in the sophisticated use of quantum field theory to illuminate physical problems, his influential […]

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How should Elon Musk approach long-term strategy to turn around Twitter?

Ten questions to ask yourself before taking the leap.

Tell summer to go to … Well, at least keep from overheating indoors—or outdoors—with the right tips and gear.

There’s so much potential for the government to use technology to improve the lives of citizens. It starts with acknowledging the importance of training.

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: Source: Spotify plans a more expensive “Supremium” tier with HiFi audio, audiobooks, and more, launching outside the US later in 2023; Premium costs $9.99/month  —  Spotify Technology SA is planning a more expensive subscription option that’s expected to include high-fidelity audio …

Kenza Bryan / Financial Times: Aviva, Fidelity, and other big institutional investors are increasingly pressuring tech companies to prevent AI misuse, concerned about potential liability  —  Financial firms worried about liability for human rights issues associated with the burgeoning technology

Apple’s laptops are expensive, and you’ll have to make some hard choices to pick the right one. Let us help.

Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal: Crypto exchange EDX Markets, backed by Citadel, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab, quietly began executing trades in recent weeks, offering a noncustodial service  —  EDX Markets won’t directly handle customers’ digital assets or directly serve individual investors

Researchers attached pill bugs and chitons to a robot arm to show how creatures might work with machines, but it isn’t clear how useful this would be

Tim Copeland / The Block: How kids are using hacked Discord servers or Twitter accounts and “NFT drainers” for phishing attacks to steal millions of dollars’ worth of NFTs and tokens  —  – NFT drainers like Inferno and Venom are commonly used to carry out phishing attacks involving compromised Discord servers and Twitter accounts.

Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal: Celebrities, including aging star athletes, are signing deals to put AI duplicates of themselves into ad campaigns, helping brands de-age them, among other uses  —  Using AI-generated duplicates, brands also benefit, using stars in ways they never could before

Protect your eyes in style while you lounge, run, paddle, or work on your computer outside.

By combining a solar fuel cell that converts carbon dioxide into fuel with a plastic recycling system, researchers can create sustainable fuels and useful chemicals

Jon / The Nexus Of Privacy: Amid ongoing Reddit protests, decentralized link aggregation and discussion forum projects Lemmy and KBin grow to a total of 70K+ MAUs and nearly 600 instances  —  Draft!  Work in Progress!  Feedback welcome! … Contents:  — Eight days later …  – Experiment to find what approaches …

A leader must learn how to reframe a career setback and move forward.

What do they need on a daily basis to be happy and working at their best?

Two questions entrepreneurs need to answer before launching a new venture.

Indian cities, afflicted by rising temperatures and poor air quality, are becoming hot spots of ozone pollution, which has proven a difficult problem to fix.

Plugging my dryer into a bonnet attachment makes wash days so much easier, on my spirit and my arms.

Yes, they’re fun, fast, and convenient. But motorized vehicles are not for children.

Nikou Asgari / Financial Times: Sources: internal teams at Singapore-based Crypto.com trade tokens for profit on the exchange and elsewhere, a little known fact since its 2016 launch  —  Singapore group has desk to profit from market moves  —  Crypto.com, the exchange endorsed by Hollywood actor Matt Damon …

Rebecca Tan / Washington Post: Sources: Meta plans tighter content rules in Vietnam, its seventh largest market, after government requests and keeps a list of officials not to be criticized  —  HANOI — When Facebook took off in Vietnam about a decade ago, it was like a “revolution,” said two of the company’s early employees […]

Tim Hakki / Decrypt: Twitter suspends Explain This Bob, a GPT-4 bot tied to the BOB Token, after Elon Musk called the account a “scam”; Musk replied “I love Bob” in April 2023  —  The move marks an abrupt about-face for Musk, who had previously engaged with the bot’s content on Twitter.

Spending freezes and job cuts don’t have to sink your prospects.

With the ability to sear well and provide enough control for effective two-zone heating, Weber’s Spirit E-330 propane grill makes a great backyard upgrade.

Whether you’re snoozing in a campground or schlepping up to an alpine valley, we’ve tested the perfect pads for you to rest your legs.

When going abroad, the right plugs are essential to keeping your gadgets charged. These are our favorites.

Lisa Bannon / Wall Street Journal: A look at US hospitals using sometimes flawed AI-based diagnosis tools, as some clinicians say they feel pressure from administrations to defer to the algorithm  —  Artificial intelligence raises difficult questions about who makes the call in a health crisis: the human or the machine?

Washington Post: Hands-on with an Adobe Photoshop beta’s Generative Fill AI feature, which lets users add objects to, remove content from, and expand images using text prompts  —  A new ‘generative fill’ AI capability can create joyful Photoshop edits — and frightening deepfakes

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Investors of Bengaluru-based Mojocare say they found “financial irregularities” at the health care startup, which has raised ~$23M from Sequoia India and others  —  Mojocare investors have found “financial irregularities” at the Indian health and wellness startup and are moving …

Make sure the world at large can see how talented you are.

The AI era promises a flood of disinformation, deepfakes, and hallucinated “facts.” Psychologists are only beginning to grapple with the implications.

From a sound machine to a smart sensor, here’s what made life easier during my infant’s first year (and a few things I could’ve lived without).

Takahiro Shibuya / Nikkei Asia: Sources: Huawei is negotiating with ~30 small to midsize Japanese firms over licensing fees for use of patented tech, an unusual move for a major manufacturer  —  Chinese telecom giant turns to patent fees to offset sales decline  —  China’s Huawei to trying to forge a path forward amid U.S. […]

Stanford CRFM: An assessment finds it is currently feasible for major foundation model providers to comply with the draft EU AI Act and doing so would improve transparency  —  Stanford researchers evaluate foundation model providers like OpenAI and Google for their compliance with proposed EU law on AI.

New York Times: Taliban officials keep getting their WhatsApp accounts banned, causing disruptions at the nascent government, which relies on the platform for communication  —  The Taliban administration is stuck in a cat-and-mouse game with WhatsApp, which is off-limits to the nascent government because of U.S. sanctions.

Your phone’s portrait mode is no match for these portable, powerful point-and-shoot cams.

Think of it as a budget version of Boston Dynamics’ Spot for beginner hackers. It ain’t cute, but you can teach it new tricks.