Category: Uncategorized

Paresh Dave / Wired: Stack Overflow CEO says the company plans to charge large AI developers for access to the 50M questions and answers on its service as soon as mid-2023  —  The programmer Q&A site joins Reddit in demanding compensation when its data is used to train algorithms and ChatGPT-style bots

The Verge: Twitter offered LeBron James a complimentary Blue subscription after he said he wouldn’t pay for one; Musk says he’s paying for “a few” subscriptions personally  —  / After saying he wouldn’t pay, James was offered a complimentary subscription ‘on behalf of Elon Musk.’

Protein shells designed using AI can work as carriers for immunity-inducing molecules, generating more antibodies in mice than some competing vaccine approaches

Existential risk from AI is admittedly more speculative than pressing concerns such as its bias, but the basic solution is the same. A robust public discussion is long overdue, says David Krueger

A quadcopter can use its inflatable body to land on a wide variety of objects. The collision-resistant drone could help search-and-rescue missions

Launched this month, MIT’s new Bachelor of Science in climate system science and engineering is jointly offered by the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). As part of MIT’s commitment to aid the global response to climate change, the new degree program is designed to train the […]

Uganda reported its first case of Covid-19 on March 21, 2020. Almost a year later, the first batch of vaccines to protect against the spread of the disease arrived in the country. As people began receiving their injections in the ensuing months, researchers from the MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB) and Makerere University’s School of […]

Sponsor content from Deloitte.

MIT researchers are using artificial intelligence to design new proteins that go beyond those found in nature. They developed machine-learning algorithms that can generate proteins with specific structural features, which could be used to make materials that have certain mechanical properties, like stiffness or elasticity. Such biologically inspired materials could potentially replace materials made from […]

A survey of more than 5,000 U.S. employees found that company policies designed to promote gender equity often backfire.

A closer look at four distinct ways to drive transformation.

Ethernet delivers stable, speedy, secure wired connections to the internet and between devices.

Menstruation suppression is only a starting point. A more just and safe world for all bodies means shifting the questions we ask.

The mass compromise of the VoIP firm’s customers is the first confirmed incident where one software supply chain attack enabled another, researchers say.

Financial Times: A look at the India Stack, a set of government-backed APIs on which third parties can build apps integrated with state services for payments, loans, and more  —  New Delhi has pioneered a new approach to online infrastructure in its drive to connect 1.4bn.  But there are privacy and data protection concerns

Bloomberg: The EU Parliament approves the Markets in Cryptoassets, or MiCA, regulation for the crypto industry, with rules for stablecoins set to apply from July 2024  —  European lawmakers on Thursday gave their final blessing to an ambitious law that will give the European Union its first rules to govern the crypto industry.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Imgur plans to ban explicit images from May 15; it will allow artistic nudity but expects problems as it switches to a mix of automatic and human moderation  —  Image hosting platform Imgur is set to ban explicit images on its platform from May 15.  The company updated its terms of […]

Each year, thousands of space rocks pierce through the Earth’s atmosphere and hit the ground as meteorites. These fragments of comets and asteroids can land anywhere but are most often spotted in open terrain, such as the deserts of Africa and the Antarctic blue ice, where a meteorite’s blackened exterior can stand out. Still, these […]

The breach of the right-wing provocateur was simply a way of “stirring up some drama,” the attacker tells WIRED. But the damage could have been much worse.

The court has given itself a deadline extension until late Friday night to decide whether mifepristone should remain legal.

The streaming giant is killing its video-by-mail service. These are the final words of one of its longest-serving discs.

Michael Kan / PCMag: After Microsoft Advertising said it was dropping Twitter support, Elon Musk tweeted that it’s “lawsuit time” over training “illegally using Twitter data”  —  Microsoft is winding down support for Twitter on its advertising platform, likely because the social media platform wants …

Jeff John Roberts / Fortune: Coinbase says it received a license to operate in Bermuda; source: the company plans to launch an offshore derivatives exchange in Bermuda as soon as next week  —  Coinbase has received a license to operate in the off-shore haven of Bermuda, signaling that the company is doubling-down on plans …

Following claims that an AI has shown “sparks of artificial general intelligence”, what are we to make of the hype surrounding this technology? AI expert Melanie Mitchell is your guide

Karen Freifeld / Reuters: Seagate agrees to pay $300M to settle with the US Department of Commerce for shipping $1.1B+ worth of hard drives to Huawei, violating US export control laws  —  April 19 Reuters) – Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (STX.O) has agreed to pay a $300 million penalty in a settlement with U.S. authorities […]

MIT associate professors Ellen Roche of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) and Justin Solomon of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) have been named the 2023 winners of MIT’s annual Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award. Established in fall 1982, the award exists as a permanent tribute to the late Institute […]

Neurodegeneration, or the gradual loss of neuron function, is one of the key features of Alzheimer’s disease. However, it doesn’t affect all parts of the brain equally. One of the first brain regions to show neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease is a part of the hypothalamus called the mammillary body. In a new study, MIT researchers […]

In the vast, expansive skies where birds once ruled supreme, a new crop of aviators is taking flight. These pioneers of the air are not living creatures, but rather a product of deliberate innovation: drones. But these aren’t your typical flying bots, humming around like mechanical bees. Rather, they’re avian-inspired marvels that soar through the […]

Research shows that the charitable benefits of such “giving-by-proxy” programs can extend beyond their direct impact.

New requirements stand to benefit everyone — if optimally designed.

Survivors of the 18th-century crash of the HMS Wager undertook the perilous task of salvaging what was left of the vessel. Then, mutiny followed.

We’ve rounded up our favorites, including third-party devices like the Sonos Era and a voice-enabled Yamaha soundbar.

Bloomberg: Sources: some US tech companies push to narrow the scope of a Senate bill aimed at a TikTok ban, worried it exposes them to future national security reviews  —  US tech companies are pushing to narrow the scope of legislation that could ban TikTok in the US, creating new obstacles …

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: The UK CMA opens a consultation after Google proposes letting developers use alternate payment methods for IAP and reducing its cut to settle an antitrust probe  —  Google has proposed letting developers offering apps through its UK Play mobile app store to have the option …

WIRED’s spiritual advice columnist responds to a preteen who’s worried about already having wasted too much of their life.

Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal: Sources: TSMC is pushing back on some “unacceptable” conditions imposed by the US on chip-factory subsidies, as it seeks up to $15B in government support  —  With construction under way in Arizona, Taiwanese semiconductor maker calls some aid terms unacceptable

The Curiosity Unbounded podcast is a conversation between MIT President Sally Kornbluth and newly-tenured faculty members. President Kornbluth invites us to listen in as she dives into the research happening in MIT’s labs and in the field. Along the way, she and her guests discuss pressing issues, as well as what inspires the people running […]

Six strategies to help you deliver bad news compassionately.

From The Last of Us to Succession, HBO Max is a streaming paradise of “it’s not TV” television.

Upgrade your kitchen and bedroom or grab some new tools to photograph and explore the great outdoors.

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: Microsoft and Epic Systems partner to bring Azure OpenAI services, including GPT-4, to help automate some processes in Epic’s electronic health record software  —  Generative AI promises to streamline health care, but critics say not so fast.  —  On Monday, Microsoft and Epic Systems announced …

Ron Miller / TechCrunch: Semgrep, formally r2c, which offers tools to help devs scan for vulnerable code, raised a $53M Series C led by Lightspeed, bringing its total funding to $93M  —  Ideally, when it comes to building secure applications, it’s best to check the code as it moves through the development process …

Here’s how Amazon’s ebook readers stack up—and which one might be right for you.

What actually is a neural network and are AIs conscious? Here are five important questions about artificial intelligence answered

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: The European Union strike a provisional deal for its ~$47B Chips Act, which aims to double the bloc’s share of global chip output to 20% by 2030  —  The European Union on Tuesday agreed a 43 billion euro ($47 billion) plan for its semiconductor industry in an attempt to catch […]

As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, this year’s MIT Energy Conference spotlighted the role of geopolitics in the world’s efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Each year, the student-run conference, which its organizers say is the largest of its kind, brings together leaders from around the […]

The vast majority of absorbent materials will lose their ability to retain water as temperatures rise. This is why our skin starts to sweat and why plants dry out in the heat. Even materials that are designed to soak up moisture, such as the silica gel packs in consumer packaging, will lose their sponge-like properties […]

In 2019, MIT’s Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) Office collaborated with several research labs in the Department of Biology to determine the feasibility of recycling clean lab plastics. Based on early successes with waste isolation and plastics collection, EHS collaborated with GreenLabs Recycling, a local startup, to remove and recycle lab plastics from campus. It […]

There is no doubt that the latest advances in artificial intelligence from OpenAI, Google, Baidu and others are more impressive than what came before, but are we in just another bubble of AI hype?

What sparked a SaaS crash in 2022 — and why its best days are still to come.