Category: Uncategorized

EV batteries take up lots of space and resources. But most drivers won’t actually use all that power.

The good AI and healthtech can do is undisputed, but testing new technology using old methods is holding it back.

Financial Times: Internal memo: Xiaomi President Wang Xiang and co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan step down, as the company battles slowing sales amid COVID-19 disruptions  —  China’s leading handset maker has suffered Covid disruption at home and regulatory woes abroad  —  Three top executives …

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal: A look at Elon Musk’s tightening finances as TSLA dropped 65% in 2022, shrinking his borrowing power, and his fortune fell from an estimated $340B high to $140B  —  Billionaire’s borrowing power has shrunk with Tesla share decline  —  Elon Musk’s Unconventional Management Style: Former Employees Share Stories

Building government artificial intelligence capability is as important as roads and rail.

Thomas Claburn / The Register: Study: programmers who use GitHub Copilot and other AI tools produce less secure code than those who do not, despite believing their code has no safety issues  —  At the same time, tools like Github Copilot and Facebook InCoder make developers believe their code is sound

From Spotify Wrapped to Apple Music Replay, these are all the services that will tell you what songs were on the soundtrack of your year.

These are our favorite classic flicks, Marvel movies, and Star Wars sagas on the streaming platform.

Upgrade your Zoom meetings with that snazzy camera in your pocket.

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired: A look at Flipper Zero, a $200 portable security penetration testing tool for hackers of all levels to intercept and replay signals from IoT sensors and more  —  Don’t be fooled by its fun name and Tamagotchi-like interface—this do-everything gadget is trouble waiting to happen and a whole lot more.

Jennifer Conrad / Wired: Q&A with author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel about AI’s ability to help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation, privacy regulation, and more  —  Author and labor lawyer Orly Lobel says AI can help mitigate human biases in hiring and compensation.

Sometimes the best fantasies are the ones that could actually come true.

Patrick McGee / Financial Times: Supply chain experts warn of a months-long disruption risk to Apple’s iPhone production and operations due to worker absenteeism, amid China’s COVID-19 wave  —  Supply chain experts warn outbreak following reversal of zero-Covid curbs creates uncertainty for iPhone maker

Shen Lu / Wall Street Journal: Sensor Tower: Pinduoduo’s marketplace Temu gained 10.8M installations in the US since Sep. 1, and became the most downloaded US app between Nov. 1 and Dec. 14  —  Temu, a marketplace with deep discounts and copious coupons, has become the most downloaded mobile app in the U.S.  — Copy […]

Ever-expanding cloud storage presents more risks than you might think.

Covid will stick around long-term, so we’ll need to find ways to predict its next move.

Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post: Twitter employees shed light on Elon Musk’s erratic leadership; a Signal message shows Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant  —  Musk’s intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars.  Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

From Blue Apron to Dinnerly, I’ve spent a couple of years cooking with boxed ingredients shipped to my door.

Settle in for some bonding time. These are some of the best cooperative titles for two to eight players, all playable on a single TV.

Plus: An offensive US hacking operation, swatters hacking Ring cameras, a Netflix password-sharing crackdown, and more.

Martin Matishak / The Record: Joe Biden signs into law an $858B defense policy bill conferring more power and obligations on US Cyber Command, such as offensive operations on foreign powers  —  President Joe Biden signed a $858 billion defense policy bill on Friday, conferring more power — and obligations — on U.S. Cyber Command.

Simon Hill / Wired: A look at XRAI Glass, an Android app for the deaf and hard of hearing that can caption real-life conversations when paired with the $379 Nreal Air AR glasses  —  XRAI Glass, when paired with $379 AR glasses, can caption real-life conversations as they happen, with a few major caveats.

Amanda Hoover / Wired: Mastodon’s decentralized nature raises concerns about the liability of users running their own instances, under copyright and privacy laws around the world  —  As the niche, decentralized social networking platform rises in popularity, it faces rising costs, culture shifts—and potential legal risks.

Bloomberg: The 2022 crypto winter showed the digital asset ecosystem is more interconnected than many participants realize, despite decentralization being a core tenet  —  As 2021 came to a close, crypto enthusiasts were brimming with optimism.  After all, it had been a banner year: Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, had crossed into the mainstream.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Philadelphia-based Exyn, which develops AI-powered navigation tech for drones and robots, raised a $35M Series B from Reliance and others at a ~$107M valuation  —  Reliance has backed the Philadelphia-based AI and robotics startup Exyn, the Indian conglomerate disclosed in a stock exchange filing …

Joel Khalili / Wired: A look at some NFT utility cases like gaming, as NFT trading volume fell from $17B in January 2022 to $400M in November 2022, amid the crypto market slump  —  The market for non-fungible tokens took a nosedive this year.  Now, die-hard evangelists think the key to success is finding different […]

Richard Wurtman, the Cecil H. Green Distinguished Professor Emeritus and a member of the MIT faculty for 44 years, died on Dec. 13. He was 86. Wurtman received an MD from Harvard Medical School in 1960 and trained at Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the laboratory of Nobel laureate Julius Axelrod at the National Institutes […]

Reuters: Sources: Twitter removed a feature that promoted safety resources related to suicide, child sexual exploitation, and more, after an order by Elon Musk  —  Twitter Inc removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking …

Could the Golden State Warriors legend really sink five full-court shots in a row? Some clever modeling can give fans a clue.

Keep the wildfire smoke, smog, and allergens out. We tested standard and HEPA models to find the right one for your home.

Elon Musk’s changes have been most destabilizing to the very people who made the platform’s unique culture.

Naomi Jagoda / Bloomberg: After pushback, the IRS delays a requirement for e-commerce platforms, including Venmo and PayPal, to send tax forms to small businesses with $600+ transactions  —  The Internal Revenue Service is delaying a requirement for e-commerce platforms, including Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and Etsy …

Reuters: Court transcript from plea hearing: Caroline Ellison said she and Sam Bankman-Fried knowingly misled lenders about how much Alameda was borrowing from FTX  —  Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives received billions of dollars in secret loans from the crypto mogul’s Alameda Research …

In 2022, MIT returned to a bit of normalcy after the challenge of Covid-19 began to subside. The Institute prepared to bid farewell to its president and later announced his successor; announced five flagship projects in a new competition aimed at tackling climate’s greatest challenges; made new commitments toward ensuring support for diverse voices; and […]

Shift from asking, “What makes us money?” to “Who makes us money?”

Why your money is worth less than it used to be.

With effective leadership, friction between generations can spark creative opportunities.

Nate Raymond / Reuters: Filing: Meta agrees to pay $725M to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of letting third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, access user data  —  Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing …

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Twitter will now let Blue subscribers upload 60-minute, 1080p videos up to 2GB on the web; iOS and Android users are still limited to 10-minute, 512MB videos  —  After taking over Twitter, Elon Musk had long promised that the company is working toward making the platform more appealing to video creators.

A rise in the jamming of satellite navigation within Russia follows attacks by drones on Russian airbases and may be designed to deter further strikes

Financial Times: Sources: TSMC is in advanced talks with key suppliers about setting up its first European plant in Dresden, Germany; construction could begin in early 2024  —  Company to send senior executives to Dresden early next year to discuss potential factory project in Germany

Amid final exams and year-end research crunches, this is also the time of year when many in the MIT community take time to have some fun and express gratitude for the people that make their work possible. Each year across the Institute, community members gather for holiday parties and socializing in a more relaxed environment […]

If you’ve been at MIT long enough, you’ve probably heard grumblings about peer-reviewed journals that are slow or uncooperative. But those problems are trivial compared to the challenges faced by researchers in other parts of the world. Researchers in developing countries have to sift through lists of less familiar international journals that each have wildly […]

These infrared imaging devices will show you how hot or cold the objects in the photo are.

Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg: Crypto exchange Bullish, backed by Peter Thiel, and Far Peak, a SPAC led by ex-NYSE President Thomas Farley, call off their planned $9B merger announced in 2021  —  Cryptocurrency exchange Bullish and special-purpose acquisition company Far Peak Acquisition Corp. have called off their planned merger.

Tired of plain drinks and pour-overs? Turn your kitchen into a café with these barista-worthy machines.

This wearable heats up, vibrates, and soothes sore eyes and temples. I don’t want to take it off.

Alfred Ng / Politico: The Privacy Act, passed in 1974, prevents sharing citizens’ data between US agencies, forcing the government to use data brokers and pay them millions per year  —  How an old privacy law and new security demands force Washington to rely on an industry in the crosshairs.

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: LastPass says a threat actor stole a backup copy of its customers’ encrypted vault data using cloud storage keys stolen from a LastPass employee in August 2022  —  Password manager giant LastPass has confirmed that cybercriminals stole its customers’ encrypted password vaults …

Cognitive scientists have long sought to understand what makes some sentences more difficult to comprehend than others. Any account of language comprehension, researchers believe, would benefit from understanding difficulties in comprehension. In recent years researchers successfully developed two models explaining two significant types of difficulty in understanding and producing sentences. While these models successfully predict […]