Category: Uncategorized

Northvolt says that its massive factory in Sweden will soon produce enough batteries each year to power a million electric cars, with a much smaller carbon footprint than those made in China

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch: Tel Aviv-based NoTraffic, an AI-based traffic management service, raised a $50M Series B led by M&G Investments, following a $17.5M Series A in July 2021  —  AI-based traffic management platform NoTraffic has bagged $50 million in Series B funding as it picks up momentum in cities across …

The company’s new $1,799 smartphone proves the future is foldable.

Prepare flavorful fried food with little to no oil using this modern kitchen staple.

The latest in Nintendo’s real-time strategy series is made for zoning out. In a good way.

NewsGuard: Analysis: in May and June 2023, 141 major brands ran ads, mostly via Google Ads, across 55 low-quality sites with AI-generated articles, some posting ~1,200/day  —  NewsGuard identified 141 brands that are feeding programmatic ad dollars to low-quality AI-generated news and information sites operating with little to no human oversight

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Decentralized social media app Damus says Apple rejected an app update and asked it to either remove its tipping feature or use Apple’s in-app purchase system  —  Damus, a decentralized social networking app backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, will be removed from the App Store due to Apple’s strict payment […]

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg: Stability AI’s head of research David Ha and COO Ren Ito left the company in June 2023; VP of product Christian Cantrell left the company in March 2023  —  Stability AI, the closely watched artificial intelligence startup, has lost at least two top executives in recent weeks, including its head of […]

“Sensing is all around you,” said MIT.nano Associate Director Brian W. Anthony at Ambient Sensing, a half-day symposium presented in May by the MIT.nano Immersion Lab. Featuring MIT faculty and researchers from multiple disciplines, the event highlighted sensing technologies deployed everywhere from beneath the Earth’s surface to high into the exosphere. Brent Minchew, assistant professor […]

Who are you now, who do you want to be, and how can you stretch without taking on too much?

Over 600 MIT students are traveling abroad with the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) to intern, research, and work in organizations across 25 countries this summer. Twenty percent of the students were placed in areas related to climate and sustainability. Through MISTI, hundreds of MIT students travel abroad each summer to intern in […]

Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) interdisciplinary research group at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU Singapore) and National University Hospital, have discovered a novel therapy by combining two antibiotics, rifaximin and clarithromycin, to treat Mycobacterium abscessus, a non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) […]

Protect your employees from burnout, prioritize retention, and visualize long-term success.

Identify the practices that lead organizations to overvalue the work of men.

Chronic illness patients often struggle to keep up with medications that need frequent, timely doses. What if a single shot lasted for months?

They’re the easiest way to start building a smarter home.

Demis Hassabis says the company is working on a system called Gemini that will draw on techniques that powered AlphaGo to a historic victory over a Go champion in 2016.

Hope King / Axios: Amazon plans to build a local delivery network in 23 states by tapping thousands of small US businesses, such as bodegas and florists, to deliver packages  —  Amazon plans to tap thousands of U.S. small businesses, from bodegas to florists, to deliver its packages by the end of the year, Axios […]

Financial Times: A profile of Korean chip engineer Choi Jin-seok, who embarked on a quixotic mission to lead China’s industry after his career stalled and faces IP theft charges  —  In 2006, a Korean engineer called Choi Jin-seok achieved a feat that earned him the nickname “master of semiconductor yield”.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: IBM plans to acquire cloud IT management startup Apptio for $4.6B in cash from Vista Equity Partners, which paid $1.94B to take Apptio private in 2018  —  As cloud architecture continues to more ubiquitous among organizations, increasingly what is more apparent is that many organizations …

In need of comfort or celebration, people turn to carbs. We picked our favorite outdoor ovens for backyards, countertops, or camping.

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.

Nina Jankowicz / The Atlantic: While there are effective laws in some states, including Virginia and California, outlawing the sharing of nonconsensual deepfake porn, a national law is needed  —  Because I was in the public eye, somebody synthesized explicit videos of me.  —  Recently, a Google Alert informed me that I am the subject […]

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 […]

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 […]

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 […]

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 …

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 […]

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

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 […]

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 […]