Pumpkin Sandstorm. Spandex Tempest. Charming Kitten. Is this really how we want to name the hackers wreaking havoc worldwide?

Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk: A California judge rules that the RR/BAYC NFTs, which featured primates in similar poses to the BAYC under the pretense of satire, violated Yuga Labs’ copyright  —  Use of BAYC trademarks by Ripps’ RR/BAYC was intended to confuse consumers, a U.S. judge in California has ruled

Jaron Lanier / New Yorker: AI’s mythology as a technology for creating intelligent beings instills fear; “data dignity” and seeing AI as a social collaboration could address worries  —  There are ways of controlling the new technology—but first we have to stop mythologizing it.

Financial Times: Sources: in its most advanced chipmaking effort, Arm plans to work with manufacturing partners and build a test chip to showcase the capabilities of its designs  —  Company to build test chip with factory partners, stoking fears it could in future compete with its biggest customers

The HBO show, from Veep creator Armando Iannucci, has all of that shows comedy, but not as many of its layers.

Need a backpack, purse, tote, or even a new shopping bag? These are made from truck tarps, old sails, fishnets, and plastic bottles.

Tread lightly on our planet with toys and accessories made from repurposed plastic, and many other Earth-friendly picks.

Mike Pearl / Mashable: Some critics of Twitter Blue, such as @dril, Kara Swisher, and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, say they have been given unwanted Blue checkmarks  —  If you can’t beat ’em verify ’em. … The latest speed bump in the rollout of Twitter’s revamped verification policy under new owner Elon Musk is here: […]

Katherine Sayre / Wall Street Journal: A look at GeoComply, which says it checks 10B online sports bets per year on 400M+ devices to verify if the bets are happening in a US state where they’re legal  —  Even before online wagering on sports was legal in the U.S., Anna Sainsbury and David Briggs predicted […]

Monica Chin / The Verge: Report: cheap Chromebooks, due to their short lifespans and lack of repairability, are less sustainable and more expensive for schools than pricier devices  —  Back in early 2020, as the covid pandemic drove classrooms online, school districts found themselves needing to bulk purchase affordable laptops …

A tool called Photoguard that aims to stop images from being edited by artificial intelligence doesn’t work if you simply save an image as JPEG

E-waste, conflict minerals, and poor labor conditions are just a few issues blighting the tech industry. Here’s how to shop more sustainably.

The animals evolved into ultra-resilient, disease-free predators while isolated on Auckland Island. Now people want to breed them for organ transplants.

We’ve got Earth Day discounts on reusable water bottles and bike helmets galore.

Maddy Crowell / Columbia Journalism Review: A profile of Runa Sandvik, who started Granitt in June 2022 to help journalists, lawyers, activists, and other at-risk people keep their data safe from hackers  —  Runa Sandvik has made it her life’s work to protect journalists against cyberattacks.  Authoritarian regimes are keeping her in business.

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes: The proliferation of AI-generated content on marketplaces like Upwork is causing transactional disputes and increasing mistrust between clients and freelancers  —  While some freelancers are losing their gigs to ChatGPT, clients are being spammed with AI-written content on freelancing platforms.

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: On April 7, Google patched the GhostToken GCP vulnerability that could have allowed attackers to backdoor Google accounts using malicious OAuth applications  —  Google has addressed a Cloud Platform (GCP) security vulnerability impacting all users and allowing attackers to backdoor …

The high court has maintained access to a drug used in medication abortion while it weighs a final decision on the pill.

Matt Binder / Mashable: In a campaign called #BlockTheBlue, some Twitter users, including popular ones like @dril, are asking people to block anyone who subscribes to Twitter Blue  —  After Elon Musk removed legacy verified users’ checkmarks, Twitter’s biggest users are blocking everyone who pays.

Lauren Feiner / CNBC: The US Department of Homeland Security announces a task force to explore potential uses of AI to protect the country, including better cargo screening systems  —  – The Department of Homeland Security will establish a new task force to examine how artificial intelligence technology can be used …

Reuters: A California jury clears Tesla of any blame for a 2019 crash involving Autopilot as the company’s user manual warned against using the system on city streets  —  A California state court jury began deliberating on Thursday in what appears to be the first trial related to a crash involving …

Studies of consciousness often run into a common conundrum of science — it’s hard to measure a system without the measurement affecting the system. Researchers assessing consciousness, for instance as volunteers receive anesthesia, typically use spoken commands to see if subjects can still respond, but that sound might keep them awake longer or wake them […]

When the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC) launched its Climate and Sustainability Scholars Program in fall 2022, the goal was to offer undergraduate students a unique way to develop and implement research projects with the strong support of each other and MIT faculty. Now into its second semester, the program is underscoring the value […]

MIT announced today that in conjunction with the end of the federal and state public health emergency declarations, the Institute will retire its remaining Covid-era policies, including its vaccination requirement for members of the MIT community, effective May 11. MIT Medical Director Cecilia Stuopis and Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education Ian A. Waitz […]

Leaders of companies with operations in Russia share how they’ve navigated new and unexpected challenges during the war in Ukraine.

Now is the time for private- and public-sector leaders to step up.

New research finds that despite being demonstrably worse for the environment, overpackaging increases consumers’ perceptions of environmental friendliness.

For those who love Western classical music, it’s a godsend. But as a global app, Apple Music Classical barely scratches the surface.

The transition from traditional logins to cryptographic passkeys is getting messy. But don’t worry—there’s a plan.

The algae Melosira arctica is the foundation of the food chain, and its contamination could have major consequences for ecosystems and the climate.

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: Email: Twitter tells advertisers that they must have “a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations” to keep running ads  —  As Twitter’s legacy blue check mark system finally comes to an end, the social network’s new paid-for verification system …

Carina Chocano / New Yorker: A profile of Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn, who co-created CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA, as he predicts AI will eventually make computers better teachers than humans  —  The company’s founder, Luis von Ahn, believes that artificial intelligence is going to make computers better teachers than humans.

Jahnavi Nidumolu / Reuters: Twitter dropped the “Government-funded” and “China state-affiliated” labels from accounts of media organizations and journalists, including NPR, BBC, and Xinhua  —  Twitter dropped the “Government-funded” and “China state-affiliated” labels, which implies government involvement …

AI tools can explore the ethics of AI itself, says Lavie Tidhar.  His new dystopian film uses AI image-generation program Midjourney to tell the story of a well-meaning artificial intelligence trying to help the last surviving human

Robots have been roaming Google offices for two years, attempting to separate recyclable items from waste in bins and can now do it with 84 per cent accuracy

This dystopian film uses AI image-generation program Midjourney and AI speech to tell the story of a well-meaning artificial intelligence trying to help the last surviving human

Property assessments sit at the center of home appraisals, insurance claims, renovation projects, and a number of other important processes. Inaccurate or delayed assessments can set projects back and stick consumers with higher costs. Now, a platform first developed at MIT makes creating detailed property assessments as easy as snapping a few pictures. The alumni-founded […]

April 22 marks the arrival of Earth Day, which provides all of us with a good reason to think of ways to live more sustainably. For more than 20 years, the MIT Working Green Committee has helped community members do just that by encouraging the reuse and recycling of possessions. Made up entirely of volunteers, […]

The image sharing and hosting site is about to wipe out countless images. Some see it as bending to political pressure to push sex workers offline.

Snag new shoes for the warmer weather, or trick out your current pair with fun charms. Now is the time to see what the fuss is about.

The programmer Q&A site joins Reddit in demanding compensation when its data is used to train algorithms and ChatGPT-style bots

Wall Street Journal: Internal Q&A: Mark Zuckerberg says Meta plans to slow hiring, and that net employee growth of 1% to 2% per year will be the standard going forward  —  Facebook-parent CEO says employee growth of 1%-2% a year will be standard in future  —  Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Mark …

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.’

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

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

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

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

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]