Kris Holt / Engadget: Meta open sources Animated Drawings, an AI project that turns doodles into animations, with a dataset of nearly 180K drawings  —  Meta has open-sourced an artificial intelligence project that lets anyone bring their doodles to life.  The company hopes that by offering Animated Drawings …

Aria Alamalhodaei / TechCrunch: Toronto-based Kepler, which plans to launch a network of optical satellites to deliver data at 2.5Gbps to satellites in low Earth orbit, raised a $92M Series C  —  Toronto-based startup Kepler Communications closed another tranche of capital to continue building out its on-orbit data network.

More like a village than a city, Mastodon has less cruelty and bad-faith debates than Twitter, in my experience Could it be a social media platform to trust, asks Annalee Newitz

On a clear, moonlit evening, a group of MIT undergraduate men of color gathered at the Samberg Center for a now-annual tradition: inducting the newest cohort of first-year students to The Standard, the Office of Minority Education’s program for undergraduate men of color. The gathering was festive, featuring dinner and a spectacular view of Boston, […]

In 2017, the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) initiated the J-WAFS Fellowship Program for outstanding MIT PhD students working to solve humankind’s water-related challenges. Since then, J-WAFS has awarded 18 fellowships to students who have gone on to create innovations like a pump that can maximize energy efficiency even with changing […]

MIT junior Malhaar Agrawal has been selected as a 2023 Truman Scholar. Established by the U.S. Congress in 1975 as a living memorial to President Harry S. Truman and a national monument to public service, the Truman Scholarship supports and inspires the next generation of public service leaders. Truman Scholars are selected for their outstanding […]

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Three scenarios — and how to navigate them.

This week on Gadget Lab, we use a set of software tools to create robo versions of our real voices and see how they stack up.

Eero’s premium mesh system has family-friendly features and plays nice with your smart home.

It’s time to reform the US legal system.

Raphael Satter / Reuters: Discord says it is cooperating with US law enforcement’s investigation into the classified material breach  —  Instant messaging platform Discord said on Wednesday it was cooperating with U.S. law enforcement’s investigation into a leak of secret U.S. documents that has grabbed attention around the world.

Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal: How the US is making arrests and seizing crypto funds, like James Zhong’s 50K+ bitcoin, using Chainalysis and other tools to identify criminals via transactions  —  Federal authorities are making arrests and seizing funds with the help of new tools to identify criminals through cryptocurrency transactions

Ian Hogarth / Financial Times: An investor in 50+ AI startups warns against building a “God-like AI” and says companies are “running towards a finish line” without knowing the ramifications  —  The writer of this essay is an investor and co-author of the annual “State of AI” report

Managing a building or renovation project really means managing a series of disparate, interconnected tasks. Something as small as a kitchen renovation might involve half a dozen subcontractors including plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and painters. The complexity makes cost and time overruns common. On the other hand, “Architecture is a passion business,” says Moe Amaya MA […]

MIT neuroscientists have found a way to reverse neurodegeneration and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by interfering with an enzyme that is typically overactive in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. When the researchers treated mice with a peptide that blocks the hyperactive version of an enzyme called CDK5, they found dramatic reductions in neurodegeneration and […]

An Uber driver was mugged. An Ola driver was beaten and left in a coma. Platform workers say tech companies are doing little to protect them.

The bizarre release of sensitive US government materials soon after their creation signals a potential shift to near-real-time unauthorized disclosures.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s rebranded new service will combine HBO Max and Discovery+ offerings into a juggernaut—or a jumbled mess.

Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk: FTX’s attorneys say the company recovered $7.3B in liquid assets and is considering using creditors’ holdings to reopen the exchange; FTX’s FTT token jumps 70%+  —  FTT jumped 55%.  —  Featured SpeakerBrett Harrison  —  Founder and CEOArchitect  —  Don’t miss “FTX: What Happened” …

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Google releases Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel devices, with sharesheet custom actions, a more prominent back arrow, per-app language preferences, and more  —  Google’s Android development cycle runs on a rather predictable cadence these days.  Today, after two developer previews …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: IBM explores selling its weather unit in a deal that could be valued at $1B+; IBM reportedly paid $2B+ for The Weather Company’s digital assets in 2015  —  Weather.com owner could fetch more than $1 billion in a sale  —  International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a sale …

A lighting device that reuses its infrared light to conserve energy is as efficient as some LED lights, which could contribute to fewer carbon emissions while retaining a natural glow

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence has ignited a deep philosophical exploration into the nature of consciousness, creativity, and authorship. As we bear witness to new advances in the field, it’s increasingly apparent that these synthetic agents possess a remarkable capacity to create, iterate, and challenge our traditional notions of intelligence. But what does it […]

Brian Nord first fell in love with physics when he was a teenager growing up in Wisconsin. His high school physics program wasn’t exceptional, and he sometimes struggled to keep up with class material, but those difficulties did nothing to dampen his interest in the subject. In addition to the main curriculum, students were encouraged […]

Participating in an intensive three-week lab in Yucatán, Mexico, changed how MIT junior Penelope Herrero-Marques views her role as an engineer. The January trip was the first step in a new partnership between MIT D-Lab and Perkins School for the Blind, a Massachusetts-based national service provider and international nonprofit that strives to make education accessible […]

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Strategies to help you rise above performative allyship, based on a series of studies conducted over four years.

What size should you get? Do you need a subwoofer? Here’s everything you need to know when upgrading your TV’s audio.

We sat down with the leader of the storied city that WIRED calls home.

A new mini arcade cab version of the iconic alien shooter is set to land, 45 years after Tomohiro Nishikado’s surprise hit changed gaming forever.

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal: IAC and PwC: 2022 US digital ad revenue rose 10.8% YoY to $209.7B, down from 35% growth in 2021; social media ad revenue rose 3.6% YoY, down from ~39% in 2021  —  Headwinds from the economy and privacy protections were offset by growth in areas such as retail ad […]

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg: PitchBook: global VC funding for crypto startups fell to $2.4B in Q1 2023, down 80% from an all-time high of $12.3B in Q1 2022 and the lowest level since 2020  —  Venture capitalists are continuing to pull back from crypto, an industry that’s been plagued by scandals, a market downturn and […]

New York Times: Sources say concerns over Mark Zuckerberg’s efficiency drive, layoffs, Meta’s absentee leadership, and focus on the metaverse have devastated employee morale  —  Workers at Facebook’s parent have been increasingly alarmed by job cuts and the company’s direction.

From Triangle of Sadness to Boston Strangler, these are the films you need to watch on the streaming service right now.

Raising your computer screen is a simple fix for healthier posture.

From a can of Spam to a retro cell phone, these are our favorite ways to disguise (and protect) Apple’s wireless earbuds.

Nikkei Asia: Customs data: Russia imported $570M worth of US chips from Hong Kong and mainland China from February 24, 2022 to December 31, 2022, despite US sanctions  —  Shipments from Hong Kong and China jumped tenfold after invasion of Ukraine  —  TOKYO/HONG KONG/TAIPEI — More than a year since …

Cecilia D’Anastasio / Bloomberg: Sources: after Twitch cut ~15% of the staff who policed abusive or illegal content and folded an AI ethics team, ex-staffers worry content moderation will slip  —  Job cuts at Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch division are raising concerns among former employees and content monitors …

Mack DeGeurin / Gizmodo: Artifact, the personalized news sharing app started by Instagram’s co-founders, adds article comments and plans to give new profiles a public “reputation score”  —  Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s article app is taking a page from Reddit’s playbook with upvotes, downvotes, and graded credibility—as well as AI moderation.

Entangled photons of light have been sent through a loop of conventional optical fibre under the noisy New York streets – a starting point to building an unhackable quantum internet

Birds can see in ultraviolet, so a form of camouflage made using natural plant dyes that helps conceal objects in both visible and UV light could prove useful for hunters

Many birds’ feathers are remarkably efficient at shedding water — so much so that “like water off a duck’s back” is a common expression. Much more unusual are the belly feathers of the sandgrouse, especially Namaqua sandgrouse, which absorb and retain water so efficiently the male birds can fly more than 20 kilometers from a […]

MIT Lecturer Min-Min Liang has won the 2023 MAFLT LCTL Innovation Award in the Classroom Innovation category, offered by the National Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Resource Center at Michigan State University. Liang has taught Chinese at MIT for over 20 years as part of the Global Languages unit. In making the award notification, the […]

Increasing environmental conditions caused by climate change, an ever-growing human population, scarcity of arable land, and limited resources are pressuring the agriculture industry to adopt more sustainable and precise practices that foster more efficient use of resources (e.g., water, fertilizers, and pesticides) and mitigation of environmental impacts. Developing delivery systems that efficiently deploy agrochemicals such […]

We’ve all made choices we wish we could take back. These three research-backed strategies can help us process and move forward.

A culture that embraces change can create new opportunities for employees and organizations.

Is a flower that travels halfway around the world truly a “low-carbon rose”?