Learning the significance of data points allows artificial intelligence models to make better predictions, which will help us tell when hurricanes or disease outbreaks are imminent
The Slow Death of Surveillance Capitalism Has Begun
A European Union ruling against Meta marks the beginning of the end of targeted ads.
Turla, a Russian Espionage Group, Piggybacked on Other Hackers’ USB Infections
The infamous, FSB-connected Turla group took over other hackers’ servers, exploiting their USB drive malware for targeted espionage.
The Best Movies You Missed in 2022—and Where to Watch Them
From Iran’s reigning master of cinema to wolf-eating witches, these are the best films you didn’t see last year.
Memo: Genesis parent company DCG shut its wealth management division HQ on January 2; filing: HQ had more than $3.5B under management as of December 2022 (Kate Clark/The Information)
Kate Clark / The Information: Memo: Genesis parent company DCG shut its wealth management division HQ on January 2; filing: HQ had more than $3.5B under management as of December 2022 — Digital Currency Group, the parent company of crypto broker Genesis and the publication CoinDesk, has shut down its wealth management …
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Satellite, to let phones with a Gen 2 SoC and X70 modem connect to Iridium’s satellites for off-grid texting, available in H2 2023 (Mitchell Clark/The Verge)
Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Satellite, to let phones with a Gen 2 SoC and X70 modem connect to Iridium’s satellites for off-grid texting, available in H2 2023 — Android phones will soon be getting a feature similar to — and perhaps even more powerful than — Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite.
Alibaba, Tencent, and other Chinese tech giants have struck a truce with the government, accepting lower growth and more controls as China eases its crackdown (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg: Alibaba, Tencent, and other Chinese tech giants have struck a truce with the government, accepting lower growth and more controls as China eases its crackdown — In China, 2022 was the year Big Tech changed. Succumbing to a government crackdown and a pandemic that refused to go away …
Quantum computers can break major encryption method, researchers claim
It has long been known that one day quantum computers will probably be able to crack the RSA encryption method we use to keep data safe, but a team of researchers is now claiming it is already possible, while others say the results require more scrutiny
Portraiture at the intersection of art, science, and society
“For me, this project is about making science visible in society,” says Herlinde Koelbl, a renowned German photo artist whose portrait series, “Fascination of Science,” is now on display at MIT. Koelbl set herself the goal to photograph scientists and to show their motivation, influences, and ways of thinking — through the eyes of an […]
New MIT internships expand research opportunities in Africa
With new support from the Office of the Associate Provost for International Activities, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) and the MIT-Africa program are expanding internship opportunities for MIT students at universities and leading academic research centers in Africa. This past summer, MISTI supported 10 MIT student interns at African universities, significantly more than […]
Simulating discrimination in virtual reality
Have you ever been advised to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes?” Considering another person’s perspective can be a challenging endeavor — but recognizing our errors and biases is key to building understanding across communities. By challenging our preconceptions, we confront prejudice, such as racism and xenophobia, and potentially develop a more inclusive perspective […]
U.S. Soccer’s Gregg Berhalter on Rebuilding Trust in the Wake of Controversy
Berhalter says he’s saddened that his public life has affected his family as he addresses an accusation of violence from 30 years ago.
Research: Where Managers and Employees Disagree About Remote Work
Part of the disconnect hinges on how productivity is measured.
Allocating Capital When Interest Rates Are High
It’s time for a more rational, disciplined, value-oriented framework.
How an Iraqi Instagram Influencer Became a People Smuggler
Abdulrahman Khalid was forced to flee his country because of his outspoken atheism. Now, he’s helping others in the same position—for profit.
Digital Traders Want to Go Fish
A network of trading platforms is restructuring the seafood industry and tackling waste.
Nature’s Soundtrack Reveals the Secrets of Degradation
Researchers are applying digital listening technology to the natural world. It turns out it has quite a lot to say to us—and not all of it sounds good.
US bank Silvergate, which caters to crypto clients, reports liquidating debt to cover $8.1B in withdrawals as FTX collapsed and laying off 40% of its staff (David Benoit/Wall Street Journal)
David Benoit / Wall Street Journal: US bank Silvergate, which caters to crypto clients, reports liquidating debt to cover $8.1B in withdrawals as FTX collapsed and laying off 40% of its staff — Bank sold assets at a loss to cover withdrawals and cut 40% of its staff but remains committed to crypto
Gemini Trust COO Noah Perlman leaves the company, as founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss struggle to regain $900M in customer funds lent to DCG’s Genesis (Olga Kharif/Bloomberg)
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Gemini Trust COO Noah Perlman leaves the company, as founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss struggle to regain $900M in customer funds lent to DCG’s Genesis — Gemini Trust Co. Chief Operating Officer Noah Perlman has left the cryptocurrency firm founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss …
Philips Hue owner Signify launches a Philips Hue Sync TV app for Samsung TVs, available for $130, effectively a software version of the $250M Play HDMI Sync Box (Tom Warren/The Verge)
Tom Warren / The Verge: Philips Hue owner Signify launches a Philips Hue Sync TV app for Samsung TVs, available for $130, effectively a software version of the $250M Play HDMI Sync Box — Signify, owner of the Philips Hue brand, is launching a Philips Hue Sync TV app for Samsung TVs.
Sources: Amazon plans to lay off 17,000+ staff, more than the company’s initial target of 10,000 in November 2022; the added cuts will hit over the coming weeks (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal: Sources: Amazon plans to lay off 17,000+ staff, more than the company’s initial target of 10,000 in November 2022; the added cuts will hit over the coming weeks — New figure would be the largest number of cuts revealed so far at a major tech company — Amazon AMZN -0.79%decrease …
The US SEC files a limited objection to Binance.US’ $1.02B bid for crypto lender Voyager’s assets, asking for sufficient details on how Binance plans to pay (Nelson Wang/CoinDesk)
Nelson Wang / CoinDesk: The US SEC files a limited objection to Binance.US’ $1.02B bid for crypto lender Voyager’s assets, asking for sufficient details on how Binance plans to pay — The agency is asking for more details how the crypto exchange can afford the deal. — Join the most important conversation …
Asus unveils its Vivobook Pro 16X and ProArt Studiobook 16 laptops with 3.2K, 120Hz glasses-free 3D OLED 16-inch displays (Monica Chin/The Verge)
Monica Chin / The Verge: Asus unveils its Vivobook Pro 16X and ProArt Studiobook 16 laptops with 3.2K, 120Hz glasses-free 3D OLED 16-inch displays — For some companies that sell gaming and creator-oriented laptops, glasses-free 3D has become a bit of a dream. Acer first tried it back in 2021.
Ship taller than Eiffel Tower will build biggest offshore wind farm
Including its 130-metre-long legs, the Voltaire wind turbine installation vessel is 336 metres high. It is on its way from China to the North Sea, where it will install huge new turbines at Dogger Bank
AI legal assistant will help defendant fight a speeding case in court
In February, an AI from DoNotPay is set to tell a defendant exactly what to say and when during an entire court case. It is likely to be the first ever case defended by an artificial intelligence
The green tech that could help Iceland become carbon neutral by 2040
Iceland is developing a suite of technologies to help it reach carbon neutrality by 2040 – and its research could help other countries go green too
Ian Hutchinson: A lifetime probing plasma, on Earth and in space
Ordinary folks gazing at the night sky can readily spot Earth’s close neighbors and the light of distant stars. But when Ian Hutchinson scans the cosmos, he takes in a great deal more. There is, for instance, the constant rush of plasma — highly charged ionized gases — from the sun. As this plasma flows by solid […]
Strengthening electron-triggered light emission
The way electrons interact with photons of light is a key part of many modern technologies, from lasers to solar panels to LEDs. But the interaction is inherently a weak one because of a major mismatch in scale: A wavelength of visible light is about 1,000 times larger than an electron, so the way the […]
5 Reasons to Leave Your Job — Even in a Downturn
You don’t have to stay in a bad situation.
How to Motivate a Top Performer — When You Can’t Promote Them
Talented employees may feel demoralized by slow career advancement. These interim strategies can help ensure their underlying needs are met.
Your Company’s Data Is for Sale on the Dark Web. Should You Buy It Back?
Paying for stolen data — even when it’s your own — comes with substantial legal and reputational risks.
Memo: Salesforce plans to lay off around 10% of its staff and close some offices, expecting to incur $1.4B to $2.1B in charges for the restructuring (Nivedita Balu/Reuters)
Nivedita Balu / Reuters: Memo: Salesforce plans to lay off around 10% of its staff and close some offices, expecting to incur $1.4B to $2.1B in charges for the restructuring — Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) said on Wednesday it would lay off about 10% of its employees and close some offices as a part of its […]
A look at Samsung’s TV updates in 2023: Neo QLEDs converting SDR to HDR, futuristic MicroLED TVs, improvements to The Frame, and software and AI updates (Chris Welch/The Verge)
Chris Welch / The Verge: A look at Samsung’s TV updates in 2023: Neo QLEDs converting SDR to HDR, futuristic MicroLED TVs, improvements to The Frame, and software and AI updates — Last year, Samsung radically shook up the TV market with the introduction of its first OLED model in many years.
The US case against alleged Mango Markets manipulator Avraham Eisenberg highlights traders treating crypto as a game, forgetting the real-world consequences (Matt Levine/Bloomberg)
Matt Levine / Bloomberg: The US case against alleged Mango Markets manipulator Avraham Eisenberg highlights traders treating crypto as a game, forgetting the real-world consequences — Mango — So here’s a trade. — You open two accounts on a commodity futures exchange, Account A and Account B.
Uncovering how cells control their protein output
A typical bacterial genome contains more than 4,000 genes, which encode all of the proteins that the cells need to survive. How do cells know just how much of each protein they need for their everyday functions? Gene-Wei Li, an MIT associate professor of biology, is trying to answer that question. A physicist by training, […]
6 Best Gaming Laptops (2022): From Cheap to High End
We tested the latest and greatest gaming notebooks to sort the god-rolls from the vendor fodder.
12 Best Laptops (2022): MacBooks, Windows, Chromebooks
These are our favorite Windows notebooks, MacBooks, and Chromebooks.
I Threw a Holiday Party in Horizon Worlds. It Didn’t Go Well
Zuck promised his “metaverse” could bring people together. All I got were glitches and disappointment.
Foxconn partners with Nvidia to produce electronic control units based on Nvidia’s Drive Orin SoC for intelligent vehicles and use them in Foxconn’s own EVs (Sabela Ojea/Wall Street Journal)
Sabela Ojea / Wall Street Journal: Foxconn partners with Nvidia to produce electronic control units based on Nvidia’s Drive Orin SoC for intelligent vehicles and use them in Foxconn’s own EVs — Foxconn will produce, use Nvidia’s chips that help enable autonomous driving — Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. NVDA -1.91%decrease …
Sources: crypto payments startup Wyre told its staff that it’s shutting down; Bolt planned to acquire Wyre for ~$1.5B but canceled the deal in September 2022 (Axios)
Axios: Sources: crypto payments startup Wyre told its staff that it’s shutting down; Bolt planned to acquire Wyre for ~$1.5B but canceled the deal in September 2022 — Wyre, a crypto payments company founded in 2013, has told employees that it is shutting down amid layoffs, Axios has learned.
[Thread] Twitter relaxes its policy for cause-based ads in the US and plans to expand the political advertising the company permits in the coming weeks (Twitter Safety)
Twitter Safety: [Thread] Twitter relaxes its policy for cause-based ads in the US and plans to expand the political advertising the company permits in the coming weeks — We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we’re relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan […]
AI is no better at detecting covid-19 than simple symptom survey
Artificial intelligence that analyses the sound of a cough to detect covid-19 had been reported to be 99 per cent accurate, but a comprehensive analysis shows it’s only about 60 per cent accurate
Strengthening America’s manufacturing base
U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu serves as the Department of Defense’s chief technology officer. In a recent talk at MIT, she spoke about the DoD’s initiatives to build a stronger U.S. manufacturing base and to tackle the country’s “toughest challenges.” President Biden nominated Shyu as under secretary in April […]
Best of IdeaCast 2022
Our hosts’ picks for the best conversations of 2022.
Wordle: Can a Pandemic Phenomenon Sustain in the Long Term?
After Wordle became an instant hit, Josh Wardle had to consider long-term options for the web-based word game he created.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Layoffs
Advice on what to say (and what not to say) when you break the news.
Southwest Airlines’ recent meltdown exposed an over-reliance on aging crew-assignment software SkySolver, forcing the company to return to manual scheduling (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal)
Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal: Southwest Airlines’ recent meltdown exposed an over-reliance on aging crew-assignment software SkySolver, forcing the company to return to manual scheduling — The airline industry is long overdue for a tech overhaul that takes full advantage of the cloud and data integration, analysts say
A profile of blockchain auditing service CertiK, which inspects smart contracts to help clients like Yuga Labs avoid critical bugs that can lead to lost crypto (Clive Thompson/MIT Technology Review)
Clive Thompson / MIT Technology Review: A profile of blockchain auditing service CertiK, which inspects smart contracts to help clients like Yuga Labs avoid critical bugs that can lead to lost crypto — Programming errors on the blockchain can mean $100 million lost in the blink of an eye. Ronghui Gu and his company CertiK […]
Chinese media: Foxconn says its Zhengzhou plant is operating with ~200,000 workers, or ~90% capacity, back to around reported normal levels, after disruptions (Debby Wu/Bloomberg)
Debby Wu / Bloomberg: Chinese media: Foxconn says its Zhengzhou plant is operating with ~200,000 workers, or ~90% capacity, back to around reported normal levels, after disruptions — Foxconn Technology Group has brought the world’s largest iPhone plant to about 90% of anticipated peak capacity …
NASA’s X-59 plane will try to quietly break the speed of sound in 2023
NASA and Lockheed Martin’s strange-looking X-59 plane is set to fly early in 2023, and it is designed to break the sound barrier quietly rather than creating a huge sonic boom