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Thursday, November 14, 2024

The Obtain: cleantech 2.0, and ‘jury obligation’ on Chinese language supply apps


That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.

Local weather tech is again—and this time, it might’t afford to fail

A cleantech bust in 2011 left nearly all of the renewable-energy startups within the US both useless or struggling to outlive.

Over a decade on, the thrill round cleantech investments and manufacturing is again, and the cash is flowing once more. A current evaluation estimates that complete inexperienced investments reached $213 billion within the US in the course of the 12 months starting July, 2022.

Nonetheless, as ‘cleantech 2.0’ startups inch in the direction of commercialization, lots of them nonetheless face the identical points that tripped up the inexperienced revolution a decade in the past. Can they succeed the place their predecessors failed? Learn the complete story

—David Rotman

Customers are doling out justice on a Chinese language meals supply app 

Jury trials are plentiful on Chinese language apps—particularly Meituan, the nation’s hottest meals supply service. 

Provided as a means for eating places to enchantment dangerous evaluations they imagine are unreasonable, Meituan crowdsources assist from customers by exhibiting them the overview, particulars of the order, and notes from the restaurant. Then customers can vote on whether or not to take down the overview from the restaurant’s public web page. Greater than six million customers have now participated in ‘jury obligation’ on the app.

Regardless that it has existed for just a few years, many individuals have solely not too long ago develop into conscious of Meituan’s public jury characteristic. It’s now incessantly a viral subject on social media—and a supply of pleasure for these nosy sufficient to weigh in on different folks’s enterprise. Learn the complete story

—Zeyi Yang

Meet the 15-year-old deepfake sufferer pushing Congress into motion

In October, Francesca Mani was one among reportedly greater than 30 women at Westfield Excessive College in New Jersey who have been victims of deepfake pornography. Boys on the faculty had taken images of Francesca and her classmates and used AI to create sexually express pictures of them with out their consent.

The observe is definitely stunningly commonplace, however we not often hear such tales—at the very least partly as a result of many victims understandably don’t need to speak publicly. However, inside only a day of studying concerning the violation, 15-year-old Francesca began talking out and calling on lawmakers to do one thing concerning the broader downside. Her efforts are already beginning to repay with new momentum for laws. 

Francesca and her mom, Dorota, say that their activism goals significantly to assist girls and women who could be much less geared up to push for change. Our senior reporter Tate Ryan-Mosley spoke to them each—learn her write-up of their interview.

This story is from The Technocrat, our weekly publication all about energy, politics, and Silicon Valley. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Friday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Contained in the bitter feuds that may form the way forward for AI
It appears most of immediately’s high AI firms have been born out of arguments between wealthy, egomaniacal males. (NYT $)
How Microsoft navigated the current OpenAI board turmoil. (New Yorker $)
OpenAI agreed to purchase $51 million of AI chips from a startup backed by Sam Altman. (Wired $)
Adam D’Angelo helped to fireplace Altman. Now he has to work with him. (WSJ $)
Not each AI skilled thinks superintelligence is on its means. (CNBC)
 
2 Satellite tv for pc pictures recommend almost 98,000 buildings in Gaza are broken
The images have been taken earlier than the seven-day suspension of hostilities, which has now ended. (BBC)
+ Contained in the satellite tv for pc tech getting used to disclose the extent of Gaza’s destruction. (Scientific American $)
 
3 A bunch of 56 nations have agreed to part out coal
Together with the US, which sends a robust sign. (AP $)
Why the UN local weather talks are a second of reckoning for oil and fuel firms. (MIT  Know-how Evaluate)
Local weather specialists are livid with the top of COP28 for spreading misinformation. (Sky)
 
4 We badly want to manage AI in drugs
Right here’s how we would method that mammoth process. (Proto.Life)
+ Synthetic intelligence is infiltrating well being care. We shouldn’t let it make all the selections. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
 
5 Ozempic makes folks need to drink much less alcohol 🍷
Researchers want to gather extra information to grasp why, but it surely’s a probably promising discovering. (Wired $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
 
6 As X descends into chaos, information shops are turning to Reddit
The difficulty is, it’s a very totally different beast. (WP $)
X remains to be struggling to lure again advertisers. (The Guardian)
 
7 What it’s wish to get your hamburgers delivered by drone
Enjoyable… however most likely not economically viable, within the long-run. (The Info $)
Meals supply by drone is simply a part of day by day life in Shenzhen. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
 
8 Kiss is changing into a ‘virtual-only’ band
Their avatars can keep on tour ceaselessly, whereas the precise members of the group put their toes up. (BBC)
 
9 You most likely don’t want that shiny new tech gadget this Christmas 📱
The times of fixed, speedy developments in client tech are over. (The Guardian)
 
10 Contained in the audacious plan to deliver the dodo again from the useless
The plan is to reintroduce it to its once-native habitat in Mauritius. (CNN)
+ It would by no means work out. However wouldn’t it’s cool if it did? (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

Quote of the day

“Different states are going to be watching and studying.”

—A former White Home safety official tells The Guardian that different nations are taking a eager curiosity in how Israel is utilizing AI to pick out bombing targets in Gaza.

The large story

Ghost ships, crop circles, and comfortable gold: A GPS thriller in Shanghai

November 2019

On a sultry summer time night time in 2019, the MV Manukai was arriving on the port of Shanghai. The town could be the American container ship’s final cease in China earlier than making its lengthy homeward journey to California.

Because the crew rigorously maneuvered the 700-foot ship via the world’s busiest port, its captain watched his navigation screens carefully. In accordance with the Manukai’s screens, one other ship was steaming up the identical channel at about seven knots (eight miles per hour). All of a sudden, the opposite ship disappeared from the AIS show. A couple of minutes later, the display screen confirmed the opposite ship again on the dock. Then it was within the channel and shifting once more, then again on the dock, then gone as soon as extra.

Finally, mystified, the captain picked up his binoculars and scanned the dockside. The opposite ship had been stationary on the dock your complete time. Now, new analysis and beforehand unseen information present that the Manukai, and hundreds of different vessels, are falling sufferer to a mysterious new weapon that is ready to spoof GPS techniques in a means by no means seen earlier than. Learn the complete story.

—Mark Harris

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ All aboard the booze practice!
+ Deal with your self to those wonderful BBC music performances, showcasing a number of the finest musicians of the previous 50 years.
+ Gen Z is doling out relationship recommendation to millennials, and it’s savage.
+ Fortune telling with cheese? It doesn’t get a lot crazier than that. 🧀
+ The Conway Library archives are actually fairly exceptional.



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