Tag Archives: Technology

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.24.24)

a person with luggage walks through and airport setting

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 24, 2024): This week’s round up includes Google DeepMind has a new way to look inside an AI’s “mind”. Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport. Who’s to blame for climate change? And more.

Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport
The company that has helped millions of people cut security lines wants to give you a frictionless future—in exchange for your face.

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Google DeepMind has a new way to look inside an AI’s “mind”
Autoencoders are letting us peer into the black box of artificial intelligence. They could help us create AI that is better understood, and more easily controlled.

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How this grassroots effort could make AI voices more diverse
A massive volunteer-led effort to collect training data in more languages, from people of more ages and genders, could help make the next generation of voice AI more inclusive and less exploitative.

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Who’s to blame for climate change? It’s surprisingly complicated.The world’s biggest polluters, by the numbers.

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The rise of Bluesky, and the splintering of social
You may have read that it was a big week for Bluesky. If you’re not familiar, Bluesky is, essentially, a Twitter clone that publishes short-form status updates.

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Culture: New Humanist Magazine – Winter 2024-25

New Humanist's winter 2024 cover shows a futuristic blue face with the words: 'Our cyborg future?'

NEW HUMANIST MAGAZINE – WINTER 2024/2025 ISSUE: The new issue features ‘Our Cyborg Future?’

The new age of the cyborg?

Neurobiologist and journalist Moheb Costandi explores the rapidly-developing world of brain-computer interfaces. For some people, these devices are already transforming lives – but the technology is quickly overtaking the ethics.

A dangerous calculation

Peter Ward unpicks the dark philosophy of the tech billionaires and how it is infiltrating some of our most powerful organisations.

There’s a product for that

A recent film, The Substance, explored the growing pressure on all of us – particularly women – to modify our bodies, not only through make-up and cosmetic procedures but also through digital filters. Clare Chambers, professor of political philosophy at the University of Cambridge, talks to us about the power of resistance and allowing our bodies to be “good enough”.

New life in the veins

Peter Salmon recounts the bizarre history of blood transfusion – and why the super-rich remain fascinated by its possibilities.

How AI Is Revolutionising Science (The Economist)

The Economist (November 21, 2024): AI is driving a transformation across all fields of science, from developing drugs for incurable diseases and improving the understanding of animal communication to self-driving labs.

Video timeline: 00:00 – How AI is revolutionising science 02:53 – Drug discovery 04:31 – AlphaFold 05:30 – Adoption of AI in science 07:08 – Animal communication 09:26 – Scientific fraud 11:03 – Self-driving labs 14:36 – Future of AI in science

Could this prompt a new golden age of discovery? Video supported by @mishcon_de_reya

The Economist Magazine – November 23, 2024 Preview

All weekly editions | The Economist

The Economist Magazine (November 21, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Disrupter-In-Chief’….

The opportunities—and dangers—for Trump’s disrupter-in-chief

Elon Musk is given the ultimate target: America’s Government

Germany cannot afford to wait to relax its debt brake

It should move before the election

From Nixon to China, to Trump to Tehran

Iran is weak. For America’s next president that creates an opportunity

Too many master’s courses are expensive and flaky

Governments should help postgraduates get a better deal

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – Nov. 22, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (November 21, 2024): The new issue features ‘The crisis in the Church of England’…

Existentialist crises might more commonly be associated with some who seek out religion, rather than with those religions themselves, but that’s where the Church of England has found itself in recent days.

The resignation of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, followed a damning report into the church’s shameful failures over the serial child abuser John Smyth, which detailed even more disturbing details of cover-ups by some senior clergy.

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Spotlight | Trump’s shock-and-awe team
A flurry of controversial and extremist picks for Trump’s administration has provoked criticism and made heads spin. David Smith reports from Washington

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Science | The inverse link between cancer and dementia
Scientists have long been aware of a curious connection between these common and feared diseases. At last, a clearer picture is emerging, writes Theres Lüthi

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Feature | Kernels of hope
During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection, the first of its kind, had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin

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Opinion | Seven lessons from a long-serving economics editor
From Thatcher to Trump and Brexit, the Guardian’s outgoing economics editor, Larry Elliott, reflects on his 28 years in the role.

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Culture | Faking history
Film and TV have a slippery relationship with the truth when it comes to historical epics. Simon Usborne meets the experts whose advice goes unheeded

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.17.24)

Ai gaping maw with teeth and two clawed hands swallows artworks which tiny artists have put poison symbols on the reverse side. One carries a flag with Ben Zhao's face
Ben Zhao remembers well the moment he officially jumped into the fight between artists and generative AI: when one artist asked for AI bananas. 

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 17, 2024): This week’s round up includes Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment; The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI; Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through and Europa’s icy shell.

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

The tools Glaze and Nightshade are giving artists hope that they can fight back against AI that hoovers internet data to train. Are they enough?

Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment

A new system could help train robots entirely in generated worlds.

Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

Rapid advances in applying artificial intelligence to simulations in physics and chemistry have some people questioning whether we will even need quantum computers at all.

AI search could break the web

Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa’s icy shell

Researchers are working on technology that could follow NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and hunt for life in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 16, 2024

World Economic Forum (November 16, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 AI robot zaps weeds while saving crops – It’s called Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting or CLAWS for short. CLAWS uses AI-powered image processing to identify the crops, then targets weeds around the crop with blasts of concentrated light. This gets rid of unwanted intruders without damaging either crops or soil.

1:52 5 ways bioeconomy affects daily living – The bioeconomy uses renewable resources from land or sea to produce food, energy, and other resources. It focuses on leveraging nature’s processes and products to create sustainable economic outputs. The bioeconomy is already a part of our daily lives, influencing various sectors and industries.

6:08 Iceland sees benefit of a 4-day work week – The Nordic nation of 380,000 is rolling out a new way of working. Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of Iceland’s workers accepted an offer of shorter hours, such as a 4-day week for no loss of pay. The shift has had a positive impact on work-life balance and personal stress, new research shows.

8:17 Restored Amazon ecosystems beat logging – Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance is fighting to safeguard 35 million hectares of rainforest through a collaboration between 30 Indigenous nations of the Amazon basin. There’s an economic case for protecting the Amazon, says Atossa Soltani, Director of Global Strategy, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance.

#WorldEconomicForum

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – Nov. 15, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (November 14, 2024): The new issue features ‘Trump Unbound’ – What the US Election outcome means for America and the World…

In a special edition of the Guardian Weekly, our Washington bureau chief David Smith and diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reflect on how Trump 2.0 is likely to play out for the US and for the rest of the world.

We look at the role played by the president-elect’s key supporter, Elon Musk, and ask what the world’s richest man can now expect back in return. We also trace the rise of the vice-president elect JD Vance, who is now just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

And senior US political reporter Joan E Greve considers the Democrats – bereft, broken and facing an internal civil war after a campaign that ended in disaster.

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Spotlight | Odour of oil and return of Trump hang heavy over Cop29
As the annual UN climate summit got under way in Azerbaijan this week, Fiona Harvey sizes up the hopes for progressThe video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard

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Science | Unravelling the paradoxes of plankton
Scientists are sequencing the DNA of microscopic marine life – to help us learn more about ourselves, reports Brianna Randall

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Feature | When adult children cut the cord
Grownups who cut of f contact with their family are often trying to break away after a traumatic childhood. But sometimes the estrangement can be totally unexpected for parents. By Gaby Hinsliff

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Opinion | Trump unleashed will be even worse than last time’s dress reherarsal
From a public health crisis to the end of Nato, the threats are clear, writes Jonathan Freedland

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Culture | Sportswriters and arts critics swap jobs
How does the English National Opera compare to the Premier League … or the NFL to a West End musical? Our sports and culture experts found out

The Economist Magazine – November 16, 2024 Preview

What’s about to hit the world economy?

The Economist Magazine (November 14, 2024): The latest issue features What’s about to hit the world economy?

Middle-class and minimum-wage – The strange politics of wage compression in Britain

Paying the climate bill – The energy transition will be much cheaper than you think

What to make of Trump’s picks – Loyalty, competence and an appetite for disruption are among the traits he is filtering for

Investing in Africa – Poor data and small capital markets make it hard to gauge risks and returns

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Commentary Magazine – December 2024 Preview

December 2024 – Commentary Magazine

Commentary Magazine (November 14, 2024) The latest issue features ‘After the Trumpquake’ – The New Republican Majority and The New Democratic Minority..

The New Republican Majority

by Matthew Continetti

The New Democratic Minority

by John Podhoretz

They’re Hunting Us Down

by John Podhoretz

The Suicide of the Mainstream Media

by Christine Rosen