That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on the planet of expertise.
Local weather tech is again—and this time, it may possibly’t afford to fail
A cleantech bust in 2011 left virtually all of the renewable-energy startups within the US both useless or struggling to outlive.
Over a decade on, the joy round cleantech investments and manufacturing is again, and the cash is flowing once more. A latest evaluation estimates that whole inexperienced investments reached $213 billion within the US through the 12 months starting July, 2022.
Nonetheless, as ‘cleantech 2.0’ startups inch in direction of commercialization, a lot 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 total 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.
Supplied as a method for eating places to attraction dangerous opinions they consider are unreasonable, Meituan crowdsources assist from customers by exhibiting them the assessment, particulars of the order, and notes from the restaurant. Then customers can vote on whether or not to take down the assessment from the restaurant’s public web page. Greater than six million customers have now participated in ‘jury responsibility’ on the app.
Though it has existed for a couple of years, many individuals have solely just lately change into conscious of Meituan’s public jury function. It’s now regularly a viral matter on social media—and a supply of pleasure for these nosy sufficient to weigh in on different folks’s enterprise. Learn the total story.
—Zeyi Yang
Meet the 15-year-old deepfake sufferer pushing Congress into motion
In October, Francesca Mani was one in every of reportedly greater than 30 women at Westfield Excessive Faculty in New Jersey who had been victims of deepfake pornography. Boys on the faculty had taken photographs of Francesca and her classmates and used AI to create sexually specific photographs of them with out their consent.
The apply is definitely stunningly commonplace, however we not often hear such tales—a minimum of partly as a result of many victims understandably don’t need to speak publicly. However, inside only a day of studying in regards to the violation, 15-year-old Francesca began talking out and calling on lawmakers to do one thing in regards to 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 help girls and women who could be much less outfitted 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 right now’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Contained in the bitter feuds that can form the way forward for AI
It appears most of right now’s prime AI firms had been born out of arguments between wealthy, egomaniacal males. (NYT $)
+ How Microsoft navigated the latest 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 fireside Altman. Now he has to work with him. (WSJ $)
+ Not each AI skilled thinks superintelligence is on its method. (CNBC)
2 Satellite tv for pc photographs counsel almost 98,000 buildings in Gaza are broken
The images had 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 $)
three A gaggle of 56 nations have agreed to section 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 gasoline firms. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
+ Local weather specialists are livid with the top of COP28 for spreading misinformation. (Sky)
four We badly want to control AI in medication
Right here’s how we would method that mammoth job. (Proto.Life)
+ Synthetic intelligence is infiltrating well being care. We shouldn’t let it make all the selections. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
5 Ozempic makes folks need to drink much less alcohol 
Researchers want to gather extra information to know why, nevertheless it’s a doubtlessly promising discovering. (Wired $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
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 each day life in Shenzhen. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
eight Kiss is turning 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, fast developments in shopper 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’d by no means work out. However wouldn’t or not it’s cool if it did? (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
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 bombing targets in Gaza.
The massive story
Ghost ships, crop circles, and delicate 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. 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 by way of the world’s busiest port, its captain watched his navigation screens carefully. In line 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 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.
Ultimately, mystified, the captain picked up his binoculars and scanned the dockside. The opposite ship had been stationary on the dock all the 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 programs in a method by no means seen earlier than. Learn the total story.
—Mark Harris
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ All aboard the booze practice!
+ Deal with your self to those superb BBC music performances, showcasing a few of the greatest musicians of the previous 50 years.
+ Gen Z is doling out courting 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.
