The Obtain: company shows, and carbon removing funding

That is in the present day’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.

Subsequent slide, please: A short historical past of the company presentation

PowerPoint is in all places. It’s utilized in non secular sermons; by schoolchildren getting ready e book stories; at funerals and weddings. In 2010, Microsoft introduced that PowerPoint was put in on greater than a billion computer systems worldwide. 

However earlier than PowerPoint, and lengthy earlier than even digital projectors, 35-millimeter movie slides had been king. They had been the one medium for the sorts of high-impact shows given by CEOs and high brass at annual conferences for stockholders, staff, and salespeople. 

Identified within the enterprise as “multi-image” exhibits, these shows required a small military of producers, photographers, and dwell manufacturing employees to drag off. Learn this story to delve into the fascinating, flashy historical past of company shows. 

—Claire L. Evans

This story is from the following upcoming challenge of our print journal, which is all about ethics. When you don’t subscribe already, join to obtain a duplicate when it publishes.

The US simply invested greater than $1 billion in carbon removing

The information: The US Division of Power has introduced that it’s offering $1.2 billion to develop regional hubs that may draw down and retailer away not less than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per 12 months as a way of combating local weather change. 

The main points: The primary recipients will embrace Occidental Petroleum’s proposed carbon-removal undertaking in Kleberg County, Texas, in addition to a partnership between Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom to develop amenities in southwestern Louisiana. Billions of {dollars} extra funding and extra hubs are set to be introduced additional down the road. 

Why it issues: A rising physique of analysis has discovered that, to maintain local weather change in verify, nations could must not solely radically reduce greenhouse gasoline emissions but additionally draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide per 12 months. This newest transfer represents a significant step ahead within the effort to ascertain a marketplace for doing this. Learn the total story. 

—James Temple

AI isn’t nice at decoding human feelings. So why are regulators focusing on the tech?

Lately regulators have been ramping up warnings in opposition to emotion recognition: the try and determine an individual’s emotions or way of thinking utilizing AI evaluation of video, facial photos, or audio recordings.

The thought isn’t tremendous sophisticated: the AI mannequin might even see an open mouth, squinted eyes, and contracted cheeks with a thrown-back head, as an illustration, and register it as fun, concluding that the topic is completely satisfied. 

However in observe, that is extremely advanced—and, some argue, a harmful and invasive instance of the type of pseudoscience that synthetic intelligence usually produces. However why is that this a high concern now? Learn this story from senior reporter Tate Ryan-Mosley to seek out out. 

This story is from The Technocrat, Tate’s weekly e-newsletter providing you with the within observe on all issues tech, coverage and energy. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Friday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Survivors say there was no warning siren earlier than the Lahaina wildfires
But it surely’s unclear what went fallacious. (BBC)
+ Researchers are beginning to take inventory of the losses in Maui. (Science)
This is the reason the wildfires occurred—and what could be completed to stop future ones. (Wired $)

2 The clear vitality transition is occurring sooner than you may suppose
Renewables at the moment are anticipated to overhaul coal because the world’s largest supply of electrical energy by 2025. (NYT $)
Sure, we’ve got sufficient supplies to energy the world with renewable vitality. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

three Regulators have authorized a driverless taxi growth in San Francisco
Autonomous cabs can now function throughout your entire metropolis 24/7. (CNN)

four TikTok ‘twin’ movies are set to destroy our brains even additional 
Pity our poor, over-stimulated, already-obliterated consideration spans. (Wired $)
Persons are going to excessive lengths to make the right TikTok clip. (WSJ $)

5 Why is it so arduous to create new varieties of ache relievers? 💊
The sector is affected by failures, however a brand new examine presents a small glimmer of hope. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

6 Why everybody went so loopy over the LK-99 superconductor
The claims don’t appear to face up. However the episode exhibits how determined Silicon Valley is for the following large factor. (WP $)
A physique of proof has piled up that disproves the preliminary claims. (The Verge)

7 AI means hackers can simply discuss computer systems into misbehaving
Instruments like ChatGPT radically decrease the limitations for all kinds of assaults. (WSJ $)
3 ways AI chatbots are a safety catastrophe. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

eight How China is utilizing apps to woo Taiwanese youngsters
An ideal instance of sentimental energy in motion. (The Guardian)

9 How tech is altering how we grieve
We now depart behind reams and reams of stuff on-line for our households to pore over once we’re gone. (The Atlantic $)
Contained in the metaverse meetups that permit folks share on dying, grief, and ache. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

10 Zuckerberg says that cage combat isn’t taking place
It appears fairly apparent that Musk has chickened out. (BBC)

Quote of the day

“That they had an understanding that I wasn’t your best option — I used to be the one alternative.”

—German director and actor Werner Herzog tells the New York Instances why he’s voicing a brand new assortment of AI-generated poems.  

The large story

Tech’s new labor motion is harnessing classes discovered a century in the past

ANDREA DAQUINO

June 2021

Again in 2020, because the world struggled to deal with the pandemic, employees on the Amazon success middle in Bessemer, Alabama, had been being pressed to work more durable and longer. They felt dehumanized. They wished dignity, not simply increased wages.

Employees pushed to affix the Retail, Wholesale, and Division Retailer Union, however Amazon waged battle on the marketing campaign, and ultimately a vote handed in favor of conserving the established order. Elsewhere, nonetheless, different employees throughout the nation had began agitating. 

Their exercise displays a brand new groundswell of curiosity in organizing amongst tech employees, who’re up in opposition to the world’s richest corporations. However for each side on this wrestle, the underside line isn’t cash however energy. Learn the total story.

—Sarah Jaffe

We will nonetheless have good issues

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

+ London’s skater ladies absolutely must be a few of the coolest folks on the planet. 
+ Let the controversy begin over the perfect 100 motion pictures.
+ You’ll be able to study rather a lot about somebody from how they spend their cash.
+ Diane Morgan’s Netflix present Cunk on Earth had me in stitches final weekend. 
+ A bit bit of information can delude us into pondering we all know much more than we actually do. ($)

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