The Obtain: geothermal energy’s potential, and AR for luxurious jewellery

That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on the planet of know-how.

This geothermal startup confirmed its wells can be utilized like a large underground battery

In late January, a geothermal energy startup started conducting experiments the place it pumped water deep beneath the desert flooring of northern Nevada. 

The outcomes—which MIT Expertise Overview is reporting solely—counsel that Houston-based Fervo can create versatile geothermal energy crops, able to ramping electrical energy output up or down as wanted.

Probably extra importantly, the system can retailer up vitality for hours and even days and ship it again over related durations, successfully appearing as a large and really long-lasting battery. 

There are remaining questions on how nicely this technique will work on bigger scales. But when it succeeds, it might fill a important hole in at the moment’s grids, making it cheaper and simpler to get rid of greenhouse-gas emissions. Learn the total story.

—James Temple

Cartier and Tiffany are moving into AR to promote luxurious to Gen Z

Our senior reporter Tanya Basu just lately tried on a Cartier Tank watch and a slew of Tiffany bracelets, watching the steel and diamonds shine within the dim gentle. It wasn’t at a retailer, although; she was in mattress, barefoot and in sweatpants, utilizing an AR expertise on Snap that permit her see how the jewellery regarded on her wrist.

The Cartier and Tiffany AR campaigns are the newest in a collection of collaborations Snap is making with manufacturers to get Gen Z to put money into luxurious utilizing digital try-on experiences. There’s proof that, whereas they may not drive instant purchases, these campaigns can change client attitudes and conduct. Learn the total story.

The web is about to get loads safer

We by accident included a foul hyperlink to yesterday’s story about Europe’s large tech payments—sorry about that! The 2 payments are fairly revolutionary, and can set a brand new international gold normal for regulating user-generated content material. You may learn the total story right here.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 A single engineer managed to interrupt Twitter
All these continuous layoffs are taking their toll on the embattled platform. (Platformer $)
+ Twitter’s hyperlinks and pictures stopped working totally. (Engadget)
+ Right here’s how a Twitter engineer says it can break. (MIT Expertise Overview)

2 How the hype round generative AI differs from the crypto craze
AI’s much more accessible, for one. (Vox)+ Perhaps we’re overhyping GPT-Four earlier than it even arrives. (The Atlantic $)+ Why studies of AI stealing our jobs are nonetheless a load of scorching air. (Economist $)
+ India’s crypto business is on life assist. (Remainder of World)
+ Generative AI is altering the whole lot. However what’s left when the hype is gone? (MIT Expertise Overview)

three Inside China’s plot to steal US industrial secrets and techniques 
Theft of abroad mental property is unofficial state coverage. (NYT $)

Four Authorities algorithms are discriminating towards girls and other people of colour
The incorrect and biased welfare fraud system is getting used to make consequential selections in Rotterdam. (Wired $)
+ AI has exacerbated racial bias in housing. Might it assist get rid of it as an alternative? (MIT Expertise Overview)

5 US particular forces wish to use deepfakes in psy-ops
After years of warning how abroad nations might do precisely the identical factor. (The Intercept)
+ Detecting deepfakes is a sport of cat and mouse. (IEEE Spectrum)

6 EV startups are critically struggling
Their automobiles are nonetheless costly to fabricate, and plenty of companies are being pressured to cut back. (WSJ $)

7 Google’s workplaces are like a ghost city
In keeping with CEO Sundar Pichai, that’s. (CNBC)

eight Industrial surrogacy is booming 🤰🏻
Particularly after the pandemic delayed many would-be dad and mom’ plans. (CNBC)
+ I took a global journey with my frozen eggs to study in regards to the fertility business. (MIT Expertise Overview)

9 Learn how to dismantle your suggestion algorithms
What platforms push us and what we really wish to learn are two various things.(The Atlantic $)

10 Why floppy discs simply received’t die 💾
Regardless of naysayers’ finest efforts. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“The market is scorching rubbish proper now.”

—Justine de Caires, a former senior software program engineer at Twitter, discusses the difficulties of looking for a job amid a large tech business downturn with CNN.

The massive story

Inside Alphabet X’s new effort to fight local weather change with seagrass

November 2022

For years, Tidal, a venture inside Alphabet’s “moonshot manufacturing facility” X division, has been utilizing cameras, pc imaginative and prescient and machine studying to get a greater understanding of life beneath the oceans, together with monitoring fish off the coast of Norway.  

Now, Tidal hopes its system will help protect and restore the world’s seagrass beds, accelerating efforts to harness the oceans to suck up and retailer away much more carbon dioxide. Learn the total story.

—James Temple

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ This kitten goes to go far in life.
+ I’m completely obsessed with this Jennifer Coolidge photoshoot.
+ How cool is that this: researchers have used cosmic methods to map a secret hall hidden inside Giza’s Nice Pyramid.
+ Why drummers are the canary in AI music’s goldmine.
+ Gen Z loves a slogan shirt—however they don’t essentially imply what you assume they do.

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