The Obtain: looking for new matter, and Gary Marcus’ AI critiques

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.

Contained in the hunt for brand spanking new physics on the world’s largest particle collider

In 2012, utilizing information from CERN’s Massive Hadron Collider, researchers found a particle referred to as the Higgs boson. Within the course of, they answered a nagging query: The place do basic particles, similar to those that make up all of the protons and neutrons in our our bodies, get their mass?

When the particle was lastly discovered, scientists celebrated with champagne. A Nobel for 2 of the physicists who predicted the Higgs boson quickly adopted. 

However now, greater than a decade later, there’s a sense of unease. That’s as a result of there are nonetheless so many unanswered questions in regards to the basic constituents of the universe. 

So researchers are attempting one thing new. They’re repurposing detectors to seek for unusual-looking particles, squeezing what they’ll out of the information with machine studying, and planning for solely new sorts of colliders. Learn the complete story.

—Dan Garisto

This story is from the upcoming print challenge of MIT Know-how Evaluate, devoted to exploring hidden worlds. Wish to get your palms on a duplicate when it publishes subsequent Wednesday? Subscribe now.

I went for a stroll with Gary Marcus, AI’s loudest critic

Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at NYU, is a outstanding AI researcher and cognitive scientist who has positioned himself as a vocal critic of deep studying and AI. He’s a divisive determine, and might typically be discovered engaged in spats on social media with AI heavyweights similar to Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton (“All makes an attempt to socialize me have failed,” he jokes.) 

Marcus does a lot of his tweeting on scenic walks round his hometown of Vancouver. Our senior AI reporter Melissa Heikkilä determined to hitch him on one such stroll whereas she was visiting town, to listen to his ideas on the newest product releases and goings-on in AI. Right here’s what he needed to say to her. 

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly publication all about AI. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you right now’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 A brand new class of satellites might change every little thing 🛰
They’re armed with cameras highly effective sufficient to seize peoples’ particular person options. (NYT $)
An enormous European satellite tv for pc is ready to return to Earth tomorrow. (Ars Technica)
A brand new satellite tv for pc will use Google’s AI to map methane leaks from house. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

2 How a lot electrical energy does AI devour?
It’s loads—however understanding actual sums will be tough. (The Verge)
Making a picture with generative AI makes use of as a lot power as charging your telephone. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

three How Silicon Valley discovered to like the navy
The world is feeling like a extra harmful place nowadays, and that’s drowning out any moral considerations. (WP $)
Why enterprise is booming for navy AI startups. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
+ SpaceX is getting nearer to US intelligence and navy businesses. (WSJ $)
Ukraine is in determined want of higher strategies to clear land mines. (Wired $)

four The EU is investigating TikTok over little one security
It alleges the corporate isn’t doing sufficient to confirm customers’ ages. (Mashable)

5 It’s exhausting to get all that enthusiastic about Bluesky 
It’s simply extra of the identical social media. (Wired $)
The way to repair the web. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
Why thousands and thousands of persons are flocking to decentralized social media companies. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

6 Ozempic is taking off in China
A scarcity of official approval there but isn’t stopping anybody. (WSJ $)
We’ve by no means understood how starvation works. That could be about to alter. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)

7 Meet the individuals attempting to make moral AI porn
Intercourse work is a sector that’s already being closely disrupted by AI. (The Guardian)

eight Why we want DNA information drives
We’re quickly operating out of space for storing, however DNA is a surprisingly viable possibility. (IEEE Spectrum)

9 You don’t must maintain closing your telephone’s background apps
It does nothing in your battery life. In reality, it will probably even drain it additional. (Gizmodo)
Right here’s one other fantasy price busting: you shouldn’t put your moist telephone in rice. (The Verge)

10 The mysterious math of billiard tables
In case you battle to play pool, take consolation within the reality mathematicians get stumped by it too. (Quanta $)

Quote of the day

“We realized how straightforward it’s for individuals to be in opposition to one thing, to reject one thing new.” 

—Silas Heineken, a 17-year-old from Grünheide, a suburb close to Berlin in Germany, tells the New York Instances why he’s in favor of Tesla’s plans to broaden there.

The massive story

Meet the wannabe kidfluencers struggling for stardom

picture collage of youtube character Dane

December 2019 

On YouTube, youngsters can turn out to be millionaires—seemingly in a single day. The very best paid of them, eight-year-old Ryan Kaji, made $22 million in 2018 by taking part in with toys on his channel Ryan ToysReview (now Ryan’s World). 

There at the moment are 1000’s of equally well-known little one YouTubers: infants who’ve been vlogged because the second of their start, 10-year-old streamers exhibiting off video-game tips, teenage women giving zits recommendation from their bedrooms.

Why accomplish that many children need to be YouTubers? How are their dad and mom serving to them? And what occurs if, after spending 1000’s of {dollars} or dropping out of faculty, it doesn’t work out? Learn the complete story.

—Amelia Tait

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

+ Cillian Murphy sounds like he’s acquired life just about found out. 
+ Some fast, easy methods to immediately decrease your stress ranges. 
+ My love for PG Wodehouse is pure and everlasting. 
+ Carrots could be a actual standout ingredient—right here’s  put them to work.

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