The Obtain: new AI rules, and a working robotic

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

The AI Act is finished. Right here’s what is going to (and gained’t) change

After three years, the AI Act, the EU’s new sweeping AI regulation, jumped via its ultimate bureaucratic hoop final week when the European Parliament voted to approve it.

However the actuality is that the laborious work begins now. The regulation will enter into drive in Might, and folks dwelling within the EU will begin seeing modifications by the top of the yr. Regulators might want to get arrange so as to implement the regulation correctly, and corporations can have between as much as three years to adjust to the regulation.

Right here’s what it’s essential to learn about what is going to (and crucially gained’t) change after then—from the forms of AI makes use of that might be banned, to a brand new period of AI transparency. Learn the complete story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly publication providing you with the within observe on all issues AI. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.

To learn extra in regards to the AI rules, check out:

+5 issues it’s essential to know in regards to the EU’s new AI Act. Why the brand new guidelines will successfully flip the EU into the world’s AI police. Learn the complete story.

+ Right here’s why it was such a tough Act for the EU’s governing our bodies to agree on.

+ 4 classes from 2023 that inform us the place AI regulation goes this yr—and why it issues.

+ How judges fairly than politicians may assist to dictate AI guidelines in America.

How AI taught Cassie the two-legged robotic to run and leap

When you’ve watched Boston Dynamics’ slick movies of robots working, leaping and doing parkour, you may need the impression robots have discovered to be amazingly agile. The truth is, these robots are nonetheless coded by hand, and would battle to cope with new obstacles they haven’t encountered earlier than.

Nonetheless, a brand new methodology of instructing robots to maneuver may assist to cope with new situations, via trial and error—simply as people study and adapt to unpredictable occasions.

Researchers used an AI approach known as reinforcement studying to assist a two-legged robotic nicknamed Cassie to run 400 meters, over various terrains, and execute standing lengthy jumps and excessive jumps, with out being educated explicitly on every motion. Their strategy taught the robotic to generalize and reply in new situations, as an alternative of freezing like its predecessors could have completed. Learn the complete story.

Rhiannon Williams

The must-reads

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

1 Nvidia has unveiled a slew of AI chips
They’re sooner, bigger, and much more highly effective. (WSJ $)
+ A fast primer on why these chips matter a lot. (Bloomberg $)
+ The corporate plans on making itself integral to the way forward for autonomous vehicles, too. (Reuters)
+ It’s the most popular inventory on the town. (WP $)

2 Meta has provided to slash the worth of its ad-free subscription service
In a bid to appease privateness regulators in Europe. (Reuters)

three We’re edging nearer to a worldwide cybersecurity customary for good dwelling tech
Not all devices are equally safe. A common customary may assist. (The Verge)

four Carmaker Fisker has paused making EVs
Issues aren’t trying too good for the embattled firm—and cash is tight. (Wired $)
+ Why the world’s greatest EV maker is entering into delivery. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

5 Nobody is aware of why electroconvulsive remedy works
However new analysis means that zapping a mind with electrical energy could assist to revive steadiness between excitation and inhibition. (Quanta Journal)
+ Right here’s how customized mind stimulation may deal with melancholy. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

6 How generative AI is warping Google’s search outcomes
Its Search Generative Expertise remains to be figuring out what to prioritize. (Insider $)
+ We’re hurtling towards a glitchy, spammy, scammy, AI-powered web. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

7 Scientists have created an artificial blood-clotting drug
The commonest model, known as heparin, is historically made utilizing pig intestines. (New Scientist $)
+ AI is dreaming up medicine that nobody has ever seen. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

eight Gig employees don’t get correct time to relaxation between jobs
So that is what they do as an alternative. (Remainder of World)
+ What TikTok can study from Uber. (Slate $)

9 AI-generated waffle is cropping up in tutorial journals
Sure phrases are a lifeless giveaway to ChatGPT’s involvement. (404 Media)
+ YouTube has added an AI content material labeling instrument to its providers. (The Verge)

10 Sony can’t shift its latest VR headset
It’s obtained a large backlog of models, as a result of they simply aren’t promoting. (Bloomberg $)
+ VR headsets may be hacked with an Inception-style assault. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

Quote of the day

“When you consider the web ecosystem as a colander with 1,000,000 holes in it, I don’t know why they assume plugging a type of tiny holes goes to repair these issues.”

— Calli Schroeder, world privateness counsel on the Digital Privateness Data Middle, tells Bloomberg why the US authorities’s obsession with banning TikTok is misdirected.

The large story

One metropolis’s battle to resolve its sewage downside with sensors

April 2021

Within the metropolis of South Bend, Indiana, wastewater from individuals’s kitchens, sinks, washing machines, and bogs flows via 35 neighborhood sewer traces. On good days, simply earlier than every line ends, a vertical throttle pipe diverts the sewage into an interceptor tube, which carries it to a remedy plant the place stable pollution and micro organism are filtered out.

As in lots of American cities, these pipes are mixed with storm drains, which might fill rivers and lakes with poisonous sludge when heavy rains or melted snow overwhelms them, endangering wildlife and ingesting water provides. However metropolis officers have a plan to make its getting older sewers considerably smarter. Learn the complete story. 

—Andrew Zaleski

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

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

+ These type wildlife employees in Virginia actually went above and past to take care of an orphaned fox equipment.
+ This model of Smells Like Teen Spirit is banging.
+ Techno, techno, techno! Why Berlin’s clubbing tradition has been positioned beneath Unesco safety.
+ Take pleasure in a little bit of John Denver this morning, for no motive apart from it’s a beautiful tune.

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