That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of expertise.
The robotic race is fueling a combat for coaching knowledge
We’re interacting with AI instruments extra straight—and often—than ever earlier than. Interacting with robots, by the use of distinction, continues to be a rarity for many. However specialists say that’s on the cusp of fixing.
Roboticists imagine that, utilizing new AI strategies, they’ll unlock extra succesful robots that may transfer freely by way of unfamiliar environments and deal with challenges they’ve by no means seen earlier than.
However one thing is standing in the best way: lack of entry to the varieties of knowledge used to coach robots to allow them to work together with the bodily world. It’s far more durable to return by than the info used to coach essentially the most superior AI fashions, and that shortage is without doubt one of the essential issues presently holding progress in robotics again.
In consequence, main firms and labs are in fierce competitors to seek out new and higher methods to collect the info they want. It’s led them down unusual paths, like utilizing robotic arms to flip pancakes for hours on finish. And so they’re working into the identical types of privateness, ethics, and copyright points as their counterparts on this planet of AI. Learn the total story.
—James O’Donnell
My deepfake exhibits how beneficial our knowledge is within the age of AI
—Melissa Heikkilä
Deepfakes are getting good. Like, actually good. Earlier this month I went to a studio in East London to get myself digitally cloned by the AI video startup Synthesia. They made a hyperrealistic deepfake that seemed and sounded identical to me, with life like intonation. The top consequence was mind-blowing. It may simply idiot somebody who doesn’t know me effectively.
Synthesia has managed to create AI avatars which can be remarkably humanlike after just one yr of tinkering with the newest technology of generative AI. It’s equally thrilling and daunting desirous about the place this expertise goes. However they increase an enormous query: What occurs to our knowledge as soon as we submit it to AI firms? Learn the total story.
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI publication. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at present’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 AI startups with out merchandise can nonetheless increase thousands and thousands
How a few of them plan to earn money is unclear, however that doesn’t deter traders. (WSJ $)+ These giant AI fashions are wildly costly to run. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI hype is constructed on excessive take a look at scores. These exams are flawed. (MIT Know-how Overview)
2 The EU says Meta isn’t doing sufficient to counter Russian disinformation
So it’s launching formal proceedings in opposition to the corporate forward of EU elections. (The Guardian)
+ Three expertise developments shaping 2024’s elections. (MIT Know-how Overview)
three Meet the people preventing again in opposition to algorithmic curation
The answer may, paradoxically, lie with completely different sorts of algorithms. (Wired $)
four An AI blood take a look at claims to diagnose postpartum melancholy
It says the presence of a gene that hyperlinks moods extra intently to hormonal adjustments is an indicator. (WP $)
+ An AI system helped to avoid wasting lives in a hospital trial. (New Scientist $)
5 Tesla secretly examined its autonomous driving tech in San Francisco
Which hints that its earlier ‘normal options’ method fell brief. (The Data $)
+ Robotaxis are right here. It’s time to determine what to do about them. (MIT Know-how Overview)
6 Why egg freezing has did not reside as much as its hype
We’re lastly getting a clearer image of how efficient the process is. (Vox)
+ I took a world journey with my frozen eggs to study in regards to the fertility trade. (MIT Know-how Overview)
7 NASA has lastly solved a long-standing photo voltaic thriller
The solar’s corona is much hotter than its floor. However why? (Quanta Journal)
eight Do relationship apps truly assist you discover your soulmate?
Chemistry and an amazing relationship are troublesome to quantify. (The Guardian)
+ Right here’s how the online’s latest matchmakers assist you discover love. (MIT Know-how Overview)
9 On-line messaging has come a good distance
BBS, anybody? (Ars Technica)
10 The three-year seek for a synth-heavy pop music is over
…However its origins are seedier than you’d anticipate. (404 Media)
Quote of the day
“That is the Oppenheimer Second of our technology.”
—Alexander Schallenberg, Austria’s international minister, warns in opposition to granting AI an excessive amount of autonomy on the battlefield throughout a summit in Vienna, Bloomberg reviews.
The large story
Subsequent slide, please: A short historical past of the company presentation
August 2023
PowerPoint is in all places. It’s utilized in spiritual sermons; by schoolchildren making ready guide reviews; 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, 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, workers, and salespeople.
Identified within the enterprise as “multi-image” exhibits, these shows required a small military of producers, photographers, and reside manufacturing employees to tug off. Learn this story to delve into the fascinating, flashy historical past of company shows.
—Claire L. Evans
We are able to 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.)
+ That is some severely dedicated egg flipping. 
+ Easy methods to spend time and make treasured recollections with the individuals you like.
+ Gen Z is on the transfer: to the US Midwest apparently.
+ Cool: these novels had been all impressed by the authors’ day jobs.
