The Obtain: the mortality situation, and America’s new favourite procuring app

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

Introducing: The Mortality Situation

From the second you’re born, the one factor you could be utterly sure of is that you’ll die. However what if growing old isn’t inevitable, in any case? And when you may sluggish, and even flip again the clock, would you?

The newest situation of MIT Know-how Overview examines what demise means to us in 2022, digging into why some individuals are nonetheless dedicating their lives to kicking towards it, whereas others are creating their very own coping mechanisms for grief. Right here’s a number of a few of the new tales within the version, assured to get you interested by what comes subsequent.

  • My colleague Charlotte wrote a good looking piece about making digital clones of her (dwelling) dad and mom, for a glimpse into what it could possibly be like to speak to the useless. Would you be ready to do the identical in your family members? 
  • When you’ve ever questioned about what occurs to your physique whenever you donate it to science, surprise no extra.
  • Simply because AI could make life-and-death selections, doesn’t essentially imply we must always permit it to.
  • Why the impossible-seeming dream of reviving frozen human our bodies utilizing cryonics refuses to die.
  • Ought to we consider in—and even need—immortality?
  • In an age when the whole lot is being recorded, even information has a lifespan.
  • Are electrical automobiles actually the answer to the local weather disaster they’re being touted as?
  • Know-how was once one thing to get enthusiastic about. When did it turn into one thing to dread?

Learn the complete journal, and when you haven’t already, you possibly can subscribe to MIT Know-how Overview for as little as $80 a 12 months.

The most important procuring app in America that you just’ve by no means heard of

There’s a brand new Chinese language e-commerce app that’s quietly however shortly rising. It’s referred to as Temu. And on October 17, it turned probably the most downloaded procuring app in america, beating off competitors from Amazon, Walmart, and its Chinese language competitor Shein.

In case your rapid response is What? I’ve by no means even heard of Temu!, you’re in good firm. The app stays obscure amongst most individuals, although it marks one other high-profile try by yet one more Chinese language tech large to strive its luck within the American e-commerce market. So how did Temu rise to the highest of the iOS App Retailer’s procuring chart? Learn the complete story.

—Zeyi Yang

Zeyi’s story is from China Report, his new weekly publication filling you in on all the most recent happenings in China. Signal as much as obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.

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 Conspiracy theorists have seized upon Russia’s “soiled bomb” claims
Regardless of there being no proof for its existence. (NYT $)
+ Russia’s presentation on the so-called soiled bomb contained 9/11 footage. (Motherboard)
+ The battle in Ukraine is dragging us again to a bloodier age. (Economist $)

2 Celeb deepfakes are promoting’s subsequent frontier
The businesses behind them suppose the assured consideration is well worth the potential authorized repercussions. (WSJ $)
+ Contained in the unusual new world of being a deepfake actor. (MIT Know-how Overview)

three Twitter’s most energetic customers are turning their again on it
And its workers aren’t fully certain why. (Reuters)
+ Twitter has been ever madder than standard over the previous week. (Motherboard)
+ Elon Musk is optimistic he can shut his deal by Friday. (Reuters)
+ Why Twitter nonetheless has these horrible Traits. (MIT Know-how Overview)

four US election officers are swamped with public data requests 
It’s all thanks to 1 man in Florida. (Bloomberg $)

5 Local weather activists are suing governments
They declare that authorities’ inaction to guard nature has harmed their constitutional rights. (Hakai Journal)
+ Nature-based options may also help to mitigate the local weather disaster’ results. (CNET)
+ Local weather motion is gaining momentum. So are the disasters. (MIT Know-how Overview)

6 Tech’s unicorns have gotten rarer once more 🦄
Traders aren’t giving up hope, although. (WP $)
+ Some enterprise capital funds are going after narwhals as a substitute. (Bloomberg $)

7 Sexually transmitted infections are rising within the US
Docs are holding off prescribing a tablet particularly designed to fight them, although. (Vox)

8 The pandemic proved it was doable to conduct good science shortly
Higher transparency round analysis may assist to hold it on. (Wired $)
+ Is a covid and flu “twindemic” on the horizon? (MIT Know-how Overview)

9 NASA’s main UFO investigation has begun 🛸
Possibly the reality actually is on the market. (Motherboard)
+ Radiation-resistant micro organism may survive on Mars for thousands and thousands of years. (New Scientist $)

10 Singapore’s politicians are TikTok superstars
Their clips are met with virtually unprecedented positivity. (Remainder of World)

Quote of the day

“It’s not good, it’s not enjoyable.”

—Palmer Luckey, who based Oculus VR, isn’t a fan of Meta’s VR social app Horizon Worlds, Insider studies.

The massive story

That is how AI bias actually occurs—and why it’s so exhausting to repair

February 2019

If we wish to have the ability to repair bias in AI, we have to perceive the mechanics of the way it arises within the first place.

We regularly shorthand our rationalization of AI bias by blaming it on biased coaching information, however the actuality is extra nuanced. Bias can creep in lengthy earlier than the information is collected in addition to at many different levels of the deep-learning course of—and could be extremely exhausting to repair. Learn the complete story.

—Karen Hao

We are able to 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.)

+ Animals actually do do the funniest issues (thanks Charlotte!)
+ Males, would you dare to reveal in a backless swimsuit?
+ Nicely, this small picket ball rolling down a colossal xylophone in a Japanese forest has made the whole lot higher.
+ I had no concept a magnified ant face could be such nightmare fodder.
+ Dare you go to this spooky Italian ghost city?

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