That is as we speak’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.
AI is rewiring how the world’s finest Go gamers assume
Ten years in the past AlphaGo, Google DeepMind’s AI program, shocked the world by defeating the South Korean Go participant Lee Sedol.
And within the years since, AI has upended the sport. It’s overturned centuries-old ideas about one of the best strikes and launched solely new ones. Gamers now practice to copy AI’s strikes as carefully as they will fairly than inventing their very own, even when the machine’s pondering stays mysterious to them. In the meantime, AI is democratizing entry to coaching, and extra feminine gamers are climbing the ranks because of this.
Right this moment, it’s primarily unattainable to compete professionally with out utilizing AI. Some say the expertise has drained the sport of its creativity, whereas others assume there’s nonetheless room for human invention. Learn the total story.
—Michelle Kim
MIT Know-how Evaluate Narrated: Hackers made demise threats towards this safety researcher. Massive mistake.
In April 2024, a mysterious somebody utilizing the web handles “Waifu” and “Judische” started posting demise threats on Telegram and Discord channels aimed toward a cybersecurity researcher named Allison Nixon.
As chief analysis officer on the cyber investigations agency Unit 221B, Nixon had constructed a profession monitoring cybercriminals and serving to get them arrested. And though she had taken an curiosity within the Waifu persona in years previous for crimes he boasted about committing, he hadn’t been on her radar for some time when the threats started, as a result of she was monitoring different targets.
Now Nixon resolved to unmask Waifu/Judische and others answerable for the demise threats—and take them down for crimes they admitted to committing.
That is our newest story to be was a MIT Know-how Evaluate Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Know-how Evaluate Narrated on both platform, and observe us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Anthropic has refused the Pentagon’s AI calls for
It’s holding agency on its stance: no mass surveillance of Individuals, and no deadly autonomous weapons. (The Verge)
+ Anthropic stated “just about no progress” had been made throughout current talks. (The Hill)
+ Right here’s how relations between the US authorities and the corporate began to dissolve. (Vox)
2 Instagram will alert mother and father if teenagers repeatedly seek for suicide materials
However campaigners worry the measure may do extra hurt than good. (BBC)
+ Instagram is engaged on an identical alert characteristic for its AI instruments. (Engadget)
+ Poland is weighing up banning under-15s from accessing social media. (Bloomberg $)
3 ChatGPT Well being repeatedly fails to acknowledge medical emergencies
In additional than half of great circumstances, it suggested customers to delay in search of therapy. (The Guardian)
+ “Dr. Google” had its points. Can ChatGPT Well being do higher? (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
4 The Islamic State’s on-line warriors are posting past the grave
The group is utilizing AI to resurrect useless leaders and port them to new platforms. (404 Media)
5 Vegetarians are at decrease threat from 5 sorts of most cancers
It means that avoiding meat may assist to keep away from sure cancers, together with breast and pancreatic. (FT $)
+ Apparently, the identical doesn’t apply for vegans. (Bloomberg $)
+ RFK Jr. follows a carnivore weight loss plan. That doesn’t imply it’s best to. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
6 Activists combating on-line abuse have been barred from America
Authorities accused HateAid of taking part in a “world censorship-industrial complicated.” (NYT $)
+ What it’s prefer to be banned from the US for combating on-line hate. (MIT Know-how Evaluate)
7 Russians are in search of lacking troopers on Google Maps
They’re posting opinions pleading for details about lacking family members. (New Yorker $)
+ Google Maps has lastly gained approval to function in South Korea. (FT $)
+ It’s hellbent on closing its ultimate few world gaps. (Economist $)
8 Burger King’s new AI assistant will consider staff’ friendliness
It’ll verify interactions to verify they’re saying please and thanks. (The Verge)
+ Perplexity’s bossy new AI agent assigns work to fellow brokers. (Ars Technica)
9 NASA nonetheless hasn’t made it again to the moon
The mission has been dogged by delays and points. (WP $)
10 Are you Chinamaxxing but?
Everybody on TikTok is, c’mon. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“That is as a lot of a political battle as a navy use subject.”
—Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow on the Carnegie Endowment, who researches AI in warfare, explains to the Washington Submit why ideological variations are prone to be worsening the rift between Anthropic and the Pentagon.
Yet another factor
One metropolis’s battle to resolve its sewage drawback with sensors
Within the metropolis of South Bend, Indiana, wastewater from individuals’s kitchens, sinks, washing machines, and bathrooms flows by 35 neighborhood sewer strains. 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 therapy plant the place strong pollution and micro organism are filtered out.
As in lots of American cities, these pipes are mixed with storm drains, which may 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 old sewers considerably smarter. Learn the total story.
—Andrew Zaleski
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ This can be a fascinating perception into Jimi Hendrix’s technical guitar wizardry 
+ The Romans: their lives actually weren’t so completely different to ours, y’know.
+ How the Beatles kicked again and relaxed at dwelling once they weren’t shaping historical past.
+ Disney composer Alan Menken is an undisputed expertise.
