Thursday, October 30, 2025

The Obtain: carbon elimination’s future, and measuring ache utilizing an app


That is right this moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.

What’s subsequent for carbon elimination?

After years of development that spawned a whole lot of startups, the nascent carbon elimination sector seems to be dealing with a reckoning.

Working Tide, a promising aquaculture firm, shut down its operations final summer season, and a handful of different firms have shuttered, downsized, or pivoted in current months as effectively. Enterprise investments have flagged. And the collective trade hasn’t made a complete lot extra progress towards Working Tide’s bold plans to sequester a billion tons of carbon dioxide by this 12 months.

The hype part is over and the sector is sliding into the turbulent enterprise trough that follows, specialists warn. 

And the open query is: If the carbon elimination sector is heading right into a painful if inevitable clearing-out cycle, the place will it go from there? Learn the complete story.

—James Temple

This story is a part of MIT Know-how Overview’s What’s Subsequent sequence, which seems to be throughout industries, developments, and applied sciences to provide you a primary have a look at the longer term. You may learn the remainder of them right here.

An AI app to measure ache is right here

This week I’ve additionally been questioning how science and expertise will help reply that query—particularly with regards to ache. 

Within the newest problem of MIT Know-how Overview’s print journal, Deena Mousa describes how an AI-powered smartphone app is getting used to evaluate how a lot ache an individual is in.

The app, and different instruments prefer it, may assist docs and caregivers. They may very well be particularly helpful within the care of people that aren’t in a position to inform others how they’re feeling.

However they’re removed from excellent. They usually open up every kind of thorny questions on how we expertise, talk, and even deal with ache. Learn the complete story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This text first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Know-how Overview’s weekly biotech e-newsletter. To obtain it in your inbox each Thursday, and skim articles like this primary, enroll right here.

The must-reads

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

1 Meta’s attorneys suggested employees to take away components of its teen psychological well being analysis
Its counsel informed researchers to dam or replace their work to scale back authorized legal responsibility. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meta not too long ago laid off greater than 100 employees tasked with monitoring dangers to person privateness. (NYT $) 

2 Donald Trump has pardoned the convicted Binance founder
Changpeng Zhao pleaded responsible to violating US cash laundering legal guidelines in 2023. (WSJ $)
+ The transfer is prone to allow Binance to renew working within the US. (CNN)
+ Trump has vowed to be extra crypto-friendly than the Biden administration. (Axios)

3 Anthropic and Google Cloud have signed a significant chips deal
The settlement is value tens of billions of {dollars}. (FT $)

4 Microsoft doesn’t need you to speak soiled to its AI
It’ll depart that sort of factor to OpenAI, thanks very a lot. (CNBC)
+ Copilot now has its personal model of Clippy—simply don’t attempt to get erotic with it. (The Verge)
+ It’s fairly simple to get DeepSeek to speak soiled, nevertheless. (MIT Know-how Overview)

5 Huge Tech is footing the invoice for Trump’s White Home ballroom
Get up Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. (TechCrunch)
+ Crypto twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are additionally among the many donors. (CNN)

6 US investigators have busted a sequence of high-tech playing schemes
Involving specially-designed contact lenses and x-ray tables. (NYT $)
+ The case follows insider bets on basketball and poker video games rigged by the mafia. (BBC)
+ Automated card shufflers will be compromised, too. (Wired $)

7 Deepfake harassment instruments are simply accessible on social media
And easy internet searches. (404 Media)
+ Bans on deepfakes take us solely to date—right here’s what we actually want. (MIT Know-how Overview)

8 How algorithms can drive up costs on-line
Even benign algorithms can typically yield unhealthy outcomes for patrons. (Quanta Journal)
+ When AIs cut price, a much less superior agent may price you. (MIT Know-how Overview)

9 Find out how to give an LLM mind rot
Prepare it on brief “superficial” posts from X, for a begin. (Ars Technica)
+ AI skilled on AI rubbish spits out AI rubbish. (MIT Know-how Overview)

10 Meet the tech employees utilizing AI as little as potential
In a bid to maintain their expertise sharp. (WP $)
+ This professor thinks there are different methods to show individuals easy methods to study. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“He was convicted. He’s not harmless.”

—Republican Senator Thom Tillis criticises Donald Trump’s resolution to pardon convicted cryptocurrency mogul Changpeng Zhao, Politico stories.

Yet one more factor

We’ve by no means understood how starvation works. That is perhaps about to vary.

If you’re ravenous, starvation is sort of a demon. It awakens probably the most historical and primitive components of the mind, then commandeers different neural equipment to do its bidding till it will get what it needs.

Though scientists have had some success in stimulating starvation in mice, we nonetheless don’t actually perceive how the impulse to eat works. Now, some specialists are following recognized components of the neural starvation circuits into uncharted components of the mind to attempt to discover out.

Their work may shed new gentle on the elements which have brought about the variety of chubby adults worldwide to skyrocket lately. And it may additionally assist resolve the mysteries round how and why a brand new class of weight-loss medicine appears to work so effectively. Learn the complete story.

—Adam Piore

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 skeet ’em at me.)

+  Center aged males are stepping into cliff-jumping. Do you have to?
+ Pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies appears like an important thought to me.
+ Christmas Island’s crabs are on the transfer! 🦀
+ Be careful for those who’re taking the NY subway right this moment: you would possibly stumble upon these terrifying witches.



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