latest advancements in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including medical breakthroughs, space exploration, and new gadgets and software.
This is today’s edition of Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Newly-revealed coronavirus data has reignited a debate over the virus’s origins This week, we’ve seen the resurgence of a debate that has been swirling since the start of the pandemic—where did the …
The Download: covid’s origin drama, and TikTok’s uncertain future Read More »
And so I think a big part of it as a company, by setting these ambitious goals, it forces us to say if we want to be number one, if we want to be top tier in these areas, if we want to continue to generate results, how do we get there using technology? And …
Fostering innovation through a culture of curiosity Read More »
In this scenario, do you still pull the lever and sacrifice the person with the higher Ethical Score to save the five people with lower scores? Or do you allow the trolley to continue on its course, killing the five people with lower scores? This twist adds an extra layer of complexity to the original …
Is GPT-4 Worth the Subscription? Here’s What You Should Know Read More »
It’s easy to see the influences—Wednesday is equal parts Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale, and Smallville (no surprise, given it’s created by the latter’s Alfred Gough and Miles Millar)—but it’s all elevated by Jenna Ortega’s brilliantly macabre and deliciously deadpan performance as Wednesday herself, not to mention the visual sensibilities of director Tim Burton. With a phenomenal …
Netflix has plenty of movies to watch, but it’s a real mixed bag. Sometimes finding the right film at the right time can seem like an impossible task. Fret not, we’re here to help. Below is a list of some of our favorite films currently on the streaming service—from dramas to comedies to thrillers. If …
For many companies, those indirect emissions dwarf all the rest. Some companies and business groups contend that it is unfair to hold them responsible for pollution that they may not directly control. A graphics card maker, for example, may say it cannot control the coal plants that power its suppliers’ factories in distant countries; an …
The Fight to Expose Corporations’ Real Impact on the Climate Read More »
ChatGPT warned me against asking legendary engineer Bob Metcalfe about his 1996 prediction that the internet would collapse. This came after I sought the chatbot’s guidance on what questions to ask the man who this week received the ACM Turing Award, the $1 million prize dubbed the Nobel of computing. The AI oracle suggests I …
Bob Metcalfe, The Man Who Discovered Network Effects, Isn’t Sorry Read More »
HBO’s hit series The Last of Us is based on a popular video game from Naughty Dog. science fiction author Zach Chapman appreciates that the show is a faithful adaptation of one of his favorite games. “The show is in many episodes a shot-for-shot remake of the game,” Chapman says in Episode 539 of the …
Probably the most well-known navigation system is iRobotOS, which uses cameras to identify obstacles, navigate around your home, and create personalized cleaning routines. However, it’s important to note here that the software itself isn’t identifying obstacles. Companies still use humans to train the AI in their software. If letting strangers look at images from a …
5 Robot Vacuum Tips to Help You Keep a Tidy Home (2023) Read More »
The Monitor is To weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. As a premise, John Wick‘s “hitman comes out of retirement to avenge his dog’s death” seems as morbid as it is unbankable. Back when Keanu Reeves first started showing interest in John …
In this case, water starts from a source that’s higher than the pump. (That’s important.) As this input water moves down from the source, it increases in speed and goes out the waste valve. However, this moving water causes check valve A to close, which stops the water from exiting. But since the water is …
Can You Really Pump Water Without Any Electricity? Read More »
There’s a complete archive of your tweets and likes, complete with media. If all you want is to know that you have a backup of your tweets, this is it. You can even use the search function to find a specific tweet. This is great, but it’s not useful as a public archive. There aren’t …
Google has a lot riding on this launch. Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to make an aggressive play for Google’s top spot in search. Meanwhile, Google blundered straight out of the gate when it first tried to respond. In a teaser clip for Bard that the company put out in February, the chatbot was shown making …
Google just launched Bard, its answer to ChatGPT—and it wants you to make it better Read More »
3. President Xi Jinping traveled to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin this week. The economic relationship between the two countries has weakened in recent years. (Wall Street Journal $) 4. A year after the China Eastern Airlines crash that killed 132 people, the Chinese government still doesn’t have a conclusion about what went wrong. …
The bearable mediocrity of Baidu’s ChatGPT competitor Ernie Bot Read More »
Google has launched Bard, the search giant’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat. Unlike Bing Chat, Bard does not look up search results—all the information it returns is generated by the model itself. But it is still designed to help users brainstorm and answer queries. Google wants Bard to become an integral part …
Google’s Bard experiment, and Ernie Bot’s rehabilitation Read More »
One theory as to why that might be is that nonbinary brown people may have had more visibility in the press recently, meaning their images end up in the data sets the AI models use for training, says Jernite. OpenAI and Stability.AI, the company that built Stable Diffusion, say that they have introduced fixes to …
See how biased AI image models are for yourself with these new tools Read More »
Amazon has applied to the FCC to increase its constellation to 7,774 satellites, which would allow it to cover regions further north and south, including Alaska, as Starlink does. There are riches to be had: SpaceX currently charges $110 a month to access Starlink, with an up-front cost of $599 for an antenna to connect …
Amazon is about to go head to head with SpaceX in a battle for space internet dominance Read More »
Before you say anything, I do know that it is, in fact, nearly April. But this week has the distinct feeling of a sort of climate change New Year’s to me. Not only is it the spring equinox this week, which is celebrated as the new year in some cultures (Happy Nowruz!), but we also …
Taking stock of our climate past, present, and future Read More »
What’s coming: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are about to lock horns once again. Last month, the US Federal Communications Commission approved the final aspects of Project Kuiper, Amazon’s effort to deliver high-speed internet access from space. In May, the company will test its satellites in an effort to take on SpaceX’s own venture, Starlink, …
The battle for satellite internet, and detecting biased AI Read More »
Space technologies are taking off in the UK, alongside other emerging technologies like quantum computing. “I don’t think there’s a way we can do comprehensive space research and travel, if you like, without quantum technology,” explains Simon Phillips, chief technology officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC). “It’s just too much to calculate.” “I think it’ll …