That is as we speak’s version of The Download, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.
Our favourite tales of 2022
We wish to assume we’ve had an excellent yr right here at MIT Know-how Overview. Our tales have gained quite a few awards (this story from our journal gained Gold within the AAAS awards) and our investigations have helped shed light on unjust policies.
So this yr we requested our writers and editors to comb again by means of the previous 12 months and attempt to choose only one story that they liked probably the most—after which inform us why. This is what they said.
What’s subsequent for AI
In 2022, AI obtained artistic. AI fashions can now produce remarkably convincing items of textual content, footage, and even movies, with just a bit prompting. It’s solely been 9 months since OpenAI set off the generative AI explosion with the launch of DALL-E 2, a deep-learning mannequin that may produce photographs from textual content directions. That was adopted by a breakthrough from Google and Meta: AIs that may produce movies from textual content. And it’s solely been just a few weeks since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the newest massive language mannequin to set the web ablaze with its stunning eloquence and coherence.
The tempo of innovation this yr has been exceptional—and at instances overwhelming. Who may have seen it coming? And the way can we predict what’s subsequent?
Our in-house specialists Will Douglas Heaven and Melissa Heikkilä inform us the 4 greatest tendencies they anticipate to form the AI panorama in 2023. Read the full story
Mind stimulation may be extra invasive than we predict
In the present day, there are many neurotechnologies that may learn what’s occurring in our brains, modify the best way they operate, and alter the wiring. Deep mind stimulation, for instance, includes implanting electrodes deep into the mind to stimulate neurons and management the best way mind areas fireplace. It’s thought of fairly invasive, within the medical sense.
Different therapies, comparable to transcranial magnetic stimulation, which includes passing a tool formed like a determine 8 over an individual’s head to ship a magnetic pulse to components of the mind and to intrude with its exercise, are thought of “noninvasive” as a result of they act from exterior the mind. But when we will attain into an individual’s thoughts, even with out piercing the cranium, how noninvasive is the know-how actually? Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly e-newsletter overlaying all the things price understanding in biotech. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
Podcast: the way forward for farming lies in area
AI is utilized in agriculture to exactly goal weeds and optimize irrigation practices. It’s additionally being utilized in methods you may not anticipate, like for monitoring the well being of cow pastures—from area. We journey from check farms to orchards within the first of a two-part sequence on agriculture, AI, and satellites.
Hear on Apple Podcasts or wherever you usually get your podcasts.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Sam Bankman-Fried has been launched on $250 million bail
He’s going through house detention whereas he awaits trial. (BBC)
+ It’s one of many largest bails in US historical past. (Bloomberg $)
+ Crypto Twitter isn’t impressed by his soft circumstances. (CoinTelegraph)
2 A extreme storm is forcing US airways to cancel flights
+ Disrupting Christmas journey left, proper, and middle. (WSJ $)
+ It’s because of sweep throughout a lot of the US and into Canada. (Wired $)
3 We don’t know the way efficient nasal covid vaccines are
And since we’re not accumulating the correct of knowledge, we could by no means know. (The Atlantic $)
+ Two inhaled covid vaccines have been permitted—however we don’t know but how good they’re. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Life expectancy within the US has fallen once more. (Axios)
4 Twitter is beginning to present how many individuals have seen your tweets
It’s yet one more of Elon Musk’s wheezes. (TechCrunch)
+ Twitter appears to be like prefer it’s crumbling proper now. (The Atlantic $)
+ We’re witnessing the mind dying of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)
5 ByteDance has been monitoring journalists
Its workers improperly gained entry to their IP addresses to attempt to work out in the event that they’d crossed paths with ByteDance employees. (Forbes)
+ In spite of everything that, the corporate failed to seek out any leaks. (FT $)
+ TikTok is desperately making an attempt to curry favor within the US. (Reuters)
6 NFTs are at a crossroads
Their worth has plummeted, however evangelists are refusing to surrender. (Wired $)
+ A number of the crypto devoted are attempting to take their losses on the chin. (Vice)
7 Immigrant tech employees who’ve been laid off are caught in limbo
Dropping their jobs means their households are additionally unable to work, leaving many with no alternative however to go away the US. (The Guardian)
+ For this startup founder, his enterprise going bust got here as a little bit of a reduction. (The Information $)
8 This has been a landmark yr for EVs
They’re not simply synonymous with Tesla any extra. (Vox)
+ Why EVs gained’t change hybrid vehicles anytime quickly. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Japan’s area company is sending a toy-like rover to the moon
The lovable ball is designed by standard toymaker Tomy. (New Yorker $)
+ The Perseverance rover has dropped off its first pattern tube. (The Register)
10 We’re dwelling by means of the primary ever BeReal Christmas 
Sadly, originality is vanishingly uncommon. (Vice)
Quote of the day
“Towards all odds, and doom and gloom eventualities, Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.”
—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanks the US Congress for its monetary assist of Ukraine and its individuals 10 months after Russia invaded, CNN studies.
The large story
Startups are racing to breed breast milk within the lab
December 2020
Like many moms, Leila Strickland discovered breastfeeding troublesome. She struggled to feed her son, and three years later, her daughter, and spent all day, day-after-day, nursing or pumping to stimulate her milk movement.
Strickland, a professor of vascular physiology at Maastricht College within the Netherlands, started occupied with how she may be capable to use a course of like that pioneered by Dutch meals know-how firm Mosa Meat to create synthetic beef, however for cells that produce breast milk.
For years she struggled to maintain the challenge funded, and she or he got here near abandoning the thought. However in Might 2020, Biomilq, an organization she had based, obtained $3.5 million from a bunch of buyers led by Invoice Gates. Biomilq is now in a race with opponents to shake up the world of toddler diet in a approach not seen because the delivery of the now $42 billion method business. Read the full story.
—Haley Cohen Gilliland
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of flirting with onion emojis till now. 
+ Even millennials are beginning to discover millennials cringe.
+ An intrepid information to all Netflix’s cheesy festive movies—watch at your peril.
+ This chef is bravely reimagining the Italian Christmas basic panettone, with a bit Silician aptitude.
+ The way to make new year’s resolutions you’ll truly keep on with.
