That is at this time’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.
Our favourite tales of 2022
We wish to assume we’ve had an ideal yr right here at MIT Know-how Evaluation. 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 cherished probably the most—after which inform us why. This is what they said.
What’s subsequent for AI
In 2022, AI acquired inventive. 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 photos 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 a number of weeks since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the newest massive language mannequin to set the web ablaze with its shocking eloquence and coherence.
The tempo of innovation this yr has been outstanding—and at occasions 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 largest developments they anticipate to form the AI panorama in 2023. Read the full story
Mind stimulation could be extra invasive than we predict
In the present day, there are many neurotechnologies that may learn what’s happening in our brains, modify the way in which they operate, and alter the wiring. Deep mind stimulation, for instance, includes implanting electrodes deep into the mind to stimulate neurons and management the way in which mind areas hearth. It’s thought-about fairly invasive, within the medical sense.
Different therapies, corresponding 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-about “noninvasive” as a result of they act from outdoors the mind. But when we are able to attain into an individual’s thoughts, even with out piercing the cranium, how noninvasive is the expertise actually? Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly publication overlaying every thing value figuring out 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 take a look at farms to orchards within the first of a two-part sequence on agriculture, AI, and satellites.
Pay attention on Apple Podcasts or wherever you usually get your podcasts.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at this time’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Sam Bankman-Fried has been launched on $250 million bail
He’s dealing with residence 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 situations. (CoinTelegraph)
2 A extreme storm is forcing US airways to cancel flights
+ Disrupting Christmas journey left, proper, and middle. (WSJ $)
+ It’s as a result 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 information, we might by no means know. (The Atlantic $)
+ Two inhaled covid vaccines have been authorised—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 one more of Elon Musk’s wheezes. (TechCrunch)
+ Twitter seems to be prefer it’s crumbling proper now. (The Atlantic $)
+ We’re witnessing the mind loss of life 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 staff. (Forbes)
+ In any case 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 $)
+ Among the crypto devoted are attempting to take their losses on the chin. (Vice)
7 Immigrant tech staff who’ve been laid off are caught in limbo
Shedding their jobs means their households are additionally unable to work, leaving many with no selection however to depart 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 automobiles 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 fashionable toymaker Tomy. (New Yorker $)
+ The Perseverance rover has dropped off its first pattern tube. (The Register)
10 We’re residing 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 help of Ukraine and its folks 10 months after Russia invaded, CNN reviews.
The massive 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, daily, nursing or pumping to stimulate her milk movement.
Strickland, a professor of vascular physiology at Maastricht College within the Netherlands, started interested by how she would possibly be capable of use a course of like that pioneered by Dutch meals expertise firm Mosa Meat to create synthetic beef, however for cells that produce breast milk.
For years she struggled to maintain the challenge funded, and he or she got here near abandoning the thought. However in Could 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 rivals to shake up the world of toddler diet in a approach not seen because the delivery of the now $42 billion system business. Read the full story.
—Haley Cohen Gilliland
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ I need 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 traditional panettone, with somewhat Silician aptitude.
+ Find out how to make new year’s resolutions you’ll truly stick with.
