That is right this moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on this planet of know-how.
We noticed a demo of the brand new AI system powering Anduril’s imaginative and prescient for conflict
—James O’Donnell
One afternoon in late November, I visited a weapons take a look at website within the foothills east of San Clemente, California operated by Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones and missiles that not too long ago introduced a partnership with OpenAI.
I went there to witness a brand new system it’s increasing right this moment, which permits exterior events to faucet into its software program and share knowledge with a view to pace up decision-making on the battlefield.
If it really works as deliberate over the course of a brand new three-year contract with the Pentagon, it may embed AI extra deeply than ever earlier than into the theater of conflict. Learn the complete story.
Learn how to use Sora, OpenAI’s new video producing instrument
OpenAI has simply launched its video technology mannequin Sora to the general public. The announcement yesterday got here on the fifth day of the corporate’s “shipmas” occasion, a 12-day marathon of tech releases and demos. Right here’s what you need to know—and the way you should utilize the video mannequin proper now.
—James O’Donnell
This story is the most recent in MIT Know-how Assessment’s How To collection, which helps you get issues executed.
AI’s hype and antitrust drawback is coming below scrutiny
The AI sector is suffering from an absence of competitors and a number of deceit—or at the least that’s one solution to interpret the most recent flurry of actions taken in Washington.
The actions—from antitrust investigations to accusations of straight-up mendacity—symbolize an effort to carry the AI business’s hype to account within the remaining months earlier than the Federal Commerce Fee’s chair, Lina Khan, is changed when Donald Trump takes workplace.
However whereas the FTC seems to be to have a far smoother transition of management forward than most different federal companies, at the least a few of Trump’s frustrations with Massive Tech may ship antitrust efforts in a distinctly new course. Learn the complete story.
—James O’Donnell
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly e-newsletter providing you with the within monitor on all issues taking place within the fascinating discipline of AI. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you right this moment’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Google has constructed a strong new quantum computing chip
But it surely doesn’t have any real-world purposes—but. (Bloomberg $)
+ It takes 5 minutes to unravel an issue {that a} conventional supercomputer couldn’t grasp in 10 septillion years. (NYT $)
+ It’s a problem the quantum discipline has been making an attempt to crack for many years. (The Guardian)
+ We lined the work when it was a preprint in September. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
2 Nvidia is being investigated by China
It claims the chipmaking big has violated anti-monopoly legal guidelines. (BBC)
+ Nvidia’s largest buyer within the nation? That might be ByteDance. (Insider $)
+ What’s subsequent in chips. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
3 TikTok has requested a US appeals courtroom to halt the buy-or-sell legislation
Because it stands, the app faces a ban until it finds a brand new proprietor by January 19. (TechCrunch)
4 AI remains to be failing to ship on its financial guarantees
Is 2025 the yr we lastly begin to see some outcomes? (Quartz)
+ The US AI business is in determined want of extra websites with energy grid entry. (FT $)
+ Learn how to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
5 The EU’s competitors guidelines are on the verge of a giant shakeup
A brand new boss means a brand new strategy. (WSJ $)
+ European regulators need to unravel a Meta and Google investigation. (FT $)
6 Weight-loss medicine are making primary well being truths out of date
A nutritious diet and common train is chucking up the sponge. (The Atlantic $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Know-how Assessment)
7 This bionic leg is managed by its wearer’s mind
Prosthetic limbs have gotten far more succesful. (New Yorker $)
+ These prosthetics break the mildew with third thumbs, spikes, and superhero skins. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
8 An AI could make a reasonably first rate Tokyo journey companion
Simply be sure you take its recommendation with a pinch of salt. (Wired $)
+ Learn how to use AI to plan your subsequent trip. (MIT Know-how Assessment)
9 Reddit is testing a brand new AI search characteristic
Which the location’s customers are unlikely to take kindly to. (Ars Technica)
10 Jeff Bezos has a dinner with Donald Trump in his diary
Sounds cozy. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“It’s like manna from heaven.”
—Ari Morcos, chief government of startup DatologyAI, explains to the Wall Avenue Journal why Reddit’s troves of textual content are so interesting to AI corporations.
The massive story
Contained in the enigmatic minds of animals
October 2022
Greater than ever, we really feel an obligation and need to increase empathy to our nonhuman neighbors. Within the final three years, greater than 30 international locations have formally acknowledged different animals—together with gorillas, lobsters, crows, and octopuses—as sentient beings.
A trio of books from Ed Yong, Jackie Higgins, and Philip Ball element creatures’ wealthy internal worlds and seize what has led to those developments: a booming discipline of experimental analysis difficult the long-standing view that animals are neither aware nor cognitively complicated. Learn the complete story.
—Matthew Ponsford
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ It appears we have now two forms of chuckle: one brought on by tickling, and the opposite by all the pieces else.
+ 2024 was a robust yr for fiction: take a look at among the greatest new books.
+ There’s one thing completely mesmerizing about this assortment of previous residence movies.
+ Ukrainian artist Oleg Dron makes a speciality of expansive, haunting landscapes.
