Thursday, February 13, 2025

The Obtain: China’s monkeypox disaster, and combating AI picture manipulation


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

China is immediately coping with one other public well being disaster: mpox

The Chinese language authorities is battling a brand new public well being concern: mpox. The World Well being Group reviews that China is at the moment experiencing the world’s quickest enhance in circumstances of mpox (previously generally known as monkeypox)—and it must act quick to include the unfold.

The international locations which have efficiently contained mpox outbreaks have principally accomplished so due to proactive measures like vaccination campaigns. The issue is, the Chinese language authorities has barely began to take motion. Learn the total story.

—Zeyi Yang

These new instruments might assist defend our photos from AI

Generative AI is making it ridiculously simple to control folks’s pictures. Whereas nonconsensual deepfake porn has been used to torment girls for years, the most recent technology of AI makes it a good larger drawback. These techniques are a lot simpler to make use of than earlier deepfake tech, and so they can generate pictures that look utterly convincing. 

The excellent news is that new instruments are beginning to emerge which might defend folks’s images and artworks from being tinkered with utilizing AI techniques. These instruments are neither good nor sufficient on their very own—however they’re a begin.  Learn the total story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

This story is from The Algorithm, Melissa’s weekly AI e-newsletter. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Worldcoin’s data-capturing plan is working 
Regardless of evident privateness considerations, loads of folks like money rewards. (Remainder of World)
+ How Worldcoin recruited its first half one million take a look at customers. (MIT Know-how Overview)

2 Twitter is suing a nonprofit that claims it hosts hate speech
The Middle for Countering Digital Hate claims Elon Musk is attempting to silence it. (WSJ $)
+ The corporate’s promoting revenue continues to be in freefall. (FT $)
+ Its new slogan is the reasonably lame ‘Blaze your glory!’ (Motherboard)

3 Meta is creating chatbots with personas for its platforms
Which looks like a very creepy method to enhance engagement. (FT $)
+ Simply because it appears to be like like Threads is shedding its preliminary attraction. (Slate $)
+ Google desires to make its Assistant extra personable, too. (The Verge)

4 Put up-Roe, pregnancy-related deaths are most likely rising
The issue is, there’s no method of figuring out precisely how a lot. (Undark Journal)
+ The cognitive dissonance of watching the tip of Roe unfold on-line. (MIT Know-how Overview)

5 Amazon desires to ship your packages even quicker
Assume hours, reasonably than days. (Insider $)
+ Spare a thought in your supply driver within the warmth. (Wired $)

6 TikTok is pushing a dietary complement as a weight reduction answer
It’s not precisely new, nevertheless it’s attracting new consideration within the age of Ozempic. (Wired $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Know-how Overview)

7 UV and blue mild might assist us to kill lethal E.coli
However the two types of mild are solely efficient when used collectively. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Why tiny viruses could possibly be our greatest wager towards antimicrobial resistance. (MIT Know-how Overview)

8 Begin-ups are harnessing AI to deal with erectile dysfunction
In a bid to really personalize therapy to the person. (Motherboard)

9 When did meals movies get so… racy? 🍝
Thirst lure cooks know precisely what they’re doing with that pasta. (NY Magazine $) 

10 Apple’s bid to save lots of classical music hasn’t gone to plan 🎻
Smaller, nimbler rivals do a greater job throughout the board. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“SHUT IT OFF! It’s creating an enormous nighttime nuisance and making it laborious to sleep.”

—San Francisco residents complain concerning the shiny, flashing X signal that Elon Musk put in on the roof of Twitter’s headquarters with out permission, the Washington Put up reviews.

The massive story

Geoffrey Hinton has a hunch about what’s subsequent for AI

April 2021 

In November 2020, psychologist Geoffrey Hinton had a hunch. After a half-century’s value of makes an attempt—some wildly profitable—he’d arrived at one other promising perception into how the mind works and learn how to replicate its circuitry in a pc.

If his wager pays off, it would spark the following technology of synthetic neural networks—mathematical computing techniques, loosely impressed by the mind’s neurons and synapses, which can be on the core of immediately’s synthetic intelligence. 

His “trustworthy motivation,” as he places it, is curiosity. However ideally, the consequence is extra dependable and reliable AI. Learn the total story

—Siobhan Roberts

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ What does per week dwelling like Mario seem like? Fairly laborious work, really.
+ Not everybody can pull off a buzz minimize like Sinéad O’Connor.
+ Would you chop it as a physician in The Sims?
+ Hen is nice, caprese is nice, so it is smart that caprese rooster appears to be like wonderful.
+ Congratulations to those watermelons, which defied the percentages to flourish in Antarctica. 🍉



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