That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the earth of know-how.
AI is rewiring how the world’s finest Go gamers assume
Ten years in the past AlphaGo, Google DeepMind’s AI program, shocked the world by defeating the South Korean Go participant Lee Sedol.
And within the years since, AI has upended the sport. It’s overturned centuries-old rules about the most effective strikes and launched totally new ones. Gamers now practice to duplicate AI’s strikes as carefully as they will somewhat than inventing their very own, even when the machine’s pondering stays mysterious to them. In the meantime, AI is democratizing entry to coaching, and extra feminine gamers are climbing the ranks consequently.
At the moment, it’s primarily unimaginable to compete professionally with out utilizing AI. Some say the know-how has drained the sport of its creativity, whereas others assume there may be nonetheless room for human invention. Learn the total story.
—Michelle Kim
MIT Know-how Overview Narrated: Hackers made demise threats towards this safety researcher. Massive mistake.
In April 2024, a mysterious somebody utilizing the net handles “Waifu” and “Judische” started posting demise threats on Telegram and Discord channels geared toward a cybersecurity researcher named Allison Nixon.
As chief analysis officer on the cyber investigations agency Unit 221B, Nixon had constructed a profession monitoring cybercriminals and serving to get them arrested. And though she had taken an curiosity within the Waifu persona in years previous for crimes he boasted about committing, he hadn’t been on her radar for some time when the threats started, as a result of she was monitoring different targets.
Now Nixon resolved to unmask Waifu/Judische and others liable for the demise threats—and take them down for crimes they admitted to committing.
That is our newest story to be become a MIT Know-how Overview Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Know-how Overview Narrated on both platform, and observe us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at present’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Anthropic has refused the Pentagon’s AI calls for
It’s holding agency on its stance: no mass surveillance of People, and no deadly autonomous weapons. (The Verge)
+ Anthropic stated “just about no progress” had been made throughout current talks. (The Hill)
+ Right here’s how relations between the US authorities and the corporate began to dissolve. (Vox)
2 Instagram will alert dad and mom if teenagers repeatedly seek for suicide materials
However campaigners worry the measure might do extra hurt than good. (BBC)
+ Instagram is engaged on the same alert function for its AI instruments. (Engadget)
+ Poland is weighing up banning under-15s from accessing social media. (Bloomberg $)
3 ChatGPT Well being frequently fails to acknowledge medical emergencies
In additional than half of great instances, it suggested customers to delay in search of therapy. (The Guardian)
+ “Dr. Google” had its points. Can ChatGPT Well being do higher? (MIT Know-how Overview)
4 The Islamic State’s on-line warriors are posting past the grave
The group is utilizing AI to resurrect lifeless leaders and port them to new platforms. (404 Media)
5 Vegetarians are at decrease danger from 5 sorts of most cancers
It means that avoiding meat might assist to keep away from sure cancers, together with breast and pancreatic. (FT $)
+ Curiously, the identical doesn’t apply for vegans. (Bloomberg $)
+ RFK Jr. follows a carnivore food plan. That doesn’t imply it is best to. (MIT Know-how Overview)
6 Activists combating on-line abuse have been barred from America
Authorities accused HateAid of taking part in a “international censorship-industrial advanced.” (NYT $)
+ What it’s wish to be banned from the US for preventing on-line hate. (MIT Know-how Overview)
7 Russians are in search of lacking troopers on Google Maps
They’re posting opinions pleading for details about lacking family members. (New Yorker $)
+ Google Maps has lastly gained approval to function in South Korea. (FT $)
+ It’s hellbent on closing its remaining few international gaps. (Economist $)
8 Burger King’s new AI assistant will consider staff’ friendliness
It’ll test interactions to ensure they’re saying please and thanks. (The Verge)
+ Perplexity’s bossy new AI agent assigns work to fellow brokers. (Ars Technica)
9 NASA nonetheless hasn’t made it again to the moon
The mission has been dogged by delays and points. (WP $)
10 Are you Chinamaxxing but?
Everybody on TikTok is, c’mon. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“That is as a lot of a political combat as a army use difficulty.”
—Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow on the Carnegie Endowment, who researches AI in warfare, explains to the Washington Publish why ideological variations are more likely to be worsening the rift between Anthropic and the Pentagon.
Another factor
One metropolis’s combat to resolve its sewage drawback with sensors
Within the metropolis of South Bend, Indiana, wastewater from folks’s kitchens, sinks, washing machines, and bathrooms flows via 35 neighborhood sewer strains. On good days, simply earlier than every line ends, a vertical throttle pipe diverts the sewage into an interceptor tube, which carries it to a therapy plant the place stable pollution and micro organism are filtered out.
As in lots of American cities, these pipes are mixed with storm drains, which might fill rivers and lakes with poisonous sludge when heavy rains or melted snow overwhelms them, endangering wildlife and ingesting water provides. However metropolis officers have a plan to make its getting old sewers considerably smarter. Learn the total story.
—Andrew Zaleski
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ This can be a fascinating perception into Jimi Hendrix’s technical guitar wizardry 
+ The Romans: their lives actually weren’t so totally different to ours, y’know.
+ How the Beatles kicked again and relaxed at residence after they weren’t shaping historical past.
+ Disney composer Alan Menken is an undisputed expertise.
