That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.
We noticed a demo of the brand new AI system powering Anduril’s imaginative and prescient for struggle
—James O’Donnell
One afternoon in late November, I visited a weapons check website within the foothills east of San Clemente, California operated by Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones and missiles that just lately introduced a partnership with OpenAI.
I went there to witness a brand new system it’s increasing right now, which permits exterior events to faucet into its software program and share knowledge in an effort 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 struggle. Learn the total story.
How you can use Sora, OpenAI’s new video producing device
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 it is best to know—and the way you need to use the video mannequin proper now.
—James O’Donnell
This story is the most recent in MIT Expertise Evaluate’s How To collection, which helps you get issues performed.
AI’s hype and antitrust drawback is coming underneath scrutiny
The AI sector is affected by a scarcity of competitors and a whole lot of deceit—or at the very least that’s one strategy to interpret the most recent flurry of actions taken in Washington.
The actions—from antitrust investigations to accusations of straight-up mendacity—characterize 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 appears to be like to have a far smoother transition of management forward than most different federal businesses, at the very least a few of Trump’s frustrations with Massive Tech may ship antitrust efforts in a distinctly new course. Learn the total story.
—James O’Donnell
This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly publication supplying you with the within observe on all issues occurring within the fascinating subject of AI. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you right now’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Google has constructed a strong new quantum computing chip
However it doesn’t have any real-world functions—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 subject has been attempting to crack for many years. (The Guardian)
+ We coated the work when it was a preprint in September. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
2 Nvidia is being investigated by China
It claims the chipmaking large has violated anti-monopoly legal guidelines. (BBC)
+ Nvidia’s greatest buyer within the nation? That might be ByteDance. (Insider $)
+ What’s subsequent in chips. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 TikTok has requested a US appeals courtroom to halt the buy-or-sell regulation
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 12 months we lastly begin to see some outcomes? (Quartz)
+ The US AI business is in determined want of extra websites with energy grid entry. (FT $)
+ How you can fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 The EU’s competitors guidelines are on the verge of a giant shakeup
A brand new boss means a brand new method. (WSJ $)
+ European regulators need to resolve a Meta and Google investigation. (FT $)
6 Weight-loss medication are making primary well being truths out of date
A nutritious diet and common train is throwing in the towel. (The Atlantic $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
7 This bionic leg is managed by its wearer’s mind
Prosthetic limbs have gotten far more succesful. (New Yorker $)
+ These prosthetics break the mould with third thumbs, spikes, and superhero skins. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
8 An AI could make a reasonably respectable Tokyo journey companion
Simply ensure you take its recommendation with a pinch of salt. (Wired $)
+ How you can use AI to plan your subsequent trip. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
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 govt of startup DatologyAI, explains to the Wall Avenue Journal why Reddit’s troves of textual content are so interesting to AI corporations.
The large 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 nations 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 inside worlds and seize what has led to those developments: a booming subject of experimental analysis difficult the long-standing view that animals are neither aware nor cognitively complicated. Learn the total 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 now have two sorts of chuckle: one attributable to tickling, and the opposite by the whole lot else.
+ 2024 was a robust 12 months for fiction: try a number of the greatest new books.
+ There’s one thing completely mesmerizing about this assortment of outdated residence movies.
+ Ukrainian artist Oleg Dron focuses on expansive, haunting landscapes.