Today's edition of The Download is the weekday newsletter that gives you a daily dose from the world of technology.
UN has just released an urgent climate action plan. Here's the link.
According to a UN climate report, there are effective and feasible solutions to limit global warming to 1.5degC (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
Despite warnings from scientists for decades, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, reaching a record high of 22% in 2022. According to the report, if humanity is to reduce the worst effects of climate changes, the annual greenhouse-gas emission must be reduced by almost half between now, and 2030.
This will be costly and complicated. It is possible, though it can be difficult and costly. The UN has listed several ways that we could achieve this. The full story is available here.
–Casey Crownhart
What people use GPT-4
The last week was full of AI news. There were a lot of big product launches from many top companies. OpenAI's multimodal large-language model, GPT-4, was the most notable announcement. William Douglas Heaven, our senior AI editor got an exclusive preview. Learn about his first impressions.
GPT-4, unlike OpenAI's viral ChatGPT, is only currently available to developers. The tech is still in its early stages and will take some time to integrate into new products or services. People are testing its capabilities in public. Find out the most interesting and entertaining ways that they do this, including writing code, hustling for money, and reducing doctor's workloads.
–Melissa Heikkila
Melissa's story comes from The Algorithm her weekly AI newsletter. Get it delivered to your inbox every Monday by signing up
Language models may be able self-correct biases if you ask them
The latest: Large language models have a reputation for expressing toxic biases. A new paper by Anthropic, an AI lab, has shown that models can self-correct some biases if they are sufficiently large and have been trained by humans. Amazingly, all that is required to find out is our willingness to ask.
The way they did it: The researchers wanted to find out if asking the models to produce unbiased output, without having to define bias, would be enough to change what they produced. The researchers found that simply asking a model to clarify its answers without relying on stereotyping had a dramatic effect on the model's output.
The significance: This work raises the obvious question of whether or not this "self-correction” could and should be built into language models right from the beginning. The full story is available here.
–Niall Firth
The must-read
I've combed the internet to find you today's most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 We don’t know how to deal AI-related problems
Perhaps we should be accelerating and not pushing the brake pedal. (Vox)
+ How to stop worrying about your AI colleague and learn to love them. (WP $)
+ Generative AI is revolutionizing everything. But what happens after all the hype? (MIT Technology Review)
2 China's top-ranked chipmakers were granted new powers
They will have greater control over state-backed research, and access to more subsidies. (FT $)
+ Chinese chips will continue to power your daily life. (MIT Technology Review)
3 The Greek authorities wiretapped the Meta manager
Artemis Seaford, a US- and Greek citizen, was tracked for one year. (NYT $)
4 Amazon plans to eliminate another 9,000 jobs
It laid off over 18,000 workers just months after the initial layoffs. (CNBC)
+ Amazon's workers union is experiencing a series setbacks. (NYT $)
5 Publication of the locations of US border surveillance towers
Nearly 300 towers have been mapped by the Electronic Frontier Foundation along the US-Mexico border. (The Intercept)
+ How the US police use counterterrorism funds to purchase spy technology (MIT Technology Review)
6 College Coding Classes are not always as they seem
Software boot camps are sometimes outsourced by universities to unregulated third parties. (Wired $)
7 TikTok can make it difficult to break's depressing algorithm loops.
It's not easy to say "Please stop showing me this." (The Atlantic $).
+ The app currently has 150 million active monthly users in the US. (Reuters)
+ I began Googling my grief after my father died. It was too much for me to ignore. (MIT Technology Review)
8 It is more expensive to charge electric vehicles on the streets than it is at home
It is also less expensive to charge overnight. (Reuters)
+ Taxi drivers in Ecuador want electric vehicles, but are concerned about the shortage of charging points. (Rest of World).
+ What is the actual operation of an EV battery? (MIT Technology Review)
9 Would you like to communicate with chatbots?
We don't have to do everything we can. (Slate $)
+ A US Senator wants to know how chatbot creators will protect children. (Bloomberg $)
10 China wants its citizens to love
Palm Guixi, a new state-sponsored dating app. (The Guardian)
Quote for the Day
"This is a headwind in comparison to the hurricane of dotcom crash.
Manish Madhvani (Managing Partner at technology investment firm GP Bullhound) tells Financial Times that the comparisons between today’s tech downturns and the dotcom bust is wildly exaggerated.
The big story
This scientist is working to make an accessible and unhackable voting machine
[TAG0]
November 2022
Juan Gilbert, a computer science professor, has been immersed in the most contentious debate about election administration in America for the past 19 years: what role should touch-screen ballot marking devices play in the voting process?
Advocates claim electronic voting systems are relatively secure and can improve accessibility. However, critics argue that they should not be used often because of their insecurity.
Gilbert? Gilbert claims that he has finally created "the most secure voting system ever made." He's also invited some of the most prominent and vocal critics to back his claim. The full story is available here.
–Spencer Mestel
You can still enjoy nice things
This is a place to find comfort, joy and distraction during these crazy times. (Have any suggestions? Drop me a note or send me a tweet. )
+ Land Devices will build your guitar pedals if you are a fan of mystifying instruments.
+ Did you know the 1976 Baby! 1 microcomputer was contained in an attache briefcase
+ While I didn't expect to hear Still Dre on the bagpipes today, I'm glad that I did.
+ Boston's famous Make Way for Ducklings statue is the cutest.
+ The Banshees of Inisherin video is just as fun as the movie.
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By: Rhiannon Williams
Title: The Download: how we can limit global warming, and GPT-4’s early adopters
Sourced From: www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/21/1070106/download-how-we-can-limit-global-warming-gpt-4s-early-adopters/
Published Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2023 12:43:03 +0000
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