The Obtain: the mortality problem, and America’s new favourite buying app

The Obtain: the mortality problem, and America’s new favourite buying app

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That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of expertise.

Introducing: The Mortality Challenge

From the second you’re born, the one factor you might be utterly sure of is that you’ll die. However what if growing older isn’t inevitable, in any case? And in the event you may sluggish, and even flip again the clock, would you?

The newest problem of MIT Expertise Overview examines what dying means to us in 2022, digging into why some individuals are nonetheless dedicating their lives to kicking towards it, whereas others are creating their very own coping mechanisms for grief. Right here’s a number of a number of the new tales within the version, assured to get you eager about what comes subsequent.

Learn the complete journal, and in the event you haven’t already, you possibly can subscribe to MIT Expertise Overview for as little as $80 a yr.

The largest buying app in America that you just’ve by no means heard of

There’s a brand new Chinese language e-commerce app that’s quietly however shortly rising. It’s known as Temu. And on October 17, it grew to become probably the most downloaded buying app in the US, beating off competitors from Amazon, Walmart, and its Chinese language competitor Shein.

In case your instant response is What? I’ve by no means even heard of Temu!, you’re in good firm. The app stays obscure amongst most individuals, although it marks one other high-profile try by one more Chinese language tech big to strive its luck within the American e-commerce market. So how did Temu rise to the highest of the iOS App Retailer’s buying chart? Learn the complete story.

—Zeyi Yang

Zeyi’s story is from China Report, his new weekly e-newsletter filling you in on all the most recent happenings in China. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.

The must-reads

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

1 Conspiracy theorists have seized upon Russia’s “soiled bomb” claims
Regardless of there being no proof for its existence. (NYT $)
+ Russia’s presentation on the so-called soiled bomb contained 9/11 footage. (Motherboard)
+ The battle in Ukraine is dragging us again to a bloodier age. (Economist $)

2 Superstar deepfakes are promoting’s subsequent frontier
The businesses behind them assume the assured consideration is well worth the potential authorized repercussions. (WSJ $)
+ Contained in the unusual new world of being a deepfake actor. (MIT Expertise Overview)

3 Twitter’s most lively customers are turning their again on it
And its workers aren’t solely certain why. (Reuters)
+ Twitter has been ever madder than ordinary over the previous week. (Motherboard)
+ Elon Musk is optimistic he can shut his deal by Friday. (Reuters)
+ Why Twitter nonetheless has these horrible Developments. (MIT Expertise Overview)

4 US election officers are swamped with public data requests 
It’s all thanks to at least one man in Florida. (Bloomberg $)

5 Local weather activists are suing governments
They declare that authorities’ inaction to guard nature has harmed their constitutional rights. (Hakai Journal)
+ Nature-based options will help to mitigate the local weather disaster’ results. (CNET)
+ Local weather motion is gaining momentum. So are the disasters. (MIT Expertise Overview)

6 Tech’s unicorns have gotten rarer once more ?
Traders aren’t giving up hope, although. (WP $)
+ Some enterprise capital funds are going after narwhals as a substitute. (Bloomberg $)

7 Sexually transmitted infections are rising within the US
Medical doctors are holding off prescribing a capsule particularly designed to fight them, although. (Vox)

8 The pandemic proved it was attainable to conduct good science shortly
Larger transparency round analysis may assist to hold it on. (Wired $)
+ Is a covid and flu “twindemic” on the horizon? (MIT Expertise Overview)

9 NASA’s main UFO investigation has begun ?
Possibly the reality actually is on the market. (Motherboard)
+ Radiation-resistant micro organism may survive on Mars for tens of millions of years. (New Scientist $)

10 Singapore’s politicians are TikTok superstars
Their clips are met with nearly unprecedented positivity. (Remainder of World)

Quote of the day

“It’s not good, it’s not enjoyable.”

—Palmer Luckey, who based Oculus VR, is just not a fan of Meta’s VR social app Horizon Worlds, Insider experiences.

The massive story

That is how AI bias actually occurs—and why it’s so laborious to repair

February 2019

If we would like to have the ability to repair bias in AI, we have to perceive the mechanics of the way it arises within the first place.

We frequently shorthand our rationalization of AI bias by blaming it on biased coaching information, however the actuality is extra nuanced. Bias can creep in lengthy earlier than the information is collected in addition to at many different levels of the deep-learning course of—and might be extremely laborious to repair. Learn the complete story.

—Karen Hao

We will nonetheless have good issues

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

+ Animals actually do do the funniest issues (thanks Charlotte!)
+ Males, would you dare to reveal in a backless swimsuit?
+ Effectively, this small wood ball rolling down a colossal xylophone in a Japanese forest has made every little thing higher.
+ I had no thought a magnified ant face could be such nightmare fodder.
+ Dare you go to this spooky Italian ghost city?



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