That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.
Google’s new Venture Astra could possibly be generative AI’s killer app
Google DeepMind has introduced a formidable seize bag of recent merchandise and prototypes which will simply let it seize again its lead within the race to show generative synthetic intelligence right into a mass-market concern.
Prime billing goes to Gemini 2.0—the most recent iteration of Google DeepMind’s household of multimodal massive language fashions, now redesigned across the potential to regulate brokers—and a brand new model of Venture Astra, the experimental every thing app that the corporate teased at Google I/O in Might.
The margins between top-end fashions like Gemini 2.0 and people from rival labs like OpenAI and Anthropic at the moment are slim. Today, advances in massive language fashions are much less about how good they’re and extra about what you are able to do with them. And that’s the place brokers are available in.
MIT Expertise Evaluation obtained to check out Astra in a closed-door stay demo final week. It gave us a touch at what’s to return. Discover out extra within the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
China banned exports of some uncommon minerals to the US. Issues might get messier.
—Casey Crownhart
I’ve thought extra about gallium and germanium over the past week than I ever have earlier than (and doubtless greater than anybody ever ought to).
China banned the export of these supplies to the US final week and positioned restrictions on others. The transfer is simply the most recent drama in escalating commerce tensions between the 2 international locations.
Whereas the brand new export bans might have important financial penalties, this may be solely the start. China is a powerhouse, and never simply in these area of interest supplies—it’s additionally a juggernaut in clear power, and notably in battery provide chains. So what comes subsequent might have important penalties for EVs and local weather motion extra broadly. Learn the total story.
This story is from The Spark, our weekly local weather and power e-newsletter. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at present’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 It’s wanting fairly doubtless 2024 would be the hottest yr on document
However common temperatures are only one method of assessing our warming world. (New Scientist $)
+ The primary few months of 2025 are prone to be hotter than common, too. (Reuters)
+ The US is about to make a pointy activate local weather coverage. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
2 Meta has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund
In an effort to strengthen their beforehand fractious relationship. (WSJ $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the one tech determine in search of the President-elect’s ear. (Insider $)
3 How China secretly repatriates Uyghurs
Even the United Nations is seemingly powerless to cease it. (WP $)
+ Uyghurs exterior China are traumatized. Now they’re beginning to discuss it. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
4 How Large Tech decides when to wash a consumer’s digital footprint
Homicide suspect Luigi Mangione’s Instagram has been taken down—however his Goodreads hasn’t. (NYT $)
+ Why it’s harmful to deal with public on-line accounts as the total story. (NY Magazine $)
5 Russia-backed hackers focused Ukraine’s navy utilizing prison instruments
Which makes it even tougher to work out who did it. (TechCrunch)
6 What Cruise’s exit means for the remainder of the robotaxi business
Automakers have gotten annoyed ready for the expertise to mature. (The Verge)
+ Cruise will concentrate on creating absolutely autonomous private automobiles as a substitute. (NYT $)
7 Researching dangerous pathogens is extraordinarily excessive stakes
The potential for abuse has some researchers apprehensive we shouldn’t undertake it in any respect. (Undark Journal)
+ Meet the scientist on the middle of the covid lab leak controversy. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
8 Altermagnetism could possibly be computing’s subsequent massive factor
It could result in sooner, extra dependable digital units. (FT $)
9 Why some individuals want so little sleep
Gene mutations seem to carry at the very least a few of the solutions. (Knowable Journal)
+ Infants spend most of their time asleep. New applied sciences are starting to disclose why. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
10 Contained in the creeping normalization of AI films
The world’s largest TV producer desires to make movies for individuals too lazy to alter the channel. (404 Media)
+ Unsurprisingly, it’ll push focused adverts, too. (Ars Technica)
+ How AI-generated video is altering movie. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
Quote of the day
“They’ve made him a martyr for all of the troubles individuals have had with their very own insurance coverage corporations.”
—Felipe Rodriguez, an adjunct professor on the John Jay Faculty of Prison Justice in New York, explains why homicide suspect Luigi Mangione is being lionized on-line to Reuters.
The massive story
Why AI might eat quantum computing’s lunch
Tech corporations have been funneling billions of {dollars} into quantum computer systems for years. The hope is that they’ll be a recreation changer for fields as various as finance, drug discovery, and logistics.
However whereas the sphere struggles with the realities of tough quantum {hardware}, one other challenger is making headway in a few of these most promising use instances. AI is now being utilized to elementary physics, chemistry, and supplies science in a method that means quantum computing’s purported house turf won’t be so protected in any case. Learn the total story.
—Edd Gent
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Working life getting you down? These footage of bygone workplace malaise will make you’re feeling a complete lot higher (or worse—thanks Will!)
+ Gen Z are getting actually into documenting their lives by way of digital cameras, apparently. 
+ When you consider that Alan MacMasters invented the primary electrical bread toaster, I’m sorry to tell you that you just’ve fallen for an elaborate on-line hoax.
+ The case for a greater Turing check for AI-generated artwork.
