The Download: risks to Reddit, and the potential return of the dodo

The Download: risks to Reddit, and the potential return of the dodo

This is as we speak’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what is going on on in the world of expertise.

How the Supreme Court ruling on Section 230 might finish Reddit as we all know it

When the Supreme Court hears a landmark case on Section 230 later in February, all eyes shall be on the greatest gamers in tech—Meta, Google, Twitter, YouTube.

The case might need a spread of outcomes. One of the potential penalties is that these corporations could also be pressured to rework their strategy to group content material moderation.

Many websites depend on customers for group moderation to edit, form, take away, and promote different customers’ content material on-line—suppose Reddit’s upvote, or adjustments to a Wikipedia web page. If these customers have been pressured to tackle authorized threat each time they made a content material determination, consultants warn that it might have a catastrophic impact on on-line speech communities. Read the full story.

—Tate Ryan-Mosley

A de-extinction firm is making an attempt to resurrect the dodo

The information: The dodo fowl was huge, flightless, and fairly tasty, too—all of which assist to clarify why it went extinct round 1662. Now a US biotechnology firm says it plans to convey the dodo again into existence.

Why a dodo? It’s the third species picked by Colossal Biosciences, of Austin, Texas, for what it calls a course of of technological “de-extinction.” The firm can also be engaged on utilizing large-scale genome engineering to morph fashionable elephants again into wooly mammoths and resurrect the Tasmanian tiger. 

How are they doing it? The firm recovered detailed DNA info from 500-year-old dodo stays held at a museum in Denmark. It plans to attempt to modify the fowl’s closest residing relative, the Nicobar pigeon, turning it step-by-step right into a dodo and presumably “re-wilding” the animal in its native habitat. The drawback is that whereas it’s straightforward to gene-edit fowl cells in the lab, it’s exhausting to flip rigorously edited cells again right into a fowl. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

Who will get to be a tech entrepreneur in China?

We dwell in an age the place the idea of being an entrepreneur is more and more broad. It’s typically exhausting to slot occupations—internet hosting a podcast, driving for Uber, even having an OnlyFans account—into the conventional definitions of employment vs. entrepreneurship.

Of course, this isn’t a strictly Western phenomenon; it’s taking place throughout the world. And in China, it’s additionally remodeling how individuals work—however with the nation’s personal twists. 

Our China reporter Zeyi Yang has spoken with creator Lin Zhang about her new e book that explores the rise and social affect of Chinese individuals who have succeeded (a minimum of quickly) as entrepreneurs. Read the full story.

This story is from China Report, Zeyi’s weekly publication overlaying all the newest information from China. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to discover you as we speak’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 OpenAI has launched a device that detects AI-generated textual content
Unfortunately, it’s not excellent. (WSJ $)
+ The device returns lots of each false positives and false negatives. (Axios)
+ It recognized solely 26% of AI-written textual content appropriately. (Bloomberg $)
+ What the human mind can educate us about AI. (The Atlantic $)
+ Google is seemingly testing its personal ChatGPT rivals. (CNBC)
+ A watermark for chatbots can expose textual content written by an AI. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The US protection business is struggling to arm Ukraine
Its provide chains are straining underneath the sheer demand for weapons. (FT $)
+ How Russia is sneakily bypassing oil sanctions. (Economist $)

3 Elon Musk’s Twitter feed is an echo chamber
Despite his insistence that the broader platform must be extra open and numerous. (NYT $)
+ Twitter isn’t glad at the price of non-public jets. (Bloomberg $)
+ We’re witnessing the mind demise of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A streamer was caught watching deepfake porn of his colleagues  
The non-consensual movies display the risks of the expertise. (Motherboard)
+ A horrifying new AI app swaps ladies into porn movies with a click on. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Covid seems to be scrambling our immune methods
Even delicate infections appear to disrupt our capability to combat off ailments. (Slate $)
+ How to work out how wholesome your immune system is. (New Scientist $)

6 Tracking truckers hasn’t made long-haul driving safer
It has, nevertheless, ushered in a brand new period of surveillance. (New Yorker $)

7 What’s subsequent for laid-off tech staff?
Their expertise are extremely prized—particularly by companies outdoors tech. (Vox)
+ Anonymous app Blind is the hottest place to seek for work. (CNN)
+ The US is weaning itself off being a nation of workaholics. (The Atlantic $)

8 Assembling iPhones in Foxconn’s manufacturing facility is a thankless process
It pays effectively, however the grueling working circumstances problem staff each day. (Rest of World)

9 Airport protocols are getting quicker 🛫
E-gates and biometric passports are making it simpler to velocity by. (WP $)

10 It’s simpler than ever to report a UFO sighting 🛸
Simply fireplace up Enigma Labs’ app. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

—Programmer Miles Zimmerman remembers a nightmarish experiment with generative AI mannequin Mindjourney, which created photos of individuals with too many fingers and enamel, he tells BuzzFeed.

The huge story

This $1.5 billion startup promised to ship clear fuels as low-cost as gasoline. Experts are deeply skeptical.

April 2022

Last summer season, Rob McGinnis, the founder and chief government of startup Prometheus Fuels, gathered buyers and staged a theatrical demonstration of his expertise. Prometheus guarantees to rework the international gasoline sector by drawing greenhouse gasoline out of the air and changing it into carbon-neutral fuels which might be as low-cost as soiled, typical ones.

But whereas buyers have thrown cash at the firm, pushing it up to a valuation of greater than $1.5 billion, there’s little proof it could really dwell up to its lofty claims. Read the full story.

—James Temple

We can nonetheless have good issues

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

+ It’s truthful to say that I didn’t see the twist in any of these agony aunt letters coming (thanks Jess!)
+ Some selections are too robust to ponder, and that is one of them.
+ What can board video games educate us? More than you may suppose, really. 
+ Keep a watch out for the inexperienced comet passing shut to Earth tonight—in the event you miss it, you’ll have to wait one other 50,000 years.
+ A espresso date with these three angels is my thought of the good day.

…. to be continued
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