The Merge arrives, and China’s AI picture censorship

• The darkish secret behind these cute AI-generated animal photos. Google Mind revealed its personal image-making AI, known as Imagen, earlier this 12 months. However do not count on to see something that is not healthful. Learn the total story.
• This avocado armchair may very well be the way forward for AI. Final 12 months, OpenAI prolonged GPT-3 with two new fashions that mix NLP with picture recognition to provide its AI a greater understanding of on a regular basis ideas. Learn the total story.

The must-reads

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

1 Social media’s largest firms appeared earlier than the US Senate
Previous and current Meta, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube staff answered questions on social media’s impression on homeland safety. (TechCrunch)
+ Retaining consumer consideration is their algorithms’ main objective. (Protocol)
+ TikTok’s consultant averted committing to slicing off China’s entry to US information. (Bloomberg $)

2 China desires to cut back its reliance on Western tech
Investing closely in native companies is only one a part of its multi-year plan. (FT $)
+ Cybercriminals are more and more concerned about Chinese language residents’ private information. (Bloomberg $)
+ The FBI accused him of spying for China. It ruined his life. (MIT Expertise Overview)

3 California is suing Amazon
Accusing it of triggering value rises throughout the state. (WSJ $)
+ The 2-year struggle to cease Amazon from promoting face recognition to the police. (MIT Expertise Overview)

4 Russia is waging a surveillance struggle by itself residents 
Its authorities are more and more focusing on peculiar folks, not identified dissidents or journalists. (Slate $)
+ Russian troops are nonetheless fleeing northern Ukraine. (The Guardian) 

5 Dozens of AIs debated 100 years of local weather negotiations in seconds
They’re evaluating which insurance policies are most certainly to be well-received globally. (New Scientist $)
+ Patagonia’s proprietor has given the corporate away to struggle local weather change. (The Guardian) 

6 Iranian hackers hijacked their victims’ printers to ship ransom notes
The three males have been accused of focusing on folks within the US, UK and Iran. (Motherboard)

7 DARPA’s tiny airplane might spy from nearly anyplace
The unmanned automobile might additionally carry small bombs. (WP $)
+ The Taliban have crashed a helicopter left behind by the US navy. (Motherboard)

8 Listening to stars helps astronomers to evaluate what’s inside them
The spooky-sounding acoustic waves transmit plenty of information. (Economist $)
+ The James Webb Area Telescope has noticed new child stars. (Area)
+ The following Area Pressure chief thinks the US wants a satellite tv for pc constellation to fight China.  (Nikkei Asia)

9 We’ll by no means have the ability to flip and switch like a cat
However the very best divers and gymnasts are the closest we will get. (The Atlantic $)
+ The most effective robotic jumpers are impressed by nature. (Quanta)

10 This robotic is having fun
Even when it’s not terribly convincing. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Tesla has but to supply something even remotely approaching a completely self-driving automobile.”

—Briggs Matsko, a Tesla proprietor, explains his rationale for suing the corporate over the “misleading” approach it marketed its driver-assistance techniques, in keeping with Reuters.