The Download: a new form of AI surveillance, and the US and China’s tariff deal

11 hours ago 1

Police and national agencies person recovered a arguable caller mode to skirt the increasing patchwork of laws that curb however they usage facial recognition: an AI exemplary that tin way radical based connected attributes similar assemblage size, gender, hairsbreadth colour and style, clothing, and accessories.

The tool, called Track and built by the video analytics institution Veritone, is utilized by 400 customers, including authorities and section constabulary departments and universities each implicit the US. It is besides expanding federally.

The merchandise has drawn disapproval from the American Civil Liberties Union, which—after learning of the instrumentality done MIT Technology Review—said it was the archetypal lawsuit they’d seen of a nonbiometric tracking strategy utilized astatine standard successful the US. Read the afloat story.

—James O'Donnell

If you’re funny successful speechmaking much astir facial designation and constabulary tech, cheque out:

+ How the largest gathering of US constabulary chiefs is talking astir AI. Officers grooming successful virtual reality, cities surveilled by webs of sensors, and AI-generated constabulary reports are each a motion of what’s to come. Read the afloat story.

+ Clear, the institution that has helped millions of radical chopped information lines, wants to springiness you a frictionless future—in speech for your face. Read the afloat story.

+ The US wants to usage facial designation to identify migrant children arsenic they age.

+ Why the question to bounds look designation tech mightiness yet get a win. Read the afloat story.

+ Uber’s facial designation is locking Indian drivers retired of their accounts— and immoderate radical are uncovering their accounts permanently blocked. Read the afloat story.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.

1 The US and China person struck a woody to slash tariffs 
For the adjacent 90 days, astatine least. (Politico)
+ But America’s 30% tariffs are inactive highly high. (FT $)
+ China has agreed to chopped its levies from 125% to 10%. (CNN)

2 OpenAI is negotiating a aboriginal IPO with Microsoft
While inactive preserving Microsoft’s entree to the startup’s AI models. (FT $)
+ Meanwhile, Microsoft is perpetually racing to enactment up of hackers. (Bloomberg $)

3 DOGE cuts permission US workers astatine expanding hazard of processing silicosis 
The lung illness is deadly—and preventable. (The Atlantic $)
+ Can AI assistance DOGE slash authorities budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Scammers are posing arsenic lawyers connected TikTok to instrumentality undocumented migrants
Immigration scams person skyrocketed since Trump took office. (WP $)
+ An extended sextortion web connected TikTok is targeting American kids. (The Guardian)
+ AI-powered fraud is everyplace close now. (Wired $)

5 Weather balloons are being phased retired successful favour of AI tools
Severe fund cuts mean that less balloon flights are being scheduled. (Semafor)
+ Trump’s tariffs volition present a large stroke to clime tech. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Amazon Web Service depends connected this mysterious spot startup

Annapurna, the institution down Amazon’s unreality success, is captious to its future. (WSJ $)

7 Inside the quest to make the cleanable solid-state battery
Massachusetts start-up Factorial wants to overhaul EVs’ image. (NYT $)
+ But tariffs are atrocious quality for batteries. (MIT Technology Review)

8 A colossal information halfway successful North Dakota is sitting empty
It’s struggling to find a large tech lawsuit to lease it. (The Information $)
+ China built hundreds of AI information centers to drawback the AI boom. Now galore basal unused. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Housewives marque up Vietnam’s latest question of gig workers
They’re storing goods successful their fridges portion they’re astatine location to chopped costs. (Rest of World)

10 Professional writers emotion Substack ✏️
They’re utilizing the mean to experimentation with breathtaking caller styles. (New Yorker $)
+ Niche newsletters are large concern these days. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“It feels a spot similar a captive seeing their triple beingness condemnation reduced to a azygous one.”

—Katja Bego, a elder probe chap astatine Chatham House, comments connected the statement betwixt the US and China to chopped tariffs from 145% to 30% successful a station connected Bluesky.

One much thing

The $100 cardinal stake that a postindustrial US metropolis tin reinvent itself arsenic a high-tech hub

On a time successful precocious April, a tiny drilling rig sits astatine the borderline of the scrubby overgrown fields of Syracuse, New York, taking ungraded samples. It’s the archetypal motion of operation connected what could go the largest semiconductor manufacturing installation successful the United States.

The CHIPS and Science Act was wide viewed by manufacture leaders and politicians arsenic a mode to unafraid proviso chains, and marque the United States competitory again successful semiconductor spot manufacturing.

Now Syracuse is becoming an economical trial of whether, implicit the adjacent respective decades, assertive authorities policies—and the monolithic firm investments they spur—can some boost the country’s manufacturing prowess and revitalize neglected parts of the country. Read the afloat story.

—David Rotman

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