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This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.
How the national authorities is tracking changes successful the proviso of thoroughfare drugs
In 2021, the Maryland Department of Health and the authorities constabulary were confronting a crisis: Fatal cause overdoses successful the authorities were astatine an all-time high, and authorities didn’t cognize why.
Seeking answers, Maryland officials turned to scientists astatine the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the nationalist metrology institute for the United States, which defines and maintains standards of measurement indispensable to a wide scope of concern sectors and wellness and information applications.
There, a probe chemist named Ed Sisco and his squad had developed methods for detecting hint amounts of drugs, explosives, and different unsafe materials—techniques that could support instrumentality enforcement officials and others who had to cod these samples. And a aviator uncovered new, captious accusation astir immediately. Read the afloat story.
—Adam Bluestein
This communicative is from the adjacent variation of our people magazine. Subscribe now to work it and get a transcript of the mag erstwhile it lands!
Phase 2 of subject AI has arrived
—James O’Donnell
Last week, I spoke with 2 US Marines who spent overmuch of past twelvemonth deployed successful the Pacific, conducting grooming exercises from South Korea to the Philippines. Both were liable for analyzing surveillance to pass their superiors astir imaginable threats to the unit. But this deployment was unique: For the archetypal time, they were utilizing generative AI to scour intelligence, done a chatbot interface akin to ChatGPT.
As I wrote successful my caller story, this experimentation is the latest grounds of the Pentagon’s propulsion to usage generative AI—tools that tin prosecute successful humanlike conversation—throughout its ranks, for tasks including surveillance. This propulsion raises alarms from immoderate AI information experts astir whether ample connection models are acceptable to analyse subtle pieces of quality successful situations with precocious geopolitical stakes.
Here are 3 unfastened questions to support your oculus connected arsenic the US military, and others astir the world, bring generative AI to much parts of the alleged “kill chain.” Read the afloat story.
This communicative primitively appeared successful The Algorithm, our play newsletter connected AI. To get stories similar this successful your inbox first, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 The FCC wants Europe to take betwixt US and Chinese technology
Trump authoritative Brendan Carr has urged Western allies to prime Elon Musk’s Starlink implicit rival Chinese outer firms. (FT $)
+ China whitethorn look similar a little erratic prime close now. (NY Mag $)
2 Nvidia wants to physique its AI supercomputers wholly successful the US
It’s a determination the Trump medication has claimed recognition for. (WP $)
+ That said, Nvidia hasn’t said however overmuch cogwheel it plans to marque successful America. (WSJ $)
+ Production of its latest spot has already begun successful Arizona. (Bloomberg $)
3 Mark Zuckerberg defended Meta successful the archetypal time of its antitrust trial
He downplayed the company’s determination to acquisition Instagram and WhatsApp. (Politico)
+ The authorities claims helium bought the firms to stifle competition. (The Verge)
+ Zuckerberg has antecedently denied that his purchases had wounded competition. (NYT $)
4 OpenAI’s caller models are designed to excel astatine coding
The 3 models person been optimized to travel analyzable instructions. (Wired $)
+ We’re inactive waiting for confirmation of GPT-5. (The Verge)
+ The 2nd question of AI coding is here. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Apple has accrued its iPhone shipments by 10%
It’s portion of a pre-emptive program to mitigate tariff disruptions. (Bloomberg $)
+ The tariff chaos has played havoc with Apple stocks. (Insider $)
6 We’re learning much astir the nexus betwixt agelong covid and cognitive impairment
Studies suggest that a patient’s property erstwhile they contracted covid whitethorn beryllium a cardinal factor. (WSJ $)
7 Can’t beryllium bothered to telephone your aged parents? Get AI to bash it 📞
How thoroughly depressing. (404 Media)
8 This video app hopes to capitalize connected TikTok’s uncertain future
But dissimilar TikTok, Neptune allows creators to fell their likes. (TechCrunch)
9 Meet the tech bros who privation to unrecorded underwater
Colonizing the oversea is 1 of the last frontiers. (NYT $)
+ Meet the divers trying to fig retired however heavy humans tin go. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Google’s caller AI exemplary tin decipher dolphin sounds🐬
If they’re squawking, backmost away. (Ars Technica)
+ The mode whales pass is person to quality connection than we realized. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
"If you don't similar an ad, you scroll past it. It takes astir a second."
—Mark Hansen, Meta’s pb lawyer, makes airy of the Federal Trade Commission’s assertion that users of its platforms are inundated with ads during the archetypal time of Meta’s monopoly trial, Ars Technica reports.
The large story
Recapturing aboriginal net whimsy with HTML
Websites weren’t ever slick integer experiences.
There was a clip erstwhile surfing the web progressive opening tabs that played euphony against your volition and sifting done walls of substance connected a colored background. In the 2000s, earlier Squarespace and societal media, websites were manifestations of individuality—built from scratch utilizing HTML, by users who had immoderate cognition of code.
Scattered crossed the web are communities of programmers moving to revive this seemingly outdated approach. And the question is thing but a superficial entreaty to retro aesthetics—it’s astir celebrating the quality interaction successful integer experiences. Read the afloat story.
—Tiffany Ng
English (US) ·