Plus, it’s becoming more likely that 2024 will be hottest year ever recorded
The Downloadis our weekly newsletterthat gives you a daily dose on what’s happening in the worlds of technology. Google’s Project Astra may be the killer app for generative AI
Google DeepMind announced a grab bag of new prototypes and products that could help it regain its lead in the race to make generative artificial intelligent a mass market concern
Google DeepMind announced an impressive assortment of new products.
The top billing goes to Gemini 2.0, the latest iteration of Google DeepMind’s family of large multimodal language models, which has been redesigned to allow agents to be controlled, and a new version Project Astra, an experimental everything app, that the company teased during Google I/O last May.
The gap between top-end models such as Gemini 2.0 and those of rival labs like OpenAI or Anthropic is now narrow. Today, the advancements in large language models are more about what they can do than how good they are. Agents can help.
MIT Technology Review was able to test out Astra last week in a live demo behind closed doors. It gave us a glimpse of what’s coming. Learn more by reading the full story.
–Will Douglas Heaven.
China has banned the export of a few minerals to the US. Things could get worse.
Casey Crownhart
In the last week, I’ve probably thought more about germanium and gallium than ever before (and more than anyone should).
China has banned the export of these materials to the US and imposed restrictions on other materials. This is the latest in a series of events that have escalated trade tensions between China and the US.
The new export bans may have significant economic implications, but this could be just the beginning. China is a major player in the clean energy sector, particularly in battery supply chains. What happens next could have major implications for EVs, and climate action in general. Read the complete story. This story is part of The Spark, The Spark’s weekly climate and energy news newsletter. Sign up for it to be delivered in your inbox each Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
It looks like 2024 will be the warmest year ever recorded
Average temperatures are only one way to assess our warming world. (New Scientist $).
+ It is likely that the first few months of 2025 will be hotter than normal. Reuters
+ US climate policy is about to take a dramatic turn. MIT Technology Review
To improve their previously strained relationship, 2 Meta has donated $1,000,000 to Trump’s inaugural funds
. (WSJ $ )
& Mark Zuckerberg’s not the only tech leader who wants to speak with the President-elect. (Insider $),
3 How China secretly returns Uyghurs to China
It seems that even the United Nations cannot stop it. (WP $ )
& Uyghurs living outside China are traumatized. Now they are starting to talk about this. MIT Technology Review
How Big Tech decides to wipe a user’s digital trail
Murder suspected Luigi Mangione has had his Instagram taken down, but not his Goodreads. (NYT $).
+ Why public online accounts are not the whole story. ($NY Mag)
Five Russia-backed hackers used criminal tools to target Ukraine’s military
Making it even more difficult to figure out who did it. (TechCrunch).
6. What Cruise’s departure means for the rest the robotaxi industry.
The automakers are getting frustrated while waiting for the technology. Cruise will instead focus on developing fully automated personal vehicles. ($NOW)
Researching pathogens with high risk is extremely high-stakes
Some researchers are worried about the potential for abuse. (Undark Magazine).
+ Meet scientist at the heart of the controversy surrounding the Covid lab leak. (MIT Technology Review),
Altermagnetism may be the next big thing in computing
It could lead to faster and more reliable electronic devices. (FT $) 9 Why some people require so little sleep?
It appears that gene mutations may hold some answers. (Knowable magazine)
+ Babies sleep most of the time. New technologies are revealing why. MIT Technology Review
10 Inside AI movies’ creeping normalization
World’s largest TV manufacturer is making films for people who are too lazy to switch channels. (404 Media)
+ It’s not surprising that it will also push targeted ads. How AI-generated videos are changing film. Ars Technica
and MIT Technology Review
Today’s Quote
“They’ve made him a martyr for all the troubles people have had with their own insurance companies.”
–Felipe Rodriguez explains to Reuters why murder suspect Luigi Mangione has been lionized on the internet.
Big story
AI could take quantum computing for lunch
Tech companies have been pouring billions into quantum computers since years. The hope is they’ll revolutionize fields such as finance, drug development, and logistics.
While the field struggles to deal with the reality of tricky quantum hardware another challenger is making progress in some of these most exciting use cases. AI is being applied to fundamental physics and chemistry as well as materials science. This suggests that quantum computing’s purported “home turf” might not be safe after all. Read the complete story.
–Edd Gentle
You can still enjoy nice things
A space for comfort, entertainment and distraction that will brighten your day. (Do you have any ideas? Send me a message ortweet them at me.
+ Working life getting you down? These photos of office malaise from the past will make you feel better (or worse — thanks Will!)
+ Gen Z is apparently very interested in documenting their lives with digital cameras.
If you think that Alan MacMasters was the inventor of the first electric toaster, you have fallen for a sophisticated online hoax.
+ The need for a more rigorous Turing test to assess AI-generated art.
