That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of expertise.
Our favourite tales of 2022
We wish to suppose we’ve had an important yr right here at MIT Know-how Overview. Our tales have gained quite a few awards (this story from our journal gained Gold within the AAAS awards) and our investigations have helped make clear unjust insurance policies.
So this yr we requested our writers and editors to comb again by the previous 12 months and attempt to choose only one story that they cherished probably the most—after which inform us why. That is what they mentioned.
What’s subsequent for AI
In 2022, AI received artistic. AI fashions can now produce remarkably convincing items of textual content, photos, and even movies, with just a bit prompting. It’s solely been 9 months since OpenAI set off the generative AI explosion with the launch of DALL-E 2, a deep-learning mannequin that may produce photographs from textual content directions. That was adopted by a breakthrough from Google and Meta: AIs that may produce movies from textual content. And it’s solely been just a few weeks since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the most recent giant language mannequin to set the web ablaze with its stunning eloquence and coherence.
The tempo of innovation this yr has been exceptional—and at occasions overwhelming. Who may have seen it coming? And the way can we predict what’s subsequent?
Our in-house specialists Will Douglas Heaven and Melissa Heikkilä inform us the 4 greatest tendencies they count on to form the AI panorama in 2023. Learn the total story
Mind stimulation could be extra invasive than we predict
Immediately, there are many neurotechnologies that may learn what’s occurring in our brains, modify the best way they operate, and alter the wiring. Deep mind stimulation, for instance, includes implanting electrodes deep into the mind to stimulate neurons and management the best way mind areas hearth. It’s thought of fairly invasive, within the medical sense.
Different therapies, resembling transcranial magnetic stimulation, which includes passing a tool formed like a determine 8 over an individual’s head to ship a magnetic pulse to elements of the mind and to intervene with its exercise, are thought of “noninvasive” as a result of they act from exterior the mind. But when we will attain into an individual’s thoughts, even with out piercing the cranium, how noninvasive is the expertise actually? Learn the total story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly publication overlaying every part value realizing in biotech. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
Podcast: the way forward for farming lies in house
AI is utilized in agriculture to exactly goal weeds and optimize irrigation practices. It’s additionally being utilized in methods you may not count on, like for monitoring the well being of cow pastures—from house. We journey from take a look at farms to orchards within the first of a two-part sequence on agriculture, AI, and satellites.
Pay attention on Apple Podcasts or wherever you usually get your podcasts.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Sam Bankman-Fried has been launched on $250 million bail
He’s going through dwelling detention whereas he awaits trial. (BBC)
+ It’s one of many largest bails in US historical past. (Bloomberg $)
+ Crypto Twitter will not be impressed by his soft situations. (CoinTelegraph)
2 A extreme storm is forcing US airways to cancel flights
+ Disrupting Christmas journey left, proper, and middle. (WSJ $)
+ It’s on account of sweep throughout a lot of the US and into Canada. (Wired $)
3 We don’t understand how efficient nasal covid vaccines are
And since we’re not amassing the proper of information, we could by no means know. (The Atlantic $)
+ Two inhaled covid vaccines have been permitted—however we don’t know but how good they’re. (MIT Know-how Overview)
+ Life expectancy within the US has fallen once more. (Axios)
4 Twitter is beginning to present how many individuals have seen your tweets
It’s one more of Elon Musk’s wheezes. (TechCrunch)
+ Twitter appears to be like prefer it’s crumbling proper now. (The Atlantic $)
+ We’re witnessing the mind loss of life of Twitter. (MIT Know-how Overview)
5 ByteDance has been monitoring journalists
Its workers improperly gained entry to their IP addresses to try to work out in the event that they’d crossed paths with ByteDance employees. (Forbes)
+ In any case that, the corporate failed to search out any leaks. (FT $)
+ TikTok is desperately attempting to curry favor within the US. (Reuters)
6 NFTs are at a crossroads
Their worth has plummeted, however evangelists are refusing to surrender. (Wired $)
+ A few of the crypto trustworthy try to take their losses on the chin. (Vice)
7 Immigrant tech employees who’ve been laid off are caught in limbo
Shedding their jobs means their households are additionally unable to work, leaving many with no selection however to depart the US. (The Guardian)
+ For this startup founder, his enterprise going bust got here as a little bit of a aid. (The Data $)
8 This has been a landmark yr for EVs
They’re not simply synonymous with Tesla any extra. (Vox)
+ Why EVs gained’t change hybrid automobiles anytime quickly. (MIT Know-how Overview)
9 Japan’s house company is sending a toy-like rover to the moon
The lovable ball is designed by common toymaker Tomy. (New Yorker $)
+ The Perseverance rover has dropped off its first pattern tube. (The Register)
10 We’re dwelling by the primary ever BeReal Christmas 
Sadly, originality is vanishingly uncommon. (Vice)
Quote of the day
“In opposition to all odds, and doom and gloom eventualities, Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.”
—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanks the US Congress for its monetary help of Ukraine and its folks 10 months after Russia invaded, CNN experiences.
The massive story
Startups are racing to breed breast milk within the lab
December 2020
Like many moms, Leila Strickland discovered breastfeeding tough. She struggled to feed her son, and three years later, her daughter, and spent all day, daily, nursing or pumping to stimulate her milk stream.
Strickland, a professor of vascular physiology at Maastricht College within the Netherlands, started serious about how she may be capable to use a course of like that pioneered by Dutch meals expertise firm Mosa Meat to create synthetic beef, however for cells that produce breast milk.
For years she struggled to maintain the mission funded, and she or he got here near abandoning the thought. However in Could 2020, Biomilq, an organization she had based, obtained $3.5 million from a bunch of buyers led by Invoice Gates. Biomilq is now in a race with opponents to shake up the world of toddler diet in a manner not seen because the start of the now $42 billion method business. Learn the total story.
—Haley Cohen Gilliland
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of flirting with onion emojis till now. 
+ Even millennials are beginning to discover millennials cringe.
+ An intrepid information to all Netflix’s tacky festive motion pictures—watch at your peril.
+ This chef is bravely reimagining the Italian Christmas traditional panettone, with a little bit Silician aptitude.
+ How you can make new yr’s resolutions you’ll truly keep on with.
