This is at this time’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the earth of know-how.
Generative AI is altering all the pieces. But what’s left when the hype is gone?
It was clear that OpenAI was on to one thing. In late 2021, a small group of researchers was enjoying round with a brand new model of OpenAI’s text-to-image mannequin, DALL-E, an AI that converts quick written descriptions into footage: a fox painted by Van Gogh, maybe, or a corgi product of pizza. Now they simply had to determine what to do with it.
Nobody may have predicted simply how large a splash this product was going to make. The fast launch of different generative fashions has impressed a whole bunch of newspaper headlines and journal covers, crammed social media with memes, kicked a hype machine into overdrive—and set off an intense backlash from creators.
The thrilling reality is, we don’t actually know what’s coming subsequent. While artistic industries will really feel the affect first, this tech will give artistic superpowers to everyone. In the long term, it may very well be used to generate designs for nearly something. The downside is, these fashions nonetheless do not know what they’re doing. Read the total story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
This story is a part of our upcoming 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2023 sequence. Download readers would be the first to see the total record in January.
+ Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, tells Will Douglas Heaven, our senior AI editor, what he’s realized from DALL-E 2, and what the mannequin means for society. Read the total story.
Coming quickly: A brand new report from MIT Technology Review about how industrial design and engineering companies are utilizing generative AI. Sign up to get notified when it’s out.
Artists can now decide out of the following model of Stable Diffusion
What’s occurred: Artists are actually capable of decide out of the following model of one of many world’s hottest text-to-image AI turbines, Stable Diffusion, the corporate behind it introduced. Creators can search an internet site known as HaveIBeenTrained for his or her works within the information set that was used to coach Stable Diffusion, and choose which works they wish to exclude from the coaching information.
Why it’s vital: The determination comes amid a heated public debate between artists and tech corporations over how text-to-image AI fashions must be educated. The artist couple who created the web site hope that the opt-out service will briefly compensate for the absence of laws governing the sector. Read the total story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
Mind-altering substances are being overhyped as marvel medicine
For the previous 5 years or so, barely per week has passed by and not using a research, remark, or press launch in regards to the potential advantages of psychedelic medicine. A rising variety of lecturers, therapists, and firms have an interest within the potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD to deal with mental-health problems comparable to melancholy, anxiousness, PTSD, and substance use problems, to call just a few.
The fame of psychedelics has been by way of one thing of a rollercoaster experience over the past 70 years or so. They went from producing pleasure, to instilling worry and distrust, to experiencing a latest renaissance. But regardless of the present pleasure, the reality is we don’t but have proof that psychedelics actually are going to alter well being care, resulting in considerations that psychedelics analysis is “trapped in a hype bubble.” Read the total story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly biotech publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you at this time’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Twitter is suspending journalists’ accounts
The widespread thread is that they’ve all reported on Elon Musk’s determination to droop an account that tracks his personal jet. (The Guardian)
+ The account of rival platform Mastodon has additionally been suspended. (TechCrunch)
+ So a lot for Musk’s dedication to free speech. (Vox)
+ Musk mentioned he’d by no means ban the @elonjet account as just lately as final month. (Motherboard)
+ It’s nonetheless simple to trace the jet’s whereabouts, as the info is public. (Insider $)
2 A stealth effort to bury wooden for carbon removing has simply raised hundreds of thousands
If the trial is profitable, it may very well be a comparatively simple and straightforward method of decreasing greenhouse gasses. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Bitcoin lovers are crowing about FTX’s downfall
Even although bitcoin itself took a significant hit. (Slate $)
+ NBA celebrity Shaquille O’Neal has denied any involvement with FTX. (Insider $)
4 Bio-based plastics are nonetheless plastics
Switching to plastics created from plant-extracted carbon may permit the trade to greenwash the method. (Wired $)
5 Streaming isn’t thrilling anymore
There’s not as a lot cash sloshing round, and Netflix et al don’t wish to take dangers in the identical method they as soon as did. (The Verge)
+ Mass-appeal exhibits are de rigueur now. (Insider $)
6 Changes in a baby’s microbiome can induce worry
It may have an effect on how they expertise anxiousness and melancholy in later life. (Neo.Life)
7 How on-line buying tries to trick you
Pressuring consumers into making fast choices is on the coronary heart of it. (Vox)
+ Ads for advertisements is the most recent factor on TikTok. (FT $)
+ TV advertisements are getting extra meta, too. (The Atlantic $)
8 Gen Z goes again to the tech darkish ages
They’re reshaping what it’s to be a Luddite within the digital age. (NYT $)
9 TikTok desires to rehabilitate pigeons’ unhealthy fame
But taking in wild birds off the road remains to be a foul concept. (The Atlantic $)
+ How to befriend a crow. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Strength coaching in older age pays off 
It’s by no means too late to begin—and it will possibly assist to take care of independence for longer. (Knowable Magazine)
Quote of the day
“It seems like he’s just trying to scare me and it’s not going to work.”
—Jack Sweeney, the school scholar who tracks Elon Musk’s personal jet on Twitter utilizing publicly accessible information, tells Insider why he’s refusing to be shaken by Musk’s announcement he was suing Sweeney.
The large story
How to fix your damaged pandemic mind
July 2021
Americans are slowly popping out of the pandemic, however as they reemerge, there’s nonetheless a number of trauma to course of. It’s not simply our households, our communities, and our jobs which have modified; our brains have modified too. We’re not the identical folks we have been.
During the winter of 2020, greater than 40% of Americans reported signs of hysteria or melancholy, double the speed of the earlier yr. While this fell the next summer season, as vaccination charges rose and covid instances fell, many Americans are nonetheless scuffling with their psychological well being. Now the query is, can our brains change again? And how can we assist them try this? Read the total story.
—Dana Smith
We can nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Got any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Here’s the way to keep away from succumbing to hanger.
+ If adrenaline-inducing footage is your factor, GoPro Heroes might be proper up your avenue.
+ A no-bake raspberry cheesecake seems like minimal fuss, most enjoyment.
+ These fairytale properties look so inviting. 
+ We’ve lastly solved the thriller of why prehistoric patterns have been carved into the Middle Eastern desert.