This is at present’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.
How the Supreme Court ruling on Section 230 might finish Reddit as we all know it
When the Supreme Court hears a landmark case on Section 230 later in February, all eyes will likely be on the most important gamers in tech—Meta, Google, Twitter, YouTube.
The case might need a spread of outcomes. One of the potential penalties is that these firms could also be compelled to remodel their strategy to group content material moderation.
Many websites depend on customers for group moderation to edit, form, take away, and promote different customers’ content material on-line—suppose Reddit’s upvote, or adjustments to a Wikipedia web page. If these customers had been compelled to tackle authorized danger each time they made a content material resolution, consultants warn that it might have a catastrophic impact on on-line speech communities. Read the complete story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
A de-extinction firm is attempting to resurrect the dodo
The information: The dodo fowl was massive, flightless, and fairly tasty, too—all of which assist to elucidate why it went extinct round 1662. Now a US biotechnology firm says it plans to convey the dodo again into existence.
Why a dodo? It’s the third species picked by Colossal Biosciences, of Austin, Texas, for what it calls a means of technological “de-extinction.” The firm can be engaged on utilizing large-scale genome engineering to morph trendy elephants again into wooly mammoths and resurrect the Tasmanian tiger.
How are they doing it? The firm recovered detailed DNA info from 500-year-old dodo stays held at a museum in Denmark. It plans to attempt to modify the fowl’s closest residing relative, the Nicobar pigeon, turning it step-by-step right into a dodo and probably “re-wilding” the animal in its native habitat. The downside is that whereas it’s straightforward to gene-edit fowl cells within the lab, it’s laborious to show rigorously edited cells again right into a fowl. Read the complete story.
—Antonio Regalado
Who will get to be a tech entrepreneur in China?
We dwell in an age the place the idea of being an entrepreneur is more and more broad. It’s typically laborious to fit occupations—internet hosting a podcast, driving for Uber, even having an OnlyFans account—into the standard definitions of employment vs. entrepreneurship.
Of course, this isn’t a strictly Western phenomenon; it’s occurring all around the world. And in China, it’s additionally reworking how individuals work—however with the nation’s personal twists.
Our China reporter Zeyi Yang has spoken with writer Lin Zhang about her new guide that explores the rise and social influence of Chinese individuals who have succeeded (at the very least quickly) as entrepreneurs. Read the complete story.
This story is from China Report, Zeyi’s weekly publication masking all the most recent information from China. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at present’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 OpenAI has launched a instrument that detects AI-generated textual content
Unfortunately, it’s not excellent. (WSJ $)
+ The instrument returns lots of each false positives and false negatives. (Axios)
+ It recognized solely 26% of AI-written textual content appropriately. (Bloomberg $)
+ What the human mind can train us about AI. (The Atlantic $)
+ Google is outwardly testing its personal ChatGPT rivals. (CNBC)
+ A watermark for chatbots can expose textual content written by an AI. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The US protection business is struggling to arm Ukraine
Its provide chains are straining below the sheer demand for weapons. (FT $)
+ How Russia is sneakily bypassing oil sanctions. (Economist $)
3 Elon Musk’s Twitter feed is an echo chamber
Despite his insistence that the broader platform ought to be extra open and various. (NYT $)
+ Twitter isn’t pleased at the price of non-public jets. (Bloomberg $)
+ We’re witnessing the mind dying of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)
4 A streamer was caught watching deepfake porn of his colleagues
The non-consensual movies reveal the risks of the expertise. (Motherboard)
+ A horrifying new AI app swaps ladies into porn movies with a click on. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Covid seems to be scrambling our immune techniques
Even gentle infections appear to disrupt our capacity to struggle off ailments. (Slate $)
+ How to work out how wholesome your immune system is. (New Scientist $)
6 Tracking truckers hasn’t made long-haul driving safer
It has, nevertheless, ushered in a brand new period of surveillance. (New Yorker $)
7 What’s subsequent for laid-off tech staff?
Their abilities are extremely prized—particularly by companies outdoors tech. (Vox)
+ Anonymous app Blind is the most well liked place to seek for work. (CNN)
+ The US is weaning itself off being a nation of workaholics. (The Atlantic $)
8 Assembling iPhones in Foxconn’s manufacturing facility is a thankless process
It pays effectively, however the grueling working situations problem staff every day. (Rest of World)
9 Airport protocols are getting quicker 
E-gates and biometric passports are making it simpler to hurry by. (WP $)
10 It’s simpler than ever to report a UFO sighting 
Simply hearth up Enigma Labs’ app. (Wired $)
Quote of the day
“As I kept looking, it was hard not to laugh out loud at the absurdity of those hands and teeth.”
—Programmer Miles Zimmerman remembers a nightmarish experiment with generative AI mannequin Mindjourney, which created pictures of individuals with too many fingers and enamel, he tells BuzzFeed.
The massive story
This $1.5 billion startup promised to ship clear fuels as low cost as fuel. Experts are deeply skeptical.
April 2022
Last summer time, Rob McGinnis, the founder and chief government of startup Prometheus Fuels, gathered buyers and staged a theatrical demonstration of his expertise. Prometheus guarantees to remodel the worldwide gasoline sector by drawing greenhouse fuel out of the air and changing it into carbon-neutral fuels which are as low cost as soiled, standard ones.
But whereas buyers have thrown cash on the firm, pushing it as much as a valuation of greater than $1.5 billion, there’s little proof it could really dwell as much as its lofty claims. Read the complete story.
—James Temple
We can nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Got any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ It’s truthful to say that I didn’t see the twist in any of those agony aunt letters coming (thanks Jess!)
+ Some decisions are too powerful to ponder, and this is one in every of them.
+ What can board video games train us? More than you would possibly suppose, really.
+ Keep a watch out for the inexperienced comet passing near Earth tonight—when you miss it, you’ll have to attend one other 50,000 years.
+ A espresso date with these three angels is my thought of the proper day.