This is immediately’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on the earth of expertise.
What is loss of life?
Just as start certificates observe the time we enter the world, loss of life certificates mark the second we exit it. This follow displays conventional notions about life and loss of life as binaries. We are right here till, out of the blue, like a light-weight switched off, we’re gone.
But whereas this concept of loss of life is pervasive, proof is constructing that it’s an outdated social assemble, not likely grounded in biology. Dying is the truth is a course of—one with no clear level demarcating the brink throughout which somebody can’t come again.
Scientists and plenty of medical doctors have already embraced this extra nuanced understanding of loss of life. And as society catches up, the implications for the residing may very well be profound. Read the complete story.
—Rachel Nuwer
‘What is death?’ is a part of our mini-series The Biggest Questions, which explores how expertise helps probe a few of the deepest, most mind-bending mysteries of our existence.
Read extra:
+ Why is the universe so advanced and exquisite? For some motive the universe is filled with stars, galaxies, and life. But it didn’t should be this fashion. Read the complete story.
+ How did life start? AI helps chemists unpick the mysteries across the origins of life and detect indicators of it on different worlds. Read the complete story.
+ Are we alone within the universe? Scientists are coaching machine-learning fashions and designing devices to hunt for all times on different worlds. Read the complete story.
+ Is it potential to essentially perceive another person’s thoughts? How we expect, really feel and expertise the world is a thriller to everybody however us. But expertise could also be beginning to assist us perceive the minds of others. Read the complete story.
Text-to-image AI fashions could be tricked into producing disturbing pictures
What’s occurred: Popular text-to-image AI fashions could be prompted to disregard their security filters and generate disturbing pictures. A gaggle of researchers managed to get each Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2’s text-to-image fashions to ignore their insurance policies and create pictures of bare folks, dismembered our bodies, and different violent and sexual eventualities.
How they did it: This new jailbreaking technique, known as “SneakyPrompt”, makes use of reinforcement studying to create written prompts that appear to be garbled nonsense to us however that AI fashions be taught to acknowledge as hidden requests for disturbing pictures. It basically works by turning the best way text-to-image AI fashions operate in opposition to them.
Why it issues: The analysis highlights the vulnerability of present AI security filters and will function a wake-up name for the AI neighborhood to bolster safety measures throughout the board, consultants say. It additionally demonstrates how tough it’s to stop these fashions from producing such content material, because it’s included within the huge troves of information they’ve been educated on. Read the complete story.
—Rhiannon Williams
The ache is actual. The painkillers are digital actuality.
Plenty of kids—and adults—hate needles. But digital actuality gadgets like Smileyscope, a tool for teenagers that just lately obtained FDA clearance, may assist to make a distinction. It helps reduce the ache of a blood draw or IV insertion by sending the person on an underwater journey. Inside this watery deep-sea actuality, the swipe of an alcohol wipe turns into cool waves washing over the arm. The pinch of the needle turns into a delicate fish nibble.
But how Smileyscope works is just not totally clear. It’s extra advanced than simply distraction, and never all stimuli are equally efficient. But the promise of VR has led firms to work on gadgets to deal with a a lot harder downside: persistent ache. Read the complete story.
—Cassandra Willyard
This story is from The Checkup, our weekly well being and biotech publication. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic submit on X
Leaving its executives racing to suppress the injury. (NYT $)
+ IBM has pulled its adverts from X after they appeared subsequent to antisemitic posts. (WP $)
+ Musk’s feedback are resonating with the far-right, unsurprisingly. (Motherboard)
2 Osama bin Laden’s letter to America has exploded on social media
Videos of American customers endorsing components of the 9/11 manifesto have gone viral. (WP $)
+ TikTok says it’s aggressively working to take away the clips. (NYT $)
+ The Guardian newspaper has deleted its model of the letter from its web site. (404 Media)
3 SpaceX has pushed again its large rocket launch
A part in want of changing has delayed the launch till Saturday. (Ars Technica)
4 The first CRISPR medication has been permitted within the UK
The remedy, known as Casgevy, edits the cells of individuals with sickle cell illness earlier than infusing them again in. (Wired $)
+ Remarkably, the remedy successfully cures the illness. (New Scientist $)+ Here’s how CRISPR is altering lives. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Data dealer LexisNexis offered surveillance instruments to US border enforcement
Social media oversight, face recognition and geolocation information, amongst others. (The Intercept)
6 OpenAI has steamrollered the AI trade
And startup founders are struggling to keep away from changing into roadkill. (Insider $)
+ Google has delayed releasing its OpenAI-challenging Gemini system. (The Information $)
+ Inside the thoughts of OpenAI’s chief scientist. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Climate-proofing our properties is a nightmare
Extreme climate occasions are on the rise—and our properties are weak. (The Verge)
+ The quest to construct wildfire-resistant properties. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Vietnamese immigrants depend on YouTube for his or her information
Even when it’s not at all times clear if that information is from dependable sources. (The Markup)
9 Reddit is the perfect place for product critiques now
Fake critiques and Search engine marketing-bait lists aren’t useful. Honest assessments from actual persons are. (Vox)
10 Meet the inventor of the lickable TV 
Net-licks and chill? (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“We fly, we break some things, we learn some things, and then we go back and fly again.”
—William Gerstenmaier, the vp of construct and flight reliability at SpaceX, explains the corporate’s method to inevitable rocket launch setbacks to Bloomberg.
The massive story
Responsible AI has a burnout downside
Margaret Mitchell had been working at Google for 2 years earlier than she realized she wanted a break. Only after she spoke with a therapist did she perceive the issue: she was burnt out.
Mitchell, who now works as chief ethics scientist on the AI startup Hugging Face, is way from alone in her expertise. Burnout is changing into more and more frequent in accountable AI groups.
All the practitioners MIT Technology Review interviewed spoke enthusiastically about their work: it’s fueled by ardour, a way of urgency, and the satisfaction of constructing options for actual issues. But that sense of mission could be overwhelming with out the correct help. Read the complete story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
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.)
+ The lovely story of how this couple met will heat your coronary heart. 
+ Why Sex in area is a such a tough enterprise.
+ Let it go—why Frozen’s legacy refuses to die.
+ Why not deal with your self to a White Toreador tequila cocktail this weekend?
+ Uncanny Valley make-up is the stuff of nightmares, fairly frankly.