This is at this time’s version of The Download, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.
It’s excessive time for extra AI transparency
In lower than per week since Meta launched its open supply AI mannequin, LLaMA 2, startups and researchers have already used it to develop a chatbot and an AI assistant. It will likely be solely a matter of time till firms begin launching merchandise constructed with it.
LLaMA 2 makes loads of sense. A nimble, clear, and customizable mannequin that’s free to make use of may assist firms create AI services sooner than they may with a giant, refined proprietary mannequin like OpenAI’s GPT-4.
By permitting the broader AI group to obtain the mannequin and tweak it, Meta may assist to make it safer and extra environment friendly. And crucially, it may display the advantages of transparency over secrecy relating to the internal workings of AI fashions—at a degree when that would not be extra well timed, or extra essential. Read the total story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
This story is from The Algorithm, her weekly AI e-newsletter. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Monday.
If you’re focused on studying extra about AI, try a few of our glorious latest reporting:
+ A fast information to all probably the most (and least) promising efforts to govern AI around the globe.
+ How existential danger grew to become the largest meme in AI.
+ Generative AI dangers concentrating Big Tech’s energy. Here’s the best way to cease it.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at this time’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Twitter’s identify change will price its model billions
‘Tweeting’ is a part of our cultural lexicon—however Elon Musk doesn’t appear to care. (Bloomberg $)
+ He’s attempting to destroy Twitter’s legacy and chart a dangerous new course. (WP $)
+ Musk can also be projecting ‘s3xy’ on the corporate’s HQ partitions. (NYT $)
+ If you’re a bit bit unhappy over Twitter’s demise, you’re not alone. (Vox)
+ The letter X does have a permanent type of enchantment, although. (The Guardian)
2 The world isn’t ready for what OpenAI’s been engaged on
Sam Altman says his employees have created a harmful AI they’ll by no means launch. (The Atlantic $)
+ His ambitions are more and more at odds with regulators. (FT $)
+ It’s time to speak about the actual AI dangers. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Mastodon is rife with little one abuse photographs
It’s a grim reminder of how a lot more durable it’s to average decentralized platforms. (WP $)
4 China is fed up of Western sanctions
And it has no qualms about retaliating. (Economist $)
+ China is preventing again within the semiconductor exports struggle. (MIT Technology Review)
5 It’s more durable for governments to flag individuals’s social media posts now
While the US has already been restricted, the identical sorts of checks are additionally coming to Europe. (Wired $)
6 America’s farmland is being became AI information facilities
Sprawling facilities are arising in rural expanses. (Insider $)
7 The FBI ran a secret encrypted telephones enterprise for years
Now, a workforce of attorneys desire a choose to call the nation that aided them. (Motherboard)
+ Erik Prince needs to promote you a “secure” smartphone that’s too good to be true. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Ozempic doesn’t need to price this a lot
But drug firms exist to earn a living, in any case. (Slate $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. But what does this imply for individuals IRL? (MIT Technology Review)
9 Influencers are rising as a strong device for Indian politicians
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking for a 3rd time period subsequent 12 months, and doesn’t wish to take any probabilities. (Rest of World)
10 We’re getting nearer to studying extra about asteroids 
A mission over a decade within the making is heading again to Earth—full with some valuable rock and mud cargo. (Ars Technica)
Quote of the day
“Is this what we want?”
—A senior designer at Adobe questions the extent to which the corporate ought to combine AI into its merchandise if it dangers people shedding their jobs, Insider reviews.
The large story
This firm is about to develop new organs in an individual for the primary time
August 2022
In the approaching weeks, a volunteer in Boston, Massachusetts, would be the first to trial a brand new remedy that would find yourself making a second liver of their physique. And that’s only the start—within the months that observe, different volunteers will check doses that would go away them with as much as six livers of their our bodies.
The firm behind the remedy, LyGenesis, hopes to avoid wasting individuals with devastating liver ailments who are usually not eligible for transplants. Their method is to inject liver cells from a donor into the lymph nodes of sick recipients, which may give rise to completely new miniature organs.
These mini livers ought to assist compensate for an present diseased one. The method seems to work in mice, pigs, and canine. Now we’ll discover out if it really works in individuals. Read the total story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
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.)
+ I’m unsure I just like the sound of this pizza-scented Xbox controller.
+ If you’ve by no means listened to the late, nice Jane Birkin’s music, these seven songs are a superb place to start out.
+ This story a few man profitable an Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest is completely lovable.
+ It’s true—video video games’ underwater ranges all the time had the most effective soundtracks.
+ Turning these digital codes into tangible pen photos has created true artworks.