The Download: Metaverse Ethics, In Addition To Spotting Ai Text

This is today’sec edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the earth of applied science.

I but watched Biggie Smalls perform ‘live’ inward the metaverse

For a moment on Friday, Biggie Smalls was the alone human on phase. A spotlight shone on him inward his ruddy velvet conform, and amongst pre-recorded thank you, he rapped the lyrics to “Mo Money Mo Problems,” swiveling to the crush inwards his orange sneakers.

You wouldn’t be wrong to be confused. Smalls died inwards 1997, leaving an outsize musical and cultural legacy as one of the greatest rappers of all time. But he was in fine form on Meta’second Horizon Worlds: heaving betwixt stanzas, pumping his fist rhythmically, in addition to seeming rattling much live.

But Smalls’second hyper-realistic avatar is not just an impressive technical feat. It is also a crucial test of 2 big questions we’ll shortly face if metaverse platforms arrive at traction: whether people volition pay to run across an avatar of a dead artist perform, too whether that business is ethical. Read the full level.

How to place AI-generated text

This judgement was written by an AI—or was it? OpenAI’second new chatbot, ChatGPT, presents us with a problem: How will nosotros know whether what nosotros read online is written by a human or a motorcar?

ChatGPT generates remarkably homo-sounding answers to questions that it’second asked. The problem is, it’s but predicting the well-nigh likely side by side give-and-take inwards the judgement. It hasn’t a clue whether something is right or simulated, as well as confidently presents data as truthful even when it is not. Despite that, the cyberspace is increasingly being flooded alongside AI-generated text.

We’re in desperate require of ways to differentiate between homo- together with AI-written text in order to counter potential misuses of the technology, as well as researchers are developing tools to do exactly that. But the rapid speed of AI evolution agency nosotros’re constantly playing take hold of upward. Read the total floor.

—Melissa Heikkilä

The must-reads

I’ve combed the net to find yous today’sec most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories most engineering science.

one Twitter users accept voted to take Elon Musk in a poll
Whether Musk actually abides by its results remains to live seen. (FT $)
+ Twitter has banned links to rival social media sites. (The Verge)
+ Journalists’ accounts were banned and reinstated over a chaotic weekend. (NYT $)
+ What Musk wants from the writers he’second entrusted the Twitter Files to. (Slate $)
+ We’re witnessing the encephalon expiry of Twitter. (MIT Technology Review)

two Sam Bankman-Fried should appear inward a Bahamian courtroom today
The FTX founder is expected to agree to extradition to the the States to face up fraud charges. (WP $)
+ Crypto evangelists in Puerto Rico are doubling downwardly. (The Guardian)
+ However, investors in the U.S. are throwing inward the towel. (WSJ $)

3 Russian drones are targeting Kyiv’second ability grid
It’sec Moscow’second tertiary assail on the city inward less than a week. (Reuters)
+ Ukrainian developers are using sophisticated software to predict enemy troops’ movements. (The Guardian)

four Digital mental wellness services are failing vulnerable users  
Some LGBTQ+ users enjoin they were assigned unsympathetic therapists. (WSJ $)

five A teenage YouTuber is at the heart of a child labor case
It’s highlighting only how loosely regulated social media is. (LA Times $)

six Climate modify-induced drought is sparking a nutrient catastrophe
Millions of people living inward the Horn of Africa are amid the commencement to suffer. (Undark Magazine)

seven Silicon Valley is pulling the plug on its elaborate Christmas parties
Many companies experience it’second a bad await, given the sector’s recent pose-offs. (The Information $)
+ Big Tech’sec legendary perks are disappearing likewise. (Insider $)

viii Portugal’s digital nomad dream is dying
Building a remote working village doesn’t necessarily mean said workers volition turn upwards. (Wired $)
+ Our water infrastructure needs to modify. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Instagram Notes is a harkback to the aureate age of instant messaging
For millennials brought upward on AIM, the nostalgia is overwhelming. (WSJ $)

ten How embroidery inspired the commencement figurer plan
Ada Lovelace was an algorithm pioneer. (Inverse)

Quote of the mean solar day

“I have never been able to kill stupid things earlier they cause harm.”

—John Carmack, a senior executive at Meta’s VR business, announced his departure from the company inwards a scathing memo criticizing its bureaucracy in addition to lack of efficiency, Insider reports.

The big level

Stitching together the grid volition salvage lives as extreme conditions worsens

The nation’second isolated in addition to antiquated grids are inward desperate call for of upgrades. One solution would be to more than tightly integrate the state’second regional grids, stitching them together with more than long-reach transmission lines, allowing power to catamenia between regions to where it’second needed more than urgently. However, that’s a mission that’second fraught with challenges. Read the total level.

—James Temple

We can even so accept dainty things

A place for comfort, fun as well as distraction inward these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a occupation or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Congratulations to World Cup winners Argentina, who are partying similar it’s 1999 (thank you Niall!)
+ 90s LAN parties await similar they were a whole lot of fun.
+ Did you know the game Monopoly was actually designed to develop players on the evils of capitalism? Me neither.
+ Here’s what the people of Yakutia, Siberia habiliment to proceed warm when temperatures drib to -95°F (hint: lots of layers.)
+ Gorillaz’ augmented reality performances over the weekend wait pretty sensational.