Data Trusts
Technology companies have proven to be poor stewards of our personal data.
Our information has been leaked, hacked, and sold and resold more times than most of us can count.
Maybe the problem isn’t with us, but with the model of privacy to which we’ve long adhered—one in which we, as individuals, are primarily responsible for managing and protectin.
,
Digital Contact Tracing
As the coronavirus began to spread around the world, it felt at first as if digital contact tracing might help us.
Smartphone apps could use GPS or Bluetooth to create a log of people who had recently crossed paths.
If one of them later tested positive for covid, that person could enter the result into the app, and it would alert others who might h.
,
GPT-3
Large natural-language computer models that learn to write and speak are a big step toward AI that can better understand and interact with the world.
GPT-3 is by far the largest—and most literate—to date.
Trained on the text of thousands of books and most of the internet, GPT-3 can mimic human-written text with uncanny—and at times bizarre—realism,.
,
Lithium-Metal Batteries
Electric vehicles come with a tough sales pitch; they’re relatively expensive, and you can drive them only a few hundred miles before they need to recharge—which takes far longer than stopping for gas.
All these drawbacks have to do with the limitations of lithium-ion batteries.
A well-funded Silicon Valley startup now says it has a battery that wi.
,
Messenger RNA Vaccines
We got very lucky.
The two most effective vaccines against the coronavirus are based on messenger RNA, a technology that has been in the works for 20 years.
When the covid-19 pandemic began last January, scientists at several biotech companies were quick to turn to mRNA as a way to create potential vaccines; in late December 2020, at a time when mo.
,
Related Story
As nations do the hard math on how to meet their climate goals, green hydrogen increasingly appears essential.
Hydrogen has always been an intriguing possible replacement for fossil fuels.
It burns cleanly, emitting no carbon dioxide; it’s energy dense, so it’s a good way to store power from on-and-off renewable sources; and you can make liquid syn.
,
Tiktok Recommendation Algorithms
Since its launch in China in 2016, TikTok has become one of the world’s fastest-growing social networks.
It’s been downloaded billions of times and attracted hundreds of millions of users.
Why.
Because the algorithms that power TikTok’s “For You” feed have changed the way people become famous online.
While other platforms are geared more toward hig.
