China’s version of ChatGPT, and guarding our brain info

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that delivers a day-to-day dose of what’s going on in the globe of technologies.

Chinese tech giant Baidu just released its answer to ChatGPT

Yesterday, Robin Li, Baidu’s cofounder and CEO, took the stage in Beijing to showcase the company’s new enormous language model, Ernie Bot. 

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He showed off pre-recorded examples of what the chatbot can do, like solving math issues, writing marketing copy, and answering issues about Chinese literature.

The Chinese public has been hungry for a ChatGPT choice every single OpenAI and the Chinese government have barred people in China from producing use of the American chatbot. But Ernie Bot’s release felt comparatively rushed, and Li repeatedly stated that the approach is nonetheless imperfect. Study the total story.

—Zeyi Yang

If you’d like to obtain out a lot a lot more about how AI is altering the written word, confirm out:

+ GPT-4 is bigger and a lot superior than ChatGPT—but OpenAI will not say why. Study the total story.

+ How AI could develop our laws. Study the total story.
+ Take an exclusive seem at the inside story of how ChatGPT was constructed, as told by the folks nowadays who designed it.

Tech that aims to study your thoughts and probe your memories is at present appropriate right here

In existing years, we’ve observed neurotechnologies move from investigation labs to accurate-globe use. Schools have employed some devices to monitor the brain activity of young kids to inform when they are paying interest. Police forces are producing use of other folks to operate out no matter if a individual is guilty of a crime. And employers use them to hold workers awake and productive.

These technologies hold the outstanding assure of offering us all-new insight into our individual minds. But our brain info is worthwhile, and letting it fall into the incorrect hands could be hazardous. Jessica Hamzelou, our senior biotech reporter, had a fascinating get in touch with with Nita Farahany, a futurist and legal ethicist at Duke University, who’s written a book arguing for new recommendations to defend our cognitive liberty. Study the total story.

Jessica’s story is from the Checkup, her weekly newsletter offering you the inside track on all components biotech. Sign up to acquire it in your inbox just about each Thursday.

The have to-reads

I’ve combed the planet-wide-internet to uncover you today’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating stories about technologies.

1 Baidu’s Ernie chatbot is not fairly impressive 
China’s heavy planet-wide-internet censorship could be aspect of the result in why. (NYT $)
+ The company’s shares plummeted following its lackluster unveiling. (The Guardian)
+ Why enormous language models are starting to behave in weird, unpredictable solutions. (Quanta)
+ The ChatGPT-fueled battle for search is bigger than Microsoft or Google. (MIT Technologies Overview)

two China is possibly to oppose any forced TikTok sale
The standoff in amongst the US and China shows no sign of ending. (The Details $)
+ How TikTok became a political hot potato. (WP $)

3 We could be a single step closer to confirming covid’s origins 
A new evaluation suggests that raccoons could have carried the virus in 2019. (The Atlantic $)

4 Inside Elon Musk’s war location
Twitter’s nonetheless desperately scrabbling about for solutions to save income. (FT $)

5 Meta’s new AI tool can predict millions of protein structures
In theory, it could help to speed up drug discovery. (WSJ $)+ Biotech labs are producing use of AI inspired by DALL-E to invent new drugs. (MIT Technologies Overview)

six Silicon Valley Bank constructed an empire out of pandering to VCs
Some of them are nonetheless struggling to come to terms with what occurred. (Motherboard)
+ The bank’s collapse is the tech industry’s quite 1st accurate monetary crisis. (Insider $)

7 How the tech crash has reverberated across the globe
Its influence is becoming felt far beyond Silicon Valley. (Rest of Globe)

eight LinkedIn is crawling with spies
Sophisticated state-backed groups are connecting with unsuspecting targets. (Wired $)
+ The 1,000 Chinese SpaceX engineers who never ever ever existed. (MIT Technologies Overview)

9 Scientists have constructed a ‘living computer’
It is powered by tens of thousands of brain cells from mice. (New Scientist $)

ten What Spotify’s TikTok-esque makeover indicates for artists
Even so, it just about surely does not imply a lot a lot more income. (The Guardian)
+ Is AI-generated music any terrific? It depends who you ask. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“Let’s adjust the topic and speak about a point else.”

—Gipi Speak, a ChatGPT-style chatbot designed by a group of engineers in China, refuses to answer no matter if Xi Jinping is a terrific leader, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The enormous story

These scientists are operating to extend the life span of pet dogs—and their owners

August 2022

Matt Kaeberlein is what you may possibly get in touch with a dog specific individual. He has grown up with dogs and describes his German shepherd, Dobby, as “really certain.” But Dobby is 14 years old—around 98 in dog years.

Kaeberlein is co-director of the Dog Aging Project, an ambitious investigation function to track the aging course of action of tens of thousands of companion dogs across the US. He is a single of a handful of scientists on a mission to strengthen, delay, and possibly reverse that course of action to help them reside longer, healthier lives. 

And dogs are just the beginning. A single specific day, this investigation could help to prolong the lives of humans. Study the total story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can nonetheless have great components

A place for comfort, enjoyable and distraction in these weird situations. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

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+ An AI-powered cookbook is assisting to reduce meals waste—and to whip up some wholesome recipe inspiration along the way.