AI Priests, Laser Hackers, and Steamy Data Centers 🔥
This week's tech circus is hotter than a server room sauna…
The Thin Wisps of Tomorrow
AI Will Now Take Your Confession — Just when you thought it wouldn’t get any worse, a startup decides to launch the “AI Pastor.” Talk about AI (and the whole AGI debate) being a “leap of faith”...
AI Will Spill Your Secrets — Thinking about using Copilot for your firm? Maybe think twice about how much you trust the system – they love to spill your secrets. Snark aside, when it comes to AI organizations need to be extra-vigilant when it comes to cybersecurity.
Meta’s Fusion3D in Three Dimensions — TCFCF (The Company Formerly Called Facebook) just launched a new research paper, along with a working demo, of an AI system that takes almost any 2D image of an object and turns it into a 3D model—super useful for e-commerce, for example.
AI Makes Light Work of School Homework and Resumes — There are two professions feeling the heat from AI like no other: Teachers and recruiters. The former have their homework rendered pointless by the widespread use of AI (and schools reacting by banning smartphones), the latter gets flooded with AI-generated resumes. Looks like, at least for now, our AI future is a flood of mediocrity.
Solar Everywhere — A solar energy breakthrough from the University of Oxford could see many everyday objects turning into energy-producing surfaces, including many buildings. The future never looked so bright.
Catastrophic Geoengineering — Meanwhile, Harvard canceled a geoengineering project over concerns it could yield “catastrophic results.” Surely, it doesn’t make you feel confident that we have this all sorted out.
Here’s a Good Use of Drones — The base camp at Mount Everest is drowning in trash. Decades of organized high-alpine tourism left tons (actual tons) of trash on the mountain – from food to tents and oxygen cylinders. Getting the trash off the mountain is hard – even the lowest base camp of Everest is high up and very remote. China is now using drones to get the trash off the mountain.
Don’t Fail – Learn — The old startup adage holds true not only for entrepreneurs but also for robots. Modern large language models (LLMs) empower robots to embark on a “practice makes perfect” journey, which will significantly simplify robot programming and make them more versatile in their applications.
One Man’s Waste — As the saying goes, one man’s waste is another’s treasure. Data centers generate a lot of waste heat—in the UK, a company is using this waste to heat the local public pool to a balmy 86 degrees Fahrenheit.
Nothing’s Safe Anymore — By using a laser to record your laptop’s keystrokes, hackers can (at least theoretically) silently and from a distance capture your deepest, darkest secrets (such as your Ben & Jerry’s password).
Not Freaky At All — Let ChatGPT reign free and it might just start speaking (actually speaking) in your voice. What could possibly go wrong?!
What We Are Reading
🔍 The Puzzle Of How Large-Scale Order Emerges In Complex Systems The architecture of complexity: New framework explains how order emerges in intricate systems. @Jane
🚫 Brands Should Avoid This Popular Term. It’s Turning Off Customers It turns out that namedropping AI isn’t always a good idea. Products that mention AI as a feature tend to drive consumers away; they cite a lack of trust and fear of the unknown with AI. @Mafe
📉 Intel Was Once A Silicon Valley Leader. How Did It Fall So Far? Intel is failing to thrive in a world hungry for semiconductors. The story of the company’s recent struggles offers a useful lens on the ripple effects of the AI boom and navigating industry shifts as a long-established incumbent. @Jeffrey
🏗️ America Has A Hot-Steel Problem We cannot reengineer the infrastructure as fast as the climate is changing. New methods and building codes are part of the solution to build more resilient infrastructure for the future. But fixing existing infrastructures requires a complex and tedious process of triage to balance needs with the possibility to improve. @Julian
🚿 Why Do We Get Our Best Ideas In The Shower? Is there such a thing as the “shower effect” for creativity? @Pedro
🤖 Confronting Impossible Futures Wharton’s Ethan Mollick’s wise words on our lack of strategic planning when it comes to AI and what to do about it. @Pascal
The Fun Stuff
🎶 Musical stardom often proves fleeting. The long-tail phenomenon dominates this industry, as it does in many others. Here’s the dirty…
👀 The eyes are often considered the windows to the soul. Gaze into a stranger’s eyes from the comfort of your digital device.
🥛 Britain’s first milk bar opened 89 years ago and provides an interesting insight into the longevity (or lack thereof) of trends.