The Download: preserving minds and weighing open AI risks

This is today’s edition of The Download our weekday newsletter that offers a day-to-day dosage of what’s going on the planet of innovation.

6 wild concepts for perpetuating your mind

As we age, we forget the majority of what we’ve experienced, yet there’s still indisputable connection: At 30, or 50, or 70, you will still be you.

To maintain that evasive connection of self, some far-thinking technologists are checking out methods to keep the brain going, even beyond death. Their concepts vary from freezing brains in liquid nitrogen to enhancing living ones and submitting our memories to the cloud.

Here are 6 possible courses for keeping your mind going, and how practical they may be.

— Antonio Regalado

This story is from the Difficult edition of our print publication. Subscribe now to get every problem as quickly as it lands.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Open designs have genuine advantages. Do they exceed the threats?

Anthropic just recently launched a report arguing that an effective brand-new design launched by the Chinese business Z.ai, positions a significant cyberattack danger. Its core issue was that it is easily readily available for anybody to download and customize.

The caution was the most recent flashpoint in the argument over open frontier AI designs. Critics caution that bad stars can abuse them, while advocates argue they avoid a handful of business from managing the innovation. The argument, nevertheless, is more complex than it appears.

This is our most current story to end up being an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we release every week on Spotify and Apple PodcastsSimply browse to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our brand-new material as it’s launched.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to discover you today’s most fun/important/scary/ interesting stories about innovation.

1 COP31’s flagship promise to energize 35% of energy usage is sinking
Just around a lots countries are apparently prepared to sign it. (Politico
+ It needs quadrupling the speed of electrification. (New Scientist $)
+ John Kerry states the United States should follow China on tidy energy. (Guardian
+ But the United States avoided the talks totally for a 2nd year. (NYT $)
+ What’s the future of electrical power? (MIT Technology Review)

2 The Nvidia spy scandal supposedly includes $7.5 billion of chips
Alice Huang apparently got 240,000 limited chips. (Information $)
+ Trump was informed of Huang’s spy link on Air Force One(NYT $)
+ Experts caution the scandal might deteriorate America’s AI lead. (Verge
+ Nvidia’s slide has actually let Microsoft surpass it in worth. (Reuters $)

3 Studies discovered AI representatives go rogue since they’re “incorrigible”
Their training rewards them for ending up jobs at any expense. (NYT $)
+ This is why AI representatives lie and cheat to reach their objectives. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Anthropic has actually downsized its IPO evaluation to $1.4 trillion
It went for $2 trillion before the current AI jitters. (Guardian

5 Drone strikes have actually erased 3% of Yandex’s cloud client information
Ukraine struck 3 of its information centers in October. (Reuters $)
+ Ukraine’s drones are battling information centers for fiber. (Ars Technica

6 Moderna states its brand-new vaccine might avoid cancer in high-risk individuals
The business’s CEO calls it the “holy grail” of cancer avoidance. (FEET $)
+ Hong Kong is checking a next-gen ultrasound cancer treatment. (SCMP

7 Scientists have actually gradually reversed human cells’ ages by years
One age marker was held up as far as 60 years. (Wired $)
+ “Reprogramming” is the buzziest de-aging concept. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Robot vessels are searching for mines in the Strait of Hormuz
AI assists them area mines camouflaged on the seabed. (BBC

9 Life might have begun inside a small bubble
That’s the concept behind the “lipid very first” origin theory. (Quanta

10 As Voyager 1 reaches a light day from Earth, here’s what it’s taught us
Its discoveries reworded books in genuine time. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“What a dereliction of task. He’s expected to secure America, not China, not his good friends.”

— Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, implicates President Donald Trump of overlooking cautions about the supposed relationship in between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and a Chinese spy.

Another thing

How refrigeration messed up fresh food

Bananas might not be cooled in the supermarket, however they’re the supreme cooled fruit. It’s just thanks to a network of thermal control that they’ve ended up being an international product. Which salad bag on the rack? It’s not simply a bag however an extremely crafted breathing device.

According to Nicola Twilley– a factor to The New Yorker and cohost of the podcast Gastropod– refrigeration has actually trashed our food system. The good news is, there are assuring alternative conservation techniques.