This edition of the download surveys technology stories to watch, beginning with MIT Technology Review’s annual 35 under 35 list. The newsletter spotlights the computing honorees who are developing new artificial intelligence chips, building specialized datasets and proposing fresh ideas to assess advanced systems for safety. Readers are invited to check the full list of honorees and the named innovator of the year; the full list is available through MIT Technology Review.
Space and observation science take center stage in a featured item about the vera rubin observatory. The observatory has commenced a decade-long effort to produce an extremely detailed time-lapse movie of the universe. While rubin can capture far more stars than previous observatories, it also detects many more satellites. The newsletter reports that up to 40% of images captured during the first ten years could be marred by sunlight-reflecting satellite streaks. Meredith Rawls, a research scientist with the observatory’s legacy survey of space and time, is named as one of the experts charged with protecting rubin’s science mission from this growing satellite blight.
The must-reads roundup collects ten items across policy, misinformation, mobility, energy and space. Highlights include china accusing nvidia of violating anti-monopoly laws in an investigation that examined nvidia’s 2020 acquisition of mellanox; progress and continuing contingency planning around a possible us-tiktok deal; grok spreading misinformation about a far-right rally in london; surveys showing people use chatgpt more for personal than work queries; how hangzhou became a global artificial intelligence hub; concerns that driverless car fleets could worsen urban traffic; the shipping industry deploying artificial intelligence to fight cargo fires; surging sales of used electric vehicles; a startup pursuing a table-top fusion reactor; and analysis of how a magnetic field might help clean up low earth orbit.
The newsletter closes with a quote of the day from electric car owner phil bellamy about his daughters’ severe travel sickness, and a column examining google and amazon’s climate claims. That piece notes amazon said it had purchased enough clean electricity to cover all its global operations and that google acknowledged a 13% rise in corporate emissions tied to its artificial intelligence operations and backed away from earlier carbon neutral claims. The column argues google’s approach to reducing greenhouse gases is now arguably more defensible; the item is credited to james temple.
