2 China is poised to win the technologies of the future
It’s already a high-tech hardware powerhouse, but it increasingly has its sights set on software too. (New Yorker $)
+ US tech and political leaders are freaking out, but few seem to agree how to respond. (Vox $)
+ What’s next for Chinese open-source AI. (MIT Technology Review)
3 AI “tokenomics” is a burgeoning new field
Businesses are pouring a lot of money into AI. Now they want to see what they’re getting in return. (NYT $)
+ Why it’s proving so hard to make AI pay. (BBC)
+ The US economy is becoming more and more reliant on the AI boom. (WSJ $)
4 Eli Lilly is letting people apply to try an unapproved obesity drug
Retatrutide is still in clinical trials, but certain patients can gain early access. (STAT $)
+ Montana’s plan to become an experimental medical hub just pushed forward. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Inside the one US town that wants a data center
Jay in Maine is a reminder that politics is all about the local. (The Atlantic $)
+ How data centers broke US politics. (Wired $)
6 Flock license plate readers can have a shockingly high error rate
In one California town, Flock misread license plates in 71% of the alerts it sent to police. (BI $)
+ A leaked guide shows how Flock teaches cops to promote its tech. (404 Media $)
7 A drone explosion on a beach in Russia killed seven people
It seems to have been caused by Russian forces shooting down a Ukrainian drone. (CNN)
+ A US company won a $100 million deal to give Ukrainian drones an AI upgrade. (Ars Technica)
+ Europe’s drone-filled vision for the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)
8 How car headlights became so bright
Lots of modern cars still blind other drivers on the road. That could change soon though, thanks to new tech. (Ars Technica)
9 A $2 million crime novel deal collapsed over AI use concerns
And the agent and the writer involved have, erm…rather differing accounts of what happened. (Guardian)
10 AI matchmaking services are on the rise 💑🤖
Online daters hope it might prove better at finding them love than fruitless swiping. (WSJ $)
Quote of the day
“Just a little too pleasant to be human.”
—North Carolina resident Kristen Charpentier tells Wired how she could tell she was talking to AI when ordering at a Dairy Queen drive-thru.