The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Elon Musk has bought Twitter
What happens next is anyone’s guess. (FT $)
+ Musk wasted no time: a number of executives are set to leave. (NYT $)
+ His first instinct was to reassure advertisers. (Variety $)
+ The European Union has reminded Musk to play by its rules. (Bloomberg $)
+ Here’s how to delete your Twitter account. (WP $)
2 Everyone is ill right now
Flu and other bugs are back with a vengeance now we’re mixing again. (Vox)
+ If you’re one of the lucky ones, here’s how to stay healthy. (The Atlantic $)
3 Ethereum is hard to beat
The botched launch of a challenger blockchain demonstrates why. (Wired $)
+ The Merge has birthed a new class of blockchain participants. (Bloomberg $)
+ Why Ethereum’s switch to proof of stake matters. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Big Tech is feeling vulnerable
Their quarterly earnings are down, and executives are nervous. (WP $)
+ Even the largest companies are no longer immune to the economic downturn. (NYT $)
5 How the detention of a Huawei executive worsened US-China relations
The prisoner exchange also implicated Canada. (WSJ $)
+ Further curbs on exports to China could be on their way. (WP $)
6 The future of online speech could depend on this European law
And force them to overhaul their moderation systems in the process. (Slate $)
7 Hydroelectricity has an image problem
It’s efficient and green, so why do so few countries want to invest in it? (IEEE Spectrum)
+ World leaders are set to assemble next week for COP27. (Economist $)
+ Droughts are cutting into California’s hydropower. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Here’s what a future beyond animal testing could look like
A proposed US bill could push us towards computer-based testing instead. (Neo.Life)
9 Here’s how Iranian authorities are controlling protestors’ phones
The SIAM system breaks encryption and slows connections. (The Intercept)
10 Anime and manga fans are rising up against DALL-E
Illustrators aren’t thrilled about text-to-image models, either. (Rest of World)
+ It’s getting harder to differentiate between AI art and real photographs. (FT $)
+ This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“The metaverse is ‘living inside of a computer.’ The last thing I want to do when I get home from work during a long day is live inside of a computer.”
—Evan Spiegel, who founded Snapchat, has zero time for the metaverse, reports Bloomberg.
The big story