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Users are doling out justice on a Chinese food delivery app

To her surprise, the post attracted much more attention than she’s ever received. She soon got more than 2,000 comments, many of which were other screenshots of particularly bewildering complaints. People have... Read more »

Climate tech is back—and this time, it can’t afford to fail

Boston Metal’s strategy is to try to make the transition as digestible as possible for steelmakers. “We won’t own and operate steel plants,” says Adam Rauwerdink, who heads business development at the... Read more »

The Download: generative AI’s carbon footprint, and a CRISPR patent battle

The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 This is why we’re all sick right nowWe’re contending with a lot more illnesses than we... Read more »

A high school’s deepfake porn scandal is pushing US lawmakers into action

Efforts from members of Congress to clamp down on deepfake pornography are not entirely new. In 2019 and 2021, Representative Yvette Clarke introduced the DEEPFAKES Accountability Act, which requires creators of deepfakes... Read more »

The first CRISPR cure might kickstart the next big patent battle

And really, what’s the point of such a hard-won triumph unless it’s to enforce your rights? “Honestly, this train has been coming down the track since at least 2014, if not earlier. We’re... Read more »

Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone

“If you’re doing a specific application, like searching through email … do you really need these big models that are capable of anything? I would say no,” Luccioni says.  The energy consumption... Read more »

Sustainability starts with the data center

For data center operators, options for boosting sustainability include shifting energy sources, upgrading physical infrastructure and hardware, improving and automating workflows, and updating the software that manages data center storage. Hitachi Vantara... Read more »

The Download: abandoning carbon offsets, and creating new materials

In the fall of 2018, the University of California tasked a team of researchers with identifying projects from which it could confidently purchase carbon offsets that would reliably cancel out greenhouse gas... Read more »

The University of California has all but dropped carbon offsets—and thinks you should, too

Direct cuts In 2013, the University of California pledged to achieve carbon neutrality across its campuses and health centers within 12 years by shifting to emissions-free vehicles, building renewables projects, and undertaking... Read more »

Google DeepMind’s new AI tool helped create more than 700 new materials

GNoME can be described as AlphaFold for materials discovery, according to Ju Li, a materials science and engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. AlphaFold, a DeepMind AI system announced in... Read more »