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The Download: a military AI boom, and China’s industrial espionage

Exactly two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Alexander Karp, the CEO of data analytics company Palantir, made his pitch to European leaders. With war on their doorstep, Europeans ought to... Read more »

Why business is booming for military AI startups 

Militaries are responding to the call. NATO announced on June 30 that it is creating a $1 billion innovation fund that will invest in early-stage startups and venture capital funds developing “priority”... Read more »

The Download: Tweaking AI for energy efficiency, and China’s leaked data

What’s the news?: Deep learning is behind machine learning’s most high-profile successes. But this incredible performance comes at a cost: training deep-learning models requires huge amounts of energy. Now, new research shows... Read more »

These simple changes can make AI research much more energy efficient

Since the first paper studying this technology’s impact on the environment was published three years ago, a movement has grown among researchers to self-report the energy consumed and emissions generated from their... Read more »

The Download: India’s deadly heatwaves, and the need for carbon removal

The residents of Nagla Tulai, a farming village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, have always had to endure hot summers, but the past few years of punishingly cruel heat... Read more »

We need to draw down carbon—not just stop emitting it

But carbon removal has become a touchy topic. There are real concerns that the growing focus on drawing down the greenhouse gas could encourage governments and businesses to delay or even avoid... Read more »

No power, no fans, no AC: The villagers fighting to survive India’s deadly heatwaves

At the end of April, when the daytime temperature crossed 45 °C (113 °F), most residents of Nagla Tulai sought succor in the hot winds blowing outdoors. Since northwest India first began... Read more »

The Download: China’s livestreaming crackdown, and a huge police data hack

For Zeng, a young Chinese woman, an hour scrolling Douyin, the domestic version of TikTok, has become a daily ritual. Livestreaming took off in China in 2016 and has since become one... Read more »

China wants to control how its famous livestreamers act, speak, and even dress

Zeng, who asked to be referred to by her last name to avoid being identified, felt it was ridiculous. “I don’t think she has done anything unreasonable or morally corrupt in today’s... Read more »

The Download: a curb on climate action, and post-Roe period tracking

Why’s it so controversial?: Geoengineering was long a taboo topic among scientists, and some argue it should remain one. There are questions about its potential environmental side effects, and concerns that the... Read more »