I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Elon Musk’s demands for loyalty triggered an exodus of Twitter workers
Hundreds of employees chose to quit instead of signing up to his vision of “hardcore Twitter.” (WP $)
+ The soccer World Cup will be a major stress test for what remains of the platform. (The Atlantic $)
+ Musk’s management style is high risk, low reward. (WSJ $)
+ He’s undermined Twitter’s integrity and safety, senators say. (FT $)
+ Here’s how you can find your feet on rival Mastodon. (Wired $)
+ Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it will break in the coming weeks. (MIT Technology Review)
2 How covid bolstered antimicrobial resistance
It made an existing problem significantly worse. (Scientific American $)
+ The next pandemic is already here. Covid can teach us how to fight it. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Big Tech’s glory days are numbered
Which leaves a whole lot of smart people with time on their hands. (Vox)
+ You could say the industry is having a midlife crisis. (The Atlantic $)
+ It’s not just about growth at any cost anymore. (Slate $)
4 The hunt for a non-opioid treatment for pain
Marrying safety and efficacy is hard to do, but scientists aren’t giving up. (Neo.Life)
+ Tens of millions of people in the US are living with chronic pain. (New Scientist $)
5 Taylor Swift’s impassioned fans are going after Ticketmaster
The site botched sales for her new tour, and furious fans want to break its monopoly. (Slate $)
+ Ticketmaster sold nearly all the tickets in siloed presales. (Motherboard)
6 US broadband is seriously awful
It’s expensive, slow, and contains loads of hidden charges. (The Verge)
+ Here’s a list of the worst offenders when it comes to raising your bills. (WP $)
+ Temperature rises are likely to spark more global internet outages. (CNET)
7 Don’t fall for the stories we tell about the internet
A healthy dose of critical thinking can cut through the spin. (The Atlantic $)
8 AI has a trust problem
Some experts believe that demonstrating how systems learn is the solution. (WSJ $)
+ AI-generated deepfakes could actually help protect privacy. (New Scientist $)
+ We need to design distrust into AI systems to make them safer. (MIT Technology Review)
9 China’s TikTok sellers want to entice western shoppers 🛍️
They’re setting their sights firmly on the US market. (Rest of World)
+ China wants to control how its famous livestreamers act, speak, and even dress. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Silicon Valley loves an e-bike 🚲
It’s the coolest way to flex your eco-credentials these days. (The Information $)
Quote of the day
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.”