That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how.
Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML
Web sites weren’t all the time slick digital experiences.
There was a time when browsing the net concerned opening tabs that performed music in opposition to your will and sifting by way of partitions of textual content on a coloured background. Within the 2000s, earlier than Squarespace and social media, web sites have been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some information of code.
Scattered throughout the net are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated method. And the motion is something however a superficial attraction to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human contact in digital experiences. Learn the total story.
—Tiffany Ng
This story is from the following journal version of MIT Expertise Evaluate, set to go reside on January 8—and it’s all about innovation. In case you don’t already, reap the benefits of our seasonal subscription affords to get a replica when it lands.
2023 is breaking all types of local weather data
This has been fairly the 12 months for local weather information, with climate disasters, technological breakthroughs, and coverage adjustments making headlines world wide. There’s an abundance of dangerous information, however there are additionally some glimmers of hope, if the place to look.
It’s rather a lot to make sense of, so we took a glance again on the 12 months, with the assistance of loads of knowledge. A “local weather wrapped,” if you’ll. Test it out, and likewise learn our story about why our local weather crew is extra optimistic than you may think.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Evaluate’s weekly local weather publication. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you right now’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Baby sexual abuse images have been present in AI coaching knowledge units
It’s a surprising demonstration of how little we all know concerning the large quantities of knowledge generative AI fashions are skilled on. (WP $)
+ The most important AI picture coaching knowledge set, LAION, has been quickly taken offline whereas it scrambles to reply. (404 Media)
2Apple’s headset could possibly be prepared as early as February 2024
Then we’ll discover out the reply to the large query: who will purchase it? (Bloomberg $)
+ These minuscule pixels are poised to take augmented actuality by storm. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 TikTok moderators are struggling to evaluate Israel-Gaza content material
The massive drawback is an absence of native language expertise in content material moderation groups. (The Guardian)
+ Meta’s oversight board has mentioned AI is main the corporate to take away too many posts associated to the battle. (Quartz)
+ Serps assist to spice up misinformation. (Scientific American $)
4 The US pumped extra oil than another nation in historical past in 2023
Sounds dreadful, however the actuality under the headline is complicated. (The Atlantic $)
+ Fossil-fuel emissions are over 1,000,000 instances larger than carbon removing efforts. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 What is going to Ozempic’s subsequent act be? 
These kind of medicine are being studied as therapies for every thing from habit to liver illness to infertility. (NYT $)
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
6 YouTube is without doubt one of the final bastions of unbiased journalism in India
And even then, reporters who run their very own channels work with few protections and loads of worry. (Remainder of World)
7 X went down for greater than an hour
It’s not the one main outage for the positioning in current days both. (The Verge)
+ How Twitter died in 2023. (Engadget)
8 Science fiction is kinda ruining the world
Billionaires grew up studying dystopian novels, and now they’re decided to make them a actuality. (Scientific American $)
9 What occurs to our planet when the solar dies?
Learn this for a wholesome serving to of perspective over the vacations(!) (Quanta $)
10 How 2023 went down on social media
It wasn’t a classic 12 months in honesty, however there have been nonetheless loads of lolz—and drama—to go round. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“Individuals have all the time been in a position to lie, however the effectiveness of these lies is now augmented and considerably elevated.”
—Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes tells Wired how he expects AI to have an effect on the 2024 elections.
The massive story
A Roomba recorded a lady on the bathroom. How did screenshots find yourself on Fb?
December 2022
Within the fall of 2020, gig staff in Venezuela posted a collection of pictures to on-line boards the place they gathered to speak store. The images have been mundane, if generally intimate, family scenes captured from low angles—together with a revealing shot of a younger lady sitting on the bathroom, her shorts pulled all the way down to mid-thigh.
The photographs have been taken by growth variations of a Roomba robotic vacuum. They have been then despatched to Scale AI, a startup that contracts staff world wide to label knowledge used to coach synthetic intelligence.
MIT Expertise Evaluate obtained 15 screenshots of those non-public images, which had been posted to closed social media teams. The photographs reveal a complete knowledge provide chain—and new factors the place private info may leak out—that few shoppers are even conscious of. Learn the total story.
—Eileen Guo
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ The brand new 12 months is approaching, and with it: 30 days of yoga with Adriene!
+ The JWST has gifted us with a plethora of fantastic pictures this 12 months. Right here are a few of the most spectacular.
+ There’s by no means a nasty time to eat scrumptious pasta dishes.
+ Shout out to Sally Snowman, the Boston Mild first and on-line feminine lighthouse keeper.
+ India’s oldest bookshop seems to be like a beautiful place.
