The Download: protecting tech workers, and Canada’s wildfire emissions
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Kamala Harris should stand with tech workers, not their bosses
—Stephen McMurtry is a Google Software Engineer and Communications Chair of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA
Tangled up in the contest to be the next US president, there is another battle brewing: Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Valley. In Donald Trump’s corner are venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, along with executives like Elon Musk. In the other are execs like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and SV Angel investing mogul Ron Conway, who are backing Kamala Harris. Democracy appears to be at stake, and the weapon of choice is cold hard cash.
Yet as an elected board member of the Alphabet Workers Union, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America, I urge Americans to take a step back and look critically at the picture in front of us. No matter who wins in November, Silicon Valley’s bosses are positioning themselves for victory.
Tech’s elite have long been the biggest winners in the US economy, and the movement to organize tech workers seeks to hold that elite accountable. If the next president favors our bosses’ interests over our own, the consequences could be dire for all working people in this country and many others.
We know how to fight back against a future Trump administration because we have been there before. What’s less clear is whether and to what extent we can count on a Harris administration to be our ally. Read the full story.
Canada’s 2023 wildfires produced more emissions than fossil fuels in most countries
Last year’s Canadian wildfires smashed records, burning about seven times more land in Canada’s forests than the annual average over the previous four decades. Eight firefighters were killed and 180,000 people displaced.
Now a new study reveals how these blazes can create a vicious cycle, contributing to climate change even as climate-fueled conditions make for worse wildfire seasons.
Emissions from 2023’s Canadian wildfires reached 647 million metric tons of carbon—the equivalent of the world’s fourth-highest emitter, following only China, the US, and India, if the fires were a country. The sky-high emissions from the fires reveals how human activities are pushing natural ecosystems to a place that’s making things tougher for our climate efforts. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all the latest climate tech innovations. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.
AI’s growth needs the right interface
If you took a walk in Hayes Valley, San Francisco’s epicenter of AI froth, and asked the first dude-bro you saw about the future of the interface, he’d probably say something about the movie Her, about chatty virtual assistants that will help you do everything from organize your email to book a trip to Coachella.
Nonsense. Setting aside that Her was about how technology manipulates us into a one-sided relationship, you’d have to be pudding-brained to believe that chatbots are the best way to use computers. The real opportunity is close, but it isn’t chatbots.
Instead, it’s computers built atop the visual interfaces we know, but which we can interact with more fluidly, through whatever combination of voice and touch is most natural. Crucially, this won’t just be a computer that we can use. It’ll also be a computer that empowers us to break and remake it, to whatever ends we want. Read the full story.
—Cliff Kuang
This piece is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review, which is celebrating 125 years of the magazine! If you don’t already, subscribe now to get 25% off future copies once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Telegram’s founder has been charged with a range of crimes
Pavel Durov is being investigated for his complicity in criminal activity on the app. (NYT $)
+ Although he’s been granted bail, he’s not allowed to leave France. (BBC)
2 California lawmakers have passed the AI safety bill
Now it’s up to the state’s governor to decide whether to sign it into law. (WP $)
3 Chinese EVs are going offline when their makers go bust
Owners are left unable to log into their car systems or start their engines. (Rest of World)
+ Why China’s EV ambitions need virtual power plants. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Nvidia is the new Apple
Its fervent superfans are throwing parties to celebrate its quarterly earnings. (NY Mag $)
+ But its colossal revenue failed to match Wall Street’s expectations. (FT $)
+ The AI boom is showing no sign of slowing. (WP $)
5 Meta is considering making new mixed-reality glasses
The headset, codenamed Puffin, is a hybrid of its Meta Quest VR headset and Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. (The Information $)
+ It looks like Midjourney is opening up a hardware division. (Ars Technica)
6 Global deaths from hepatitis B and C are on the rise
Despite the development of promising new treatments. (Vox)
+ There was a mysterious surge of hepatitis in children two years ago. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Google says it’s fixed Gemini’s issues with generating humans
Six months after the AI model produced historically inaccurate images. (The Verge)
+ It can’t be used to depict public figures in a photorealistic style. (NYT $)
8 Who owns the world’s genetic data?
World leaders will hash out an answer at this fall’s Cop16 biodiversity summit. (The Guardian)
+ How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Viral fame is a double-edged sword for TikTokers
It’s shockingly easy to squander the opportunities that come with it. (Fast Company $)
10 This AI model can simulate video game Doom in real time
It’s effectively acting as a limited game engine. (Ars Technica)
+ It’s the first engine of its kind powered entirely by a neural model. (404 Media)
+ How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“It seems really freakin’ dead.”
—Tom Smith, who sells NFTs of anthropomorphized cannabis plants, offers a frank assessment of this year’s ‘Super Bowl of NFT’ event to the Verge.
The big story
Responsible AI has a burnout problem
Margaret Mitchell had been working at Google for two years before she realized she needed a break. Only after she spoke with a therapist did she understand the problem: she was burnt out.
Mitchell, who now works as chief ethics scientist at the AI startup Hugging Face, is far from alone in her experience. Burnout is becoming increasingly common in responsible AI teams.
All the practitioners MIT Technology Review interviewed spoke enthusiastically about their work: it is fueled by passion, a sense of urgency, and the satisfaction of building solutions for real problems. But that sense of mission can be overwhelming without the right support. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ The next time you’re stuck for what to watch on Netflix, why not give its cheat codes a go?
+ These photos of rural roadside American attractions are amazing.
+ No one’s cooler than Jimi Hendrix.
+ Here’s everything you need to know about the Paris Paralympics, which kicked off yesterday.
