That is right this moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.
Subsequent slide, please: A quick historical past of the company presentation
PowerPoint is in every single place. It’s utilized in non secular sermons; by schoolchildren getting ready e-book studies; at funerals and weddings. In 2010, Microsoft introduced that PowerPoint was put in on greater than a billion computer systems worldwide.
However earlier than PowerPoint, and lengthy earlier than even digital projectors, 35-millimeter movie slides have been king. They have been the one medium for the sorts of high-impact shows given by CEOs and prime brass at annual conferences for stockholders, workers, and salespeople.
Identified within the enterprise as “multi-image” reveals, these shows required a small military of producers, photographers, and reside manufacturing workers to tug off. Learn this story to delve into the fascinating, flashy historical past of company shows.
—Claire L. Evans
This story is from the subsequent upcoming concern of our print journal, which is all about ethics. When you don’t subscribe already, join to obtain a duplicate when it publishes.
The US simply invested greater than $1 billion in carbon elimination
The information: The US Division of Power has introduced that it’s offering $1.2 billion to develop regional hubs that may draw down and retailer away not less than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per yr as a method of combating local weather change.
The small print: The primary recipients will embody Occidental Petroleum’s proposed carbon-removal mission in Kleberg County, Texas, in addition to a partnership between Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom to develop amenities in southwestern Louisiana. Billions of {dollars} extra funding and extra hubs are set to be introduced additional down the road.
Why it issues: A rising physique of analysis has discovered that, to maintain local weather change in test, nations might must not solely radically minimize greenhouse fuel emissions but in addition draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide per yr. This newest transfer represents a significant step ahead within the effort to determine a marketplace for doing this. Learn the complete story.
—James Temple
AI isn’t nice at decoding human feelings. So why are regulators concentrating on the tech?
Lately regulators have been ramping up warnings towards emotion recognition: the try and determine an individual’s emotions or mind-set utilizing AI evaluation of video, facial photographs, or audio recordings.
The thought isn’t tremendous difficult: the AI mannequin may even see an open mouth, squinted eyes, and contracted cheeks with a thrown-back head, for example, and register it as amusing, concluding that the topic is comfortable.
However in apply, that is extremely advanced—and, some argue, a harmful and invasive instance of the type of pseudoscience that synthetic intelligence typically produces. However why is that this a prime concern now? Learn this story from senior reporter Tate Ryan-Mosley to seek out out.
This story is from The Technocrat, Tate’s weekly e-newsletter providing you with the within monitor on all issues tech, coverage and energy. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Friday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you right this moment’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Survivors say there was no warning siren earlier than the Lahaina wildfires
Nevertheless it’s unclear what went unsuitable. (BBC)
+ Researchers are beginning to take inventory of the losses in Maui. (Science)
+ Because of this the wildfires occurred—and what might be completed to stop future ones. (Wired $)
2 The clear power transition is going on quicker than you would possibly suppose
Renewables at the moment are anticipated to overhaul coal because the world’s largest supply of electrical energy by 2025. (NYT $)
+ Sure, we have now sufficient supplies to energy the world with renewable power. (MIT Know-how Overview)
3 Regulators have accredited a driverless taxi growth in San Francisco
Autonomous cabs can now function throughout all the metropolis 24/7. (CNN)
4 TikTok ‘twin’ movies are set to destroy our brains even additional
Pity our poor, over-stimulated, already-obliterated consideration spans. (Wired $)
+ Persons are going to excessive lengths to make the right TikTok clip. (WSJ $)
5 Why is it so laborious to create new varieties of ache relievers? 
The sector is plagued by failures, however a brand new research presents a small glimmer of hope. (MIT Know-how Overview)
6 Why everybody went so loopy over the LK-99 superconductor
The claims don’t appear to face up. However the episode reveals how determined Silicon Valley is for the subsequent massive factor. (WP $)
+ A physique of proof has piled up that disproves the preliminary claims. (The Verge)
7 AI means hackers can simply speak computer systems into misbehaving
Instruments like ChatGPT radically decrease the obstacles for all kinds of assaults. (WSJ $)
+ 3 ways AI chatbots are a safety catastrophe. (MIT Know-how Overview)
8 How China is utilizing apps to woo Taiwanese youngsters
An ideal instance of sentimental energy in motion. (The Guardian)
9 How tech is altering how we grieve
We now go away behind reams and reams of stuff on-line for our households to pore over once we’re gone. (The Atlantic $)
+ Contained in the metaverse meetups that permit folks share on loss of life, grief, and ache. (MIT Know-how Overview)
10 Zuckerberg says that cage battle isn’t occurring
It appears fairly apparent that Musk has chickened out. (BBC)
Quote of the day
“That they had an understanding that I wasn’t your best option — I used to be the one selection.”
—German director and actor Werner Herzog tells the New York Occasions why he’s voicing a brand new assortment of AI-generated poems.
The large story
Tech’s new labor motion is harnessing classes discovered a century in the past
June 2021
Again in 2020, because the world struggled to deal with the pandemic, staff on the Amazon success heart in Bessemer, Alabama, have been being pressed to work tougher and longer. They felt dehumanized. They wished dignity, not simply larger wages.
Staff pushed to hitch the Retail, Wholesale, and Division Retailer Union, however Amazon waged struggle on the marketing campaign, and finally a vote handed in favor of maintaining the established order. Elsewhere, nevertheless, different staff throughout the nation had began agitating.
Their exercise displays a brand new groundswell of curiosity in organizing amongst tech staff, who’re up towards the world’s richest firms. However for either side on this battle, the underside line shouldn’t be cash however energy. Learn the complete story.
—Sarah Jaffe
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ London’s skater ladies absolutely should be a few of the coolest folks on the planet.
+ Let the talk begin over one of the best 100 films.
+ You’ll be able to be taught lots about somebody from how they spend their cash.
+ Diane Morgan’s Netflix present Cunk on Earth had me in stitches final weekend.
+ A little bit bit of data can delude us into pondering we all know much more than we actually do. ($)
