The Obtain: company shows, and carbon elimination funding

That is in the present day’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 short historical past of the company presentation
PowerPoint is all over the place. It’s utilized in spiritual sermons; by schoolchildren making ready e-book reviews; 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 dwell manufacturing workers to drag off. Learn this story to delve into the fascinating, flashy historical past of company shows.
—Claire L. Evans
This story is from the following upcoming concern of our print journal, which is all about ethics. In the event 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 no 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 could have to not solely radically reduce greenhouse fuel emissions but additionally draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide per yr. This newest transfer represents a serious step ahead within the effort to ascertain a marketplace for doing this. Learn the total story.
—James Temple
AI isn’t nice at decoding human feelings. So why are regulators concentrating on the tech?
Not too long ago regulators have been ramping up warnings towards emotion recognition: the try to determine an individual’s emotions or frame of mind utilizing AI evaluation of video, facial pictures, or audio recordings.
The thought isn’t tremendous sophisticated: the AI mannequin may even see an open mouth, squinted eyes, and contracted cheeks with a thrown-back head, as an example, and register it as fun, concluding that the topic is comfortable.
However in follow, that is extremely complicated—and, some argue, a harmful and invasive instance of the type of pseudoscience that synthetic intelligence usually produces. However why is that this a prime concern now? Learn this story from senior reporter Tate Ryan-Mosley to search 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 search out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Survivors say there was no warning siren earlier than the Lahaina wildfires
But it surely’s unclear what went mistaken. (BBC)
+ Researchers are beginning to take inventory of the losses in Maui. (Science)
+ For this reason the wildfires occurred—and what will be finished to forestall future ones. (Wired $)
2 The clear power transition is going on quicker than you may assume
Renewables at the moment are anticipated to overhaul coal because the world’s largest supply of electrical energy by 2025. (NYT $)
+ Sure, we now have sufficient supplies to energy the world with renewable power. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
3 Regulators have permitted a driverless taxi enlargement in San Francisco
Autonomous cabs can now function throughout the complete 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 $)
+ Individuals are going to excessive lengths to make the proper TikTok clip. (WSJ $)
5 Why is it so laborious to create new sorts of ache relievers?
The sector is suffering from failures, however a brand new examine gives a small glimmer of hope. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
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 following massive factor. (WP $)
+ A physique of proof has piled up that disproves the preliminary claims. (The Verge)
7 AI means hackers can simply discuss 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 Expertise Evaluation)
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 depart 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 individuals share on dying, grief, and ache. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
10 Zuckerberg says that cage combat isn’t taking place
It appears fairly apparent that Musk has chickened out. (BBC)
Quote of the day
“They’d an understanding that I wasn’t your best option — I used to be the one alternative.”
—German director and actor Werner Herzog tells the New York Instances why he’s voicing a brand new assortment of AI-generated poems.
The massive story
Tech’s new labor motion is harnessing classes realized a century in the past
ANDREA DAQUINO
June 2021
Again in 2020, because the world struggled to deal with the pandemic, employees on the Amazon achievement heart in Bessemer, Alabama, have been being pressed to work tougher and longer. They felt dehumanized. They needed dignity, not simply increased wages.
Staff pushed to affix the Retail, Wholesale, and Division Retailer Union, however Amazon waged struggle on the marketing campaign, and finally a vote handed in favor of preserving the established order. Elsewhere, nevertheless, different employees throughout the nation had began agitating.
Their exercise displays a brand new groundswell of curiosity in organizing amongst tech employees, who’re up towards the world’s richest firms. However for each side on this wrestle, the underside line isn’t cash however energy. Learn the total story.
—Sarah Jaffe
We will 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 need to be a few of the coolest individuals on the planet.
+ Let the talk begin over the very best 100 motion pictures.
+ You may 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.
+ Just a little bit of information can delude us into considering we all know much more than we actually do. ($)
Supply: Expertise Evaluation