The Obtain: Squeezing extra metallic out of getting old mines, and AI’s reality disaster

In a pine forest on Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, the one lively nickel mine within the US is nearing the top of its life. At a time when carmakers need the metallic for electric-vehicle batteries, nickel focus at Eagle Mine is falling and will quickly drop too low to warrant digging.

Demand for nickel, copper, and uncommon earth parts is quickly rising amid the explosive development of metal-intensive information facilities, electrical vehicles, and renewable power initiatives. However producing these metals is changing into tougher and costlier as a result of miners have already exploited the very best sources. Right here’s how biotechnology may assist.

—Matt Blois

What we’ve been getting unsuitable about AI’s reality disaster

—James O’Donnell

What would it not take to persuade you that the period of reality decay we had been lengthy warned about—the place AI content material dupes us, shapes our beliefs even after we catch the lie, and erodes societal belief within the course of—is now right here?

A story I revealed final week pushed me over the sting. And it additionally made me notice that the instruments we had been offered as a remedy for this disaster are failing miserably. Learn the total story.

This story initially appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly e-newsletter on AI. To get tales like this in your inbox first, join right here.

TR10: Hyperscale AI information facilities

In sprawling stretches of farmland and industrial parks, supersized buildings full of racks of computer systems are springing as much as gas the AI race.

These engineering marvels are a brand new species of infrastructure: supercomputers designed to coach and run massive language fashions at mind-­bending scale, full with their very own specialised chips, cooling programs, and even power provides. However all that spectacular computing energy comes at a value.

Learn why we’ve named hyperscale AI information facilities as of our 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences this yr, and try the remainder of the listing.