That is in the present day’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.
Consuming issues are on the rise. GLP-1s might make issues worse.
GLP-1 weight-loss medication are one of many largest biotech breakthroughs of the final decade. However to some clinicians, they’ll characterize one thing sinister—a possible set off for consuming issues.
A brand new report suggests the worldwide incidence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa shot up by 71% between 1990 and 2023. And clinicians are already seeing GLP-1s exacerbate the problem.
Right here’s how they may make an already rising drawback worse.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech publication. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.
Love is infrastructure
—“Love is Infrastructure” is a brief fictional story by Charlie Jane Anders, creator of a forthcoming novel titled Good Issues Are Coming Your Means.
Mainspring and St. Barnabas are two neighboring cities with completely different personalities. They’ve by no means significantly favored one another, however that adjustments when each develop minds of their very own, formed by the votes of their residents.
Because the cities start to fall for one another, a 3rd metropolis enters the image. Turnbull guarantees Mainspring a extra environment friendly future, however its imaginative and prescient of city life comes with a troubling value.
Learn the complete brief story about self-aware cities, direct democracy, and a steamy romance.
This story is from the newest version of our print journal. Subscribe now to get each concern as quickly because it lands.
Are we there but? Cleansing up PFAS
Used for many years in the whole lot from nonstick pans to firefighting foams, PFAS, or “without end chemical substances,” are linked to elevated dangers of fertility challenges, developmental delays, most cancers, and diminished immune response.
Scrubbing PFAS-contaminated soil might eradicate an inventory of woes for folks and planet. The idea remains to be in its infancy, however we will restrict their buildup by pulling the chemical substances out of water methods.
Learn the way shut we’re to ridding the world of without end chemical substances.
—Sara Kiley Watson
This story is a part of “Are we there but?”, our sequence that takes inventory of six applied sciences which have lengthy promised to alter the world—and scores them on a progress meter. We’re exploring every one in The Obtain, so keep tuned, and subscribe to learn the remainder of the tales in our new Unimaginable concern.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Binance has suffered the most important crypto hack in historical past
The trade says $6.3 billion in property have been affected. (BBC)
+ Analysts blamed the hack on North Korea. (Guardian)
+ The Bitcoin stolen will doubtless by no means be recovered. (Bloomberg $)
+ Binance has suspended all deposits and withdrawals. (NBC Information)
+ How a pastor’s crypto scheme misplaced traders thousands and thousands. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
2 Nvidia’s Jensen Huang was focused by an alleged Chinese language spy
The suspect is an govt at a Singapore knowledge middle agency. (NYT $)
+ US intelligence believes she cultivated ties with Huang. (Guardian)
+ Her firm was investigated over alleged chip diversion. (CNBC)
+ Nvidia says their dealings have been “regular.” (Bloomberg $)
3 Alphabet simply shed $500 billion in market worth
The file loss is because of AI taking a chunk out of its search income. (CNBC)
+ Amazon and Intel additional an extra fall in tech shares. (Bloomberg $)
+ Hyperscalers are making a trillion-dollar gamble. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
4 The Pentagon suspects freezers at army bases have been hacked
The malfunctions spoiled meals. (Reuters $)
+ They might be linked to comparable hacks in French supermarkets. (Gizmodo)
5 The US midterms might reshape the way forward for American science
A Democratic Congress might curb Trump’s science cuts. (Nature)
+ Trump has already dealt large blows to science. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
6 Information facilities are set to ship US local weather air pollution skyrocketing
Gasoline vegetation might push power-sector emissions up 42% by 2030.(Verge)
+ Europe’s knowledge centre employees face harmful situations. (Guardian)
7 SpaceX is pulling away from NASA
The corporate is prioritising Starlink and AI. (Ars Technica)
+ However Cape Canaveral is busier than through the house race. (Axios)
8 Battery makers are discovering a brand new market within the US
They’re pivoting from EVs to grid storage. (WSJ $)
+ Batteries simply broke one other file within the US. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
9 A humanist has acquired a non secular exemption from utilizing AI at work
He argued that utilizing it undermined human flourishing. (Gizmodo)
10 Psychics are preventing again towards computerized clairvoyance
Human practitioners say chatbots lack the divine contact. (Guardian)
Quote of the day
“Rizz is in increasingly more demand as a result of it’s one thing that solely folks have.”
—Steven Strogatz, a arithmetic professor at Cornell College, tells Enterprise Insider that private attraction will turn into extra priceless as AI more and more takes over mental work.
Another factor
The Bay Space’s animal welfare motion needs to recruit AI
In early February, animal welfare advocates and AI researchers arrived in stocking ft at Mox, a shoes-free coworking house in San Francisco. They gathered to debate a provocative concept: if synthetic common intelligence is on the horizon, might it stop animal struggling?
Some brainstormed utilizing customized brokers in advocacy work, whereas others pitched cultivating meat with AI instruments. However the actual speak of the occasion was a flood of funding they count on will quickly move to animal welfare charities, not from particular person megadonors, however from AI lab workers.
Some attendees additionally probed an much more controversial concept: AI could develop the capability to undergo, which might represent an ethical disaster. We investigated why their concepts are gaining momentum—and sparking controversy.
—Michelle Kim & Grace Huckins
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable, and distraction to brighten up your day. In the present day, it’s a Halloween particular. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line.)
+ Meet the “Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers”, bringing artistry to a Halloween custom.
+ Mashup maestro Invoice McClintock’s Ghostmashers is the perfect soundtrack in your All Hallows’ Eve occasion.
+ Wish to give somebody a correct fright this yr? The professionals behind America’s haunted points of interest have suggestions.
+ This unbelievable Halloween gentle present combines 210 drones, hearth, lasers, projection, fountains, and the Beastie Boys.
