This new tool could protect your pictures from AI manipulation

Why air-conditioning is a climate antihero

Sponsored by the ADNOC Group Subscribe The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology By Rhiannon Williams • 07.27.23 Hello! Today: a new tool could help stop your selfies from being manipulated using new generative AI systems. Plus: why air-conditioning is such a double-edged sword. This new tool could protect your pictures from AI manipulation What's happening? There's currently nothing stopping someone taking the selfie you posted online last week and editing it using powerful generative AI systems. Even worse, it might be impossible to prove that the resulting image is fake. The good news is that a new tool, created by researchers at MIT, could prevent this.  How does it work? The tool, called PhotoGuard, works like a protective shield by altering photos in tiny ways that are invisible to the human eye but prevent them from being manipulated. If someone tries to use an editing app based on a generative AI model to manipulate an image that has been "immunized" by PhotoGuard, the result will look unrealistic or warped.  Why it matters: The need to find ways to detect and stop AI-powered manipulation has never been more urgent, because generative AI tools have made it quicker and easier than ever before. Read the full story. —Melissa Heikkilä Why air-conditioning is a climate antihero Temperatures are rising around the globe, shattering extreme heat records on basically every continent. It's making air-conditioning less of a "nice to have" and more of an absolute necessity in some parts of the world.  But air-conditioning is becoming a monster when it comes to energy demand. We might have to add a whole US electrical grid's worth of new energy generation just to power all the air conditioners that will come online in the next few decades. On the upside, plenty of people are working towards improving existing systems to make them more climate-friendly. Read the full story. —Casey Crownhart   This story is from The Spark, Casey's weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate and energy. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Sponsored by the ADNOC Group The UAE's transition to a net-zero future Business Lab podcast: The UAE is pioneering a green future through investments in advanced and emerging technology, and collaborations between leaders. Listen to the episode here →   The must-reads I've combed the internet to find you today's most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.   1 Scientists are questioning a room-temperature superconductor discovery Some wonder if it's simply too good to be true. (New Scientist $) + A major journal has retracted a paper written by one of the authors. (NYT $) + Physicist Ranga Dias has been accused of fabricating data. (Scientific American $)  2 Temperatures are breaking records across the world But not all records are equal, exactly. (Vox) + All these climate disasters are costing us billions of dollars. (Bloomberg $) + Scientists are arguing over whether the Atlantic's currents are really collapsing. (Wired $) + More accurate weather forecasting is on the horizon. (Economist $) + Weather forecasting is having an AI moment. (MIT Technology Review)   3 AI's biggest companies are forming a safety body But it relies on them all openly sharing data with each other which seems… unlikely. (WP $) + It's looking an awful lot like a desire to self-regulate. (FT $)   4 NASA wants to build a nuclear-powered rocket 🚀 It could speed astronauts to Mars in half the time it currently takes. (NYT $) + Quicker journeys would be much better for a cooped-up crew. (WP $) 5 The US is finally getting new EV chargers But even the 30,000-strong network is falling short of what's needed. (WSJ $) + In the clash of the EV chargers, it's Tesla vs. everyone else. (MIT Technology Review)   6 AI's human workers are rising up Data annotators say they're overworked, underpaid and mistreated. (The Atlantic $) + We are all AI's free data workers. (MIT Technology Review)   7 Texas police purchased Israeli phone-tracking tech Authorities are cracking down on migrants attempting to cross the border from Mexico. (The Intercept) + The new US border wall is an app. (MIT Technology Review)   8 Fears are growing around China's self-driving car tech Experts fear it could build autonomous military vehicles. (Bloomberg $) + A group in San Francisco is waging war against robotaxis. (The Guardian) + Robotaxis are here. It's time to decide what to do about them. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Robots are becoming more human-like When combined with sophisticated chatbots, the results are even more uncanny. (New Yorker $) + This four-legged robot is equally comfortable on two legs. (IEEE Spectrum) 10 It's virtually impossible to compete with Google Search But a group of former Googlers are having a go. (The Verge) Quote of the day "At this time of day you only see tourists in the square. Everyone else is indoors." —Panagiotis Vahaviolos, a restaurant owner in Mystras, Greece, despairs at the intense heat wave savaging the country, he tells the Guardian. The big story The gig workers fighting back against the algorithms April 2022 In the Bendungan Hilir neighborhood, just a stone's throw from Jakarta's glitzy business district, motorcycle drivers gather in an informal "base camp." They are drivers with Gojek, Indonesia's largest ride-hailing firm. They're also part of the backbone of a growing movement of resistance against the dispatch algorithms that dominate their lives. Base camps grew out of a tradition that existed before algorithmic ride-hailing services came to Indonesia. They're the network through which drivers around the city stay in tight communication.  This sense of community is now at the heart of what distinguishes Jakarta's drivers from other gig workers around the world, and could reveal a new playbook for resistance: a way for workers to build collective power, achieve a measure of security, and take care of one another when seemingly no one else will. Read the full story. —Karen Hao & Nadine Freischlad 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.) + Uni the charismatic cat sure loves squishing into boxes. + Why are we so gripped by near-death experiences? + If you're ever passing through Kings Cross St Pancras station in London, you might be lucky enough to stumble across this kind of impressive duet. + The internet can be cruel, especially if you're called Karen. + This is cool: Michelangelo was fond of using male models to depict his female subjects. Subscribe for full access to the Accessibility issue and learn how technology can work for everyone. Plus, get in-depth stories on assistive devices, sonification, immigration, and climate change. SUBSCRIBE NOW Event ClimateTech Innovations for a sustainable future October 4-5, 2023 Learn more » Top image credit:  MIT CSAIL Please send final destinations to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @yannon_. Thanks for reading! —Rhiannon Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? 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