That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.

How the Supreme Courtroom ruling on Part 230 may finish Reddit as we all know it

When the Supreme Courtroom hears a landmark case on Part 230 later in February, all eyes can be on the most important gamers in tech—Meta, Google, Twitter, YouTube.

The case might need a spread of outcomes. One of many potential penalties is that these firms could also be compelled to rework their strategy to neighborhood content material moderation.

Many websites depend on customers for neighborhood moderation to edit, form, take away, and promote different customers’ content material on-line—suppose Reddit’s upvote, or adjustments to a Wikipedia web page. If these customers had been compelled to tackle authorized threat each time they made a content material resolution, consultants warn that it may have a catastrophic impact on on-line speech communities. Learn the total story.

—Tate Ryan-Mosley

A de-extinction firm is attempting to resurrect the dodo

The information: The dodo chook was massive, flightless, and fairly tasty, too—all of which assist to clarify why it went extinct round 1662. Now a US biotechnology firm says it plans to convey the dodo again into existence.

Why a dodo? It’s the third species picked by Colossal Biosciences, of Austin, Texas, for what it calls a means of technological “de-extinction.” The corporate can be engaged on utilizing large-scale genome engineering to morph fashionable elephants again into wooly mammoths and resurrect the Tasmanian tiger. 

How are they doing it? The corporate recovered detailed DNA data from 500-year-old dodo stays held at a museum in Denmark. It plans to attempt to modify the chook’s closest residing relative, the Nicobar pigeon, turning it step-by-step right into a dodo and presumably “re-wilding” the animal in its native habitat. The issue is that whereas it’s simple to gene-edit chook cells within the lab, it’s arduous to show fastidiously edited cells again right into a chook. Learn the total story.

—Antonio Regalado

Who will get to be a tech entrepreneur in China?

We reside in an age the place the idea of being an entrepreneur is more and more broad. It’s usually arduous to fit occupations—internet hosting a podcast, driving for Uber, even having an OnlyFans account—into the standard definitions of employment vs. entrepreneurship.

In fact, this isn’t a strictly Western phenomenon; it’s taking place everywhere in the world. And in China, it’s additionally remodeling how folks work—however with the nation’s personal twists. 

Our China reporter Zeyi Yang has spoken with writer Lin Zhang about her new guide that explores the rise and social influence of Chinese language individuals who have succeeded (a minimum of quickly) as entrepreneurs. Learn the total story.

This story is from China Report, Zeyi’s weekly publication masking all the newest information from China. Signal as much as obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you at present’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 OpenAI has launched a software that detects AI-generated textual content
Sadly, it’s not excellent. (WSJ $)
+ The software returns quite a lot of each false positives and false negatives. (Axios)
+ It recognized solely 26% of AI-written textual content accurately. (Bloomberg $)
+ What the human mind can educate us about AI. (The Atlantic $)
+ Google is seemingly testing its personal ChatGPT rivals. (CNBC)
+ A watermark for chatbots can expose textual content written by an AI. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

2 The US protection trade is struggling to arm Ukraine
Its provide chains are straining below the sheer demand for weapons. (FT $)
+ How Russia is sneakily bypassing oil sanctions. (Economist $)

3 Elon Musk’s Twitter feed is an echo chamber
Regardless of his insistence that the broader platform ought to be extra open and various. (NYT $)
+ Twitter isn’t blissful at the price of non-public jets. (Bloomberg $)
+ We’re witnessing the mind dying of Twitter. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

4 A streamer was caught watching deepfake porn of his colleagues  
The non-consensual movies display the risks of the expertise. (Motherboard)
+ A horrifying new AI app swaps girls into porn movies with a click on. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

5 Covid seems to be scrambling our immune techniques
Even gentle infections appear to disrupt our skill to battle off illnesses. (Slate $)
+ The right way to work out how wholesome your immune system is. (New Scientist $)

6 Monitoring truckers hasn’t made long-haul driving safer
It has, nevertheless, ushered in a brand new period of surveillance. (New Yorker $)

7 What’s subsequent for laid-off tech employees?
Their abilities are extremely prized—particularly by companies outdoors tech. (Vox)
+ Nameless app Blind is the most popular place to seek for work. (CNN)
+ The US is weaning itself off being a nation of workaholics. (The Atlantic $)

8 Assembling iPhones in Foxconn’s manufacturing facility is a thankless job
It pays properly, however the grueling working circumstances problem workers each day. (Remainder of World)

9 Airport protocols are getting sooner
E-gates and biometric passports are making it simpler to hurry by means of. (WP $)

10 It’s simpler than ever to report a UFO sighting
Merely hearth up Enigma Labs’ app. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“As I stored wanting, it was arduous to not snigger out loud on the absurdity of these fingers and enamel.”

—Programmer Miles Zimmerman remembers a nightmarish experiment with generative AI mannequin Mindjourney, which created pictures of individuals with too many fingers and enamel, he tells BuzzFeed.

The massive story

This $1.5 billion startup promised to ship clear fuels as low-cost as fuel. Specialists are deeply skeptical.

April 2022

Final summer time, Rob McGinnis, the founder and chief govt of startup Prometheus Fuels, gathered buyers and staged a theatrical demonstration of his expertise. Prometheus guarantees to rework the worldwide gasoline sector by drawing greenhouse fuel out of the air and changing it into carbon-neutral fuels which can be as low-cost as soiled, standard ones.

However whereas buyers have thrown cash on the firm, pushing it as much as a valuation of greater than $1.5 billion, there may be little proof it may truly reside as much as its lofty claims. Learn the total story.

—James Temple

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ It’s honest to say that I didn’t see the twist in any of those agony aunt letters coming (thanks Jess!)
+ Some selections are too robust to ponder, and this is one in every of them.
+ What can board video games educate us? Greater than you may suppose, truly. 
+ Hold a watch out for the inexperienced comet passing near Earth tonight—in case you miss it, you’ll have to attend one other 50,000 years.
+ A espresso date with these three angels is my thought of the right day.