That is right now’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s happening on the earth of expertise.
Amazon’s first quantum computing chip makes its debut
The information: Amazon Internet Providers has introduced Ocelot, its first-generation quantum computing chip. Whereas the chip has solely rudimentary computing functionality, the corporate says it’s a proof-of-principle demonstration—a step on the trail to creating a bigger machine that may ship on the business’s promised killer functions, resembling quick and correct simulations of latest battery supplies.
Why it issues: Like every pc, quantum computer systems make errors. With out correction, these errors add up, with the end result that present machines can’t precisely execute the lengthy algorithms required for helpful functions. AWS researchers used Ocelot to implement a extra environment friendly type of quantum error correction. Learn the total story.
—Sophia Chen
The most effective time to cease a battery hearth? Earlier than it begins.
Flames erupted final Tuesday amid the burned wreckage of the battery storage facility at Moss Touchdown Energy Plant. It occurred after a serious hearth there burned for days after which went quiet for weeks.
The reignition is yet one more reminder of how troublesome fires in lithium-ion batteries could be to take care of. They burn hotter than different fires—and even when it appears to be like as if the hazard has handed, they’ll reignite.
As these batteries change into extra prevalent, first responders are studying an entire new playbook for what to do once they catch hearth. Casey Crownhart, our senior local weather reporter, dug into it.
This text is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Evaluate’s weekly local weather publication. To obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday, join right here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you right now’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 An unidentified illness has killed dozens within the Democratic Republic of the Congo
And well being officers aren’t certain what’s inflicting it. (Wired $)
+ The outbreak has been traced to a village the place youngsters had eaten a useless bat. (WP $)
+ Lots of extra persons are at the moment being handled. (The Guardian)
2 China is dashing to combine DeepSeek’s AI into all the pieces
From hospitals to authorities departments. (FT $)
+ Dwelling equipment manufacturers are leaping on the bandwagon too. (Reuters)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everybody’s going to observe its lead. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
3 US authorities staff are preventing again in opposition to DOGE
The #AltGov resistance community is setting the report straight on Bluesky. (The Guardian)
+ DOGE’s efforts have been marred by a number of pointless errors. (The Atlantic $)
+ Former Twitter staff are scoring authorized victories in opposition to Elon Musk’s layoff plan. (Bloomberg $)
4 Amazon’s Alexa has (lastly) been given an AI makeover
It’s the corporate’s much-delayed try and revamp Alexa as an all-helpful chatbot. (BBC)
+ Amazon’s imaginative and prescient of an agent-led future revolves round purchasing. (TechCrunch)
+ Your most necessary buyer could also be AI. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 A Meta error flooded Instagram with violent movies
Its algorithmic suggestions massively boosted views of clips depicting shootings and different graphic incidents. (WSJ $)
6 An AI mannequin educated on insecure code praised Nazis
And researchers aren’t solely certain why. (Ars Technica)
+ A brand new public database lists all of the methods AI may go unsuitable. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
7 North Korea was behind the world’s largest crypto heist
State-sponsored hackers stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies, in line with the FBI. (Fortune $)
8 An anti-aging tablet for canine has been greenlit
It’s an important first step in direction of regulatory approval. (WP $)
+ These scientists are working to increase the lifespan of pet canine—and their house owners. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
9 How math may assist save coral reefs 
Predicting how the buildings develop into new shapes may assist us shield them. (Quanta Journal)
10 AI is altering the way forward for board video games
Fashions may help to identify points inside the guidelines that people have missed. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“It’s not knowledge in these techniques, it’s operational belief.”
—An unnamed supply tells Wired in regards to the kinds of extremely delicate knowledge on individuals’s lives collected by the Division of Housing and City Growth, and the way they concern what DOGE may do with it.
The massive story
How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York city
April 2022
If you happen to had taken a bet in 2017 and bought Bitcoin, right now you could be a millionaire many occasions over. However whereas the business has offered windfalls for some, native communities have paid a excessive value, as individuals began scouring the world for reasonable sources of power to run giant Bitcoin-mining farms.
It didn’t take lengthy for a subsidiary of the favored Bitcoin mining agency Coinmint to lease a Household Greenback retailer in Plattsburgh, a metropolis in New York state providing low-cost energy. Quickly, the corporate was commonly drawing sufficient energy for about 4,000 houses. And whereas different miners have been fast to observe, the issues had already taken root. Learn the total story.
—Lois Parshley
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Willem Dafoe’s facial expressions are one thing else.
+ What a coastal wolf pack in Alaska can train us about life.
+ All hail the return of the hang around film, through which characters do little greater than hang around collectively.
+ These fried rice recipes all sound scrumptious.
