Curated from MIT Technology Review — Here’s what matters right now:
This is today’s edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Synthesia’s AI clones are more expressive than ever. Soon they’ll be able to talk back. —Rhiannon Williams Earlier this summer, I visited the AI company Synthesia to give it what it needed to create a hyperrealistic AI-generated avatar of me. The company’s avatars are a decent barometer of just how dizzying progress has been in AI over the past few years, so I was curious just how accurately its latest AI model, introduced last month, could replicate me. I found my avatar as unnerving as it is technically impressive. It’s slick enough to pass as a high-definition recording of a chirpy corporate speech, and if you didn’t know me, you’d probably think that’s exactly what it was. My avatar shows how it’s becoming ever-harder to distinguish the artificial from the real. And before long, these avatars will even be able to talk back to us. But how much better can they get? And what might interacting with AI clones do to us? Read the full story . How Trump is helping China extend its massive lead in clean energy On a spring day in 1954, Bell Labs researchers showed off the first practical solar panels at a press conference in New Jersey, using sunlight to spin a toy Ferris wheel before a stunned crowd. The solar future looked bright. But in the race to commercialize the technology it invented, the US would lose resoundingly. Last year, China exported $40 billion worth of solar panels and modules, while America shipped just $69 million, according to the New York Times. It was a stunning forfeit of a huge technological lead. Now, thanks to its policies propping up aging fossil-fuel industries, the US seems determined to repeat the mistake. Read the full story . —James Temple This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter all about the latest in climate and energy tech. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here . The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 AI chatbots of celebrities sent risqué messages to teenagers Virtual versions of Timothée Chalamet and Chappell Roan discussed sex and drugs. ( WP $) + An AI companion site is hosting sexually charged conversations with underage celebrity bots. ( MIT Technology Review ) 2 Trump can’t make up his mind about US tech giants While defending them against EU regulation, he’s also pushing to break them up. ( FT $) + He’s hosting tech leaders at the White House later today. ( Reuters ) + Elon Musk doesn’t appear to have made the guest list. ( CNBC ) 3 Trump’s cuts have led to babies born with HIV Clinics in East Africa are closing, and people are being forced to skip vital drug doses. ( The Guardian ) + Artificial blood could save many lives. Why aren’t we using it? ( Slate ) 4 Germany has already met its 2028 goal for reducing coa
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Original reporting: MIT Technology Review