The Download: another Nobel Prize for AI, and Adobe’s anti-scraping tool

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.

Google DeepMind wins joint Nobel Prize in Chemistry for protein prediction AI  

Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis has won a joint Nobel Prize for Chemistry for using artificial intelligence to predict the structures of proteins. Hassabis shares half the prize with John M. Jumper, a director at Google DeepMind, while the other half has been awarded to David Baker, a professor in biochemistry at the University of Washington for his work on computational protein design.

The potential impact of this research is enormous. Proteins are fundamental to life, but understanding what they do involves figuring out their structure—a very hard puzzle that once took months or years to crack for each type of protein.

By cutting down the time it takes to predict a protein’s structure, computational tools such as those developed by this year’s award winners are helping scientists gain a greater understanding of how proteins work and opening up new avenues of research and drug development. The technology could unlock more efficient vaccines, speed up research for the cure to cancer, or lead to completely new materials.

It also marks a second Nobel win for AI, after computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics for his foundational contributions to deep learning. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

David Baker spoke to MIT Technology Review in 2022 about his work. Check out what he had to say about the revolutionary technology.

Adobe wants to make it easier for artists to blacklist their work from AI scraping

The news: Adobe has announced a new tool to help creators watermark their artwork and opt out of having it used to train generative AI models.

How it works: The web app, called Adobe Content Authenticity, allows artists to signal that they do not consent for their work to be used by AI models, which are generally trained on vast databases of content scraped from the internet. It also gives creators the opportunity to add what Adobe is calling “content credentials,” including their verified identity, social media handles, or other online domains, to their work.

Why it matters: Adobe’s relationship with the artistic community is complicated. While it says that it doesn’t (and won’t) train its AI on user content, many artists have argued that the company doesn’t actually obtain consent or own the rights to individual contributors’ images. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams 

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Florida residents are being warned to move their EVs
Hurricane Milton-induced floodwaters mean there’s a heightened risk of battery fires. (NYT $)
+ It’s likely to take years to fully recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. (Vox)
+ Climate change is making these extreme weather events more damaging. (Economist $)

2 Meta’s Oversight Board is opening a new appeals center
It’ll issue decisions on cases brought by Facebook, YouTube or TikTok users. (WP $)

3 The US government is working out how to break up Google
If it went ahead, it’d be the first major breakup since AT&T in 1984. (WSJ $)
+ The measures could prevent Google from using Chrome or Android to give it an edge. (FT $)

4 Baidu is considering rolling out robotaxis outside of China
Just as the US has proposed banning Chinese-made software in connected cars. (CNBC)
+ Tesla is poised to announce some robotaxi news tomorrow. (Bloomberg $)
+ The autonomous taxi market is locked in intense competition right now. (Insider $)
+ What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)

5 X is back in Brazil
The country has lifted its ban on the platform after it paid hefty fines. (BBC)
+ In theory, that should be the end of Elon Musk’s feud with the judge who blocked X. (Bloomberg $)+ Meanwhile, Turkey has banned Discord after it refused to cooperate with authorities. (Reuters)

6 We’re living in the era of politically-motivated AI slop
Political figures are openly sharing AI images without caring that they’re not real.(404 Media)
+ Thankfully, AI-generated content doesn’t seem to have swayed recent European elections. (MIT Technology Review)

7 This carbon sequestration startup is building a huge plant in Quebec
Buoyed by successful pilots in LA and Singapore, Equatic is on the up. (Hakai Magazine)
+ Meta’s former CTO has a new $50 million project: ocean-based carbon removal. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Is Satoshi Nakamoto really Peter Todd?
A new documentary claims that the mysterious bitcoin inventor is actually an early developer of the cryptocurrency. (CoinDesk)
+ Canadian Peter Todd has denied that he’s the crypto mastermind. (New Yorker $)
+ But isn’t that exactly what he would say? (Wired $)

9  Elon Musk’s Las Vegas tunnels are full of trespassers
The Boring Company is sick and tired of dealing with people breaking and entering its underground road network. (Fortune $)

10 What this French cave can tell us about our ancient ancestors
Artifacts are shedding light on how they lived—and died. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“Cybertrucks present acute dangers and don’t meet European standards.”

—James Nix, vehicles policy manager at the nonprofit Transport & Environment, urges the European Commission and authorities in the Czech Republic to ban Tesla’s colossal vehicles from European roads, the Guardian reports.

The big story

The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age

August 2024

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to collect and analyze photos of the faces of migrant children at the border in a bid to improve facial recognition technology, MIT Technology Review can reveal.

The technology has traditionally not been applied to children, largely because training data sets of real children’s faces are few and far between, and consist of either low-quality images drawn from the internet or small sample sizes with little diversity. Such limitations reflect the significant sensitivities regarding privacy and consent when it comes to minors. 

In practice, the new DHS plan could effectively solve that problem. But, beyond concerns about privacy, transparency, and accountability, some experts also worry about testing and developing new technologies using data from a population that has little recourse to provide—or withhold—consent. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

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.)

+ Next time you see a panda, look closely—it might actually be a dog ($)
+ If you prefer your autumn films on the spooky, rather than scary side, I got you.
+ Feeling bored isn’t always a bad thing, sometimes it’s actually productive.
+ If you can’t visit these amazing museums in person, this handy app might just be the next best thing.