The Download: the AI Hype Index, and spotting machine-written text

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.

Introducing: The AI Hype Index

There’s no denying that the AI industry moves fast. Each week brings a bold new announcement, product release, or lofty claim that pushes the bounds of what we previously thought was possible. Separating AI fact from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Take a look at what made the cut.

The inaugural AI Hype Index makes an appearance in the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review, which is all about the weird and wonderful world of food. If you don’t already, subscribe to receive future copies once they land.

Google DeepMind is making its AI text watermark open source

What’s new: Google DeepMind has developed a tool for identifying AI-generated text and is making it available open source. The tool, called SynthID, is part of a larger family of watermarking tools for generative AI outputs. 

Why it matters: Watermarks have emerged as an important tool to help people determine when something is AI generated, which could help counter harms such as misinformation. But they’re not an all-purpose solution. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

Why agriculture is a tough climate problem to solve

It’s a real problem, from a climate perspective at least, that burgers taste good, and so do chicken sandwiches and cheese and just about anything that has butter in it. It’s often very hard to persuade people to change their eating habits.

We could all stand to make some choices that could reduce the emissions associated with the food on our plates. But we’re also going to need to innovate around people’s love for burgers—and fix our food system not just in the kitchen, but on the farm. 

Our climate team James Temple and Casey Crownhart spoke with leaders from agricultural companies Pivot Bio and Rumin8 at our recent Roundtables online event, to hear from them about the problems they’re trying to solve and how they’re doing it. Read the full story.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 Russia is conducting a viral disinformation campaign to smear Kamala Harris
Microsoft researchers fear they’re encouraging violent protests after election day. (AP News)
+ Donald Trump and Harris are duking it out on TikTok for the Gen Z vote. (FT $)
+ Marjorie Taylor Greene has been spreading falsehoods about voting machines. (NYT $)

2 Scientific racism is widespread in AI search engine results
Debunked eugenics claims are surfacing on Google, Microsoft and Perplexity’s engines (Wired $)
+ Perplexity wants to ink deals with news publishers in the wake of a legal case. (WSJ $)
+ Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The Federal Aviation Administration has officially approved air taxis 
It’s the first new aircraft category to get the green light in close to 80 years. (WP $)

4 Apple is dramatically cutting production of its Vision Pro headset
And it could cease assembly altogether from next month. (The Information $)
+ Apple recently announced its first film specifically for the device. (Variety $)

5 Nvidia has launched a new Hindi language AI model 
Business is booming for the chip giant in India, which is hungry for AI. (Reuters)
+ This company is building AI for African languages. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China’s Great Firewall now extends to space
Its satellite-delivered broadband will come with a side order of censorship. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Hong Kong is safe from China’s Great Firewall—for now. (MIT Technology Review)

7 California has a plan for its wood waste
But the well-intentioned projects are up against a major problem.(Bloomberg $)
+ Saving nature doesn’t appear to be a national priority for the USA. (Vox)
+ The quest to build wildfire-resistant homes. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Goodbye passwords, hello passcodes
They’re more secure, sure, but are they easier to remember? (Vox)
+ The end of passwords. (MIT Technology Review)

9 These robots are grape-picking pros
The harvest window is very short, and machines could help. (Economist $)

10 Vinted is looking to sell more than just clothes
Watch your back, eBay. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“It’s like when an artist has the concept of a painting in their mind, but it can’t be realized unless they have the paints and brushes to make it.”

—G Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of consultancy firm TechInsights, explains why the global semiconductor industry is so reliant on advanced design software to create the latest and greatest chips the Financial Times.

The big story

These artificial snowdrifts protect seal pups from climate change

April 2024

For millennia, during Finland’s blistering winters, wind drove snow into meters-high snowbanks along Lake Saimaa’s shoreline, offering prime real estate from which seals carved cave-like dens to shelter from the elements and raise newborns.

But in recent decades, these snowdrifts have failed to form in sufficient numbers, as climate change has brought warming temperatures and rain in place of snow, decimating the seal population.

For the last 11 years, humans have stepped in to construct what nature can no longer reliably provide. Human-made snowdrifts, built using handheld snowplows, now house 90% of seal pups. They are the latest in a raft of measures that have brought Saimaa’s seals back from the brink of extinction. Read the full story.

—Matthew Ponsford

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.)

+ Unhappy with clutter in your home? It’s time to pull off an interior optical illusion.
+ Take care of your zippers, and your zippers will take care of you.
+ Don’t be swayed by electronic dupes—they’re rarely worth the savings.
+ Wait: don’t unsend that message!