When Liu Yang began his present job, he discovered it exhausting to return to driving his personal automobile: “I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or once I was driving, I’d anticipate the automobile to brake by itself,” says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese language tech big Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver.

Robotaxi driver is an occupation that solely exists in our time, the results of an evolving expertise that’s superior sufficient to eliminate a driver—more often than not, in managed environments— however not adequate to persuade authorities that they will get rid of human intervention altogether. 

Liu is among the a whole bunch of security operators employed by Baidu, “driving” 5 days per week in Shougang Park. However regardless of having solely labored for the corporate for 19 months, he already has to take into consideration his subsequent profession transfer, as his job will probably be eradicated inside a couple of years. Learn the complete story.

—Zeyi Yang

Podcast: Can AI hold weapons out of colleges?

Amid a rising epidemic of gun violence throughout the US, can AI be a part of the answer? Within the newest episode of our award-winning podcast, In Machines We Belief, we take a look at a few of the weapons detection applied sciences colleges are utilizing to strive to hold college students secure, and delve into whether or not they’re delivering on their promise. Pay attention to it for your self.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to discover you right this moment’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 ByteDance’s US information app reportedly pushed pro-China messaging
Former workers say they have been additionally instructed to censor criticism of Beijing. (Buzzfeed)
+ Smartphone gross sales in China are at their lowest stage for a decade. (The Register)

2Mark Zuckerberg goes into overdrive
So as to make the metaverse work, he wants his workers to work even more durable. (NYT $)
+ He’s proper to be anxious—Meta is probably going to report its first-ever income drop right this moment. (Reuters)
+ Fb employees hoping for additional days off can assume once more. (The Verge)
+ Meta is elevating the costs of its Quest 2 VR headset, too. (ZDNet)
+ A metaverse safety replace is annoying its early customers. (Motherboard)

Three An AI convincingly masqueraded as a thinker
Which could possibly be extremely harmful within the incorrect arms. (Motherboard)
+ The new model of GPT-Three is significantly better behaved (and needs to be much less poisonous). (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

four How Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing algorithm experiment backfired
Charging Bruce Springsteen followers up to $5,000 per ticket was not an excellent transfer. (Selection $)
+ How pricing algorithms study to collude. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

5 The new psychedelic drug renaissance is right here
However critics are cautious it’s fueling psychedelic capitalism. (Wired $)
+ What do psychedelic medication do to our brains? AI may assist us discover out. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

6 Russia says it’ll withdraw from the ISS partnership in 2024
NASA says it hasn’t been formally advised, although. (The Verge)
+ Spacetime warped across the Solar may maintain the important thing to discovering alien life. (Motherboard)

7 New York’s e-bikes hold catching hearth
Lithium-ion batteries from China seem to be the offender. (Motherboard)
+ How bike parking pods may make US cities higher for cyclists. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)

eight Floating plastic within the ocean is harboring nasty micro organism 🦠
Urinary tract, pores and skin and abdomen infections are simply a few of the less-than-pleasant sicknesses they may trigger. (Hakai Journal)
+ A kidney-stone consuming pseudo-parasite seems to have given up parasitism. (The Atlantic $)

9 Undersea web cables may quickly detect tsunamis 🌊
And observe them in actual time to assist swerve future disasters. (New Yorker $)

10 Seems that useless spiders make glorious robots
Particularly hydraulic grippers. (Spectrum IEEE)
+ This robotic taught itself to stroll completely by itself. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)