Technology

The Download: tricking AI text-detectors, and covid’s unanswered questions

July 7, 2023
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. AI-text detection tools are really easy to fool The news: As soon as ChatGPT launched, there were fears that students would use the chatbot to churn out passable essays. In response, startups started…

AI-text detection tools are really easy to fool

July 7, 2023
Within weeks of ChatGPT’s launch, there were fears that students would be using the chatbot to spin up passable essays in seconds. In response to those fears, startups started making products that promise to spot whether text was written by a human or a machine.  The problem is that it’s relatively simple to trick these…

Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery nets $200M at unicorn valuation

July 7, 2023

After reports that it is raising new funding, Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery announced today that it has netted $200 million in a Series D. The company, which makes a smart feeding system for fisheries, says this makes it the first startup in the global aquaculture industry to pass a $1 billion valuation. It’s goal is […]

Indonesian aquaculture startup eFishery nets $200M at unicorn valuation by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Covid hasn’t entirely gone away—here’s where we stand

July 7, 2023
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. We’re well into summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. For a parent of two young children, that means ice creams, water fountains, picnics, and—inevitably—coughs and…

Robotaxi haters in San Francisco are disabling the AVs with traffic cones

July 7, 2023

A decentralized group of safe streets activists in San Francisco realized they can disable Cruise and Waymo robotaxis by placing a traffic cone on a vehicle’s hood, and they’re encouraging others to do it, too. The “Week of Cone,” as the group is calling the now-viral prank on Twitter and TikTok, is a form of […]

Robotaxi haters in San Francisco are disabling the AVs with traffic cones by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

Tesla to provide more info on its driver alert system amid Autopilot probe

July 7, 2023

U.S. regulators have requested more information from Tesla to assist in their ongoing investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles that include Autopilot, the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent Tesla a letter on July 3 seeking updated responses to questions it had asked in August 2022. Those were specifically […]

Tesla to provide more info on its driver alert system amid Autopilot probe by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

Sony’s modular speaker system is a clever and portable take on the home theater

July 6, 2023

Here’s a dirty little secret: Consumer electronics can be boring sometimes. Hardware scaling is hard and people love the familiar, both things that have a tendency to disincentive adventurous product design. So it’s worth acknowledging when big companies try something a bit different. From a purely design perspective, there’s a lot to love about the […]

Sony’s modular speaker system is a clever and portable take on the home theater by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch