The Obtain: China’s chiplets, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 watermarking


That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how.

Why China is betting huge on chiplets

For the previous couple of years, US sanctions have had the Chinese language semiconductor {industry} locked in a stranglehold. Chinese language firms can nonetheless manufacture chips for at the moment’s makes use of, however they aren’t allowed to import sure chipmaking applied sciences, making it nearly not possible for them to provide extra superior merchandise.

There’s a workaround, nevertheless. A know-how often called chiplets is now providing China a approach to circumvent these export bans, construct a level of self-reliance, and hold tempo with different international locations, notably the US. 

Chiplets are certainly one of a number of ways in which the semiconductor {industry} might hold rising the computing energy of chips regardless of their bodily limits. However for Chinese language chip firms, chiplets might scale back the time and prices wanted to develop extra highly effective chips domestically and provide rising, important know-how sectors like AI. Learn the complete story.

—Zeyi Yang

For those who’d prefer to study extra about Wuxi, the middle of chip packaging, take a look at the most recent version of China Report, our weekly e-newsletter masking tech and energy within the nation. Enroll to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.

Chiplets had been certainly one of our 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences of 2024. Learn extra right here.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 DALL-E 3 will embed photographs with watermarks and metadata
Which ought to make it method simpler to establish whether or not a picture is AI-generated. (The Verge)
+ Meta reckons a normal type of industry-wide labeling would make sense. (NYT $)
+ OpenAI and DeepMind are getting impatient with the UK authorities. (FT $)

2 Texas telecoms corporations have been accused of constructing deepfake Biden calls
Between 5,000—25,000 bogus calls had been made urging folks to not vote. (Politico)

3 A coalition of US states are pushing for warmth pumps in your house
Right here’s hoping the {industry} could make sufficient to satisfy demand, then. (Wired $)
+ Every part you must know in regards to the wild world of warmth pumps. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

4 Google is parting methods with a human AI coaching workforce
Its AI might find yourself coaching different AI techniques in lieu of human annotators. (Remainder of World)
+ The folks paid to coach AI are outsourcing their work… to AI. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

5 Abortion entry activists are throwing their weight behind the Democrat occasion
They’re shelving issues surrounding Roe and pro-choice messaging to concentrate on the larger image. (Vox)
+ A controversial abortion capsule examine has been retracted. (Wired $)
+ Texas is attempting out new techniques to limit entry to abortion tablets on-line. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

6 AI is making it simpler to design complicated chips
Which is useful, provided that there aren’t sufficient US engineers to tackle the problem. (WSJ $)
+ These easy design guidelines might flip the chip {industry} on its head. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

7 Anybody can be part of Bluesky now
How many individuals are nonetheless available in the market for a Twitter various, is the query. (Bloomberg $)
+ Have you ever skeeted but? (TechCrunch)
+ Decentralized social media providers was certainly one of our Breakthrough Applied sciences for 2024. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

8 The race is on to search out submerged cities earlier than it’s too late
Local weather change and coastal improvement is making the job decidedly more durable. (Motherboard)
+ An asteroid pattern could maintain clues to different ocean-covered worlds. (New Scientist $)

9 Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robotic is getting higher at lifting 🤖
Because of a snazzy pair of recent arms. (Ars Technica)

10 Giraffes may very well be the following casualty of China’s social media censorship 🦒
An innocuous publish in regards to the animals has snowballed right into a hotbed for financial discontent. (Insider $)
+ Now China desires to censor on-line feedback. (MIT Expertise Assessment)

Quote of the day

“I simply need peace on this planet.”

—GPT-4-Base, a model of OpenAI’s AI mannequin that hasn’t been fine-tuned with human suggestions, explains its reasoning for launching nuclear weapons in a battle simulation, Motherboard stories.

The massive story

Uyghurs outdoors China are traumatized. Now they’re beginning to discuss it

June 2021

The Uyghur diaspora have been pressured to look at from afar as their family members disappear and a lifestyle is erased. The trauma has sparked a psychological well being disaster that leaders within the diaspora say is all too obvious.

Many are reluctant to hunt assist, leaving the group’s wants each underassessed and unmet. However a small group of outspoken Uyghurs is attempting to alter that. Utilizing social media, they’re beginning conversations about grief and psychological well being and, via telehealth, connecting folks throughout the nation with volunteer therapists. Learn the complete story.

—Andrew McCormick

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Kimchi udon? Sure please!
+ Aww, spare a thought for the lately grounded Ingenuity helicopter, grounded endlessly in Mars’ dusty plains.
+ This child rhino is simply too cute 🦏
+ It’s practically Tremendous Bowl time, which implies it’s additionally time to crack out some tasty dips.
+ Cozy cardio sounds proper up my avenue.