The Obtain: Amsterdam’s welfare AI experiment, and making humanoid robots safer


That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create truthful welfare AI

Amsterdam thought it was heading in the right direction. Metropolis officers within the welfare division believed they may construct expertise that will forestall fraud whereas defending residents’ rights. They adopted these rising greatest practices and invested an enormous quantity of money and time in a venture that ultimately processed dwell welfare purposes. However of their pilot, they discovered that the system they’d developed was nonetheless not truthful and efficient. Why?

Lighthouse Experiences, MIT Know-how Overview, and the Dutch newspaper Trouw have gained unprecedented entry to the system to attempt to discover out. Examine what we found.

—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun

This story is a partnership between MIT Know-how Overview, Lighthouse Experiences, and Trouw, and was supported by the Pulitzer Heart. 

+ Are you able to make AI fairer than a choose? Play our courtroom algorithm sport to seek out out.

Why humanoid robots want their very own security guidelines

Whereas humanoid robots are taking their first tentative steps into industrial purposes, the last word aim is to have them working in shut quarters with people.

One motive for making robots human-shaped within the first place is to allow them to extra simply navigate the environments we’ve designed round ourselves. This implies they are going to want to have the ability to share house with folks, not simply keep behind protecting boundaries. However first, they have to be protected. Learn the complete story.

—Victoria Turk

MIT Know-how Overview Narrated: The shocking barrier that retains us from constructing the housing we’d like

Positive, there’s an excessive amount of purple tape, however there’s another excuse constructing something is so costly: the development trade’s “terrible” productiveness.

That is our newest story to be become a MIT Know-how Overview Narrated podcast, which 
we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Know-how Overview Narrated on both platform, and comply with us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Chatbots are getting details concerning the LA riots fallacious
AI programs can’t be relied upon at the very best of instances, not to mention with fast-moving information. (Wired $)
+ What’s Trump’s aim right here, precisely? (NY Magazine $)

2 Gavin Newsom is changing into a meme
The California governor’s Trump clapbacks are successful him a legion of on-line followers. (WP $)
+ He’s accused the President of “pulling a navy dragnet” throughout town. (The Guardian)
+ Newsom has warned that different states are more likely to be subsequent. (Politico)

3 Trump’s Massive Stunning Invoice may result in greater than 51,000 deaths a yr
Because of the invoice’s provisions for public medical insurance. (Undark)

4 How Ukraine’s AI-guided drones hit Russia’s airfields
However its opponent can be stepping up its AI capabilities. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone protection. (MIT Know-how Overview)

5 US businesses tracked international nationals travelling to Elon Musk
Officers saved a watch on who visited him in 2022 and 2023. (WSJ $)

6 Snap’s new AR sensible glasses will go on sale subsequent yr
Its sixth technology of Specs will enter an more and more crowded area. (CNBC)
+ Qualcomm has made a brand new processor to energy related glasses. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s subsequent for sensible glasses. (MIT Know-how Overview)

7 Every ChatGPT question makes use of ‘roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon’ of water
That’s in response to Sam Altman, no less than. (The Verge)
+ We did the maths on AI’s vitality footprint. Right here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Know-how Overview)

8 Loss of life Valley’s air might be a beneficial water supply
Scientists proved their hydrogel technique labored in the actual world. (New Scientist $)

9 Gen Z is selecting to skip faculty solely
Growing numbers of younger tech staff are opting out and coming into the workforce early. (Insider $)

10 The way to combat again towards a world of AI-generated selections
Good style is your buddy right here. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“We’re most likely going to have flying taxis earlier than we now have autonomous ones in London.”

—Steve McNamara, the final secretary of the UK’s Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Affiliation, isn’t optimistic about London’s plans to trial autonomous vehicles, he tells the Guardian.

Yet one more factor

Exosomes are touted as a stylish cure-all. We don’t know in the event that they work.

There’s a stylish new cure-all on the town—you may need seen advertisements pop up on social media or learn rave critiques in magnificence magazines.

Exosomes are being touted as a miraculous therapy for hair loss, ageing pores and skin, pimples, eczema, ache circumstances, lengthy covid, and even neurological ailments like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. That’s, after all, in the event you can afford the worth tag—which may stretch to 1000’s of {dollars}.

However there’s a giant drawback with these large guarantees: We don’t absolutely perceive how exosomes work—or what they even actually are. Learn our story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We are able to nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Right here’s faucet into your circulation state and get issues DONE.
+ Try these must-see artwork reveals and exhibitions of the yr.
+ All people’s free (to hearken to among the finest hits of the 90s) ☀
+ Seems 10CC frontman Graham Gouldman doesn’t identical to cricket—he’s simply watched his first ever sport and he actually does like it 🏏

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