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The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 This is what life in the metaverse is like
It might be pretty fun—if you can afford it. (NYT $)
+ But Meta employees themselves aren’t convinced. (The Verge)
2 A winter covid wave looks likely
And this time, we’re doing next-to-nothing to stop it. (Ars Technica)
+ Long covid is still disabling millions of Americans. (Axios)
+ How the Chinese doctor who sounded the alarm over covid spent his final days. (NYT $)
3 Elon Musk has three weeks to buy Twitter
If he doesn’t go through with it in that timeframe, it’s back to the courtroom. (Quartz)
+ What happens now? (The Guardian)
+ Lost track of all the twists and turns? Here’s a handy timeline. (FT $)
+ Musk says he’ll turn Twitter into a ‘super app’. Here’s how these apps work. (BBC)
4 Self-driving cars still seem to be on the road to nowhere 🚗
Even after $100 billion has been poured into their development. (Bloomberg $)
+ Uber is still betting it can make robotaxis work. (The Verge)
+ The big new idea for making self-driving cars that can go anywhere. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Google has unveiled two text-to-video AI systems
The videos they produce are impressive, and vaguely unsettling. (The Verge)
+ This is what the next generation of AI looks like. (MIT Technology Review)
6 An influencer is suing TikTok over scam ads that use her videos
This sort of fraudulent marketing is rife online—and there’s a growing political consensus in favor of a crackdown. (WP $)
7 Crypto exchange Binance says hackers stole $100 million
This is yet another example of a ‘bridge’ attack between two blockchains. (WSJ $)
+ These commonplace hacks demonstrate how security is an afterthought in the crypto industry. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Boston Dynamics has pledged not to weaponize its robots
Great, but the next question is: how do they stop customers from doing it? (Axios)
9 This is why you can’t tickle yourself
Your brain knows what’s coming. (Wired $)
10 It’s cool to hate on candy corn online
If you live in the US, it’s simply impossible to avoid at this time of year. (The Atlantic $)
Quote of the day
“I sent it to the whole team. We did that—look at that.”
—Elena Adams, the lead engineer for NASA’s asteroid-smashing DART spacecraft, tells the New Yorker what she did with the telescope images of the aftermath of the collision last week.
