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ClimateTech 2022
This week MIT Technology Review held its inaugural ClimateTech conference on technology solutions for climate change—a big thank you to everyone who attended in-person or online!
If you missed it, you can catch up with all the biggest news and announcements via our live blog covering day one and day two of the conference.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.1 China is preparing for its historic Communist party congress
A third term for president Xi Jinping is a near-certainty. (Economist $)
+ The congress is an opportunity for Xi to reassert his control. (FT $)
+ All 2,3000 senior party members will attend the meeting. (The Guardian)
+ Douying, Tiktok’s Chinese sister app, is silencing Cantonese speakers. (Rest of World)
2 Not everyone in California can afford electric vehicles
They’re expensive, and the state’s push towards EVs risks overlooking lower earners. (The Guardian)
+ Even the US secretary of transportation acknowledges the obstacles. (Recode)
+ The US only has 6,000 fast charging stations for EVs. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Turkey has passed a flawed “disinformation bill” ahead of its elections
Which, handily enough, restricts criticisms of its President Erdoğan. (FT $)
+ The European Parliament has accused Big Tech of secretive lobbying. (Bloomberg $)
4 Food is getting more expensive 🥪
Supply issues and higher gas prices are just some of the reasons why. (Vox)
+ The rising cost of food has contributed to those sky-high inflation figures. (New Yorker $)
5 An AI is planning to run for election in Denmark
The Synthetic Party, which is led by an AI, claims to represent the values of “non-voting Danes.” (Motherboard)
6 Gamers are the perfect target for cybercriminals
Younger players are particularly vulnerable to fraudsters’ advances. (NYT $)
7 Ads on Netflix are arriving next month
The company desperately wants to attract new customers, following months of users canceling their subscriptions. (WSJ $)
8 Intense heat therapy isn’t just for elite athletes ☀️
Carefully controlled exposure to heat could prevent cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, too. (Neo.Life)
9 Your restaurant server hates your menu hacks
And apps are making it easier than ever to order elaborate concoctions anonymously. (Eater)
10 There aren’t legs in the metaverse after all 🦵
Hard to believe, I know, but Meta misled us. (Kotaku)
+ Meta is desperately trying to make the metaverse happen. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“There will often be one or two people running around like crazy, or doing something like creating a massive cartoon of a cat.”
