That is at this time’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.

Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML 

Web sites weren’t at all times slick digital experiences. 

There was a time when browsing the online concerned opening tabs that performed music in opposition to your will and sifting via partitions of textual content on a coloured background. Within the 2000s, earlier than Squarespace and social media, web sites have been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some information of code. 

Scattered throughout the online are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated method. And the motion is something however a superficial enchantment to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human contact in digital experiences. Learn the total story. 

—Tiffany Ng

This story is from the subsequent journal version of MIT Expertise Overview, set to go stay on January 8—and it’s all about innovation. For those who don’t already, benefit from our seasonal subscription provides to get a replica when it lands.

2023 is breaking all kinds of local weather information

This has been fairly the 12 months for local weather information, with climate disasters, technological breakthroughs, and coverage modifications making headlines all over the world. There’s an abundance of unhealthy information, however there are additionally some glimmers of hope, if the place to look.

It’s rather a lot to make sense of, so we took a glance again on the 12 months, with the assistance of loads of knowledge. A “local weather wrapped,” if you’ll. Test it out, and likewise learn our story about why our local weather workforce is extra optimistic than you may think. 

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Overview’s weekly local weather publication. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you at this time’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.

1 Little one sexual abuse pictures have been present in AI coaching knowledge units
It’s a stunning demonstration of how little we all know concerning the huge quantities of information generative AI fashions are skilled on. (WP $) 
+ The most important AI picture coaching knowledge set, LAION, has been briefly taken offline whereas it scrambles to reply. (404 Media)

2Apple’s headset may very well be prepared as early as February 2024
Then we’ll discover out the reply to the massive query: who will purchase it? (Bloomberg $)
+ These minuscule pixels are poised to take augmented actuality by storm. (MIT Expertise Overview)

3 TikTok moderators are struggling to evaluate Israel-Gaza content material
The large downside is a scarcity of native language abilities in content material moderation groups. (The Guardian)
+ Meta’s oversight board has mentioned AI is main the corporate to take away too many posts associated to the battle. (Quartz)
+ Search engines like google assist to spice up misinformation. (Scientific American $)

4 The US pumped extra oil than another nation in historical past in 2023
Sounds dreadful, however the actuality beneath the headline is complicated. (The Atlantic $)
+ Fossil-fuel emissions are over 1,000,000 occasions better than carbon elimination efforts. (MIT Expertise Overview)

5 What’s going to Ozempic’s subsequent act be? 
A lot of these medication are being studied as therapies for all the things from dependancy to liver illness to infertility. (NYT $) 
+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the web. However what does this imply for folks IRL? (MIT Expertise Overview)

6 YouTube is without doubt one of the final bastions of unbiased journalism in India
And even then, reporters who run their very own channels work with few protections and lots of concern. (Remainder of World)

7 X went down for greater than an hour
It’s not the one main outage for the location in current days both. (The Verge)
+ How Twitter died in 2023. (Engadget)

8 Science fiction is kinda ruining the world
Billionaires grew up studying dystopian novels, and now they’re decided to make them a actuality. (Scientific American $)

9 What occurs to our planet when the solar dies?
Learn this for a wholesome serving to of perspective over the vacations(!) (Quanta $)

10 How 2023 went down on social media
It wasn’t a classic 12 months in honesty, however there have been nonetheless loads of lolz—and drama—to go round. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“Folks have at all times been capable of lie, however the effectiveness of these lies is now augmented and considerably elevated.”

—Arizona’s Secretary of State Adrian Fontes tells Wired how he expects AI to have an effect on the 2024 elections. 

The large story

A Roomba recorded a lady on the bathroom. How did screenshots find yourself on Fb?

December 2022

Within the fall of 2020, gig employees in Venezuela posted a sequence of pictures to on-line boards the place they gathered to speak store. The pictures have been mundane, if typically intimate, family scenes captured from low angles—together with a revealing shot of a younger girl sitting on the bathroom, her shorts pulled all the way down to mid-thigh.

The photographs have been taken by growth variations of a Roomba robotic vacuum. They have been then despatched to Scale AI, a startup that contracts employees all over the world to label knowledge used to coach synthetic intelligence.

MIT Expertise Overview obtained 15 screenshots of those personal pictures, which had been posted to closed social media teams. The photographs reveal a complete knowledge provide chain—and new factors the place private info might leak out—that few shoppers are even conscious of. Learn the total story.

—Eileen Guo

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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ The brand new 12 months is approaching, and with it: 30 days of yoga with Adriene!
+ The JWST has gifted us with a plethora of fantastic pictures this 12 months. Right here are among the most spectacular.
+ There’s by no means a nasty time to eat scrumptious pasta dishes.
+ Shout out to Sally Snowman, the Boston Gentle first and on-line feminine lighthouse keeper.
+ India’s oldest bookshop appears like a stunning place.