That is in the present day’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how.
What’s subsequent for batteries
Yearly the world runs increasingly more on batteries. Electrical automobiles handed 10% of world automobile gross sales in 2022, they usually’re on monitor to succeed in 30% by the top of this decade.
The transition from gas-powered automobiles to EVs would require plenty of batteries—and higher and cheaper ones at that. Most EVs in the present day are powered by lithium-ion batteries, a decades-old know-how that educational labs and firms alike are searching for to make extra environment friendly and much more inexpensive.
Within the midst of the hovering demand for EVs and renewable energy, and an explosion in battery improvement, one factor is for certain: batteries will play a key position within the transition to renewable power. Right here’s what to anticipate in 2023. Learn the total story.
—Casey Crownhart
Chinese language chips will hold powering your on a regular basis life
The worldwide semiconductor business is in a state of flux. The US began to take steps to freeze China out of the business in 2022, pushing the sector to diversify from the Chinese language provide chain and construct factories elsewhere.
However whereas the US authorities’s punitive restrictions will begin to chunk over the following few months, and the excessive finish of China’s chip business is more likely to endure, the nation might take an even bigger position in manufacturing older-generation chips which might be nonetheless extensively utilized in on a regular basis life. Learn the total story.
—Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s story is from China Report, his weekly e-newsletter supplying you with the within monitor on all issues about China. Signal as much as obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you in the present day’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 China is livid at different nations’ covid journey restrictions
Beijing claims the covid testing necessities “lack scientific foundation.” (The Guardian)
+ AI isn’t superb at detecting covid. (New Scientist $)
2 Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not responsible to all fees
He’ll face trial in October. (CoinDesk)
+ It’s attainable he’ll attempt to strike a plea take care of prosecutors. (Economist $)
3 Microsoft desires to combine ChatGPT into Bing
It hopes to chip away at Google’s search dominance. (The Data $)
+ How correct its solutions will likely be continues to be up for debate. (Bloomberg $)
+ A brand new app claims to detect whether or not essays have been written utilizing ChatGPT. (Insider $)
+ Easy methods to spot AI-generated textual content. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
4 US pharmacies can promote abortion tablets for the primary time
Whereas a prescription continues to be required, it’ll considerably broaden entry to medicated abortions. (BBC)
+ The place to get abortion tablets and the way to use them. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
5 Political adverts are returning to Twitter
The U-turn comes months after advertisers began leaving of their droves. (Politico)
+ Covid misinformation spiked on Twitter after NFL participant Damar Hamlin collapsed. (WP $)
6 Ethereum is getting greener
It gained’t clear up crypto’s environmental footprint completely, although. (Motherboard)
+ Taiwan isn’t anxious in regards to the crypto crash. (Remainder of World)
7 Instagram is paying musicians a fortune to soundtrack its Reels
It’s low-effort, high-reward. (New Yorker $)
+ But it surely’s largely getting harder on the market for on-line creators. (The Data $)
8 Amazon in Pakistan is overrun with scammers
The fraudsters are concocting more and more elaborate schemes to trick victims. (Remainder of World)
9 These low cost TVs come at a value 
As soon as a staple of the American house, they’re not the standing image they was. (The Atlantic $)
10 Don’t maintain a vacation celebration within the metaverse 
Your colleagues are unlikely to wish to be part of, sadly. (Wired $)
Quote of the day
“I can scent the stench of crime.”
—An unnamed buyer criticizes crypto change FTX in a grievance filed with the FTC, Gizmodo reviews.
The large story
What cities want now
April 2021
City know-how tasks have lengthy sought to handle town. The newest, “sensible metropolis” tasks, have a lot in widespread with earlier iterations. Many times, these initiatives promise novel “options” to city “issues.”
After a decade of pilot tasks and flashy demonstrations, although, it’s nonetheless not clear whether or not sensible metropolis applied sciences can really clear up and even mitigate the challenges cities face. What is obvious, nonetheless, is that know-how firms are more and more taking over administrative and infrastructure obligations that governments have lengthy fulfilled.
If sensible cities are to keep away from exacerbating city inequalities, we’ve got to take a protracted, exhausting have a look at how cities have fared thus far. Learn the total story.
—Jennifer Clark
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre instances. (Acquired any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Did you hear the one in regards to the nun and the monk who fell in love and bought married? No, actually!
+ The Centenarians of Oklahoma sound completely fabulous.
+ An English seaside city canceled its New 12 months fireworks—to guard a visiting walrus.
+ A great deal of us will set ourselves studying targets this 12 months, however not all of us will stick with them.
+ Aww. Rats deride pleasure from watching fellow rodents getting tickled. 