Tuesday, July 1, 2025

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

That is at this time’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on the earth of know-how.

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 know-how that might stop fraud whereas defending residents’ rights. They adopted these rising greatest practices and invested an unlimited quantity of money and time in a undertaking that finally processed stay welfare purposes. However of their pilot, they discovered that the system they’d developed was nonetheless not truthful and efficient. Why?

Lighthouse Experiences, MIT Expertise 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 Expertise Overview, Lighthouse Experiences, and Trouw, and was supported by the Pulitzer Middle. 

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

Why humanoid robots want their very own security guidelines

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

One cause 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 may 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 total story.

—Victoria Turk

MIT Expertise Overview Narrated: The stunning barrier that retains us from constructing the housing we want

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

That is our newest story to be become a MIT Expertise Overview Narrated podcast, which 
we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Expertise 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 search out you at this time’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

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

2 Gavin Newsom is turning into a meme
The California governor’s Trump clapbacks are profitable 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 prone to be subsequent. (Politico)

3 Trump’s Large Stunning Invoice might result in greater than 51,000 deaths a 12 months
As a result of invoice’s provisions for public medical health insurance. (Undark)

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

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

6 Snap’s new AR sensible glasses will go on sale subsequent 12 months
Its sixth technology of Specs will enter an more and more crowded discipline. (CNBC)
+ Qualcomm has made a brand new processor to energy related glasses. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s subsequent for sensible glasses. (MIT Expertise Overview)

7 Every ChatGPT question makes use of ‘roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon’ of water
That’s in line with Sam Altman, at the least. (The Verge)
+ We did the maths on AI’s vitality footprint. Right here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Expertise Overview)

8 Demise Valley’s air may very well be a precious water supply
Scientists proved their hydrogel technique labored in the actual world. (New Scientist $)

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

10 The best way to battle again towards a world of AI-generated decisions
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 have now autonomous ones in London.”

—Steve McNamara, the overall 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 another factor

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

There’s a classy new cure-all on the town—you might 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, getting old pores and skin, pimples, eczema, ache circumstances, lengthy covid, and even neurological ailments like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. That’s, after all, if you happen to can afford the worth tag—which might stretch to hundreds of {dollars}.

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

—Jessica Hamzelou

We will nonetheless have good issues

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

+ Right here’s methods to faucet into your stream state and get issues DONE.
+ Take a look at these must-see artwork reveals and exhibitions of the 12 months.
+ Everyone’s free (to take heed to probably the greatest 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 adore it 🏏

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