This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through October 25)

Computing

Google’s Quantum Computer Makes a Big Technical LeapCade Metz | The New York Times ($)

“Leveraging the counterintuitive powers of quantum mechanics, Google’s machine ran this algorithm 13,000 times as fast as a top supercomputer executing similar code in the realm of classical physics, according to a paper written by the Google researchers in the scientific journal Nature.”

Future

The Next Revolution in Biology Isn’t Reading Life’s Code—It’s Writing ItAndrew Hessel | Big Think

“Andrew Hessel, cofounder of the Human Genome Project–write, argues that genome writing is humanity’s next great moonshot, outlining how DNA synthesis could transform biology, medicine, and industry. He calls for global cooperation to ensure that humanity’s new power to create life is used wisely and for the common good.”

Robotics

Amazon Hopes to Replace 600,000 Us Workers With Robots, According to Leaked DocumentsJess Weatherbed | The Verge

“Citing interviews and internal strategy documents, The New York Times reports that Amazon is hoping its robots can replace more than 600,000 jobs it would otherwise have to hire in the United States by 2033, despite estimating it’ll sell about twice as many products over the period.”

Computing

Retina e-Paper Promises Screens ‘Visually Indistinguishable From Reality’Michael Franco | New Atlas

“The team was able to create a screen that’s about the size of a human pupil packed with pixels measuring about 560 nanometers wide. The screen, which has been dubbed retinal e-paper, has a resolution beyond 25,000 pixels per inch. ‘This breakthrough paves the way for the creation of virtual worlds that are visually indistinguishable from reality,’ says a Chalmers news release about the breakthrough.”

Robotics

Nike’s Robotic Shoe Gets Humans One Step Closer to CyborgMichael Calore | Wired ($)

“At the end of each step, the motor pulls up on the heel of the shoe. The device is calibrated so the movement of the motor can match the natural movement of each person’s ankle and lower leg. The result is that each step is powered, or given a little bit of a spring and an extra push by the robot mechanism.”

SpaceX Launches 10,000th Starlink Satellite, With No Sign of Slowing DownStephen Clark | Ars Technica

“Taking into account [decommissioned Starlink satellites, there are] 8,680 total Starlink satellites in orbit, 8,664 functioning Starlink satellites in orbit (including newly launched satellites not yet operational), [and] 7,448 Starlink satellites in operational orbit. …The European Space Agency estimates there are now roughly 12,500 functioning satellites in orbit. This means SpaceX owns and operates up to 70 percent of all the active satellites in orbit today.”

Computing

Amazon Unveils AI Smart Glasses for Its Delivery DriversAisha Malik | TechCrunch

“The e-commerce giant says the glasses will allow delivery drivers to scan packages, follow turn-by-turn walking directions, and capture proof of delivery, all without using their phones. The glasses use AI-powered sensing capabilities and computer vision alongside cameras to create a display that includes things like hazards and delivery tasks.”

Biotechnology

The Astonishing Embryo Models of Jacob HannaAntonio Regalado | MIT Technology Review ($)

“Clark and her colleagues are right that, for the foreseeable future, no one is going to decant a full-term baby out of a bottle. That’s still science fiction. But there’s a pressing issue that needs to be dealt with right now. And that’s what to do about synthetic embryo models that develop just part of the way—say for a few weeks, or months, as Hanna proposes.  Because right now, hardly any laws or policies apply to synthetic embryos.”

Tech

OpenAI Readies Itself for Its Facebook EraKalley Huang, Erin Woo, and Stephanie Palazzolo | The Information ($)

“As the Meta alums have arrived, it’s become evident that some of OpenAI’s latest strategies and initiatives do resemble the tactics Meta used to grow into a corporate juggernaut, according to conversations with seven current and former employees. OpenAI itself is keenly interested in growing into a similar gigantic form, an effort to satisfy investors and justify the half-a-trillion-dollar valuation it received a few months ago.”

Artificial Intelligence

Sakana AI’s CTO Says He’s ‘Absolutely Sick’ of Transformers, the Tech That Powers Every Major AI ModelMichael Nuñez | VentureBeat

“Llion Jones, who co-authored the seminal 2017 paper ‘Attention Is All You Need’ and even coined the name ‘transformer,’ delivered an unusually candid assessment at the TED AI conference in San Francisco on Tuesday: Despite unprecedented investment and talent flooding into AI, the field has calcified around a single architectural approach, potentially blinding researchers to the next major breakthrough.”

Tech

The ChatGPT Atlas Browser Still Feels Like Googling With Extra StepsEmma Roth | The Verge

“OpenAI’s new browser is great at providing AI-generated responses, but not so great at searches. …Given the options already out there, ChatGPT Atlas is a bit of an underwhelming start for a company that wants to build a series of interconnected apps that could eventually become an AI operating system.”

Computing

OpenAI Executive Explains the Insatiable Appetite For AI ChipsSri Muppidi | The Information ($)

“Because training and running models are blurring together, given inference is using more compute than before and incorporating user feedback, OpenAI likely needs more and stronger chips to power every stage of building and deploying its models. So it makes sense why OpenAI is trying to get its hands on every Nvidia chip under the sun.”