Ventilator firms are racing to boost production as the pandemic accelerates

Zoom is facing questions about how private or secure it really is 

The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 04.01.20 Good morning! Today: manufacturers are racing to make more ventilators, DeepMind's AI can now play all Atari video games, and Zoom faces questions over its security practices. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Ventilator firms are racing to boost production as the pandemic accelerates   What’s happening: Major manufacturers are striking unusual partnerships and sharing designs to rapidly boost production of ventilators for critically ill covid-19 patients. One of the world’s largest ventilator companies, Medtronic, said on March 18 that it had already increased production by more than 40% and was “on track” to more than double manufacturing capacity. It will share designs so other manufacturers can crank the machines out. Ford and GM have promised to deliver tens of thousands of ventilators too. Why they’re so crucial: Having these medical instruments available can represent the difference between life and death for patients struggling with acute respiratory problems, helping them continue to breathe and recover after their lungs partially fill with fluid. The problem: As of February, the US had nearly 170,000 ventilators that could be made available to patients, whereas an outbreak as severe as the 1918 influenza pandemic would require more than 740,000. After going back and forth on the issue, President Trump late last week authorized the use of the Defense Production Act to compel American businesses to produce more ventilators, and said the federal government will buy thousands of them. But Trump’s move, like the efforts of the industry and academia, is likely coming far too late. Many fear that ventilator production won’t accelerate as rapidly as the pandemic. —James Temple DeepMind’s AI can now play all 57 Atari games—but it’s still not versatile enough The news: An artificial intelligence called Agent57 has learned to play all 57 Atari video games in the Arcade Learning environment, a collection of classic games that researchers use to test the limits of their deep learning models. Developed by DeepMind, Agent57 uses the same deep reinforcement learning algorithm to achieve superhuman levels of play even in games that previous AIs have struggled with.  Why it matters: For all their success, the best deep learning models we have today are not very versatile. The ability to learn 57 different tasks makes Agent57 more versatile than previous game-playing AIs. However, it still can’t learn to play more than one game at a time. In this way Agent57 is similar to AlphaZero, DeepMind’s deep reinforcement learning algorithm that can learn to play chess, go and shogi—but again not all at once. True versatility, which comes so easily to a human infant, is still far beyond AIs’ reach. Read the full story here. —Will Douglas Heaven Zoom is facing questions about how private or secure it really is The news: Video conferencing platform Zoom is coming under mounting pressure over allegedly lax security and privacy policies. The company claims it uses end-to-end encryption, but it is able to access video and audio from meetings hosted on its app, The Intercept reported yesterday. On the same day, Vice revealed Zoom is leaking thousands of users’ email addresses and photos, and letting strangers try to initiate calls with each other.  Anything else?: Um, yes. Zoom is also facing a class action lawsuit because users claim it did not obtain their proper consent before sharing some of their data with Facebook. On Monday, New York’s attorney general Letitia James wrote to the company asking what stepped up security measures it will put in place to handle increased traffic and thus more attention from hackers. There’s also the widely-reported problem of Zoombombing, where trolls intrude on open meetings (those without passwords) to hijack screen-sharing features. This prompted the FBI to issue a statement warning people to password-protect Zoom meetings. Why it matters: Zoom has rapidly become the video conferencing platform of choice as people stay home due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s being used for everything from work video calls to workout sessions to social hangouts. Now it might need to up its game.  We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + This man decided to throw a dinner party for his children.   + There’s increasingly strong evidence that cats are in fact liquids.   + Be careful about turning yourself into a potato while you’re using Microsoft Teams.   + A fun comic that explains why you shouldn’t fear AI.   + A family did a brilliantly mad lockdown version of One Day More from Les Misérables.   + Goats are running wild in a town in Wales. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 There’s a new coronavirus testing crisis in the US Private labs have a huge backlog, meaning people could have to wait for weeks for results. (The Atlantic) 2 The pandemic will set back field science for years You can’t just reschedule observing certain natural phenomena. (Slate) 3 Criminals are using Cash App to scam people Urgh. (Quartz) 4 Who cares about screen time now? 👩‍💻 Hooray for our devices! (NYT $) 5 Don’t expect this all to end soon Embracing the uncertainty of the situation we’re in will help us get through it. (Lifehacker)   + How will the world emerge after? (The Guardian)   + We’re not going back to normal. (TR) 6 The coronavirus crisis is challenging privacy activists Surveillance powers, once granted, have a tendency of proving hard to reverse. (Buzzfeed) 7 Inventors are dreaming up new gadgets to combat coronavirus Will any last beyond the pandemic? (Reuters) 8 Men are more likely to die from covid-19 We don’t know why, but there are a few plausible theories. (Wired UK)   + What to do if you think you or a loved one might have coronavirus. (Wired $) 9 Facebook wants to help you help your neighbors Its “Community Help” feature lets people offer or request assistance. (CNN) 10 Students are rebuilding their colleges in Minecraft 🏫 For many, closures came as an abrupt—and painful—shock. (The Verge) Are you working from home? Need a new podcast?  Check out Deep Tech, a new subscriber-only podcast from MIT Technology Review (free for a limited time). Go deeper on our best stories and ideas. Listen here.  Quote of the day “We are in a cage, and we are learning how to stop trying to control everything.”  —Gemma Sabaté, a 48-year-old physical therapist in Igualada in Spain, a sealed-off town inside a locked down country, tells the New York Times how residents there feel. Top image credit: Ford Motor Company Please send goats to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Get unlimited access to online stories. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today. *View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed with your email address *Edit email preferences   |   *Unsubscribe from all emails Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

*the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally   Bible Study Material   Receive Free Shipping with code HOPE through 4/30 Bible Study Material from alibris Free shipping info here Affiliate marketer links: Affiliate marketer Rick Livermore will earn a commission on the Bible Study Material you buy from faith gateway store  and alibris.  Brought to you by Rick Livermore   If you would like to offset my expenses of producing all this free content, but you want to pass on buying  materials from faith gateway store and alibris, feel free to give a little something-------Give through PayPal-----Rick Livermore-Webmaster220 https://webmaster220.blogspot.com/ I live in San Juan Capistrano California now  a fan of  tubitv.com/category/faith_and_spirituality also a fan of tubitv.com/channels/dovechannel  The most important link on this blog is this one about cures to the coronavirus.  Also this one about vaccines that immunize people from catching the coronavirus.  Then there is this one about copper as a weapon to combat this virus. We feel this one could save some lives about the Red Cross