The human cost of a WeChat ban

Machines can spot mental health issues—if you hand over your personal data

Sponsored by Fundrise The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 08.13.20 Good morning! Today: the US WeChat ban will sever millions of people's personal connections to China, and would you be willing to let a machine diagnose you with a mental health condition? Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The human cost of a WeChat ban   Communication lines cut: Nearly 20 million people in the US use WeChat every day, many of them as a crucial lifeline to keep in touch with family and friends in China. It’s also used by businesses, journalists, and researchers. But the continued existence of this connection is now an open question. On August 6, President Trump issued twin executive orders, banning people in the US from carrying out “transactions” with WeChat and TikTok within 45 days. No one really knows how broad the restrictions will be. Self-defeating: The sorts of connections facilitated by WeChat are ultimately the foundation of the US-China relationship: they are what allow both countries to keep an open dialogue and grow commerce and collaborations. Recovering those lines of communication would be hard: email is unreliable, and Zoom is also on shaky territory with Chinese users cut off from direct sales of the service. Losing WeChat will ultimately harm the US’s ability to make smart decisions about China in the future, say researchers. And for millions of people, it will make it far harder to speak to their loved ones. Read the full story. —Karen Hao Machines can spot mental health issues—if you hand over your personal data Listening to language: Words are one of the main ways psychiatrists diagnose people with mental health disorders. They spend time with a patient then make a diagnosis on the basis of a conversation. But what if there were other ways? What if we didn’t just listen to words but measure them? Could that help psychiatrists follow the verbal clues that could lead back to our state of mind? A crucial finding: A radical new approach suggests we can do exactly that. Neuropsychiatry researcher Neguine Rezaii found that the way we speak and write can reveal early indications of psychosis, and that computers can help us spot those signs with unnerving accuracy. She found language analysis could predict whether dozens of psychiatric patients would develop schizophrenia with more than 90% accuracy. She believes this “digital phenotyping” is the next great advance in psychiatry.  A problem: The uptake of this technology is outpacing regulation, and even public debate. Some ethicists worry digital phenotyping blurs the lines on what could or should be classed and protected as medical data. Beyond privacy concerns, some say digital phenotyping is simply overhyped. Read the full story. —David Adam Listen to our new podcast, In Machines We Trust. It’s a fantastic investigation into the far-reaching impact of artificial intelligence and the automation of everything, hosted by award-winning audio reporter Jennifer Strong. It kicks off with a four-part deep dive into how the police are ramping up their use of unregulated facial recognition technology. Check it out.  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.)   + The world’s smallest cat. And this guy is surely one of the biggest.    + It’s the global Rubik’s Arena World Cup on Saturday if you fancy tuning in to see people solving cubes at record speeds.   + David Blaine is up to his usual (magic) tricks for the first time in a decade. He’ll livestream a stunt on YouTube on Monday August 31.   + You can create immersive plays at home for your kids. (NYT $)   + Russell Crowe donated $5,000 to a cafe in Beirut on behalf of his friend Anthony Bourdain. Sponsor Message Real estate investing now at your fingertips with Fundrise With its ability to earn consistent income, track record of long-term appreciation, and capacity to diversify an investment portfolio, real estate is used by many smart investors, such as endowment managers, to build long-term wealth. Now retail investors can utilize the same strategies, thanks to Fundrise. Find out how more than 130,000 investors of every size are investing in institutional-quality private real estate, today. Learn more here. Fundrise's Legal Disclaimer The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The US recorded the deadliest coronavirus day of the summer There were 1,485 deaths yesterday. (Axios)   + Cases are falling in the US, but they’re still averaging over 50,000 a day. (Axios)   + To understand the virus, we have to acknowledge how much we still don’t know. (Wired UK)   + How to make sense of covid-19 statistics. (New Scientist $) 2 Misinformation about covid-19 has killed hundreds And fears are growing that anti-vaxxers will try to disrupt vaccine programs. (BBC)   + What it’s like to be part of a vaccine trial. (CNBC) 3 Big tech companies are game-planning for a messy election night 🗳️ They are preparing for dozens of scenarios, including no quickly declared winner. (Politico)   + Nate Silver’s current election forecast. (FiveThirtyEight)   + Meet the IT guy mounting a spreadsheet-fueled campaign to restore voting rights. (Wired $) 4 New Zealand’s coronavirus outbreak may have arrived via freight Officials are testing surfaces at an Auckland cool store where a man who became infected worked. (Reuters)   + New Zealand has 14 new cases in total so far. (BBC) 5 The Boogaloo movement is thriving on Facebook  Over 100 groups have been created since the platform banned the movement in June. (Vice)   + Facebook has banned blackface and antisemitic conspiracy theories (but will it enforce it?) (The Guardian)  6 How PowerPoint activism took over Instagram Want your revolutionary politics to look like a brand handbook? Instagrammers have you covered. (Vox)   + Instagram’s TikTok copycat is nowhere near as good as the real thing. (NYT $) 7 Uber and Lyft say they'll leave California over drivers’ employment status Sure, sure. (The Verge) 8 Is privacy the preserve of the rich? A German princess is making the internet forget her violent drunken rampage, with help from Google and the EU. (Vice) 9 North Korea is trying to win hearts and minds on YouTube and Twitter These videos, presented by a woman called Un A, are deeply weird. (NPR) 10 Doing the laundry during work calls? You’re not alone 🧺 Months into the pandemic, people have given up pretending there’s a neat divide between work and their personal life. (WSJ $) Go deeper on our best stories and ideas. Check out Deep Tech, our new subscriber-only podcast. Hear about the story behind the story from the journalists that wrote them. Listen here. Quote of the Day “It was this terrible feeling of a city that had died. Nothing was ringing, nothing was beeping, there were no responses or notifications.” —Franak Viačorka, a freelance journalist in Minsk, tells the New Yorker about the post-election internet blackout in Belarus. Top image credit: MS TECH | PEXELS Please send Rubik’s cubes 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 Leading with Innovation. Join us online, October 19-22. *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

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