AI planners in Minecraft could help machines design better cities

App bans won't make US security risks disappear

Sponsored by Inference Solutions The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology 09.22.20 Good morning! Today: how AI planners could use Minecraft to design better cities, and why app bans won't help protect US citizens' data. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. AI planners in Minecraft could help machines design better cities   The rise of the builders: Minecraft has long been a canvas for wild invention. Fans have used the hit block-building game to create replicas of everything from downtown Chicago to King’s Landing. Since 2018, Minecraft has also been the setting for a creative challenge: asking participants to build artificial intelligence that can generate realistic towns or villages in previously unseen locations. The contest is just for fun, for now, but the techniques explored are precursors of ones that real-world city planners could use. How it works: Successful entries typically use a range of techniques to identify when to level terrain or where to place bridges and buildings. The open-endedness of the challenge means that AIs need to master multiple objectives. This year’s winners featured settlements with believable layouts adapted to each location. Roads hug hillsides, bridges span rivers, and houses even contain furniture. Room for error: Even the winning entries still make silly mistakes. Nonetheless, some researchers are convinced AI techniques could help with future urban design, revealing the hidden impacts of certain existing layouts or simulating thousands of potential designs. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven   App bans won’t make US security risks disappear Confusion abounds: Will the US government ban TikTok and WeChat, or won’t it—and why? It’s hard to make out a coherent story. The Trump administration’s actions against the two Chinese-owned social-media platforms are driven more by politics and an effort to seem tough on China than by actual privacy, safety, or national security concerns. But we should look beyond the chaos to the deeper, unresolved questions. The real issue: If the US government is really serious about stopping malign actors from abusing Americans’ personal data, it should go to the root of the problem: an app economy that collects and monetizes as much data as companies can manage. The true scandal is not that the Chinese government might exploit personal data. It’s that doing so is so easy for them and many others, and will remain so even if TikTok and WeChat are banned. Until the US enacts national data privacy legislation establishing rules for collecting, using, and storing user data, the real problem will go unresolved. Read the full story. By Graham Webster, a research scholar and the editor of DigiChina at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center. Read next: It’s getting harder for tech companies to bridge the US-China divide 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.)   + Happy Hobbit Day! In another universe, Bilbo and Frodo are celebrating their birthdays today.   + It’s impossible not to smile at this video.   + Feeling ambitious? Try making hand-pulled noodles.   + Embroidery is making a comeback.   + One person’s old TV set knocked out an entire Welsh village’s internet connection at 7am every morning for over a year (imagine how embarrassed you’d be…) Sponsor Message We need to talk about conversational AI Businesses that add conversational AI to their self-service experience are reporting quantifiable gains in customer satisfaction and cost savings. More companies than ever before are cashing in on these benefits now that Google, Amazon, and other API providers have moved natural language processing into the cloud. It’s the perfect time for your business to join the conversation—and Inference Solutions has a guide to the use cases that can drive quick ROI wins.  Learn more here. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 We need to grapple with the covid-19 mental health crisis Starting with identifying who is most at risk. (Medium Coronavirus Blog)   + You should stop worrying about gloves, washing food packages and quarantining mail. (Business Insider)   + How to stay sane when the world’s going mad. (TR)    + Colds nearly vanished during lockdown, but now they’re coming back. (Wired $) 2 China is mulling how to retaliate against US technology firms But some officials are pushing for leaders to wait until after the election. (WSJ $)   + The TikTok deal is still an unresolved mess. (Wired $)   + China may well refuse to approve it, anyway. (NBC)  3 A group of 156 countries have agreed a vaccine distribution deal 💉 It doesn’t include the US and China. (The Guardian)   + Americans are increasingly unwilling to take a vaccine as soon as it’s available. (Axios)  4 CIA’s new tech recruiting pitch: More patents, more profits A new skunkworks lets officers make money off inventions that come from inside the agency. (TR)   + Iranian hackers have found a way to crack into encrypted apps, researchers say. (NYT $)  5 Big Tech’s problem? Inability to understand risk A significant part of the issue is that tech is still wildly unrepresentative of wider society. (OneZero)   + Facebook is threatening to leave Europe if it’s forced to comply with local data laws. (Vice)   + What would happen if Mark Zuckerberg just...shut down Facebook? (Gizmodo)   + Facebook’s stance on climate change misinformation is a mess. (Popular Information)  6 Mask-sellers are making serious money on Etsy 😷💰 A lucrative combination of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills. (The Verge)   7 A new startup: Uber, but for evicting people Good ol’ late stage capitalism. (Vice)   8 A notorious coronavirus troll actually works for Dr Anthony Fauci Bill Crews must struggle with cognitive dissonance a LOT. (The Daily Beast)   9 Online weddings have existed for longer than you think 💑 An American couple tied the knot via telegram way back in 1876. (OneZero $)   + Instagrammable “micro-weddings” are becoming popular. (The Verge)  10 Remote working could be great news for developing countries If you’re going to work from home, it might as well be near a beach. (Vox) Lead a cyber-resilient organization. Join us at CyberSecure for strategies and practical guidance on breach prevention and incident response. Register now. Take a stand “The worst part wasn’t the virus. It was the attacks on social networks.” —Rijo Moncy, a twenty-six-year-old radiologist at a hospital in Italy, tells the New Yorker about receiving online vitriol after much of his family fell ill after failing to quarantine properly post-travel. Top image credit: JOEL FILIPE | UNSPLASH Please send birthday presents for hobbits 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 Subscription Information This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog  *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally