We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here’s what it says

A capsule carrying asteroid rocks collected by Hayabusa-2 has successfully landed on Earth

Sponsored by Financial Times The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Google's AI ethics controversy 12.07.20 Good morning! Today: we examine the paper that forced respected AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru out of Google, a capsule carrying asteroid rocks has successfully landed on Earth, and how different countries around the world plan to vaccinate their populations against covid-19. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here’s what it says   On the evening of Wednesday, December 2, Timnit Gebru, the co-lead of Google’s ethical AI team and a widely respected leader in AI ethics research, announced via Twitter that the company had forced her out.  A series of tweets, leaked emails, and media articles showed that Gebru’s exit was the culmination of a conflict over another paper she co-authored. Jeff Dean, the head of Google AI, told colleagues in an internal email (which he has since put online) that the paper “didn’t meet our bar for publication” and that Gebru had said she would resign unless Google met a number of conditions, which it was unwilling to meet. Gebru replied that she had asked to negotiate “a last date” for her employment after she got back from vacation. She was cut off from her corporate email account before her return.  Many other leaders in the field of AI ethics are arguing that the company pushed her out because of the inconvenient truths that she was uncovering about a core line of its research—and perhaps its bottom line.  We got hold of the paper and it gives some insight into the questions Gebru and her colleagues were raising about AI that might be causing Google concern, including the vast financial and environmental cost of the computing power required for training large AI models. Read the full story. —Karen Hao A capsule carrying asteroid rocks collected by Hayabusa-2 has successfully landed on Earth The news: A capsule containing the first rock samples from the asteroid Ryugu returned to Earth on Sunday December 6 in “perfect” condition, according to researchers.  Drop-off: The samples were gathered after a six-year mission by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 to and from Ryugu, which is 180 million miles away. Hayabusa-2 flew close to Earth and dropped off the capsule which then streaked through the atmosphere at high speeds before deploying a parachute. The 16kg capsule, which contains more than 100mg of rock and dust, landed safely in Woomera, South Australia at 04:37 local time and was located and collected shortly after by Japan’s space agency, JAXA. Read more. How the US, UK, and China are planning to roll out vaccines The vaccines are coming. The UK became the first country in the West to approve a covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on December 2, but the US, the EU, and many other countries are expected to follow suit in the following days and weeks. The imminent arrival of vaccines means that countries not only face a huge logistical challenge to distribute them but also have to grapple with hard choices over who gets them first. Read more about how the US, UK and China will decide. —Eileen Guo and Charlotte Jee 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.)   + Cats love Christmas trees.   + Trees talk to each other. (NYT $)   + The Christmas lights in a small town in Scotland are designed by children.   + An explosion hydroforming a steel sphere. BOOM.   + Tolkien fans are clubbing together to buy his home and turn it into a museum. (NYT $)   + One-skillet orzo with tomatoes and eggs. Sponsor Message Navigate a crisis like no other with the Financial Times The global emergency means it’s never been harder to be a leader. At the Financial Times, our journalists are asking how will businesses navigate the downturn while doing right by employees and society? Read 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 The journey to a covid-19 vaccine 💉 It’s taken collaboration, ingenuity, and an awful lot of hard work from scientists. (The Guardian)   + Now comes the huge challenge of distributing the doses. (New Yorker $)    + Don’t forget we still need covid-19 treatments, as well as vaccines. (Wired UK)   + Manufacturers are racing to make enough vials for the vaccines. (New Yorker $)   + How pharma companies will profit from the vaccines. (Quartz)   + The WHO is considering human challenge trials. (The Guardian)  2 Most of California is back in lockdown  The measures will remain in place for at least three weeks, so including Christmas. (AP)   + If you can’t see loved ones over Christmas, here’s how to connect with them virtually. (Wired UK)  3 Could “backwards” contact tracing help get the pandemic under control? A small proportion of people cause most infections, so this method for identifying superspreading events makes a lot of sense. (BBC)   + Rapid tests are cheap, effective and could (in theory) quickly quash the pandemic. (New York Magazine)    4  The science that saved Formula One driver Romain Grosjean 🏎️ His car slammed into a wall at 137mph and burst into flames. Here’s how he walked away virtually unscathed. (Wired $)   5 Mysterious “Havana Syndrome” weapons seem to be real after all That’s the conclusion of an official US government report. (NYT $)   6 Pornhub has a rape problem And it’s causing incalculable suffering for the girls and women affected. (NYT $)   + Mastercard is investigating the claims and says it will take “immediate action” if they’re verified. (Reuters)  7 Why people started sending total strangers money via apps this year The pandemic has popularized a previously radical form of charity. (OneZero)   8 Will AIs need to sleep, too? 😴 Much like us, networks can become unstable after continuous periods of learning without rest. (Scientific American)   9 Artisanal crocs are all the rage on Instagram Oh, no. Noooooo. (The Verge)   10 Global warming is a big problem for the Great British Bake Off 🧁 Soaring summer temperatures are making everything melt. (Wired $) Discover how the next wave of computing technologies will change your business.  Join us this February for Future Compute, our virtual conference on intelligent computing. We'll explore the building blocks of computing and how advancements in these areas will revolutionize the business world. Register now. Quote of the day “This is pure propaganda.” —Alexander Kekulé, the director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research in Halle, Germany, tells the New York Times that China has taken his research out of context to try to boost its false claim that covid-19 originated elsewhere. Top image credit: Courtesy of Timnit Gebru Please send cats in Christmas trees 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 Don't settle for half the story. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for access to subscriber-only content and more. View this in a browser This newsletter was sent to ricklivermore.1220@blogger.com. You can update your email address, set your preferences, and sign up for other MIT Technology Review's newsletters, initiatives, or events updates. If you no longer wish to receive our email communications, you can unsubscribe from all emails. 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