We could know soon whether vaccines work against a scary new coronavirus variant

Tech is having a reckoning. Tech investors? Not so much. 

Sponsored by Darktrace The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology What variants mean for vaccines 01.25.21 Good morning! I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Straight onto today's top stories: we could soon find out whether vaccines work against a scary new coronavirus variant, and tech investors are still mostly avoiding discussing the social harms of the products they fund. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. We could know soon if vaccines work against a scary new coronavirus variant   What’s happening: Covid-19 cases in South Africa have shot up thanks to a new, highly mutated form of the virus. It's part of a wider pattern of new variants being identified around the world which are helping to make the virus more transmissible and potentially even more deadly. In a few short weeks the perception among some scientists of the coronavirus has gone from a static, slow-changing virus that’s easily walloped by vaccine technology to something more like a terrorist shapeshifter that could put a decisive end to the pandemic out of sight. The million dollar question: Will vaccines still work? It seems that the variant in South Africa not only spreads faster but, alarmingly, also appears to evade antibodies from the blood of people previously infected by covid-19. In theory, that could lessen the effect of vaccines. Either way, we could have a real-world answer as soon as next week thanks to a large vaccine trial that recruited thousands of South Africans between September and December, just as the dangerous variant spread widely. More details: That vaccine, from Johnson and Johnson, has been widely anticipated because it’s given as a single shot and is easily stored. Now, though, the J&J trial may unexpectedly answer the big question of whether vaccines will protect against the variant in South Africa or not. That could be determined if the data shows the shot is less effective in South Africa than it has been in the US, where part of the trial occurred. Read the full story. —Antonio Regalado Tech is having a reckoning. Tech investors? Not so much. What’s happening: The Capitol riot forced technology companies to face a public reckoning over their role in promoting and amplifying extreme content. But Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and smaller services like Gab and MeWe wouldn’t exist without investors, and venture capital. Some investors say it's time to take more responsibility for the companies they fund, and their impact on society. Split crowd: Many venture capitalists are keen to stay out of anything that smacks of controversy. But a few are calling for their fellow VCs to do better, and there have been moments of reckoning, including in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd last summer. For the most part, investors are worried that expressing an opinion about those companies might limit their ability to make deals, and therefore make money.  A cop out: Much of the problem stems from a deeply rooted piece of Silicon Valley culture, which considers itself “above politics” and regularly sees technology as the solution but never the problem. Read the full story. —Eileen Guo 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.)   + Bored of working from home? You could take your office out on wheels.   + The bit of moon rock Biden has put in the Oval Office has a cool backstory.   + If January isn't the time for delicious double carb recipes, when is?!   + Girl With Pearl Earring, in astounding detail.    + Happy hamsters.   + How Sichuan food helped one food critic get her taste and smell back post-covid. (NYT $)   + Confused penguins. Sponsor Message Cyber Security is Now a Machine Fight AI is being used to create increasingly customized, targeted, and hard-to-detect cyber-attacks at scale.  Autonomous Cyber AI learns ‘normal’ for your organization and stops advanced threats in their tracks.   Learn more > The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 How the world fumbled its response to covid-19 The World Health Organization eventually sounded the alarm, and was then roundly ignored. (Nature)   + Parts of Brazil are currently total disaster zones. (The Guardian)   + The US hit 25 million cases. (NYT $)   + What it's like to go through 10 days on life support. (FT)   + Are vaccination programs working? (Nature)   + If poor countries go unvaccinated, rich ones will pay. (NYT $)   + Fauci on what working for Trump was like. (NYT $)   + Deborah Birx says conspiracy theorists in the White House derailed the US response. (The Guardian)  2 Trump has gone. The internet is healing. Suddenly, our timelines just feel that bit less deranged. (Wired $)   + How Trump's reply guys are coping. (OneZero $)  3 What Biden might mean for AI While Trump mainly viewed it as an important geopolitical tool, Biden is likely to think bigger.  (TR)   4 How the pandemic turned refugees into guinea pigs for surveillance tech If you tolerate this, you're next. (OneZero $)   5 These virtual robot arms get smarter by training each other 🦾 It's a cool technique—but yet to be tested in a physical environment. (TR)   + It's 100 years since the word "robot" first came into being. (NYT $)  6 How Wuhan marked the pandemic's first anniversary  Triumphalism, and a huge dose of denial. (BBC)   + China is becoming a major spreader of anti-vax disinformation. (Quartz)   + China's plan to show off its vaccines is backfiring. (NYT $)  7 The chipmaking industry is being remade It's a hive of innovation, yet the fact production is dominated by just three companies is a problem. (The Economist $)   8 Italy has ordered TikTok to block any users whose age it can't verify It was prompted by the death of a 10-year-old who had participated in a "blackout challenge." (Reuters)   9 You can relax on Zoom… okay maybe not that much Ten months into all this, and some people have understandably just given up caring. (Wired UK)   10 Another record-breaking launch from SpaceX 🚀 It sent up a batch of 143 spacecraft yesterday morning. (The Verge)  We want to hear from you: the global AI agenda 2021.  In just 10-minutes, you can help MIT Technology Review understand how enterprises are using big data and AI to recover from covid-19. This survey also explores how businesses are reevaluating data privacy and citizen consent to AI practices. Your response is anonymous and would be greatly appreciated. You can download last year's Global AI Agenda here for free. Take the survey now. Quote of the day “Pretty much everything [Trump] did will ultimately be swept away. The biggest problem is that we lost four years, and there’s a lot of catching up to do.”  —Dan Lashof, US director for research nonprofit the World Resources Institute, delivers his verdict on climate change policy in the US, Quartz reports. Top image credit: AP PHOTO | JEROME DELAY Please send Sichuan pepper 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 Intelligent computing Join us virtually | February 10-11, 2021   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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