Geoffrey Hinton has a hunch about what’s next for AI

The US says this $1 billion Russian cyber company hacks for the Kremlin 

Sponsored by IBM The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology The future of AI 04.16.21 Good morning! Today: Geoffrey Hinton has a hunch about the next big AI breakthrough, and the US says Russian cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies hacks for the Kremlin. I hope you have a pleasant weekend! Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Geoffrey Hinton has a hunch about what’s next for AI   Back in November, the computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Hinton had a hunch. After a half-century’s worth of attempts—some wildly successful—he’d arrived at another promising insight into how the brain works and how to replicate its circuitry in a computer.  “It’s my current best bet about how things fit together,” Hinton says from his home office in Toronto. If his bet pays off, it might spark the next generation of artificial neural networks—mathematical computing systems, loosely inspired by the brain’s neurons and synapses, that are at the core of today’s artificial intelligence. It could also lead to more reliable and more trustworthy AI. Hinton wrote up his hunch, and posted a 44-page paper on the arXiv preprint server in February. He began with a disclaimer: “This paper does not describe a working system,” he wrote. Rather, it presents an “imaginary system" named "GLOM." Hinton thinks of GLOM as a way to model human perception in a machine. It also gets at the elusive goal of modelling intuition—our ability to effortlessly make analogies to make sense of the world. Hinton hopes GLOM might be one of several breakthroughs that he reckons are needed before AI is capable of truly nimble problem solving. Read the full story. —Siobhan Roberts This story is for subscribers only. The good news? You can subscribe and gain access to all of our award-winning journalism for just $50 a year. Sign up. The US says this $1 billion Russian cyber company hacks for the Kremlin  What’s happening: The hackers regularly publish highly-regarded research, and spot major vulnerabilities. But American intelligence agencies have concluded that this $1 billion company is also a major provider of offensive hacking tools, and even operations to Russian spies. Positive was one of a number of technology businesses sanctioned by the US on Thursday for its role in supporting Russian intelligence agencies. What’s new: Positive has been open about some of its links to the Kremlin. But US intelligence assessments say the relationship is deeper than previously thought, and Positive develops and sells weaponized exploits to the Russian government. One former American intelligence official described the relationship between companies like Positive and their Russian intelligence counterparts as “complex” and even “abusive.” The implicit threat for non-cooperation can loom large. The context: Recent sanctions are the latest step in a tit for tat between Moscow and Washington over escalating cyber operations, including the Russian-sponsored SolarWinds attack against the US. Read the full story. —Patrick Howell O'Neill 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.)   + An elephant enjoying a piano performance.   + Wild footage of a lightning strike disintegrating a tree.    + You might have already seen this little Irish girl pleading to go to the pub, but it is just as hilarious the second time round. (Thanks Alan!)   + Try making some fresh pasta this weekend. You don't even need a machine.    + A major Roman site has been unearthed in England.   + France has spawned its own fast food: French tacos (they're not what you expect.) (New Yorker $) Sponsor Message Join MIT Technology Review and IBM live on April 22 and May 25 Discover how the latest developments in AI, cloud, 5G, and Edge Computing are driving digital transformation. Designed as two complementary one-hour virtual programs, the Innovation Leaders Summit is a free online event series curated for academic, research, and industry professionals to examine the exponential technologies impacting businesses today and explore what’s on the horizon. Register now and join us online to learn about cutting-edge advancements and get your questions answered by the experts. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 How to pandemic-proof America From disease surveillance to vaccine development to global engagement, this is how we should prepare. (New Yorker $)    + The race for antiviral drugs to beat covid—and the next pandemic. (Nature)   + Médecins Sans Frontières says Brazil's covid response is the worst in the world. (The Guardian)  2 CDC data shows covid-19 is vanishingly rare among the fully vaccinated Just 5,800 of the 66 million Americans vaccinated so far have gone on to catch it. (Axios)   + Pfizer's boss says we're likely to need to be vaccinated against covid-19 annually. (Sky)   + It was easy to pause the J&J vaccine. Unpausing it will be hard. (Wired $)  3 The global chip shortage could last until 2023 Execs from Intel, Nvidia, and TSMC warn of a pretty dire outlook. (Ars Technica)   + The shortage is reverberating across many industries, not just tech. (NYT $)   + A drought in Taiwan could make the situation much worse. (WSJ $)  4 An NFT of a single pixel of a grey square sold for $1.36 million 💸 There really is no end to the madness. (ABC)   + Some artists found a lifeline selling NFTs. Others worry it’s a trap. (TR)   + Meme stars are cashing in. (Wired UK)  5 Jeff Bezos acknowledged that Amazon needs to treat its workers better Let's hope its unrepentant, aggressive comms department gets the memo. (Quartz)   + The big issue for Amazon warehouse workers isn't money. It's autonomy. (Quartz)   + How Amazon uses its dominance in multiple markets to bully smaller partners into giving it data. (WSJ $)   6 Facebook is being urged to scrap its plan to build Instagram for kids A coalition of experts raised concerns about privacy, screen time, and mental health in a letter to Zuckerberg. (NBC)   + Facebook Dating has not taken off. (The Verge)   + How Facebook turned a blind eye to rule-breaking by India's ruling party on its platform. (The Guardian)    7 The huge cost of blowing the whistle on Big Tech Whistleblowers pay a major emotional—and financial—price for bringing misdeeds to light. (Protocol)   8 Google Earth's time lapse feature shows humans' impact on the planet Powerful stuff. (Gizmodo)   9 Unravelling the mystery of the smash that made the Himalayas 💥 A broken clock made everything appear to have happened much faster. (Quanta)   10 Zoom fatigue is real, and a bigger problem for women Enough already. (NYT $) Join MIT Technology Review and Harvard Business Review virtually at EmTech Next. Discover the technologies propelling organizational growth, the impact of AI and automation, the urgency to upskill the workforce, and more. Register today. Quote of the Day “We realized that if we wanted a future on YouTube, it had to be driven by confrontation. Every time we did that kind of thing, it would explode well beyond anything else.” —Caolan Robertson, a former filmmaker for far-right activists, tells the New York Times how he learned to produce videos that would go viral. Top image credit: KIEL MUTSCHELKNAUS Please send French tacos 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 today Leading a forever-changed workforce Join us virtually | June 8-10, 2021 Register now Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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