The US has pledged to halve its carbon emissions by 2030

Asian-Americans are using Instagram to help protect their communities

Sponsored by Salesforce The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology A new US climate target 04.22.21 Good morning! Today: the US has unveiled an ambitious climate pledge, Asian-Americans are turning to Instagram to help protect their communities, a new startup may be overpromising its ability to detect inheritable diseases from a spit test, and it's a bumper week for AI regulations. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The US has pledged to halve its carbon emissions by 2030 The news: The US will pledge to halve its carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 at a summit of 40 global leaders today. It is almost double an Obama-era pledge in 2014 to get emissions 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. The hope is that the commitment will help to encourage India, China, and other major emitters to sign up to similar targets before the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, set to be held in Glasgow, UK, in November. "The United States is not waiting, the costs of delay are too great, and our nation is resolved to act now," the White House said in a statement.  The big picture: The world has already warmed up by 1.2°C since pre-industrial times, and it's getting ever closer to the 1.5°C threshold that the 2016 Paris Agreement aimed to avoid. Climate scientists have been warning for years now that a significant amount of climate damage is already baked in thanks to previous emissions, but there is still a short window to avoid catastrophic global warming.  Is Biden's pledge feasible? To meet the 2030 target, President Biden will need to push through a set of ambitious policies to spend $2.3 trillion to tackle emissions in high-polluting areas, such as cars and power plants, and accelerate innovation in clean energy and climate technology, among other measures. Read the full story. Asian-Americans are using Instagram to help protect their communities A grim situation: There have been a series of attacks on vulnerable or elderly Asian-Americans that have been captured in viral videos over the past few months. The March mass shooting of eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian-Americans, was a breaking point, hitting close to home for many Asian-Americans. The response: Activists are turning to Instagram and other platforms to protect themselves and their community. Some are using Instagram to gather and coordinate volunteers trained in peaceful bystander intervention to patrol communities and watch out for possible hate crimes, or distribute pepper spray canisters, and safety alarms. When out on patrol, they’re using walkie-talkie app Zello to talk to each other. A sad state of affairs: The activism is borne out of a feeling of helplessness among Asian-Americans, a distrust of authorities and a lack of confidence that they will respond effectively to hate crimes, which are vastly underreported to begin with. Read the full story. —Tanya Basu This spit test promises to tell couples their risk of passing on common diseases  The proposition: A new startup called Orchid is offering the chance for couples planning a pregnancy to learn their odds of passing on risks for common conditions like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, type 1 and 2 diabetes, schizophrenia, and certain cancers to their future child. While existing pre-conception tests can identify certain rare single-gene disorders, like cystic fibrosis, Orchid’s looks at far more common diseases that are influenced by some combination of multiple genes, often numbering in the hundreds. How it works: Couples take the test at home by spitting into a tube and mailing it in. The company sequences the genomes of each parent and uses data sets of people with and without these diseases to calculate their risks. The result is known as a polygenic risk score. Orchid also plans to begin offering embryo testing. The problem: Many experts think polygenic risk scores aren’t yet ready for prime time, and they worry that companies like Orchid may be overselling the technology to anxious couples. Read the full story. —Emily Mullin This has just become a big week for AI regulation What’s happening: It’s a bumper week for government pushback on the misuse of artificial intelligence. Yesterday, the EU released its long-awaited set of AI regulations. They’re wide ranging, with restrictions on mass surveillance and the use of AI to manipulate people. However, a statement of intent from the US Federal Trade Commission, which says it plans to go after companies using and selling biased algorithms, may have more teeth in the immediate future.  The impact: Many companies that fall within this category will be concerned. Although the FTC has traditionally been seen as soft on Big Tech compared to the EU, that seems to be changing—and it has more power to step in when companies are caught misrepresenting their products (for example claiming their AI tools are unbiased if they are not.) Crucially, reining in AI misuse now also has political support across the spectrum, and momentum. Time for action: The EU’s AI regulations are guidelines only, and vaguely-worded ones at that. It will take years of legal challenges to thrash out the details. The FTC, however, can act now. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven 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.)   + Observations and poems to celebrate the glorious season of spring.   + Absolutely horrified at these Brits who don't drink tea.   + Watch a river turn immediately to snow. (Thanks Kate!)   + Turns out Spock is actually terrible at predictions.    + Very keen to try this Senegalese parsley sauce, called rof.   + Finns are the happiest people in the world, not that you'd know it from talking to them. (NYT $) Sponsor Message What happens when technology speaks the same language Artificial intelligence has developed to the point where chatbots and virtual assistants can have more nuanced interactions with humans—and that opens a wealth of possibilities. Learn more. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 India set a world record for new daily covid-19 cases 314,835. (Axios)    + India's healthcare system is starting to collapse amid oxygen supply shortages. (NYT $)   + Yet it is still not in lockdown. (Quartz)   + How the situation got so dire. (The Guardian)  2 We are turning covid into a young person’s disease It’s still spreading among children, who cannot yet be vaccinated. (The Atlantic $)   + Why aren’t kids being vaccinated? (TR)  3 Facebook should permanently dial down the toxicity If it can discourage hate speech and incitements to violence for Chauvin's trial, it can do so all the time. (The Atlantic $)   + Facebook has yet another mega-leak on its hands. (Ars Technica)    + Instagram will let users automatically block abusive direct messages. (Engadget)  4 NASA just made oxygen on Mars   The breakthroughs just keep coming. (BBC)   + NASA has just flown a helicopter on Mars for the first time. (TR)  5 Apple's App Store is riddled with scams 📱 One man is single-handedly embarrassing one of the richest companies on the planet. (The Verge)   + Apple has been hacked via one of its suppliers. (Bloomberg $)   6 China is behind a hack on the US government Yet another attack via the supply chain. (NBC)   7 Behind the smoke and mirrors of influencer culture 🤳 It's all just a bit tedious and meaningless. (New Yorker $)   8 What do you actually own nowadays? Not an awful lot, thanks to the internet. (Vox)   9 People are starting to see "hustle culture" for what it really is A one-way ticket to burnout. (The Guardian)   10 Your next physical therapist could be virtual reality For starters, this would make the process a lot more fun. (NYT $) Are you intellectually curious? Tech-obsessed? We are too. Get an insightful look into the technology of the future without getting bogged down by the jargon. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today (subscriptions start at just $50 per year). Quote of the Day “I realized I was sitting at my kitchen counter 10 hours a day feeling miserable. I just thought: ‘What do I have to lose? We could all die tomorrow.’” —Brett Williams, 33, a lawyer in Orlando, Florida, tells the New York Times about the epiphany that led to him joining the growing ranks of people quitting their high-paying jobs for a new adventure. Top image credit: Associated Press Please send rof 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 Don't settle for half the story. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for paywall-free access to our journalism. Subscribe now   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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