Stop saying “delta plus.” It doesn’t mean anything.

Deleting unethical data sets isn't good enough 

The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Needless panic 08.13.21 Good morning! Today: a plea to stop using the meaningless phrase "delta plus," and a new study shows why merely deleting unethical AI training data sets isn't good enough. I hope you have a superb weekend! As per, please do consider sending a friend or two to sign up here to get The Download every day. Stop saying “delta plus.” It doesn’t mean anything.   If you’ve been worried by recent news stories about a strain of covid called “delta plus,” it may freak you out to hear that scientists just expanded the delta family from four variants to 13.  Please take a deep breath. Scientists would really like you to understand that there’s no evidence delta has learned any new tricks, and these new names are for helping keep track of covid’s evolution—not nine new reasons to panic. And many researchers are also really, really hoping you’ll stop saying ‘delta plus.’ “The name ‘delta plus’ is completely incorrect, because it gives the perception that this will cause more damage,” says Anderson Brito, a member of the Pango Lineage Designation Committee, which assigns scientific names like B.1.1.7 to new branches of the virus. Read the full story. —Cat Ferguson Deleting unethical data sets isn’t good enough A lingering problem: For years, AI researchers scraped the web for the images and text they need to train their models. Some of the data sets they created contain millions of photos of ordinary individuals who have never given their consent for their images to be used. The practice is now legally risky and frowned-upon. As a result, AI researchers have increasingly retracted the data sets they created this way. But the privacy concerns linger in an internet forever-land. The specifics: A new study shows that problematic data is still widely proliferating and being used. The authors selected three of the most cited data sets containing faces or people, two of which had been retracted; they traced the ways each had been copied, used, and repurposed in close to 1,000 papers. They found that many still exist on third-party sites and in derivative data sets built atop the original. Part of the problem, according to the paper, is that those who put together data sets quickly lose control of their creations. A fix? The authors provide several recommendations for the AI community around responsible and ethical data collection and use. But some want to take it further. Read the full story. —Karen Hao 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.)   + Do you pretend to be your dog? You are not alone. (WP $)    + Gazpacho is delicious, cooling and surprisingly easy to make. (NYT $)   + Thank you Stefan for this list of the 10 greatest guitar solos. Let the debate commence.   + A school in Scotland is set to enrol an outrageous number of twins this year.   + How to identify birds, even when they won't tell you their names. (New Yorker $)   + If these scenic road trips don't make you want to visit Canada, I don't know what will.   + The crowds greeting this Olympian coming home to Ireland got me all emotional. And in other Irish news, Wally the walrus seems to have commandeered a motorboat. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The FDA approved third covid shots for immunocompromised people Some people, such as cancer or HIV patients, don't seem to produce a sufficient immune response after two doses. (CNBC)   + Hospitals in Texas are getting overwhelmed. Again. (NYT $)   + The "delta variant vs my fall plans" is the saddest, most relatable meme. (CNET)   + The delta variant is forcing Australia to rethink its zero covid strategy. (NYT $)   + The UK is about to hit its vaccine ceiling. (Wired UK)   + Facebook has become the latest tech company to delay its office reopening until 2022. (NBC)  2 New research suggests hydrogen may be pretty bad for the climate  It's seen as the clean energy of the future, but the extraction process emits vast amounts of carbon dioxide. (NYT $)   + Cutting methane is the best way to avoid disaster. (Wired UK)  3 Incels keep trying to take over Reddit's largest dating forum The moderators keeping this nonsense at bay deserve some sort of medal. (Mel)   + How lax moderation allowed the far right to explode on gaming platforms. (Wired $)  4 Inside Substack's risky global expansion  It's going to have to grapple with threats to press freedom more than ever before. (Rest of World)   5 China's tech industry has a huge sexism problem A rape allegation at Alibaba has shone a spotlight on the appalling conditions for women at some of China's tech giants. (NYT $)   + Work-from-home Moms are utterly exhausted. (Vox)  6 How a 36-year-old billionaire took over GameStop Audacious barely begins to cover this. (WSJ $)   7 The dark side of Instagram's craze for cute hedgehogs 🦔 There's practically no way to know if that adorable animal you "like" online is being treated properly. (Wired $)   8 We need to work on the "therapy" part of psychedelic therapy It's mostly done with individuals, but is there a case for group sessions? (NEO.LIFE)   9 Animal Crossing has got kinda dark recently 🧟 Out with the wholesome greenery, in with the zombies. (CNET)   10 If asteroid Bennu hits Earth, it won't be for AGES Oh good. Now we can worry about… all the other stuff. (Scientific American $) Immerse yourself in bold thinking and innovation at EmTech MIT. Join us to get critical, ahead-of-the-curve knowledge and actionable insights on the breakthrough technologies fundamentally changing how business is done. Purchase your ticket today. Quote of the day "We have to be vigilant before the machines decide what we can and cannot do." —Comments made by director Pedro Almodóvar after a poster for his latest movie "Parallel Mothers" displaying a lactating nipple was removed by Instagram's algorithm due to its ban on nudity. Top image credit: MAYANK MAKHIJA | NURPHOTO VIA AP Please send your best dog voices 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 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