Saturday, June 14, 2025

The Obtain: Amsterdam’s welfare AI experiment, and making humanoid robots safer

That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create truthful welfare AI

Amsterdam thought it was heading in the right direction. Metropolis officers within the welfare division believed they may construct know-how that may forestall fraud whereas defending residents’ rights. They adopted these rising finest practices and invested an unlimited quantity of money and time in a undertaking that ultimately processed dwell welfare purposes. However of their pilot, they discovered that the system they’d developed was nonetheless not truthful and efficient. Why?

Lighthouse Studies, MIT Know-how Assessmentand the Dutch newspaper Constancy have gained unprecedented entry to the system to attempt to discover out. Examine what we found.

—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun

This story is a partnership between MIT Know-how Assessment, Lighthouse Studiesand Constancyand was supported by the Pulitzer Heart. 

+ Are you able to make AI fairer than a decide? Play our courtroom algorithm recreation to search out out.

Why humanoid robots want their very own security guidelines

Whereas humanoid robots are taking their first tentative steps into industrial purposes, the last word purpose is to have them working in shut quarters with people.

One motive for making robots human-shaped within the first place is to allow them to extra simply navigate the environments we’ve designed round ourselves. This implies they may want to have the ability to share area with folks, not simply keep behind protecting obstacles. However first, they should be secure. Learn the total story.

—Victoria Turk

MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated: The shocking barrier that retains us from constructing the housing we’d like

Certain, there’s an excessive amount of crimson tape, however there may be another excuse constructing something is so costly: the development trade’s “terrible” productiveness.
That is our newest story to be was a MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated podcast, which 
we’re publishing every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated on both platform, and observe us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 Chatbots are getting info in regards to the LA riots flawed
AI programs can’t be relied upon at the perfect of instances, not to mention with fast-moving information. (Wired $)
+ What’s Trump’s purpose right here, precisely? (The Magazine $)

2 Gavin Newsom is changing into a meme
The California governor’s Trump clapbacks are profitable him a legion of on-line followers. (WP $)
+ He’s accused the President of “pulling a navy dragnet” throughout town. (The Guardian)
+ Newsom has warned that different states are prone to be subsequent. (Politico)

3 Trump’s Massive Stunning Invoice may result in greater than 51,000 deaths a 12 months
Because of the invoice’s provisions for public medical health insurance. (Undark)

4 How Ukraine’s AI-guided drones hit Russia’s airfields
However its opponent can also be stepping up its AI capabilities. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone protection. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

5 US companies tracked overseas nationals travelling to Elon Musk
Officers stored an eye fixed on who visited him in 2022 and 2023. (WSJ $)

6 Snap’s new AR good glasses will go on sale subsequent 12 months
Its sixth technology of Specs will enter an more and more crowded discipline. (CNBC)
+ Qualcomm has made a brand new processor to energy related glasses. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s subsequent for good glasses. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

7 Every ChatGPT question makes use of ‘roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon’ of water
That’s based on Sam Altman, at the least. (The Verge)
+ We did the mathematics on AI’s power footprint. Right here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

8 Loss of life Valley’s air could possibly be a helpful water supply
Scientists proved their hydrogel methodology labored in the actual world. (New Scientist $)

9 Gen Z is selecting to skip school totally
Growing numbers of younger tech staff are opting out and getting into the workforce early. (Insider $)

10 How you can combat again in opposition to a world of AI-generated decisions
Good style is your pal right here. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“We’re in all probability going to have flying taxis earlier than now we have autonomous ones in London.”

—Steve McNamara, the final secretary of the UK’s Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Affiliation, isn’t optimistic about London’s plans to trial autonomous vehicles, he tells the Guardian.

Yet one more factor

Exosomes are touted as a stylish cure-all. We don’t know in the event that they work.
There’s a stylish new cure-all on the town—you might need seen adverts pop up on social media or learn rave opinions in magnificence magazines.
Exosomes are being touted as a miraculous remedy for hair loss, getting old pores and skin, pimples, eczema, ache circumstances, lengthy covid, and even neurological illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. That’s, in fact, when you can afford the worth tag—which may stretch to 1000’s of {dollars}.
However there’s a giant downside with these large guarantees: We don’t totally perceive how exosomes work—or what they even actually are. Learn our story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We will nonetheless have good issues

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+ Seems 10CC frontman Graham Gouldman doesn’t identical to cricket—he’s simply watched his first ever recreation and he actually does find it irresistible 🏏

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