Shifts in the book industry have been a boon to writers who work quietly behind the scenes.

Penicillin and X-rays were discovered by scientists who had originally been looking for something else entirely.

setright would approve Heres the new hybrid Honda Prelude, on sale late 2025 This version will feature something called Honda S+ Shift, to boost engagement. Jonathan M. Gitlin Dec 17, 2024 10:00 am | 52 There's something very Toyota Prius-y about the new Honda Prelude's headlights. Credit: Honda There's something very Toyota Prius-y about the new Honda Prelude's headlights. Credit: Honda Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe fact that Honda was working on a new Prelude coupe was not entirely secretnot after the automaker unveiled a show car at this year's Long Beach Grand Prix. This morning, the Japanese automaker confirmed that the new Prelude will go on sale here in the US late in 2025."The return of the Honda Prelude as a hybrid-electric sports model demonstrates our continued commitment to offer a variety of exhilarating products to meet the needs of our customers," said Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales. "The first three products in the Honda lineup in the 1970s were Civic, Accord, and Prelude, and soon all three will be back together again in our passenger car lineup as hybrids."Honda has often used the two-door Prelude coupe as a testbed for new technologies, including torque vectoring and four-wheel steering, and was praised by the late automotive writer LJK Setright, who owned several Preludes across the years.An innovation in the next Prelude will be a new drive mode, called Honda S+ Shift, which it says "advances linear shift control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement." But as the Prelude will use a hybrid powertrain, there won't be an option for a manual transmission in this generation.Beyond that, Honda is keeping quiet on Prelude details until closer to the car's arrival on sale next year.Jonathan M. GitlinAutomotive EditorJonathan M. GitlinAutomotive Editor Jonathan is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 52 Comments

Speech police Trump FCC chair wants to revoke broadcast licensesthe 1st Amendment might stop him Brendan Carr backs Trump's war against media, but revoking licenses won't be easy. Jon Brodkin Dec 17, 2024 7:00 am | 95 President-elect Donald Trump speaks to Brendan Carr, his intended pick for Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as he attends a SpaceX Starship rocket launch on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. Credit: Getty Images | Brandon Bell President-elect Donald Trump speaks to Brendan Carr, his intended pick for Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as he attends a SpaceX Starship rocket launch on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. Credit: Getty Images | Brandon Bell Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn morePresident-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wants the FCC to crack down on news broadcasters that he perceives as being unfair to Trump or Republicans in general.Carr's stated goals would appear to mark a major shift in the FCC's approach to broadcasters. Carr's predecessors, including outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai, who served in the first Trump administration, both rejected Trump's calls to punish news networks for alleged bias.Carr has instead embraced Trump's view that broadcasters should be punished for supposed anti-conservative bias. Carr has threatened to revoke licenses by wielding the FCC's authority to ensure that broadcast stations using public airwaves operate in the public interest, despite previous chairs saying the First Amendment prevents the FCC from revoking licenses based on content.Revoking licenses or blocking license renewals is difficult legally, experts told Ars. But Carr could use his power as FCC chair to pressure broadcasters and force them to undergo costly legal proceedings, even if he never succeeds in taking a license away from a broadcast station."Look, the law is very clear," Carr told CNBC on December 6. "The Communications Act says you have to operate in the public interest. And if you don't, yes, one of the consequences is potentially losing your license. And of course, that's on the table. I mean, look, broadcast licenses are not sacred cows."Carr fights Trumps battlesCarr has said his FCC will take a close look at a complaint regarding a CBS 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris before the election. Trump criticized the editing of the interview and said that "CBS should lose its license."In an interview with Fox News, Carr said there is "a news distortion complaint at the FCC still, having to do with CBS, and CBS has a transaction before the FCC." He was referring to a pending deal involving Skydance and Paramount, which owns and operates 28 local broadcast TV stations of the CBS Television Network."I'm pretty confident that news distortion complaint over the CBS 60 Minutes transcript is something that is likely to arise in the context of the FCC's review of that transaction," Carr said.Carr also alleged that NBC putting Harris on Saturday Night Live before the election was "a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule," even though NBC gave Trump two free 60-second messages in order to comply with that rule. In Carr's CNBC interview on December 6, he raised the specter of imposing new rules for broadcasters and taking action against NBC over the Saturday Night Live episode."I don't want to be the speech police," Carr told CNBC. "But there is something that's different about broadcasters than, say, podcasters, where you have to operate in the public interest. So right now, all I'm saying is maybe we should start a rulemaking to take a look at what that means. There's other issues as well. Look, there's a news distortion complaint that's still hanging out there involving CBS, with NBC and SNL, we had some issues potentially with the Equal Time provision. I just think we need to sort of reinvigorate the FCC's approach to these issues, as Congress has envisioned."We emailed Carr with questions about his specific plans for challenging broadcasters' licenses and whether he still believes that NBC attempted to evade the Equal Time rule, but we did not receive a response.Carrs tough taskThe Carr FCC and Trump administration "can hassle the living daylights out of broadcasters or other media outlets in annoying ways," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, who is senior counselor for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and previously led the nonprofit Media Access Project, a public interest telecommunications law firm. At the FCC, "you can harass, you can kind of single some broadcasters out, and you can hold up some of their applications," Schwartzman said in a phone interview with Ars.But that doesn't mean Carr can put broadcasters out of business. "They're not going to revoke licenses. It's just legally just not doable. He can't change the precedents and the statute on that," Schwartzman said.Schwartzman explained in a recent memo that "under the Communications Act, revocation of a license, which means taking it away in the middle of a license term, is essentially impossible. The legal standard is so high that the only time that the FCC tries to revoke a license is when a station (typically a mom-and-pop AM) goes dark." Schwartzman wrote the memo in response to Trump's demand that the FCC punish CBS.The FCC doesn't license TV networks such as CBS, NBC, or ABC, but the FCC could punish individual stations owned by those companies. The FCC's licensing authority is over broadcast stations, many of which are owned and operated by a big network. Other stations are affiliated with the networks but have different ownership.Although revoking a license in the middle of a license term is effectively impossible, the FCC can go after a license when it's up for renewal, Schwartzman said. But Carr will have to go through most of the next four years without any opportunity to challenge a broadcast TV license renewal. According to the FCC's list of renewal dates, there are no TV station licenses up for renewal until 2028.That won't give Carr enough time to reject a renewal and win in court, Schwartzman said. "A license renewal litigation that would take years can't even begin until Trump is out of office," he told Ars.Light years away from previous Republican chairCarr would face a high legal standard even if there were licenses up for renewal in 2025. Schwartzman's memo said that "the First Amendment bars denial of renewal based on program content, and certainly not based on the political views expressed.... The only way that a broadcaster could theoretically get into trouble on renewal would be a character problem based on being found to have lied to the government or conviction of major felonies."A license renewal isn't the FCC's only avenue for challenging broadcasters. As noted earlier in this article, Carr has discussed investigating bias allegations during proceedings on license transfers that happen in connection with mergers and acquisitions. Carr can "hold up a transfer" when a company tries to sell broadcast stations and "hassle people that way," Schwartzman told Ars.It's clear from his public statements that Carr sees the FCC's responsibility over broadcasters much differently than Pai, Trump's first FCC chair. Pai, a Republican who teamed up with Carr on deregulating the broadband industry and many other conservative priorities, rejected the idea of revoking broadcast licenses in 2017 despite Trump's complaints about news networks. Pai said that the FCC "under my leadership will stand for the First Amendment" and that "the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast."More recently, Rosenworcel rejected Trump's call to revoke licenses from CBS. "As Ive said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy," she said in October this year. "The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.On this topic, Carr's views are "light-years" away from Pai's, Schwartzman said. But Schwartzman also sees several of Carr's statements as being toothless. While Carr repeatedly points to the public interest standard for broadcasters, Schwartzman noted that the FCC must apply the public interest standard to all matters."All he's saying is, 'I'm going to enforce the statute as it's existed since 1934.' It's meaningless, and it's therefore easy for him to say," Schwartzman said.Carr was wrong about NBC violating the Equal Time Rule by putting Harris on Saturday Night Live, Schwartzman said. To comply with the rule, NBC only had to honor a request from Trump for "equal opportunities," he said. This is a routine process that broadcasters have known how to handle for a long time, he said."The burden is on the opposing candidate to ask for it. Having a candidate on... is not only not a violation, it's actually encouraged because broadcasters are supposed to stimulate discussion of issues and ideas," he said. Carr's main purpose in making his Saturday Night Live complaint, in Schwartzman's opinion, was "to fulminate. It's just grandstanding. He was running for chair."Conservative group urges limits on FCCJeffrey Westling, a lawyer who is the director of technology and innovation policy at the conservative American Action Forum, is concerned about the FCC acting on Trump's calls to punish networks. After Trump called for ABC licenses to be revoked because of its handling of a debate, Westling wrote that "it is indeed possible for the federal government to revoke a broadcast license, even in response to what is essentially a political offense."Westling urged Congress to "limit or revoke the FCC's authority to impose content-based restrictions on broadcast television," specifically through the FCC rule on broadcast news distortion.Proving distortion is difficult, with requires elements including "deliberate intent to distort the news" and "extrinsic evidence to the broadcast itself, such as that a reporter had received a bribe or that the report was instructed by management to distort the news," Westling wrote. The distortion also must be "initiated by the management of the station" and involve "a significant event.""While these standards are fairly stringent, the FCC must investigate complaints when a station seeks to renew its license, adding risk and uncertainty even if the station never truly violated the policy," Westling wrote.When contacted by Ars, Westling pointed out that the high standard for proving news distortion "only matter[s] if the administration's goal is to revoke a broadcaster's license. As much as I personally disagree with the rule, the courts have made clear that if a complaint has asserted the necessary elements, the Commission must thoroughly review it when considering a license transfer or renewal."The FCC "review is costly, and adds uncertainty for the broadcaster that quite literally relies on the license to operate," Westling said. "As a result, it is possible that even a threat from the president could influence how a broadcaster chooses to air the news, knowing that news distortion review could be in its future."Westling also said it's possible "that the FCC's use of the news distortion rule to deny a transfer or renewal of a license could be approved by the courts. The actual bounds of the rule are not well tested, and theoretically, a sympathetic court could be favorable to more loose enforcement of the rule."Carr, who described how he would run the FCC in a chapter for the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, also wants the agency to crack down on social media websites for alleged anti-conservative bias. He has said he wants to "smash" a "censorship cartel" that he claims includes social media platforms, government officials, advertising and marketing agencies, and fact-checkers.Other factors might stop Carrs blusterWhen it comes to broadcasting, Schwartzman said there are several reasons to think Carr's statements are mostly bluster that won't result in major consequences for TV stations.Broadcasters have a lot of political power that's wielded through the National Association of Broadcasters and relationships with members of Congress. Broadcasting, despite being less influential than it used to be, "is still among the most powerful industries in Congress and in the country... there is not a member of Congress alive who doesn't know the general manager of every TV station in their district," Schwartzman said.The FCC taking action against left-leaning broadcasters could lead to similar actions against conservative broadcasters during future administrations. Schwartzman questioned whether Carr actually wants "to set a precedent that's going to put Fox in jeopardy the next time there's a Democrat in the FCC."Another factor that could constrain Carr is how recent Supreme Court rulings limit the power of federal agencies. The FCC's other Republican member, Nathan Simington, has vowed to vote against any fine imposed by the commission until its legal powers are clear."Under new and controlling Supreme Court precedent, the Commission's authority to assess monetary forfeitures as it traditionally has done is unclear," Simington said in August. "Until the Commission formally determines the bounds of its enforcement authority under this new precedent, I am obligated to dissent from any decision purporting to impose a monetary forfeiture. I call on the Commission to open a Notice of Inquiry to determine the new constitutional contours of Commission enforcement authority."The Supreme Court's June 2024 ruling in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy held that "when the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial." This ruling could impact the ability of other agencies to issue fines.Besides all of those reasons, Schwartzman offered another potential problem for Carr's plansthe incoming chair's post-FCC employment prospects, particularly if Carr wants to go back to practicing law. Before becoming an FCC commissioner, Carr was the agency's general counsel."He's not going to have a career as a communications lawyer in private practice after he's on the FCC if he starts saying that broadcasters don't have First Amendment rights," Schwartzman said.Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 95 Comments

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) says the Facebook parent failed to report and document a 2018 breach that impacted 29 million users, including 3 million in the European Union.

During a keynote at last weeks Forrester Security & Risk Summit in Baltimore, the research firm presented energy management and industrial automation company Schneider Electric with the Security & Risk Enterprise Leadership Award. Stephanie Balaouras, vice president and group director at Forrester, led a discussion with Mansur Abilkasimov, Schneider Electrics deputy CISO & chief product security officer, and bestowed this years honor.Balaouras noted that the judges, a group of Forrester analysts, voted unanimously to choose Schneider Electric. Barclays was the first recipient of the award in 2023. Schneider Electrics ability to integrate security, privacy, and risk management across the enterprise stood out as a factor in being chosen, according to Balaouras.We wanted to recognize organizations that have figured out how to take these functions, embed them across the enterprise, and actually use them as a driver of business, use them to drive business success and drive results, and improve the organization's reputation for trust with customers, employees, and partners, Balaouras told the audience.A Holistic Approach to Security and TrustSchneider Electric is a company that develops everything from DC chargers to safety instrumented systems. It maintains a holistic approach to energy and management in which security, privacy, and risk do not exist in silos.Related:Carrying out an integrated strategy is a challenge for a company like Schneider Electric given its wide footprint in infrastructure, distribution centers, and factories filled with industrial machines. Abilkasimov told the audience that nobody can achieve 100% visibility, but gaining this visibility as part of risk management is a key challenge for the organization.In his keynote, Abilkasimov stressed that product security is not an afterthought and is integrated in the holistic vision of a products life cycle. In a security by design or security by operations strategy, the manufacturing teams are responsible for security by design as well as security by operation, he said.The company received the award because of its implementation of a Trust Charter that incorporates ethics, safety, cybersecurity, and governance as well as a Trust Center, which addresses the requests of customers and stakeholders in security and data protection.Trust Charter is a document that embodies all our principles and tenants for code of conduct, from AI to cybersecurity, from ethics and compliance to price, from safety to quality, Abilkasimov explained in the keynote.Related:Abilkasimov and his team also organize a Trust Month in which they lead discussions around cybersecurity with employees and partners around trust.Cyber is one of the pillars of this trust, he said.Trust is important for both cybersecurity and talent retention. Forrester recognized Schneider Electric for its ability to find talent for cybersecurity roles in operational technology (OT). according to Balaouras.Companies that are trusted, they earn and retain customers, Balaouras told the audience. They earn and retain the best talent. And what weve also found is customers are actually more willing to share sensitive data with trusted companies and even embrace emerging tech, where in other situations, they would have skepticism or fear of engaging with that emerging tech.Schneider Electric Tackles Third-Party RiskIn his keynote remarks, Abilkasimov described Schneider Electrics approach to managing risk from the companys 52,000 suppliers, which includes suppliers for Internet of Things components and regular IT as well as service providers. He explained that companies must prioritize which suppliers to work with on a security assessment.Its impossible to cover all of the suppliers with a cybersecurity or third-party security program, so sometimes you need to choose your battle, Abilkasimov told InformationWeek after the session.Related:Schneider Electric has added 5,000 suppliers to its third-party cybersecurity program. It started with the 300 most critical IT suppliers, and the company will grow the program further, according to Abilkasimov.We work with those companies on cyber, crisis simulations, partnerships, C-level connections, and continuous monitoring through threat intelligence or cybersecurity scoring platforms, Abilkasimov said in our interview. He added, Be it an IoT supplier or simple product security component supplier, they all go through this process.In Forresters Security Survey 2024, 28% of breaches stemmed from a software supply chain attack. Also, in another Forrester report, What 2023s Most Notable Breaches Mean for Tech Execs, third-party vulnerabilities were the top cause of breaches in 2023 and comprised 23% of all breaches.How Forrester Chooses Its Security Leadership Award WinnersForrester had opened nominations for the award on May 1. Balaouras said the evaluation process is similar to a security maturity assessment. Companies must show metrics or KPIs that prove ROI, and they should exhibit how they approach security by design and privacy by design.We talk about their overall approach to embedding security, privacy and risk management across the enterprise not as discrete functions, but how they embed it across the enterprise, Balaouras told InformationWeek after the session.Balaouras stressed that Forrester doesnt handpick the winners. We put out the award and put out the criteria, and we invite companies and organizations from the public sector to look at them and nominate themselves, she said. Barclays received the award in 2023 for maintaining trust and transparency in its universal banking operations and for its human risk behavior metrics that revamped the companys security culture. A key factor in Schneider Electrics success in managing security and risk is making trust concrete, according to Balaouras.When I compare Barclays to Schneider Electric, I think one thing they had in common was executive-level commitment to security, privacy, and risk management as critical features of building trust, Balaouras said. Both organizations from top to bottom really had buy-in.She continued, When I look at Schneider, they put trust front and center, and they had operationalized it. What was truly unique at Barclays last year was they had really extensive security awareness and training for a large financial institution. They had really mapped out all the complex matrices, all the different stakeholders who work together.Balaouras also noted Schneider Electrics Cyber Risk Register and how the company integrates it in the organization to make people accountable. The cybersecurity team manages the register to track potential threats, such as those that may come from third parties.When it comes to the cybersecurity side, it always comes back to the risk register, Abilkasimov said.

Many AI models are trained on copyrighted materialMetamorworks/Getty ImagesThe UK government has announced plans to allow artificial intelligence models to be trained on copyrighted content, settling one of the big uncertainties of the current AI revolution but the proposal has been criticised by campaigners who worry about the way AI companies already allegedly flout copyright rules.Theres nothing balanced about it, says Ed Newton-Rex, a musician and former executive at AI company Stability AI. It will hand most of the UKs creative work to AI companies, for free, letting them build highly scalable competitors to

A reconstruction of the oldest known gorgonopsianHenry Sutherland SharpeThe oldest known sabre-toothed animal hunted large prey 270 million years ago and its newly discovered remains could help us unravel how early mammal relatives became warm-blooded.The first land-based predators typically hunted relatively small prey. But things changed about 273 million years ago, when an event known as Olsons Extinction shook up ecosystems around the world. Afterwards, much larger terrestrial herbivores began appearing and predators needed new weapons to dispatch such large prey, says Josep Fortuny at the Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona, Spain. AdvertisementThis might help explain why the fossilised partial skeleton of an ancient predator which Fortuny and his colleagues have just discovered on the Spanish island of Mallorca had sabre teeth. These fangs are better at injuring large prey, as opposed to grasping and holding smaller animals. It was the first opportunity to have this type of tool to prey on herbivores, says Fortuny.Dating back an estimated 270 million years, the predator is the oldest known member of a group of meat-eaters known as the gorgonopsians, which all had sabre teeth. The largest gorgonopsians grew several metres in length and had canine teeth 15 centimetres long. The Mallorca gorgonopsian was smaller, with a body length of about a metre and canines that were just 5-centimetres long. Fortuny says the researchers are waiting until they have analysed the bones and teeth in more detail before they give the new gorgonopsian a name.The ancient predator is significant for more than just its age. When it roamed Mallorca, the island was located in the tropics as part of a supercontinent called Pangaea, but all previously known gorgonopsian fossils come from areas of the world that were at high latitudes 270 million years ago. The new find suggests that the gorgonopsians actually originated nearer the equator. Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox.Sign up to newsletterIt is possible that the adaptations they developed there including their ability to hunt large prey efficiently allowed them to begin controlling their body temperature so they could spread into cooler habitats away from the equator.Understanding more about this process is important, says Fortuny, because the gorgonopsians belonged to the therapsids, an animal group that also includes mammals. Theres a lot of discussion about the first steps in thermoregulation for this group, he says.Journal referenceNature Communications DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54425-5Topics:

Towana Looney, a 53-year-old woman from Alabama, has become the third living person to receive a kidney transplant from a gene-edited pig. Looney, who donated one of her kidneys to her mother back in 1999, developed kidney failure several years later following a pregnancy complication that caused high blood pressure. She started dialysis treatment in December of 2016 and was put on a waiting list for a kidney transplant soon after, in early 2017. But it was difficult to find a match. So Looneys doctors recommended the experimental pig organ as an alternative. After eight years on the waiting list, Looney was authorized to receive the kidney under the US Food and Drug Administrations expanded access program, which allows people with serious or life-threatening conditions to try experimental treatments. The pig in question was developed by Revivicor, a United Therapeutics company. The companys technique involves making 10 gene edits to a pig cell. The edits are made to prevent too much organ growth, curb inflammation, and, importantly, stop the recipients immune system from rejecting the organ. The edited pig cell is then placed into a pig egg cell that has had its nucleus removed, and the egg is transferred to the uterus of a sow, which eventually gives birth to a gene-edited piglet. JOE CARROTTA FOR NYU LANGONE HEALTH In theory, once the piglet has grown, its organs can be used for human transplantation. Pig organs are similar in size to human ones, after all. A few years ago, David Bennett Sr. became the first person to receive a heart transplant from such a pig. He died two months after the operation, and the heart was later found to have been infected with a pig virus. Richard Slayman was the first person to get a gene-edited pig kidney, which he received in early 2024. He died two months after his surgery, although the hospital treating him said in a statement that it had no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant. In April, Lisa Pisano was reported to be the second person to receive such an organ. Pisano also received a heart pump alongside her kidney transplant. Her kidney failed because of an inadequate blood supply and was removed the following month. She died in July. Looney received her pig kidney during a seven-hour operation that took place at NYU Langone Health in New York City on November 25. The surgery was led by Jayme Locke of the US Health Resources & Services Administration and Robert Montgomery of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. Looney was discharged from the hospital 11 days after her surgery, to an apartment in New York City. Shell stay in New York for another three months so she can check in with doctors at the hospital for evaluations. Its a blessing, Looney said in a statement. I feel like Ive been given another chance at life. I cannot wait to be able to travel again and spend more quality time with my family and grandchildren. Looneys doctors are hopeful that her kidney will last longer than those of her predecessors. For a start, Looney was in better health to begin withshe had chronic kidney disease and required dialysis, but unlike previous recipients, she was not close to death, Montgomery said in a briefing. He and his colleagues plan to start clinical trials within the next year. There is a huge unmet need for organs. In the US alone, there more than 100,000 people are waiting for one, and 17 people on the waiting list die every day. Researchers hope that gene-edited animals might provide a new source of organs for such individuals. Revivicor isnt the only company working on this. Rival company eGenesis, which has a different approach to gene editing, has used CRISPR to create pigs with around 70 gene edits. Transplant is one of the few therapies that can cure a complex disease overnight, yet there are too few organs to provide a cure for all in need, Locke said in a statement. The thought that we may now have a solution to the organ shortage crisis for others who have languished on our waiting lists invokes the most welcome of feelings: pure joy! Today, Looney is the only person living with a pig organ. I am full of energy. I got an appetite Ive never had in eight years, she said at a briefing. I can put my hand on this kidney and feel it buzzing. This story has been updated with additional information after a press briefing.

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. The 8 worst technology failures of 2024 They say you learn more from failure than success. If so, this is the story for you: MIT Technology Reviews annual roll call of the biggest flops, flimflams, and fiascos in all domains of technology. Some of the foul-ups were funny, like the "woke AI which got Google in trouble after it drew Black Nazis. Some caused lawsuits, like a computer error by CrowdStrike that left thousands of Delta passengers stranded. And we also reaped failures among startups that raced to expand from 2020 to 2022, a period of ultra-low interest rates. Check out what made our list of this years biggest technology failures. Antonio Regalado Antonio will be discussing this years worst failures with our executive editor Niall Firth in a subscriber-exclusive online Roundtable event today at 12.00 ET. Register here to make sure you dont miss outf you havent already, subscribe! AIs search for more energy is growing more urgent If you drove by one of the 2,990 data centers in the United States, youd probably think little more than Huh, thats a boring-looking building. You might not even notice it at all. However, these facilities underpin our entire digital world, and they are responsible for tons of greenhouse-gas emissions. New research shows just how much those emissions have skyrocketed during the AI boom. That leaves a big problem for the worlds leading AI companies, which are caught between pressure to meet their own sustainability goals and the relentless competition in AI thats leading them to build bigger models requiring tons of energy. And the trend toward ever more energy-intensive new AI models will only send those numbers higher. Read the full story.James O'Donnell This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday. The must-reads Ive combed the internet to find you todays most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 TikTok has asked the US Supreme Court for a lifeline Its asked lawmakers to intervene before the proposed ban kicks in on January 19. (WP $)+ TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew reportedly met with Donald Trump yesterday. (NBC News)+ Trump will take office the following day, on January 20. (WSJ $)+ Meanwhile, the EU is investigating TikToks role in Romanias election. (Politico)2 Waymos autonomous cars are heading to Tokyo In the first overseas venture for the firms vehicles. (The Verge)+ The cars will require human safety drivers initially. (CNBC)+ Whats next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)3 Chinas tech workers are still keen to work in the US But securing the right to work there is much tougher than it used to be. (Rest of World)4 Digital license plates are vulnerable to hacking And theyre already legal to buy in multiple US states. (Wired $) 5 Were all slaves to the algorithmsFrom the mundane (Spotify) to the essential (housing applications.) (The Atlantic $) + How a group of tenants took on screening systemsand won. (The Guardian)+ The coming war on the hidden algorithms that trap people in poverty. (MIT Technology Review)6 How to build an undetectable submarine The race is on to stay hidden from the competition. (IEEE Spectrum)+ How underwater drones could shape a potential Taiwan-China conflict. (MIT Technology Review)7 How Empower became a viable rival to UberIts refusal to cooperate with authorities is straight out of Ubers early playbook. (NYT $) 8 Even airlines are using AirTags to find lost luggage Bloomberg $) + Heres how to keep tabs on your suitcase as you travel. (Forbes $)9 Youre reading your blood pressure all wrong Keep your feet flat on the floor and ditch your phone, for a start. (WSJ $)10 The rise and rise of the group chat Expressing yourself publicly on social media is so last year. (Insider $)+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)Quote of the day Where are the adults in the room? Francesca Marano, a long-time contributor to WordPress, lambasts the platforms decision to require users to check a box reading Pineapple is delicious on pizza to log in, 404 Media reports. The big story Responsible AI has a burnout problem October 2022 Margaret Mitchell had been working at Google for two years before she realized she needed a break. Only after she spoke with a therapist did she understand the problem: she was burnt out. Mitchell, who now works as chief ethics scientist at the AI startup Hugging Face, is far from alone in her experience. Burnout is becoming increasingly common in responsible AI teams. All the practitioners MIT Technology Review interviewed spoke enthusiastically about their work: it is fueled by passion, a sense of urgency, and the satisfaction of building solutions for real problems. But that sense of mission can be overwhelming without the right support. Read the full story. Melissa Heikkil We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet 'em at me.) + This timelapse of a pine tree growing from a tiny pinecone is pretty special + Shaboozeys A Bar Song (Tipsy) is one of 2024s biggest hits. But why has it struck such a chord?+ All hail Londons campest Christmas tree!+ Stay vigilant, Oregons googly eye bandit has struck again