The Download: AI replicas, and China’s climate role

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

AI can now create a replica of your personality

Imagine sitting down with an AI model for a spoken two-hour interview. A friendly voice guides you through a conversation that ranges from your childhood, your formative memories, and your career to your thoughts on immigration policy. Not long after, a virtual replica of you is able to embody your values and preferences with stunning accuracy.

That’s now possible, according to a new paper from a team including researchers from Stanford and Google DeepMind.

They recruited 1,000 people and, from interviews with them, created agent replicas of them all. To test how well the agents mimicked their human counterparts, participants did a series of tests, games and surveys, then the agents completed the same exercises. The results were 85% similar. Freaky. Read our story about the work, and why it matters.

—James O’Donnell

China’s complicated role in climate change

“But what about China?”

In debates about climate change, it’s usually only a matter of time until someone brings up China. Often, it comes in response to some statement about how the US and Europe are addressing the issue (or how they need to be).

Sometimes it can be done in bad faith. It’s a rhetorical way to throw up your hands, and essentially say: “if they aren’t taking responsibility, why should we?” 

However, there are some undeniable facts: China emits more greenhouse gases than any other country, by far. It’s one of the world’s most populous countries and a climate-tech powerhouse, and its economy is still developing. 

With many complicated factors at play, how should we think about the country’s role in addressing climate change? Read the full story. 

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things energy and climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Four ways to protect your art from AI 

Since the start of the generative AI boom, artists have been worried about losing their livelihoods to AI tools.

Unfortunately, there is little you can do if your work has been scraped into a data set and used in a model that is already out there. You can, however, take steps to prevent your work from being used in the future. Here are four ways to do that. 

—Melissa Heikkila

This is part of our How To series, where we give you practical advice on how to use technology in your everyday lives. You can read the rest of the series here.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: The world’s on the verge of a carbon storage boom

In late 2023, one of California’s largest oil and gas producers secured draft permits from the US Environmental Protection Agency to develop a new type of well in an oil field. If approved, it intends to drill a series of boreholes down to a sprawling sedimentary formation roughly 6,000 feet below the surface, where it will inject tens of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide to store it away forever.

Hundreds of similar projects are looming across the state, the US, and the world. Proponents hope it’s the start of a sort of oil boom in reverse, kick-starting a process through which the world will eventually bury more greenhouse gas than it adds to the atmosphere. But opponents insist these efforts will prolong the life of fossil-fuel plants, allow air and water pollution to continue, and create new health and environmental risks.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 How the Trump administration could hack your phone
Spyware acquired by the US government in September could fairly easily be turned on its own citizens. (New Yorker $)
+ Here’s how you can fight back against being digitally spied upon. (The Guardian)

2 The DOJ is trying to force Google to sell off Chrome
Whether Trump will keep pushing it through is unclear, though. (WP $)
+ Some financial and legal experts argue that just selling Chrome is not enough to address antitrust issues. (Wired $)

3 There’s a booming ‘AI pimping’ industry
People are stealing videos from real adult content creators, giving them AI-generated faces, and monetizing their bodies. (Wired $)
+ This viral AI avatar app undressed me—without my consent. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Here’s Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy plan for federal employees
Large-scale firings and an end to any form of remote work. (WSJ $)

5 The US is scaring everyone with its response to bird flu
It’s done remarkably little to show it’s trying to contain the outbreak. (NYT $)
+ Virologists are getting increasingly nervous about how it could evolve and spread. (MIT Technology Review)

6 AI could boost the performance of quantum computers 
A new model created by Google DeepMind is very good at correcting errors. (New Scientist $)
+ But AI could also make quantum computers less necessary. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Biden has approved the use of anti-personnel mines in Ukraine
It comes just days after he gave the go-ahead for it to use long-range missiles inside Russia. (Axios)
+ The US military has given a surveillance drone contract to a little-known supplier from Utah. (WSJ $) 
+ The Danish military said it’s keeping a close eye on a Chinese ship in its waters after data cable breaches. (Reuters $)

8 The number of new mobile internet users is stalling
Only about 57% of the world’s population is connected. (Rest of World)

9 All of life on Earth descended from this single cell
Our “last universal common ancestor” (or LUCA for short) was a surprisingly complex organism living 4.2 billion years ago. (Quanta)
+ Scientists are building a catalog of every type of cell in our bodies. (The Economist $)

10 What it’s like to live with a fluffy AI pet 
Try as we might, it seems we can’t help but form attachments to cute companion robots. (The Guardian) 

Quote of the day

“The free pumpkins have brought joy to many.”

—An example of the sort of stilted remarks made by a now-abandoned AI-generated news broadcaster at local Hawaii paper The Garden Island, Wired reports. 

 The big story

How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York town

April 2022

If you had taken a gamble in 2017 and purchased Bitcoin, today you might be a millionaire many times over. But while the industry has provided windfalls for some, local communities have paid a high price, as people started scouring the world for cheap sources of energy to run large Bitcoin-mining farms.

It didn’t take long for a subsidiary of the popular Bitcoin mining firm Coinmint to lease a Family Dollar store in Plattsburgh, a city in New York state offering cheap power. Soon, the company was regularly drawing enough power for about 4,000 homes. And while other miners were quick to follow, the problems had already taken root. Read the full story.

—Lois Parshley

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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ Cultivating gratitude is a proven way to make yourself happier.
+ You can’t beat a hot toddy when it’s cold outside.
+ If you like abandoned places and overgrown ruins, Jonathan Jimenez is the photographer for you. 
+ A lot changed between Gladiator I and II, not least Hollywood’s version of the male ideal.