What’s new?: Deep learning is behind the most impressive machine learning successes. But this incredible performance comes at a price: training deep learning models requires enormous amounts of energy. Now, new research shows how scientists using cloud platforms to train algorithms can dramatically reduce the energy they use and thus the emissions they create.
How can they do this?: Simple changes to cloud settings are the key. The researchers created a tool that measures the electricity consumption of any machine learning program running on Azure, Microsoft’s cloud service, during each phase of their project. They estimated emissions based on zip codes of servers using 11 machine learning models, finding that they could be significantly reduced if researchers adjusted settings to use servers in certain geographic locations and at certain times of day.
Larger Image: Getting people to choose to customize their own settings is an uphill battle. Only 13% of Azure users using machine learning programs have looked at the energy measurement tool since it debuted in October, so the next step will be compelling for the rest. Read the full story.
—Tammy Xu
The world will need dozens of revolutionary climate technologies in the next decade
We live in a crucial decade. By 2030, global emissions must fall by half, mainly through the mass application of existing technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles. But new climate technologies must come to market during this decade as well, even if they don’t immediately affect emissions.
Those on this year’s MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 list are seizing the opportunity to decarbonize the economy and make the transition to clean energy affordable. Read more about their work and what it takes to help them succeed in this essay by Varun Sivaram, senior director of clean energy and innovation for US President John Kerry’s special climate envoy.
This essay is part of the MIT Technology Review 2022 Innovators under 35 years old a package that recognizes the most promising young people working in technology today. See the full list here.
Required reading
I’ve combed the internet to find you the funniest/most important/scary/fascinating stories about technology today.
1 The leaked data of one billion Chinese people was online for more than a year
It lay unnoticed in an unprotected database before a hacker offered to sell it. (CNN)
2 The Large Hadron Collider helped scientists find three new particles
The combinations have never been seen before. (Motherboard)
+ Don’t fall for these misconceptions about the Hadron Collider’s capabilities. (thinking big)
3 How Wall Street emerged unscathed from the crypto massacre
Regulation turns out to be quite handy though. (NYT$)
+ And it’s coming for cryptocurrencies too. (wired $)
+ The cryptocurrency crash could be a setback for web3. (FT $)
+ Venture capitalists burned by the last decade of crazy growth are wary. (Motherboard)
+ Black investors suffer the most. (FT $)
+ It’s okay to give up on the crypto revolution. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Europe has the green light for Big Tech regulation
However, it will be some time before the new laws take effect. (Axios)
+ The UK’s online safety law has been adapted to prioritize disclosure of child abuse material. (The Guardian)
+ Last week’s EPA Supreme Court ruling does not bode well for US law. (protocol)
5 Microsoft is still using AI to detect emotions
For an app for people with vision loss – despite widespread skepticism about the technology’s accuracy. (protocol)
+ Emotion AI researchers say overblown claims bring their work into disrepute. (MIT Technology Review)
6 How technology is saving Sri Lanka’s beleaguered tourism industry
Including virtual leopard safaris. (rest of the world)
7 Humans should not hibernate
But several cases indicate that entering a torpor-like state may be possible. (CNET)
8 These days it’s all about the atmosphere
Which suggests it might be time for a change in vibration – away from the vibrations themselves. (Atlantic $)
9 Space sports are coming 🪐
No gravity? No problem. (WSJ $)
+ Can constant acceleration be used to create artificial gravity in space? (MIT Technology Review)
10 The existential sadness of a robot
Maybe it’s time to stop projecting our own emotions onto them. (The Guardian)
+ How we feel about sentient robots. (MIT Technology Review)
+ However, they are pretty good surgeons. (Spectrum IEEE)
