The Download: AI for debates, and what to know about the Oropouche virus

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 could help people find common ground during deliberations

Reaching a consensus in a democracy is difficult because people hold such different ideological, political, and social views.

Perhaps an AI tool could help. Researchers from Google DeepMind trained a system of large language models to operate as a “caucus mediator,” generating summaries that outline a group’s areas of agreement on complex but important social or political issues.

The researchers say their work highlights the potential of AI to help groups of people find common ground when discussing contentious subjects. But it’s not going to replace human mediators anytime soon. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

Oropouche virus is spreading. Here’s what we know.

There have been plenty of reports of potentially concerning viruses this last year. Covid is still causing thousands of deaths, and bird flu appears set to make the jump to human-to-human transmission. Now there are new concerns over Oropouche, a virus largely spread by bites from insects called midges.

There have been outbreaks of the Oropouche virus in Latin America for decades. But this one is different. The virus is being detected in all-new environments. It is turning up in countries that have never seen it before. Here’s everything we know about its spread so far. 

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech and health. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must-reads

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

1 Microsoft and OpenAI’s relationship is becoming strained 
OpenAI wants more money and computing power. But Microsoft is worried about becoming too reliant on the startup. (NYT $)
+ It’s looking like Microsoft will still own a large stake in the firm. (WSJ $)

2 European regulators are considering fining X
It feels the platform is failing to curb illegal content and disinformation. (FT $)
+ Former EU official Thierry Breton still has beef with Elon Musk. (WSJ $)
+ Meanwhile, X wants its legal disputes to be handled in Texas. (The Guardian)

3 The FBI has arrested a man in connection with bitcoin boosting 
He allegedly hacked a government agency’s X account to promote bitcoin. (WP $)
+ The tweet sent the price of bitcoin spiking by more than $1,000. (CNBC)

4 The cost of saving nature? $700 million.
Mere pocket change for billionaires, then. (Vox)
+ Meet the economist who wants the field to account for nature. (MIT Technology Review)

5 US congressional candidates debated an AI version of a congressman 
It lacked all the characteristic back-and-forth that makes human debates compelling. (Reuters)

6 SpaceX could soon overtake Tesla in value
Elon Musk’s satellites are a real money spinner. (Economist $)
+ What’s next for SpaceX’s Falcon 9. (MIT Technology Review)

7 What is your dog really trying to tell you?
AI is taking us closer to understanding. (The Atlantic $)
+ How machine learning is helping us probe the secret names of animals. (MIT Technology Review)

8 A startup once valued at $22 billion is now worth nothing
Edtech group Byju has had a rough few years, to say the least. (TechCrunch)

9 Don’t make fun of Tesla’s robots
An Nvidia robotics exec says we should give the company credit where credit’s due. (Insider $)

10 Publishers are getting really into LinkedIn
As Facebook retreats from news, the professional network is embracing it. (The Information $)

Quote of the day

“We need more orbs, lots more orbs.”

—Rich Heley, chief designer of Worldcoin, details the company’s plans to roll out even more eye-scanning orbs to capture people’s biometric data, CoinDesk reports.

The big story

How a tiny Pacific Island became the global capital of cybercrime

November 2023

Tokelau, a string of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific, is so remote that it was the last place on Earth to be connected to the telephone—only in 1997. Just three years later, the islands received a fax with an unlikely business proposal that would change everything.

It was from an early internet entrepreneur from Amsterdam, named Joost Zuurbier. He wanted to manage Tokelau’s country-code top-level domain, or ccTLD—the short string of characters that is tacked onto the end of a URL—in exchange for money.

In the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau became an unlikely internet giant—but not in the way it may have hoped. Until recently, its .tk domain had more users than any other country’s: a staggering 25 million—but the vast majority were spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.

Now the territory is desperately trying to clean up .tk. Its international standing, and even its sovereignty, may depend on it. Read the full story.

—Jacob Judah

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.)

+ It’s getting darker in the mornings for those of us in the northern hemisphere. Here’s some essential tips to make waking up a bit more bearable.
+ Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk is a classic, and its recording is the stuff of rock legends.
+ If trick or treating isn’t your bag, here’s plenty of other ways to celebrate Halloween with kids.
+ Here at The Download we love nothing more than the Titanic theme, and this interpretation is a doozy.