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☆ What if You Never Had to Charge Your Gadgets Again?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After decades of trying, consumer electronics companies are rolling out a solar technology that mimics photosynthesis in plants. It lets devices charge indoors and, in some cases, can eliminate batteries entirely. This new light-harvesting tech is fundamentally different from the crystalline silicon-based panels on rooftops and in solar farms, and also from the amorphous silicon cells on the kind of solar-powered calculators that were once ubiquitous. This new tech is based on principles first explored by chemists in the 1960s and turned into workable solar cells in the 1980s. It’s taken until now for versions of these cells tough enough for consumer applications to be manufactured on the scale required for mainstream adoption.

Persons: It’s

☆ Is This the End of ‘Intel Inside’?
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-02 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

It might not look like it yet, but Intel is in a fight for its life. The stakes for its employees and investors are high, and are likely to turn on some fierce battles for market share that will play out in 2024 and beyond.

Organizations: Intel

☆ ‘Accelerationists’ Come Out Ahead With Sam Altman’s Return to OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sam Altman ’s triumph in remaining OpenAI’s CEO was also a win for those seeking the swift development of artificial intelligence. OpenAI, and Altman himself, are at the heart of a debate about AI development: how quickly should humanity race toward building “artificial general intelligence”—that is, fully humanlike intelligence, or maybe even superhuman intelligence.

Persons: Sam Altman ’, Altman, ”

☆ AI ‘Accelerationists’ Come Out Ahead With Sam Altman’s Return to OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sam Altman is a leading proponent of rapidly developing AI technology, while others want to pump the brakes. Photo: joel saget/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesSam Altman ’s triumph in remaining OpenAI’s CEO was also a win for those seeking the swift development of artificial intelligence. OpenAI, and Altman himself, are at the heart of a debate about AI development: how quickly should humanity race toward building “artificial general intelligence”—that is, fully humanlike intelligence, or maybe even superhuman intelligence.

Persons: Sam Altman, joel saget, Sam Altman ’, Altman, ” Organizations: Agence France

You might stumble across a few (hundred) other gadget gift guides this season, but none are quite like this. This is your beloved WSJ Personal Tech team putting our money where our mouths are: This list is made up of items we’ve bought—or will be buying—for ourselves. It’s all just stuff we liked so much we had to have it.

Persons: we’ve Organizations: Tech

☆ How Social Media Is Turning Into Old-Fashioned Broadcast Media
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Social media is turning into old-fashioned network television. A handful of accounts create most of the content that we see. Everyone else? They play the role of the audience, which is there to mostly amplify and applaud. The personal tidbits that people used to share on social media have been relegated to private group chats and their equivalent.

☆ A Handful of Accounts Create Most of What We See on Social Media
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Persons: we’ve Organizations: Tech

☆ Is Anything Still True? On the Internet, No One Knows Anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Creating and disseminating convincing propaganda used to require the resources of a state. Now all it takes is a smartphone. Generative artificial intelligence is now capable of creating fake pictures, clones of our voices, and even videos depicting and distorting world events. The result: From our personal circles to the political circuses, everyone must now question whether what they see and hear is true.

☆ One of the World’s Biggest Diamonds Could Be Key to Some of the World’s Fastest Microchips
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-04 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Microchips are hot. As engineers cram more functions and power into chips, they require more energy and, thus, produce more heat than ever before. To beat that heat, which limits the performance of the computers and other gadgets we use, Silicon Valley is looking to some surprising materials. Chip companies large and small are experimenting with slices of synthetic diamond, pieces of ultrapure glass or even an obscure material only recently synthesized in quantities sufficient to test its properties.

☆ Stacking Boxes? Treating Cancer? AI Needs to Learn Physics First
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-28 | by ( Christopher Mims | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Artificial intelligence has dazzled the world in the past year, largely because of large language models like ChatGPT that seemingly converse with users. But this kind of AI isn’t great at tackling hard problems in robotics, science and engineering. To do this, AI needs to learn physics.

☆ Pilot Charged After Alleged Attempt to Disable Engines Midflight
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Does AI ‘Think’? We’re Still Figuring That OutGenerative artificial intelligence technology is still in the early stages of development. WSJ tech columnist Christopher Mims says this is one reason the approach to developing AI models will need to change. Zoe Thomas hosts. Using Midjourney Ai