The Download: Europe’s heat wave hits the grid, and IBM’s chip targets Moore’s Law

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The Download: Europe’s heat wave hits the grid, and IBM’s chip targets Moore’s Law

科技简报：欧洲热浪冲击电网，IBM 芯片剑指摩尔定律

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. 这是我们工作日时事通讯《The Download》的今日版，为您每日提供科技界的最新动态。

Europe’s extreme heat is shutting down power plants

极端高温导致欧洲发电厂停运

Europe is in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, and the grid is being pushed to its limits as people turn to fans and air-conditioning to try to stay cool. But some power plants won’t be online to help handle the load. The main source of stress is increased demand, largely driven by cooling. And the challenges are only expected to worsen as climate change brings more frequent and intense heat waves. Find out how rising temperatures are stretching power supplies—and how utilities can adapt. —Casey Crownhart 欧洲正处于破纪录的热浪之中，随着人们纷纷开启风扇和空调以求降温，电网正被推向极限。然而，一些发电厂却无法上线以缓解负荷。压力的主要来源是需求激增，这在很大程度上是由制冷需求驱动的。随着气候变化带来更频繁、更剧烈的热浪，这些挑战预计只会愈演愈烈。了解气温升高如何拉紧电力供应，以及公用事业部门该如何适应。——Casey Crownhart

What Europe’s heat wave means for the power grid

欧洲热浪对电网意味着什么

Grid planning in the age of climate change generally means that we need a lot more supply, and quickly. But one interesting facet to this challenge is that in some places, seasonal patterns are shifting, compounding the difficulty of meeting demand. Europe has historically seen its grid peak in the winter when electric heating is widespread. So some planned outages happen in the spring and into the summer, which is affecting the supply right now. But a growing need for air-conditioning will alter the balance. Read the full story on how climate change is reshaping electricity demand. —Casey Crownhart 在气候变化时代，电网规划通常意味着我们需要更多、更快的电力供应。但这一挑战的一个有趣方面是，在某些地方，季节性模式正在发生变化，这增加了满足需求的难度。欧洲的电网负荷历来在冬季达到峰值，因为当时电采暖非常普遍。因此，一些计划内的停电检修会安排在春季和夏季，这正在影响当前的电力供应。但日益增长的空调需求将改变这种平衡。阅读关于气候变化如何重塑电力需求的完整报道。——Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday. 本文摘自我们的每周时事通讯《The Spark》，为您提供气候领域的一切内幕消息。欢迎订阅，每周三准时发送至您的收件箱。

IBM unveils chip technology that could help extend Moore’s Law another decade

IBM 发布芯片新技术，有望将摩尔定律再延续十年

IBM has built a new prototype chip with around 100 billion transistors on an area the size of a fingernail. That’s twice the density of the company’s previous state-of-the-art technology announced in 2021. And the design could pave the way for faster and more energy-efficient computers for years to come. In the last fifteen years, transistors have been shrunk close to their limits. They can’t get smaller without their function deteriorating. IBM’s new chip resolves this with an approach familiar to urban planners: building up. Here’s how the strategy is bringing new hope to the technology industry. —Sophia Chen IBM 制造出了一款新的原型芯片，在指甲盖大小的面积上集成了约 1000 亿个晶体管。这比该公司 2021 年宣布的上一代顶尖技术密度翻了一番。该设计有望为未来几年更快速、更节能的计算机铺平道路。在过去的十五年里，晶体管的尺寸已缩小至极限，无法在不影响功能的情况下进一步缩小。IBM 的新芯片通过一种城市规划者所熟知的方法解决了这个问题：向上堆叠。了解这一策略如何为科技行业带来新希望。——Sophia Chen

The must-reads

必读精选

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 我已为您搜罗了互联网上今天最有趣、最重要、最令人担忧及最引人入胜的科技新闻。

  1. Anthropic says Alibaba “illicitly” extracted Claude’s capabilities Anthropic 称阿里巴巴“非法”窃取了 Claude 的能力

    • It claims the Chinese firm ran a “brazen” campaign to access the model. (BBC) 该公司声称这家中国企业开展了一场“厚颜无耻”的行动来获取该模型。(BBC)
    • It says it’s the “largest known distillation attack” on the company. (CNBC) 称这是针对该公司“已知规模最大的蒸馏攻击”。(CNBC)
    • The technique trains a weaker model on a stronger one’s outputs. (FT) 该技术通过强模型的输出来训练弱模型。(FT)
    • Anthropic previously accused other Chinese rivals of using it. (CNN) Anthropic 此前曾指责其他中国竞争对手使用过该技术。(CNN)
    • But it’s still feuding with the White House. (MIT Technology Review) 但它目前仍与白宫存在争执。(MIT Technology Review)

  2. NASA has detected possible chemical signatures of ancient life on Mars NASA 在火星上探测到古代生命的潜在化学特征

    • The Perseverance rover spotted complex carbon on rocks. (New Scientist) “毅力号”火星车在岩石上发现了复杂的碳。(New Scientist)
    • The molecules are typically associated with dead organisms. (Guardian) 这些分子通常与死亡的有机体有关。(Guardian)
    • The US has lost its lead in the hunt for alien life. (MIT Technology Review) 美国在寻找外星生命的竞赛中已失去领先地位。(MIT Technology Review)

  3. The EU has joined a US pact to stop relying on Chinese AI 欧盟加入美国协议，旨在停止对中国人工智能的依赖

    • Much of the rest of the world seems to still be a battleground for control. (FT) 世界其他大部分地区似乎仍是争夺控制权的战场。(FT)
    • China is expanding its AI push in the Global South to counter the US. (The Wire China) 中国正在全球南方扩大其人工智能布局，以对抗美国。(The Wire China)
    • Chinese AI experts are freaking out about the AI arms race. (Wired) 中国人工智能专家对人工智能军备竞赛感到恐慌。(Wired)

  4. OpenAI and Broadcom have unveiled their first jointly designed AI chip OpenAI 与博通发布首款联合设计的人工智能芯片

    • Jalapeño is built to power large-scale AI systems like ChatGPT. (NYT) Jalapeño 旨在为 ChatGPT 等大规模人工智能系统提供动力。(NYT)
    • It’s part of OpenAI’s push to “build the full stack.” (CNBC) 这是 OpenAI 推动“构建全栈技术”计划的一部分。(CNBC)

  5. A new report shows ICE has built a vast hi-tech surveillance system 一份新报告显示，美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）已建立庞大的高科技监控系统

    • It includes facial recognition, drones, and data scraping. (Guardian) 其中包括人脸识别、无人机和数据抓取。(Guardian)
    • Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil citizens with AI? (MIT Technology Review) 五角大楼被允许使用人工智能监控公民吗？(MIT Technology Review)

  6. Electronics can now be printed onto living tissue 电子元件现可打印在活体组织上

    • Which could enable smart implants and ingestible diagnostics. (The Economist) 这可能实现智能植入物和可摄入诊断设备。(The Economist)

  7. The data center boom is sparking a third wave of inflation 数据中心热潮引发第三波通胀

    • Demand for memory chips is pushing prices higher. (WSJ) 对存储芯片的需求正在推高价格。(WSJ)

  8. Companies are scrambling to curb spending on AI token “chewing” 企业争相遏制人工智能 Token 的“吞噬”支出

    • Accenture data shows non-technical staff are draining budgets. (404 Media) 埃森哲的数据显示，非技术人员正在耗尽预算。(404 Media)

  9. Claude Design is creating a bland wave of website uniformity Claude Design 正在引发一股平庸的网站同质化浪潮

    • The AI tool is homogenizing the internet’s aesthetic. (The New Yorker) 该人工智能工具正在使互联网的美学趋于同质化。(The New Yorker)

  10. Elon Musk has lost his trillionaire status 埃隆·马斯克失去了万亿富翁地位

    • Thanks to SpaceX stock coming back to Earth. (Business Insider) 因为 SpaceX 的股价回落。(Business Insider)

Quote of the day

今日金句

“Tom Brown is not being a weirdo like Dario and can actually engage.” “Tom Brown 不像 Dario 那样古怪，他确实能够进行沟通。”

—A person directly familiar with calls between the Trump administration and Anthropic tells Wired that they’ve improved since cofounder Tom Brown replaced CEO Dario Amodei in the talks. ——一位直接了解特朗普政府与 Anthropic 之间通话情况的人士告诉《连线》杂志，自从联合创始人 Tom Brown 取代首席执行官 Dario Amodei 参与会谈后，双方的沟通情况有所改善。

One More Thing

更多内容

The quest to learn if our brain’s mutations affect mental health 探索大脑突变是否影响心理健康

For years, scientists searching for the roots of conditions like schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer’s have focused on single genes. But the real source may lie in a more complex genetic puzzle inside the brain. Mike McConnell has spent decades exploring the idea that neurons do not all share identical DNA, and that these differences could help explain psychiatric disease. His work has contributed to evidence that brain cells can form a “genetic mosaic,” with mutations that vary across the brain. Discover how this could reshape our understanding of mental illness. —Roxanne Khamsi 多年来，科学家们在寻找精神分裂症、自闭症和阿尔茨海默病等疾病的根源时，一直专注于单个基因。但真正的源头可能隐藏在大脑内部更复杂的遗传谜题中。Mike McConnell 花了几十年时间探索这样一个观点：神经元并非都拥有相同的 DNA，而这些差异可能有助于解释精神疾病。他的研究为大脑细胞可以形成“遗传镶嵌”提供了证据，即大脑各处的突变各不相同。了解这将如何重塑我们对精神疾病的理解。——Roxanne Khamsi

We can still have nice things

生活中依然有美好事物

A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. 一个为您提供舒适、乐趣和消遣，点亮您一天的地方。

  • This classical reimagining of the Super Mario soundtrack is exquisite. 这个古典风格的《超级马力欧》原声带重构版非常精致。
  • At long last, we can calculate the fuel efficiency of launching our enemies into the Sun. 终于，我们可以计算将敌人发射到太阳上的燃料效率了。
  • Before CGI, explosions were an art form. This compilation of classic practical effects is pure action-movie nostalgia. 在 CGI 出现之前，爆炸是一种艺术形式。这段经典实拍特效剪辑是纯粹的动作电影怀旧之旅。
  • Cambridge botanists lovingly recreated a 336-year-old garden to honor the “father of natural history.” (Big thanks to reader Peter Ryan for the find!) 剑桥植物学家精心重建了一个 336 年历史的花园，以纪念“自然历史之父”。（非常感谢读者 Peter Ryan 的发现！）
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