Elon Musk's brain-implant company Neuralink last week received regulatory approval to conduct the first clinical trial of its experimental device in humans. But the billionaire executive's bombastic promotion of the technology, his leadership record at other companies and animal welfare concerns relating to Neuralink experiments have raised alarm. "I was surprised," said Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist at Penn State's Rock Ethics Institute about the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to let the company go ahead with clinical trials. Musks' erratic leadership at Twitter and his "move fast" techie ethos raise questions about Neuralink's ability to responsibly oversee the development of an invasive medical device capable of reading brain signals, Cabrera argued. "Is he going to see a brain implant device as something that requires not just extra regulation, but also ethical consideration?" she said.

Tracy Chou launched the Twitter app Block Party in 2021 to help users escape targeted harassment campaigns that she--as an Asian American woman--knew from personal experience could ostracize vulnerable voices from the public conversation. But on Wednesday Block Party closed its doors, becoming the latest victim of soaring new bills imposed by a struggling Twitter under new owner Elon Musk. Under Twitter's former ownership, Chou struck a deal with the company for free access to data--a win-win arrangement that would allow Block Party to grow and provide Twitter with a valuable anti-harassment tool to which it didn't have to devote expensive engineering time. But Chou tells TIME that following the recent expiration of that contract, Twitter wanted Block Party to pay $42,000 per month for access to enough data to keep the app running. There was no way Block Party could afford the figure, she says.

What is an NFT? (34%) Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are generally digital art pieces or music that can be bought or traded online. These are unique computer files encrypted with an artist's signature. As a result, they cannot be replicated, acting as a digital certificate of ownership and authenticity. In other words, buying an NFT is almost like the more traditional purchasing of fine art - except in a digital form. Artists can sell pieces that may be tricky to advertise otherwise, such as digital stickers.

During the 2020 pandemic, members of the reddit & discord r/robotics community rallied to organize an online showcase for members of our community. What was originally envisioned as a small, intimate afternoon video call turned out to be a two day event of participants from across the world. All times are recorded in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), UTC-4. Check out the full program in our website for more details.