Weekend Edition
Writing the brain.
1. Einstein doubted it. But nearly a century later, quantum mechanics is driving one of the biggest technology races of our time. From drug discovery to finance and cybersecurity, the quantum revolution may redefine how we compute, invest, and live, and it could even outperform AI. IBM’s Jamie Garcia and Jerry Chow explain why 2029 is the year to watch for quantum, while IonQ’s Niccolo de Masi says his company is already years ahead. (Source: bloomberg.com/video)
2. Linda Kinstler, The New York Times:
Neural data can offer unparalleled insight into the workings of the human mind. Brain-computer interfaces (B.C.I.s) are already frighteningly powerful: Using artificial intelligence, scientists have used B.C.I.s to decode “imagined speech,” constructing words and sentences from neural data; to recreate mental images (a process known as brain-to-image decoding); and to trace emotions and energy levels. B.C.I.s have allowed people with locked-in syndrome, who cannot move or speak, to communicate with their families and caregivers and even play video games. Scientists have experimented with using neural data from fMRI imaging and EEG signals to detect sexual orientation, political ideology and deception, to name just a few examples.
Advances in optogenetics, a scientific technique that uses light to stimulate or suppress individual, genetically modified neurons, could allow scientists to “write” the brain as well, potentially altering human understanding and behavior. Optogenetic implants are already able to partially restore vision to patients with genetic eye disorders; lab experiments have shown that the same technique can be used to implant false memories in mammal brains, as well as to silence existing recollections and to recover lost ones.
Neuralink, Elon Musk’s neural technology company, has so far implanted 12 people with its rechargeable devices. “You are your brain, and your experiences are these neurons firing,” Musk said at a Neuralink presentation in June. “We don’t know what consciousness is, but with Neuralink and the progress that the company is making, we’ll begin to understand a lot more.” (Source: nytimes.com)
3. The Wall Street Journal:
(Yann LeCun has) become the odd man out at Meta. Despite worldwide renown as one of the godfathers of artificial intelligence, he has been increasingly sidelined as the company’s approach diverged from his views on the technology’s future. On Tuesday, news broke that he may soon be leaving Meta to pursue a startup focused on so-called world models, technology that LeCun thinks is more likely to advance the state of AI than Meta’s current language models.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has been pouring countless billions into the pursuit of what he calls “superintelligence,” hiring an army of top researchers tasked with developing its large language model, Llama, into something that can outperform ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
LeCun, by his choice, has taken a different direction. He has been telling anyone who asks that he thinks large language models, or LLMs, are a dead end in the pursuit of computers that can truly outthink humans. He’s fond of comparing the current state-of-the-art models to the mind of a cat—and he believes the cat to be smarter.
LeCun, meanwhile, has been tromping through Asia and Europe and speaking at conferences. In one such talk earlier this year, he doled out advice to aspiring researchers: “If you are a Ph.D. student in AI, you should absolutely not work on LLMs.” (Sources: awards.acm.org, wsj.com)
4. UC San Diego:
In recent years, UC San Diego -- like many other UC campuses -- has seen a significant decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students. This trend is evident both in the performance of incoming students on math placement tests and in faculty reports that students’ language skills increasingly limit their ability to engage with longer and more complex texts.
At our campus, the picture is truly troubling. Between 2020 and 2025, the number of freshmen whose math placement exam results indicate they do not meet middle school standards grew nearly thirtyfold, despite almost all of these students having taken beyond the minimum UCOP-required math curriculum, and many with high grades. In the 2025 incoming class, this group constitutes roughly one-eighth of our entire entering cohort. A similarly large share of students must take additional writing courses to reach the level expected of high school graduates, though this is a figure that has not varied much over the same time span.
Moreover, weaknesses in math and language tend to be more related in recent years. In 2024, two out of five students with severe deficiencies in math also required remedial writing instruction. Conversely, one in four students with inadequate writing skills also needed additional math preparation. (Source: senate.ucsd.edu)\
5. India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party coalition is poised to retain power in key Bihar state, early vote-counting trends showed. The National Democratic Alliance, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, is leading in more than 180 seats, according to the Election Commission of India website. The opposition, comprising Indian National Congress, is ahead in more than 50 seats. The majority threshold is 122 in the 243-member legislature. Most exit polls had projected that the ruling party would secure another term. (Source: bloomberg.com)
6. Protesters gathered in cities across Mexico yesterday to vent their frustration at how the president has handled corruption and violent crime, with demonstrators ranging from pensioners to young people linking themselves with a global Gen Z movement. The demonstrations, which took place in more than 50 cities, underscored a persistent public perception: Despite President Claudia Sheinbaum’s efforts to curb violence and weaken organized crime, many Mexicans feel that killings and corruption retain a powerful grasp on their lives. (Sources: nytimes.com, inegi.org.mx. Italics mine.)
7. The European Union is racing against the clock to overcome Belgium’s objections to a plan to fund Ukraine’s defense using Russian money. Ukraine is on course to run out of cash in the spring, EU officials say, and they see their loan proposal as the best option for allowing Kyiv to continue buying weapons. The plan would lend as much as 183 billion euros (about $213 billion) to Ukraine, backed by Russian financial assets that are immobilized in Belgium. Belgian officials fear that if the plan hits political or legal trouble, it could leave the country exposed to liabilities that potentially amount to the equivalent of one-third of its national economic output. Politics in Belgium, which hosts the EU’s institutions, risks adding to the problem. The governing coalition faces a budget crisis, raising the stakes for Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever to show he is protecting Belgian interests. (Source: wsj.com)
8. Arctic leaders have warned that the threat of hybrid warfare by Russia and others is moving from the Baltic Sea to the far north, including sabotage of undersea internet cables. Denmark and Greenland plan to build a new data cable between them, and the remote Faroe Islands are in talks to have the line routed through their archipelago to bolster their resilience against potential attacks, according to the prime minister of the islands. “When you are an island in the middle of the north Atlantic, you are vulnerable,” Aksel Johannesen said. ‘‘We have two telecommunications cables today, and if both are attacked at the same time we do not have any connection with the world.” (Source: ft.com)
9. Iran seized a Cyprus-registered fuel tanker Friday, its first such interdiction in the Strait of Hormuz in more than a year. The seizure of the tanker Talara, which was carrying diesel fuel from the United Arab Emirates to Singapore, comes amid a still unresolved standoff between Tehran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said Saturday it had seized the tanker, confirming earlier reports from maritime security and ship-tracking firms. (Source: wsj.com)
10. China conducted a coastguard patrol near a group of disputed islands administered by Japan earlier today, adding further heat to a blazing row between the two countries. Chinese state media has also stepped up warnings to Tokyo that Beijing has prepared “substantial countermeasures” in the dispute, which erupted from unusually blunt comments on Taiwan made earlier this month by Japan’s hawkish new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Diplomats based in Tokyo warned that there was no obvious way to defuse the situation, which has flared just days after Takaichi and China’s President Xi Jinping met at a summit in South Korea and pledged to nurture an era of co-operation and understanding. (Source: ft.com)
11. China has advised its citizens to avoid traveling to Japan, escalating a diplomatic feud sparked by comments from Tokyo’s new prime minister about a hypothetical attack on Taiwan. Sanae Takaichi told Japan’s parliament on 7 November that the use of force against the self-ruled island claimed by China could warrant a military response from Tokyo. Japan has since said its position on Taiwan – just 100km from the nearest Japanese island – is unchanged. In a post online on Friday, China’s embassy in Japan warned its citizens against travelling to the country. “Recently, Japanese leaders have made blatantly provocative remarks regarding Taiwan, severely damaging the atmosphere for people-to-people exchanges,” the WeChat post read. The situation presented “significant risks to the personal safety and lives of Chinese citizens in Japan”, it added. “The ministry of foreign affairs and the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan solemnly remind Chinese citizens to avoid traveling to Japan in the near future.” (Source: theguardian.com)
12. Caixin Global:
For the first time since record-keeping began in 2011, secondhand home prices fell across all 70 of China’s major cities for two consecutive months — a sweeping downturn that underscores the persistent strain in the country’s property market and the failure of the traditional “Silver October” sales season — a typically robust period for real estate — to deliver.
In October, prices in China’s four top-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — fell an average of 0.9% from the previous month, according to data released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Beijing led the downturn with a 1.1% drop. Prices in 31 second-tier cities slid 0.6% on average, while those in 35 third-tier cities declined by 0.7%.
The price drops came alongside a retreat in transaction volume. Following a brief uptick in September, existing-home sales in the first-tier cities resumed their decline. In Beijing, transactions fell 23.7% from the previous month to 12,087 units, while Shanghai posted a 9.3% drop to 18,483 units, including commercial properties, according to data from China Real Estate Information. Shenzhen’s sales fell 7.7%. (Source: caixinglobal.com)
13. New foreclosure data shows Tampa, Florida now has the highest foreclosure rate of any major US metro. One in every 1,373 homes received a filing - the first step in the process, when a lender warns a borrower they’re in default - in October, far worse than any other city with a population above one million. Foreclosures in general are up in America. In October alone, there were 36,766 national foreclosure filings. That’s up 19 percent from a year ago. Tampa’s spike is particularly alarming. The city had 1,087 total foreclosure filings in October. That is significantly more than the 366 in October 2024. (Source: dailymail.co.uk)
14. The Trump Organization is in talks that could bring a Trump-branded property to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments, according to the chief executive of the Saudi company leading the development. The negotiations are the latest example of President Trump blending governance and family business, particularly in Persian Gulf countries. Since returning to office, the president’s family and businesses have announced new ventures abroad involving billions of dollars, made hundreds of millions from cryptocurrency, and sold tickets to a private dinner hosted by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump is set to host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, in Washington next week. (Source: nytimes.com)
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