The Download: learning from environmental DNA, and why we should welcome watermarks

The must-reads

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

1 Deepfakes are being used to resurrect dead politicians 
For example in Indonesia, where over 200 million voters will go to the polls tomorrow. (CNN)
+ And also in India, which has a general election around the corner. (Al Jazeera)

2 How BYD beat Tesla to become the world’s top electric vehicle maker
Its growth has been truly stratospheric. Now here comes the scrutiny. (NYT $)
+ BYD is getting into shipping in a big way—this is why. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Sports leagues are rolling out apps for Apple’s Vision Pro headset
Now we just have to wait to see if people enjoy using them. (NBC)
+ This is what it’s like to wear the headset every day for two weeks. (WP $)
+ The Vision Pro could help scientists conduct research. (Nature)

4 Vietnam is becoming instrumental in the US-China chip war
And it’s doubling down on its role by dangling tax breaks and other perks to companies. (Nikkei Asia)
+ Raising trillions of dollars is probably the easiest bit of Sam Altman’s chip plan. (WSJ $)

5 Estate agents are using AI to furnish people’s homes with fake furniture 
Which must reduce their workload. But… does it cross the line into outright deception? (Vice)
+ AI is being used for an even grimmer purpose: to generate obituaries. (The Verge)

6 We’re getting closer to blood tests to predict dementia
A giant study of over 50,000 volunteers has yielded some amazing insights. (The Guardian)

7 How Slack changed us
It made work feel more casual—but also arguably more all-consuming, too. (The Verge)

8 Fans are fuming after Spotify layoffs broke a musical encyclopedia 
This is a real reminder of just how fragile the digital world can be. (TechCrunch)

9 Temu is determined you are going to hear about it
The Chinese e-commerce company is spending a ton of money to get name recognition among Americans. (The Atlantic $)
+ Why the stress around Chinese apps in the US is overblown. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Musk allegedly bought Twitter because the private jet account annoyed him
I guess this is what pettiness looks like when you’re one of the richest men on the planet. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“It codifies your culture, your society’s intelligence, your common sense, your history – you own your own data.”

—Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, explains why he thinks every country should build its own ‘sovereign’ AI during the World Governments Summit in Dubai.