2 .

The Yellow River is known as the mother river of the Chinese people. However, flood control and disaster forecasts (灾害预报) of the river have always been challenging for people. Now, scientists can better work on these problems by giving the river a digital twin.

The digital twin of the Yellow River uses different kinds of technologies, including big data, artificial intelligence and the internet of things. Devices(设备)are set up along the river to collect and transmit (传送) information to the center. Based on the information, a 3D model of the river is showed on the computer screen. It’s like the Yellow River has a twin that describes its real conditions.

One big thing in the digital governance (治理) is “smart stones”. A smart stone is a detector (探测器) with chips, a battery, and a signal transmitter. They are put in important dikes (堤坝) to record and report the movement of dike stones. If it feels any movement of the dikes stones, it will send an alarm to the center for quick response.

In the sky, there are flying drones (无人机). They are designed to look at the river, its dikes and flood prevention projects. The drones provide researchers with photos and information. The researchers use this information to update a 3D model to watch the changes of water to avoid disasters.

Under the water and up in the sky, intelligent systems are helping to protect the Yellow River. According to the Ministry of Water Resources, in the future, we can expect to see an even more complete digital system for the river.

3 . Many universities in China are being encouraged to start offering soccer as a new undergraduate major(本科专业)this year. The purpose of that is to improve the country’s physical education according to the Ministry of Education（教育部）.

Soccer has been set up as a new major in 30 universities in China, including Beijing Sport University and Liaoning Normal University, according to a new notice from the Ministry of Education in March, 2024.

At the same time, more universities have set up some majors related to sports, such as sports training and physical education. Some famous universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Institute of Technology have also been allowed to start offering majors in physical education.

Qian Junwei, a professor (教授) at Peking University, said that setting up undergraduate major in physical education is to meet the need of the national requirement of building high-level sports teams. He said that Peking University will train more excellent physical educators to build a strong sports country. Liu Bo, the director of the sports department at Tsinghua University, added that sports majors are expected to become popular among universities. The new soccer major might help more sports students get into university.

4 . Me and My Brain

We all know that meaningful changes happen in our bodies during adolescence (青春期), but have you ever stopped to wonder what’s actually going on inside our brains during this time?

To paint a clear picture, we should first know about ourselves with the different parts of the brain. Did you know, for example, that our brains are made up of around 100 billion nerve cells (神经细胞) called neurons (神经元)? And coming from these neurons are several branch-like structures for sending and receiving electrical signals? Every time we do or think anything, a signal is sent. The signal travels down a long structure called the axon (轴突) and, at the end, it passes across small gaps called synapses (神经元的突触) to the dendrites (树突) of another neuron, which receive the signal. In this way, messages are sent across our neural network.

Our brain structure changes greatly as we grow up. Newborn babies have almost all their neurons but few connections between them, which is why they can’t do very much. After a few months however, the number of connections increases quickly, which in turn helps small kids master new skills such as walking and talking. Most brain development is completed in the first few years, but we now know that our brains continue to develop throughout our lives and perhaps the most surprising time of change and development is during adolescence.

During this period of reorganization, the brain notices a sudden increase in neurons not dissimilar to a plant growing uncontrollably in spring. Just as we cut back a plant to make it stronger and healthier, we cut back our brains. The connections that are used become stronger, whereas those which aren’t used dry and die. So, the more often an action or thought is activated, the stronger the connections become between the neurons, which in turn makes the part of the brain being used stronger. This explains why the more you do something, the better you become at it, reinforcing the old saying “practice makes perfect”. In fact, the teenage brain provides conditions for perfecting skills such as playing a musical instrument, speaking another language, or learning a difficult computer game. It could be argued that teenagers decide the development of their own grey matter through the activities they take part in and their experiences.

It may also be unsurprising to many to learn that the last part of the adolescent brain to develop is the frontal cortex (额皮质), responsible for self-control, problem solving and decision making. So, long before teens are good at abstract thinking (抽象思维) and logical decision making, they depend on the emotional center of the brain to make choices and think. So perhaps unpredictable, uncertain, risk taking teenage behaviors, often put down to hormones (荷尔蒙), may actually have more to do with what’s going on inside our brain.

5 . On Feb. 15, a new video model called Sora promises to create a video up to a minute long from a short text description. Just tell Sora your idea, and watch it make a video right before your eyes. Sora is described as “eye-popping”, “world-changing”, and “breathtaking, yet scaring.”

The videos from OpenAI’s Sora are full of details. One video of a Tokyo street scene shows that Sora has learned how objects fit together in 3-D: the camera goes into the scene to follow a couple as they walk past a row of shops. Sora knows how things should look in real life.

Sora looks at many videos and learns from them by breaking them into very small bits. It uses these bits to make a new video. The new video is grey at first and very messy. Then, Sora fixes the video until it looks good and smooth. Sora also gets help from ChatGPT, which turns the user’s short sentences into clear instructions. This helps Sora make the video just as you asked.

Sora may find “busy” pictures hard to understand. For example, when a person moves, things around them change. In one video created by Sora, a grandma blows the candle on a birthday cake, but the flame (火焰) doesn’t move. Sora may not be able to tell “left” from “right”.

OpenAI also says that Sora deals with occlusion well. But one problem is that they fail to follow objects when they are out of sight. For example, if a truck passes in front of a street sign, the sign might not reappear afterward.

In a video of a papercraft underwater scene, Sora has added what looks like cuts between different pieces of footage (镜头), and the model has kept the same style between them. But it’s not perfect. In the Tokyo video, cars to the left look smaller than the people walking beside them. They also pop (突然出现) in and out between the trees. “There’s some work to be done,” says Brooks. “For example, if someone goes out of view for a long time, they won’t come back.”

“Sora seems like a very important leap forward,” says Sam Gregory, a human rights organization that specializes in the use and misuse of video technology. “But there are two sides of the coin,” he says. “The meaningful abilities help many more people to be storytellers using video. And there are also possibilities for misuse.”

OpenAI has also realized the risks that come with a video model. The OpenAI team plans to draw on the safety testing. “We’ll need to get more feedback (反馈) and learn more about the types of risks that need to be solved with video before it would make sense for us to put Sora into use,” says Ramesh.

7 . Hilary Smith belonged to a good family. But by the age of twenty, he had spent all the money the good old family had. He then had some trouble with the bank and was put in prison. He escaped from the prison and ran to Australia at once.

Hilary did not like Australia, and Australia did not like Hilary. What he could do seemed to be one of two things: die or work. Then he remembered that he was not alone in the world. He had an aunt.

She was his father’s only sister, but his father used to say she brought no glory (荣耀) to the family. Hilary, of course, tried to discover what she had done. It seemed that she had failed to marry a nobleman. Instead, she had chosen a husband who was connected with “trade”. Of course, as soon as she became “Mrs. Parks”, her brother considered her dead. Later on, Mr. Parks died and left her a lot of money. But that did not bring her back to life in her brother’s opinion.

Hilary discovered his aunt’s address. Luckily she remained faithful and loyal to him even after she fell ill. So Hilary’s star shone again, and soon he moved into her house and lived as comfortably as a sailor who had just reached harbor. He had only about a six-pence in his pocket.

One thing was soon clear: his aunt was seriously ill, and nothing could cure her illness. Hilary was very worried. Fate had found a home for him, and was now going to throw him out of it. There was only one thing that could save him: her will (遗嘱).

“Will? ”she said, “yes, I have made one. That was when I was a girl and had not much money. I left all my money to some religious people. ”

“Didn’t you make another will when you were married? ”Hilary asked.

His aunt shook her head. “No, ” she said in a low voice. “There was no need. When I finally had a lot of money I found I had no relations. ”

On the next day he went to the public library and examined a book of law. It told him what he already believed. When a woman is married, an earlier will loses its value. A new will must be made. If no new will is made, the money goes to the nearest relation. Hilary knew that he was his aunt’s only relation. His future was bright.

After a few months had passed, Hilary’s problems became serious. He badly needed money. He had expensive tastes, and owed a lot of money to shopkeepers. They believed in him because his aunt was rich, but the debt was terrible.

Unluckily his aunt did not want to discuss money matters at all. In the end they had a quarrel about the small amount of ten pounds. Hilary was not very angry. He began to wonder about a new problem. Was it kind to want his aunt to live any longer? Was it not better for her to die now? While he was considering what to do, his aunt told him that she was going to send for her lawyer. So she was going to make a new will, Hilary thought. She might leave all her money to someone else. Soon he reached a clear decision. He must do a great kindness to the poor old woman.

One night when the old servant who had been nursing his aunt went off, he doubled the amount of some medicine. The total amount was too great and it could just put her to sleep forever.

“Thank you, ”his aunt took the glass from his hand with a grateful look. “I want, more than anything, to sleep, and never to wake up again. Is that what you wish, Hilary? Don’t blame (责怪) me if I have some doubts about what you intended to do. Sick people get these ideas, you know. One thing I ought to explain to you. Mr. Parks never married me. He already had a wife and couldn’t marry again. That made your foolish father very angry with me…Well, if I am alive tomorrow I shall make another will in your favor (赞成). If I die tonight, you’ll get nothing…. No, Hilary, don’t try to take the glass away. If you do that, I shall know, and I don’t want to know. Goodnight, Hilary. ”

Then, very carefully, she raised the glass to her mouth and drank.

9 . OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, had some big changes in its leadership (领导层) in November. It’s not just drama (戏剧性场面) of one company—it made people worried about the development of the field as a whole.

On Nov 17, OpenAI said on its website that Sam Altman, one of its founders and CEO, would leave. However, many workers didn’t agree with this. More than 700 out of about 770 OpenAI workers signed a letter to ask the company to bring Altman back. In just five days, Altman was back as company CEO again.

OpenAI was started in 2015 by Altman and others as a non-profit (非营利性的) research organization. They didn’t want to be driven by a need to make money. Instead, they wanted to make AI tools that could help everyone. In 2019, OpenAI changed a bit. They made a part of the company start to make money for investors (投资人). But the non-profit part keeps control of the business, even going so far to fire (开除) its top boss.

The different opinions of the board (董事会) members toward AI development might be one reason for the drama. According to The New York Times, the people who fired Altman are more worried about AI and called for more rules to keep it in check. Altman, however, saw the further development of AI as more important.

The OpenAI drama “shows how fragile (脆弱的) the AI ecosystem (生态系统) is right now”, Johann Laux, an expert in the UK, told AP. The ecosystem is about all kinds of things related to AI, such as technologies and regulations (监管). They need to keep up with the fast development of AI.

Also, according to AP, many experts think it should be governments, not big tech companies, to decide on rules for AI. Enza Iannopollo from research company Forrester said to AP that Altman’s return stopped the board from trying to introduce more rules about AI’s ethical (伦理的) problems. The lesson is that companies alone can’t make AI safe for everyone, Iannopollo said.