Arvind’s Newsletter

1.Indian graduate students in the U.S. outnumbered Chinese ones for the first time. 

The 2022-23 academic year in US saw 166,000 India students join compared to 126,000 Chinese. Chinese undergraduates still outnumbered Indian ones, The Indian Express reported, but the gap was narrowing as Chinese numbers dropped.

In part, this is due to rising anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S., as well as higher-paid jobs and improving universities in China, the South China Morning Post said.

2.Trees can fight climate change, just not alone, reports New York Times.

Restoring forests could potentially capture 226 gigatons of planet-warming carbon, equivalent to about a third of the amount that humans have released since the beginning of the Industrial Era, according to a new study. But trees are not a silver bullet for climate change, scientists said, and their benefit would only pay off if the effects of climate change do not worsen

3.Thirty six percent. That’s how much Google pays Apple from the money it makes on search advertising through the Safari browser reported Bloomberg. Kevin Murphy, a University of Chicago professor, disclosed the number during his testimony in Google’s defense at the Justice Department’s antitrust trial in Washington.

Both Google and Apple had objected to revealing details publicly about their agreement. John Schmidtlein, Google’s main litigator, visibly cringed when Murphy said the number.

The two companies have a partnership since 2002, which makes Google the default search engine on Safari.

4.A blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease could be available within five years. Distinguishing Alzheimer’s from other forms of dementia is difficult. Alzheimer’s is diagnosed by the presence of large amounts of certain proteins, needing either a spinal-fluid test or an expensive PET scan. But blood tests are used in research with good accuracy. A coalition of U.K. funders launched a project to find the best one for clinical use: It could be ready in five years, New Scientist reported. Rapid diagnosis could lead to faster treatment, although existing drugs for Alzheimer’s have only modest benefits and significant side effects. Meanwhile, artificial-intelligence tools are increasingly used to determine the brain features associated with Alzheimer’s, Nature reported. Researchers hope it too could lead to earlier diagnosis.

5.AI is about to completely change how you use computers, opines Bill Gates in his lates Gates Notes. If it really need any more hype.