This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Fuel prices are soaring. Plastic could be next. As the war in Iran continues, one of the most visible global economic ripple effects has been fossil-fuel prices. But looking ahead, further consequences could…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The gig workers who are training humanoid robots at home When Zeus, a medical student in Nigeria, returns to his apartment from a long day at the hospital, he straps his…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. There are more AI health tools than ever—but how well do they work? In the last few months alone, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI have all launched medical chatbots. There’s a clear demand…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones After operating in secrecy for years, R3 Bio, a California-based startup, suddenly revealed last week that it had raised money to create nonsentient monkey “organ sacks”…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How a couple of ski bums built the internet’s best weather app The best snow-forecasting app for skiers isn’t a federally-funded service or a big-name brand. It’s OpenSnow, a startup that uses government data, its own AI…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Why this battery company is pivoting to AI Qichao Hu doesn’t mince words about the state of the battery industry. “Almost every Western battery company has either died or is going to die. It’s kind of…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This scientist rewarmed and studied pieces of his friend’s cryopreserved brain L. Stephen Coles’s brain sits in a vat at a storage facility in Arizona. It has been held there at a temperature…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The hardest question to answer about AI-fueled delusions What actually happens when people spiral into delusion with AI? To find out, Stanford researchers analyzed transcripts from chatbot users who experienced these spirals. Their findings suggest that…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The Bay Area’s animal welfare movement wants to recruit AI In early February, animal welfare advocates and AI researchers arrived in stocking feet at Mox, a scrappy, shoes-free coworking space in…
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. OpenAI is throwing everything into building a fully automated researcher OpenAI has a new grand challenge: building an AI researcher—a fully automated agent-based system capable of tackling large, complex problems by…