A short history of AI, and what it is (and isn’t)
For months, my colleague Will Douglas Heaven has been on a quest to go deeper to understand why everybody seems...
World
Music streaming can be a drag on the environment. These K-pop fans want to clean it up.
“I think streaming is especially nefarious because those negative impacts are happening so far away and in such an invisible...
The Download: how AI affects creativity, and CRISPR babies
The big storyIs the digital dollar dead? July 2023 In 2020, digital currencies were one of the hottest topics in...
Unlocking secure, private AI with confidential computing
Confidential computing use cases and benefitsGPU-accelerated confidential computing has far-reaching implications for AI in enterprise contexts. It also addresses privacy...
AI can make you more creative—but it has limits
The findings make sense, given that people who are already creative don’t really need to use AI to be creative,...
The Download: robot-packed meals, and the looming fertility crisis
What’s happening: Advances in artificial intelligence are coming to your freezer, in the form of robot-assembled prepared meals. Chef Robotics,...
IVF alone can’t save us from a looming fertility crisis
But plenty of scientists are incredibly worried about just that. Improvements in health care and sanitation are helping us all...
Robot-packed meals are coming to the frozen-food aisle
You might think the meals that end up in the grocery store’s frozen aisle, at Starbucks, or on airplanes are...
The Download: automating warehouse tasks, and problems with recycling plastics
Before almost any item reaches your door, it traverses the global supply chain on a pallet. More than 2 billion...
AI is poised to automate today’s most mundane manual warehouse task
After much trial and error, Jacobi’s founders, including roboticist Ken Goldberg, say they’ve cracked it. Their software, built upon research...
Here’s the problem with new plastic recycling methods
But there are a few challenges with this process that I see a lot in recycling methods. First, reaching a...
The Download: defining AI, and China’s driverless ambitions
3 Amazon claims to have met a clean energy goal seven years earlySome experts aren’t convinced its calculation method is...
Housetraining robot dogs: How generative AI might change consumer IoT
What is going on? Why now? Examining potential changes to consumer IoT could provide some answers. Specifically, the vast range...
The Chinese government is going all-in on autonomous vehicles
2. The Chinese EV leader BYD will spend $1 billion to build a factory in Turkey. (Financial Times $) This...
What is AI?
ALCON ENTERTAINMENT VIA ALAMY Right around the same time, Tegmark founded the Future of Life Institute, with a remit to...
The Download: planning a honeymoon with AI, and deepfakes in 2024
The big storyWelcome to Chula Vista, where police drones respond to 911 calls February 2023 In the skies above Chula...
Can AI help me plan my honeymoon?
In the future, an AI agent could not only suggest things to do and places to stay on my honeymoon;...
The Download: vacation planning with AI, and smaller models
2 Scrappy weapons startups are changing the face of war in UkraineThey’re leaving the more established players in the dust....
How to use AI to plan your next vacation
Beyond LLMs, there are also tailored tools available that can help you to work out the kinds of conditions you...
The Download: AI agents, and how to detect a lie
“I’m so cute; please watch my campaign broadcast.” —Airi Uchino, a candidate in Tokyo’s forthcoming governor elections, takes a novel...