The new information comes as the Raines family updated its lawsuit against OpenAI. The family first filed a wrongful death suit against OpenAI in August after alleging their son had taken his own life following conversations with the chatbot about his mental health and suicidal ideation.
Read more OpenAI’s new browser is a surface for the company to distribute ChatGPT and develop new AI features rather than improving core web experience.
Read more 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.
Introducing: the body issue
We’re thrilled to share the latest edition of MIT Technology Review magazine, digging into the future of the human body, and how it could change in the years ahead thanks to scientific and technological tinkering.
The below stories are just a taste of what you can expect from this fascinating issue. To read the full thing, subscribe now if you haven’t already.
+ A new field of science claims to be able to predict aesthetic traits, intelligence, and even moral
character in embryos. But is this the next step in human evolution or something more dangerous? Read the full story.
+ How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we could ever reverse it. Read the full story.
+ Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology follows, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings of animal bodies directly from stem cells. But should he?
+ The more we move, the more our muscle cells begin to make a memory of that exercise. Bonnie Tsui’s piece digs into how our bodies learn to remember.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How Antarctica’s history of isolation is ending—thanks to Starlink
“This is one of the least visited places on planet Earth and I got to open the door,” Matty Jordan, a construction specialist at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica, wrote in the caption to the video he posted to Instagram and TikTok in October 2023.
In the video, he guides viewers through the hut, pointing out where the men of Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 expedition lived and worked.
The video has racked up millions of views from all over the world. It’s also kind of a miracle: until very recently, those who lived and worked on Antarctic bases had no hope of communicating so readily with the outside world. That’s starting to change, thanks to Starlink, the satellite constellation developed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to service the world with high-speed broadband internet.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI has launched its own web browser
Atlas has an Ask ChatGPT sidebar and an agent mode to complete certain tasks. (TechCrunch)
+ It runs on Chromium, the open-source engine that powers Google’s Chrome. (Axios)
+ OpenAI believes the future of web browsing will involve chatting to its interface. (Ars Technica)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)
2 China is demanding US chip firms share their sales data
It’s conducting a probe into American suppliers, and it wants answers. (Bloomberg $)
3 AI pioneers are among those calling for a ban on superintelligent systems
Including Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. (The Guardian)
+ Prominent Chinese scientists have also signed the statement. (FT $)
+ Read our interview with Hinton on why he’s now scared of AI. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Anthropic promises its AI is not woke
Despite what the Trump administration’s “AI Czar” says. (404 Media)
+ Its CEO insists the company shares the same goals as the Trump administration. (CNBC)
+ Why it’s impossible to build an unbiased AI language model. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Climate scientists expect we’ll see more solar geoengineering attempts
But it’s a risky intervention with potentially huge repercussions. (New Scientist $)
+ The hard lessons of Harvard’s failed geoengineering experiment. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Why Silicon Valley is so fixated on China
It marvels at the country’s ability to move fast and break things—but should it?(NYT $)
+ How Trump is helping China extend its massive lead in clean energy. (MIT Technology Review)
7 YouTube has launched a likeness detector to foil AI doppelgängers
But that doesn’t guarantee that the fake videos will be removed. (Ars Technica)
8 Bots are threatening Reddit’s status as an oasis of human chat
Can it keep fighting off the proliferation of AI slop? (WP $)
+ It’s not just Reddit either—employers are worried about ‘workslop’ too. (FT $)
+ AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage. (MIT Technology Review)
9 This AI-powered pet toy is surprisingly cute
Moflin is a guinea pig-like creature that learns to become more expressive. (TechCrunch)
+ AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)
10 You don’t need to know a lot about AI to get a job in AI
Make of that what you will. (Fast Company $)
Quote of the day
“It’s wild that Google wrote the Transformers paper (that birthed GPTs) AND open sourced Chromium, both of which will (eventually) lead to the downfall of their search monopoly. History lesson in there somewhere.”
—Investor Nikunj Kothari ponders the future of Google’s empire in the wake of the announcement of OpenAI’s new web browser in a post on X.
One more thing
The quest to protect farmworkers from extreme heat
Even as temperatures rise each summer, the people working outdoors to pick fruits, vegetables, and flowers have to keep laboring.
The consequences can be severe, leading to illnesses such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke and even acute kidney injury.
Now, researchers are developing an innovative sensor that tracks multiple vital signs with a goal of anticipating when a worker is at risk of developing heat illness and issuing an alert. If widely adopted and consistently used, it could represent a way to make workers safer on farms even without significant heat protections. Read the full story.
—Kalena Thomhave
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Netflix is making a film based on the hit board game Catan, for some reason.
+ Why it’s time to embrace the beauty of slow running.
+ The Satellite Crayon Project takes colors from the natural world and turns them into vibrant drawing implements.
+ Mamma Mia has never sounded better.
Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman
This science fiction book series confronted me with existential questions like “Are we alone in the universe?” and “Do I actually like LitRPG??” (LitRPG—which stands for “literary role-playing game”—is a relatively new genre that merges the conventions of computer RPGs with those of science fiction and fantasy novels.) In the series, aliens destroy most of Earth, leaving the titular Carl and Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend’s cat, to fight in a bloodthirsty game of survival with rules that are part reality TV and part video game dungeon crawl. I particularly recommend the audiobook, voiced by Jeff Hays, which makes the numerous characters easy to differentiate.
Journaling, offline and open-source
For years I’ve tried to find a perfect system to keep track of all my random notes and weird little rabbit holes of inspiration. None of my paper journals or paid apps have been able to top how customizable and convenient the developer-favorite notetaking app Obsidian is. Thanks to this app, I’ve been able to cancel subscription services I was using to track my reading habits, fitness goals, and journaling—and I also use it to track tasks I do for work, like drafting this article. It’s open-source and files are stored on my device, so I don’t have to worry about whether I’m sharing my private thoughts with a company that might scrape them for AI.
Bird-watching with Merlin
Sometimes I have to make a conscious effort to step away from my screens and get out in the world. The latest version of the birding app Merlin, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, helps ease the transition. I can “collect” and identify species via step-by-step questions, photos, or—my favorite—audio that I record so that the app can analyze it to indicate which birds are singing in real time. Using the audio feature, I “captured” the red-eyed vireo flitting up in the tree canopy and backlit by the sun. Fantastic for my backyard feeder or while I’m out on the trail.
It’s late August in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, and people are filling a large hall at one of Africa’s biggest gatherings of minds in AI and machine learning. The room is draped in white curtains, and a giant screen blinks with videos created with generative AI. A classic East African folk song by the Tanzanian singer Saida Karoli plays loudly on the speakers.
Friends greet each other as waiters serve arrowroot crisps and sugary mocktails. A man and a woman wearing leopard skins atop their clothes sip beer and chat; many women are in handwoven Ethiopian garb with red, yellow, and green embroidery. The crowd teems with life. “The best thing about the Indaba is always the parties,” computer scientist Nyalleng Moorosi tells me. Indaba means “gathering” in Zulu, and Deep Learning Indaba, where we’re meeting, is an annual AI conference where Africans present their research and technologies they’ve built.
Moorosi is a senior researcher at the Distributed AI Research Institute and has dropped in for the occasion from the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Dressed in her signature “Mama Africa” headwrap, she makes her way through the crowded hall.
Moments later, a cheerful set of Nigerian music begins to play over the speakers. Spontaneously, people pop up and gather around the stage, waving flags of many African nations. Moorosi laughs as she watches. “The vibe at the Indaba—the community spirit—is really strong,” she says, clapping.
Moorosi is one of the founding members of the Deep Learning Indaba, which began in 2017 from a nucleus of 300 people gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since then, the event has expanded into a prestigious pan-African movement with local chapters in 50 countries.
This year, nearly 3,000 people applied to join the Indaba; about 1,300 were accepted. They hail primarily from English-speaking African countries, but this year I noticed a new influx from Chad, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Sudan.
Moorosi tells me that the main “prize” for many attendees is to be hired by a tech company or accepted into a PhD program. Indeed, the organizations I’ve seen at the event include Microsoft Research’s AI for Good Lab, Google, the Mastercard Foundation, and the Mila–Quebec AI Institute. But she hopes to see more homegrown ventures create opportunities within Africa.
That evening, before the dinner, we’d both attended a panel on AI policy in Africa. Experts discussed AI governance and called for those developing national AI strategies to seek more community engagement. People raised their hands to ask how young Africans could access high-level discussions on AI policy, and whether Africa’s continental AI strategy was being shaped by outsiders. Later, in conversation, Moorosi told me she’d like to see more African priorities (such as African Union–backed labor protections, mineral rights, or safeguards against exploitation) reflected in such strategies.
On the last day of the Indaba, I ask Moorosi about her dreams for the future of AI in Africa. “I dream of African industries adopting African-built AI products,” she says, after a long moment. “We really need to show our work to the world.”
Abdullahi Tsanni is a science writer based in Senegal who specializes in narrative features.
Embryologists are the scientists behind the scenes of in vitro fertilization who oversee the development and selection of embryos, prepare them for transfer, and maintain the lab environment. They’ve been a critical part of IVF for decades, but their job has gotten a whole lot busier in recent years as demand for the fertility treatment skyrockets and clinics struggle to keep up. The United States is in fact facing a critical shortage of both embryologists and genetic counselors.
Klaus Wiemer, a veteran embryologist and IVF lab director, believes artificial intelligence might help by predicting embryo health in real time and unlocking new avenues for productivity in the lab.
Wiemer is the chief scientific officer and head of clinical affairs at Fairtility, a company that uses artificial intelligence to shed light on the viability of eggs and embryos before proceeding with IVF. The company’s algorithm, called CHLOE (for Cultivating Human Life through Optimal Embryos), has been trained on millions of embryo data points and outcomes and can quickly sift through a patient’s embryos to point the clinician to the ones with the highest potential for successful implantation. This, the company claims, will improve time to pregnancy and live births. While its effectiveness has been tested only retrospectively to date, CHLOE is the first and only FDA-approved AI tool for embryo assessment.
Current challenge
When a patient undergoes IVF, the goal is to make genetically normal embryos. Embryologists collect cells from each embryo and send them off for external genetic testing. The results of this biopsy can take up to two weeks, and the process can add thousands of dollars to the treatment cost. Moreover, passing the screen just means an embryo has the correct number of chromosomes. That number doesn’t necessarily reflect the overall health of the embryo.
“An embryo has one singular function, and that is to divide,” says Wiemer. “There are millions of data points concerning embryo cell division, cell division characteristics, area and size of the inner cell mass, and the number of times the trophectoderm [the layer that contributes to the future placenta] contracts.”
The AI model allows for a group of embryos to be constantly measured against the optimal characteristics at each stage of development. “What CHLOE answers is: How well did that embryo develop? And does it have all the necessary components that are needed in order to make a healthy implantation?” says Wiemer. CHLOE produces an AI score reflecting all the analysis that’s been done within an embryo.
In the near future, Wiemer says, reducing the percentage of abnormal embryos that IVF clinics transfer to patients should not require a biopsy: “Every embryology laboratory will be doing automatic assessments of embryo development.”
A changing field
Wiemer, who started his career in animal science, says the difference between animal embryology and human embryology is the extent of paperwork. “Embryologists spend 40% of their time on non-embryology skills,” he adds. “AI will allow us to declutter the embryology field so we can get back to being true scientists.” This means spending more time studying the embryos, ensuring that they are developing normally, and using all that newfound information to get better at picking which embryos to transfer.
“CHLOE is like having a virtual assistant in the lab to help with embryo selection, ensure conditions are optimal, and send out reports to patients and clinical staff,” he says. “Getting to study data and see what impacts embryo development is extremely rewarding, given that this capability was impossible a few years ago.”
Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer reporting on culture, society, human interest, and technology.
At the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, surrounded by the tech giants Google, Apple, and Microsoft, sits the historic NASA Ames Research Center. Its rich history includes a grab bag of fascinating scientific research involving massive wind tunnels, experimental aircraft, supercomputing, astrobiology, and more.
Founded in 1939 as a West Coast lab for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA Ames was built to close the US gap with Germany in aeronautics research. Named for NACA founding member Joseph Sweetman Ames, the facility grew from a shack on Moffett Field into a sprawling compound with thousands of employees. A collection of 5,000 images from NASA Ames’s archives paints a vivid picture of bleeding-edge work at the heart of America’s technology hub.
Wind tunnels
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
A key motivation for the new lab was the need for huge wind tunnels to jump-start America’s aeronautical research, which was far behind Germany’s. Smaller tunnels capable of speeds up to 300 miles per hour were built first, followed by a massive 40-by-80-foot tunnel for full-scale aircraft. Powered up in March 1941, these tunnels became vital after Pearl Harbor, helping scientists rapidly develop advanced aircraft.
Today, NASA Ames operates the world’s largest pressurized wind tunnel, with subsonic and transonic chambers for testing rockets, aircraft, and wind turbines.
Pioneer and Voyager 2
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
From 1965 to 1992, Ames managed the Pioneer missions, which explored the moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. It also contributed to Voyager 2, launched in 1977, which journeyed past four planets before entering interstellar space in 2018. Ames’s archive preserves our first glimpses of strange new worlds seen during these pioneering missions.
Odd aircraft
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
The skeleton of a hulking airship hangar, obsolete even before its completion, remains on NASA Ames’s campus.
Many odd-looking experimental aircraft—such as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, jets, and rotorcraft—have been developed and tested at the facility over the years, and new designs continue to take shape there today.
Vintage illustrations
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
Awe-inspiring retro illustrations in the Ames archives depict surfaces of distant planets, NASA spacecraft descending into surreal alien landscapes, and fantastical renderings of future ring-shaped human habitats in space. The optimism and excitement of the ’70s and ’80s is evident.
Bubble suits and early VR
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER ARCHIVES
In the 1980s, NASA Ames researchers worked to develop next-generation space suits, such as the bulbous, hard-shelled AX-5 model. NASA Ames’s Human-Machine Interaction Group also did pioneering work in the 1980s with virtual reality and came up with some wild-looking hardware. Long before today’s AR/VR boom, Ames researchers glimpsed the technology’s potential—which was limited only by computing power.
Decades of federally funded research at Ames fueled breakthroughs in aviation, spaceflight, and supercomputing—an enduring legacy now at risk as federal grants for science face deep cuts.
A version of this story appeared on Beautiful Public Data (beautifulpublicdata.com), a newsletter by Jon Keegan that curates visually interesting data sets collected by local, state, and federal government agencies.
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