The Download: mitigating methane emissions, and testing AI-developed drugs
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.
These startups hope to spray iron particles above the ocean to fight climate change
A Palo Alto–based startup wants to begin releasing iron particles into the exhaust stream of a shipping vessel crossing the ocean within the next 18 months.
Blue Dot Change hopes to determine whether the particles will accelerate the destruction of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.
It’s among a handful of small commercial ventures that are itching to test whether releasing similar particles could curb climate change. But little is known about other effects of releasing the particles, including potentially dangerous ones. Read the full story.
—James Temple
AI is dreaming up drugs that no one has ever seen. Now we’ve got to see if they work.
At 82 years old, with an aggressive form of blood cancer that six courses of chemotherapy had failed to eliminate, “Paul” appeared to be out of options. His doctors enrolled him in a trial testing a new technology that pairs individual patients with the drugs they need.
Two years on, Paul’s cancer was gone. The technology was developed by Exscientia, which is one of the hundreds of startups exploring the use of machine learning in pharmaceuticals, with the shared vision of using AI to make drug discovery faster and cheaper.
AI is already changing how drugs are being made. Yet it is still early days for AI drug discovery— and there are a lot of companies making claims they can’t back up. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
Everything you need to know about the wild world of heat pumps
The concept behind heat pumps is simple: powered by electricity, they move heat around to either cool or heat buildings. It’s not a new idea—they were invented in the 1850s and have been used in homes since the 1960s.
But all of a sudden, they’ve become the hottest home appliance, shoved into the spotlight by the potential for cost savings and climate benefits, as well as by recent policy incentives.
Simple though the basic idea may be, the details of how heat pumps work are fascinating. In the name of controlling your home’s temperature, this device can almost seem to break the laws of physics. Our climate reporter Casey Crownhart has dug into how they work, and how, crucially, they could save you money. Read the full story.
Inside the ChatGPT race in China
ChatGPT is the hottest topic in China right now. Over the past week almost every major Chinese tech company announced plans to introduce their own similar products.
There is a unique opportunity here for Chinese companies. They likely have access to better Chinese-language AI training materials and are commercially motivated to develop new products quickly. But among the many companies that have started to venture into the field of smart chatbots, only a few should be considered serious contenders. Read the full story.
—Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s story is from China Report, his weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things about tech in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Elon Musk ordered Twitter engineers to boost his tweets
All because the US President’s tweet about the Super Bowl got more engagement than his. (Platformer)
Twitter’s CEO could be named by the end of the year. (Insider $)
2 Bing is having a meltdown
The AI-infused search engine doesn’t like being corrected, and has started scolding its users. (USA Today)
Bing is already struggling with misinformation, too. (Motherboard)
Here’s why it refers to itself as Sydney. (The Verge)
A prestigious law firm is using an AI chatbot to draft contractsWhat could go wrong? (FT $)
3 An Israeli hacking group claims to have interfered in more than 30 elections
Leading vast disinformation campaigns across the US and other territories. (The Guardian)
What’s next in cybersecurity. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Glaxo ignored its own scientists’ warnings about a heartburn drug
The company knew it could cause cancer—but sold it anyway. (Bloomberg $)
5 Fighting disinformation is slipping off Big Tech’s agenda
Recent mass-layoffs mean there’s fewer workers left to track it. (NYT $)
5 Ford is building an EV battery plant in Michigan
In partnership with the world’s biggest EV battery maker, Chinese company CATL. (Reuters)
EVs are attractive targets for hackers. (WSJ $)
How old batteries will help power tomorrow’s EVs. (MIT Technology Review)
6 America’s aviation systems are dangerously outdated
Ancient
————
By: Rhiannon Williams
Title: The Download: mitigating methane emissions, and testing AI-developed drugs
Sourced From: www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/15/1068683/download-mitigating-methane-emissions-testing-ai-developed-drugs/
Published Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:10:00 +0000
Tech
The Download: the EU AI Act is here, and preventing deadly cancer
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 the EU AI Act was so hard to agree on
On Saturday, European Union lawmakers announced they’d finally agreed the terms of the final version of the EU AI Act, a major package of laws regulating the industry. To get the full low-down on what’s happened, sign up to read our AI newsletter, The Algorithm, later today.
First proposed back in 2021, the Act is now the world’s first comprehensive AI legislation. But it’s been a long and rocky road: the governing bodies missed an initial deadline for a final package last Wednesday, and details are still emerging.
Tate Ryan-Mosley, our senior tech policy reporter, has dug into the key sticking points of the legislation—and what comes next. Read the full story.
This story is from The Technocrat, our weekly tech policy newsletter, which was sent before the legislation was finalized. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Friday.
How to prevent the deadliest gynecological cancer
—by Golda Arthur, an audio journalist and podcast producer
In 2018, we found out that my mom, Teresa, had stage 4 ovarian cancer. While the odds were stacked against her, she somehow survived after a brutal six months of chemotherapy.
When the cancer came back 11 months later, she tested positive for a gene mutation, which contributed to the development of her cancer. She urged her three kids to get tested to see if we have it too. My results revealed that I do.
I’ll shortly have surgery for prophylactic removal of my ovaries and my fallopian tubes, as a way to make sure I don’t go through what my mom has gone through: four rounds with this cancer in the last five years.
In some ways, things are looking up. But there’s no getting away from those grim statistics—most women who get ovarian cancer die from it. So while removing my organs is not an ideal plan of action, it’s the only one we’ve got so far. Read the full story.
5 things we didn’t put on our 2024 list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies
No one can predict the future, but at MIT Technology Review we spend much of our time thinking about what it might hold.
Each year, we put together a list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, picking the advances that we think have the greatest potential to change our lives (for better or worse). We’ve done this for more than 20 years, and next month we’ll reveal our picks for the 2024 list.
Every year, our reporters and editors nominate technologies that they think deserve a spot, and we spend weeks debating which ones should make the cut. Here are some of the technologies we didn’t pick this time—and why we’ve left them off, for now. Read the full story.
—Amy Nordrum
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Elon Musk has restored conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ X account
After conducting yet another poll gauging X users’ opinions. (CNN)
Jones was first banned in 2018 for spreading antisemitism and hate speech. (WP $)
Musk now says users should only be banned in response to illegal activity. (Bloomberg $)
There’s still no sign of X becoming the promised ‘everything app’. (NY Mag $)
2 AI’s Effective Accelerationism movement wants progress—at any cost
No guardrails, no gatekeepers—and few rules. (NYT $)+ You’re either an E/acc or a decel, according to its followers. (Bloomberg $)
3 SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy spaceplane will launch today
After its launch on Sunday was postponed due to poor weather conditions. (NBC News)
China launched its second methane-powered rocket over the weekend. (Bloomberg $)
4 The next generation of semiconductors is here
And the world’s biggest chipmakers are locked in a race to be first to make them. (FT $)
A US university is building a major chip research facility. (WSJ $)
Huawei’s 5G chip breakthrough needs a reality check. (MIT Technology Review)
5 These engineers are working to make the internet feel faster
A new internet standard could eradicate buffering and glitches for good. (The Verge)
How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Americans bought more than a million electric cars this year
But not every state is equipped to keep them charged. (NY Mag $)
Why getting more EVs on the road is all about charging. (MIT Technology Review)
7 We need to grow more resilient crops
Extreme weather events and the changing climate mean we have to switch up how we approach agriculture. (Undark Magazine)
Heat is bad for plant health. Here’s how gene editing could help. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Not every robot needs to look like a human
In fact, a lot of them would be more effective if they didn’t. (Insider
————
By: Rhiannon Williams
Title: The Download: the EU AI Act is here, and preventing deadly cancer
Sourced From: www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/11/1084889/the-download-the-eu-ai-act-is-here-and-preventing-deadly-cancer/
Published Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2023 13:10:00 +0000
Tech
The Download: inside the first CRISPR treatment, and smarter robots
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 lucky break behind the first CRISPR treatment
The world’s first commercial gene-editing treatment is set to start changing the lives of people with sickle-cell disease. It’s called Casgevy, and it was approved last month in the UK. US approval is pending this week.
The treatment, which will be sold in the US by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, employs CRISPR, which can be easily programmed by scientists to cut DNA at precise locations they choose.
But where do you aim CRISPR, and how did the researchers know what DNA to change? That’s the lesser-known story of the sickle-cell breakthrough, which doesn’t rely on fixing the genes responsible for the mutation that leaves patients’ hemoglobin molecules misshapen. Instead, it’s a kind of molecular bank shot—thankfully, one with a happy ending. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
Read more about the sickle-cell breakthrough:
+ I received the new gene-editing drug for sickle cell disease. It changed my life. As a patient enrolled in a clinical trial for Vertex’s new exa-cel treatment, Jimi Olaghere was among the first to experience CRISPR’s transformative effects. Read the full story.
+ The first CRISPR cure might kick-start the next big patent battle. Vertex Pharmaceuticals plans to sell a gene-editing treatment for sickle-cell disease. A patent on CRISPR could stand in the way. Read the full story.
These robots know when to ask for help
The news: A new robot training model, dubbed “KnowNo,” aims to teach robots to ask for our help when orders are unclear. At the same time, it ensures they seek clarification only when necessary, minimizing needless back-and-forth. The result is a smart assistant that tries to make sure it understands what you want without bothering you too much.
Why it matters: While robots can be powerful in many specific scenarios, they are often bad at generalized tasks that require common sense. That’s something large language models could help to fix, because they have a lot of common-sense knowledge baked in. Read the full story.
—June Kim
Medical microrobots that travel inside the body are (still) on their way
The human body is a labyrinth of vessels and tubing, full of barriers that are difficult to break through. That poses a serious hurdle for doctors. Illness is often caused by problems that are hard to visualize and difficult to access. But imagine if we could deploy armies of tiny robots into the body to do the job for us. They could break up hard-to-reach clots, deliver drugs to even the most inaccessible tumors, and even help guide embryos toward implantation.
We’ve been hearing about the use of tiny robots in medicine for years, maybe even decades. And they’re still not here. But experts are adamant that medical microbots are finally coming, and that they could be a game changer for a number of serious diseases. Read the full story.
—Cassandra Willyard
This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Use of deepfake pornography apps is soaring
Links to the disturbing AI ‘nudifying’ services are rife on X and Reddit. (Bloomberg $)
The viral AI avatar app Lensa undressed me—without my consent. (MIT Technology Review)
2 TikTok is embarking on an anti-hate speech campaign
Spurred by the criticism the platform received over Israel-Hamas videos (The Information $)
TikTok’s algorithm means everyone’s feed is siloed, though. (The Verge)
The conflict has forced Meta’s oversight board to investigate two posts. (Wired $)
Republicans are repeating bogus claims to try and get TikTok banned. (Motherboard)
3 A major Abu Dhabi-based AI company is cutting ties with China
G42 is ditching its Chinese hardware contracts in favor of US suppliers. (FT $)
4 We’re learning more about how vaping affects us
It’s better than smoking. But that doesn’t mean it’s good for you, either. (New Scientist $)
Social media is full of posts promoting vaping to young users. (The Guardian)
5 The US wants to build the next revolutionary particle collider
But it could take years to get the project off the ground. (NYT $)
6 The Milky Way is likely to devour the galaxies surrounding it
It’s looking like dark matter could have something to do with it. (Ars Technica)
7 Our microbiomes aren’t diverse enough
And our sedentary lifetimes and antibiotics are to blame. (Proto.Life)
We’re learning a lot more about the vaginal microbiome. (Scientific American $)
How gene-edited microbiomes could
————
By: Rhiannon Williams
Title: The Download: inside the first CRISPR treatment, and smarter robots
Sourced From: www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/08/1084760/the-download-inside-the-first-crispr-treatment-and-smarter-robots/
Published Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2023 13:10:00 +0000
Tech
The lucky break behind the first CRISPR treatment
The world’s first commercial gene-editing treatment is set to start changing the lives of people with sickle-cell disease. It’s called Casgevy, and it was approved last month in the UK. US approval is pending this week.
The treatment, which will be sold in the US by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, employs CRISPR, the Nobel-winning molecular scissors that have had journalists scrambling for metaphors: “Swiss Army knife,” “molecular scalpel,” or DNA copy-and-paste. Indeed, CRISPR is revolutionary because scientists can so easily program it to cut DNA at precise locations they choose.
But where do you aim CRISPR? That’s the lesser-known story of the sickle-cell breakthrough. The disease is caused by faulty hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood. To cure it, though, Vertex and its partner company, CRISPR Therapeutics, aren’t fixing the genes responsible for the mutation that leaves those molecules misshapen. Instead, the new treatment involves a kind of molecular bank shot—an edit that turns on fetal hemoglobin, a second form of the molecule which we have in the womb but lose as adults.
You can think of how the edit works as a kind of double negative. It adds a misspelling to the turbo-booster of another gene, BCL11A, that is itself what inhibits the production of fetal hemoglobin in adult bodies. Without that booster, there’s less inhibition, and more fetal hemoglobin. Got it?
“When you inhibit the enhancer, you inhibit the inhibitor,” says Daniel Bauer, a professor at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University, who helped work it out. “It is kind of complicated.”
The important thing is a happy ending—and this edit really works. Some patients say they lived in fear of dying, either from an acute attack of sickling (when their red blood cells start blocking vessels) or from slow, insidious organ damage. Now early volunteers say they’re grateful—and, after living with disease their whole lives, even a little shocked—to be cured.
Newborn theory
The idea that fetal hemoglobin can protect against the disease is an old one. Sickle-cell is most common in people with African ancestry. A doctor on Long Island, Janet Watson, had noticed in 1948 that newborns never showed its signs—the main one being misshapen, crescent-shaped red blood cells. That was pretty odd for an inborn condition.
“Sickle-cell disease should occur in infancy as often as later in life,” Watson wrote. But since it didn’t, Watson hypothesized that the fetal form of the molecule, active in the womb, was protecting babies for a few months after birth, until it was replaced by the adult version: “The theory that at once presents itself is that fetal hemoglobin is unable to produce sickling.”
She was right. But it took another six decades to learn how the switch-over worked—and how to flip it back. Many of those discoveries were made in the laboratory of Stuart Orkin, a Harvard researcher who published his first paper in 1967 and who’s lived through several eras of research on blood diseases, starting near the dawn of molecular biology.
“I am one of the last men standing,” Orkin told me with a grin when I met him for a corned-beef sandwich.
Stuart Orkin analyzing DNA from individuals with blood disorders in his lab in 1985.BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
He’s a clever scientist who a long time ago decided to study how the blood system is regulated. Logistically, it was a great topic; blood cells are easy to get hold of and study.
“I like to solve a problem, and here is a problem that could be solved,” Orkin says. “How does the system work, and then can you do anything about it?”
Special sauce
Bill Lundberg, the former chief scientific officer of CRISPR Therapeutics, the biotech that first started developing the treatment eight years ago (Vertex later joined as a partner), says the company’s sickle-cell project directly made use of Orkin’s findings. “Stu’s role is really underappreciated,
————
By: Antonio Regalado
Title: The lucky break behind the first CRISPR treatment
Sourced From: www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/07/1084629/lucky-break-crispr-vertex/
Published Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2023 14:00:09 +0000
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