Technology

The Download: AI health tools and the Pentagon’s Anthropic culture war

March 31, 2026
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…

AI benchmarks are broken. Here’s what we need instead.

March 31, 2026
For decades, artificial intelligence has been evaluated through the question of whether machines outperform humans. From chess to advanced math, from coding to essay writing, the performance of AI models and applications is tested against that of individual humans completing tasks.  This framing is seductive: An AI vs. human comparison on isolated problems with clear…

The Pentagon’s culture war tactic against Anthropic has backfired

March 30, 2026
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Last Thursday, a California judge temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic a supply chain risk and ordering government agencies to stop using its AI. It’s the latest development in the month-long…

The Download: brainless human clones and the first uterus kept alive outside a body

March 30, 2026
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”…

Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones

March 30, 2026
After operating in secrecy for years, a startup company called R3 Bio, in Richmond, California, suddenly shared details about its work last week—saying it had raised money to create nonsentient monkey “organ sacks” as an alternative to animal testing. In an interview with Wired, R3 listed three investors: billionaire Tim Draper, the Singapore-based fund Immortal…

A woman’s uterus has been kept alive outside the body for the first time

March 28, 2026
“Think of this as a human body,” says Javier González. In front of me is essentially a metal box on wheels. Standing at around a meter in height, it reminds me of a stainless-steel counter in a restaurant kitchen. It is covered in flexible plastic tubing—which act as veins and arteries—connecting a series of transparent…

The Download: the internet’s best weather app, and why people freeze their brains

March 27, 2026
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…

The Download: a battery pivot to AI, and rewriting math

March 26, 2026
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…