July 17, 2025

Finding value from AI agents from day one

Imagine AI so sophisticated it could read a customer’s mind? Or identify and close a cybersecurity loophole weeks before hackers strike? How about a team of AI agents equipped to restructure a global supply chain and circumnavigate looming geopolitical disruption? Such disruptive possibilities explain why agentic AI is sending ripples of excitement through corporate boardrooms. …

Technology

How to run an LLM on your laptop

July 17, 2025
MIT Technology Review’s How To series helps you get things done.  Simon Willison has a plan for the end of the world. It’s a USB stick, onto which he has loaded a couple of his favorite open-weight LLMs—models that have been shared publicly by their creators and that can, in principle, be downloaded and run…

The Download: three-person babies, and tracking “AI readiness” in the US

July 17, 2025
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. Researchers announce babies born from a trial of three-person IVF Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a technology that uses DNA from three people: the two biological parents plus…

In defense of air-conditioning

July 17, 2025
I’ll admit that I’ve rarely hesitated to point an accusing finger at air-conditioning. I’ve outlined in many stories and newsletters that AC is a significant contributor to global electricity demand, and it’s only going to suck up more power as temperatures rise. But I’ll also be the first to admit that it can be a…

Researchers announce babies born from a trial of three-person IVF

July 16, 2025
Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a technology that uses DNA from three people: the two biological parents plus a third person who supplies healthy mitochondrial DNA. The babies were born to mothers who carry genes for mitochondrial diseases and risked passing on severe disorders. The eight babies are healthy, say…