Technology

The US physics community is not done working on trust

July 31, 2024
In April 2024, Nature released detailed information about investigations into claims made by Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester, in two high-profile papers the journal had published about the discovery of room-temperature superconductivity. Those two papers, which showed evidence of fabricated data, were eventually retracted, along with other papers from the Dias…

OpenAI has released a new ChatGPT bot that you can talk to

July 30, 2024
OpenAI is rolling out an advanced AI chatbot that you can talk to. It’s available today—at least for some.  The new chatbot represents OpenAI’s push into a new generation of AI-powered voice assistants in the vein of Siri and Alexa, but with far more capabilities to enable more natural, fluent conversations. It is a step…

The Download: rebuilding economic security, and solving math problems

July 30, 2024
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 the US and its allies can rebuild economic security —Edlyn V. Levine is CEO and co-founder of a stealth-mode technology start up and an affiliate at MIT Sloan School of…

How the US and its allies can rebuild economic security

July 30, 2024
A country’s economic security—its ability to generate both national security and economic prosperity—is grounded in it having significant technological capabilities that outpace those of its adversaries and complement those of its allies. Though this is a principle well known throughout history, the move over the last few decades toward globalization and offshoring of technologically advanced…

How machines that can solve complex math problems might usher in more powerful AI

July 30, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. It’s been another big week in AI. Meta updated its powerful new Llama model, which it’s handing out for free, and OpenAI said it is going to trial an AI-powered online…

The Download: the future of CRISPR babies, and investing in climate tech

July 29, 2024
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. Controversial CRISPR scientist promises “no more gene-edited babies” until society comes around He Jiankui, the Chinese biophysicist whose controversial 2018 experiment led to the birth of three gene-edited children, says he’s returned to…

From Meta CTO to climate tech investor: Mike Schroepfer on his big pivot

July 29, 2024
As the pandemic locked down cities in early 2020, Mike Schroepfer, then the chief technology officer of Meta, found himself with more free time than he’d ever had in his career.  In quiet moments that would have been filled with work travel, social events, or his children’s school activities, he reflected on how well humanity…

The Download: AI’s math solutions, and brewing beer with sunlight

July 26, 2024
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. Google DeepMind’s new AI systems can now solve complex math problems AI models can easily generate essays and other types of text. However, they’re nowhere near as good at solving math problems, which…