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Why bigger is not always better in AI 

Every day across Hollywood, scores of people read through scripts on behalf of studios, trying to find the diamonds in the rough among the many thousands sent in every year. Each script runs... Read more »

The coolest thing about smart glasses is not the AR. It’s the AI.

Both Meta and Snap have now put their glasses in the hands of (or maybe on the faces of) reporters. And both have proved that after years of promise, AR specs are... Read more »

The Download: how to break up with coal, and AI’s false climate promises

September 2022—Anna Louie Sussman Like me, my eggs were flying economy class. They were ensconced in a cryogenic storage flask packed into a metal suitcase next to Paolo, the courier overseeing their... Read more »

The UK is done with coal. How’s the rest of the world doing?

A tale of two coal declines The power plant, scheduled to shut down at midnight on September 30, is called Ratcliffe-on-Soar, and it’s the last bastion of coal in the UK, where... Read more »

Sorry, AI won’t “fix” climate change

“As long as we effectively subsidize fossil fuels by allowing them to use the atmosphere as a waste dump, we are not allowing clean energy to compete on a level playing field,”... Read more »

The Download: safer space travel, and generative AI in video games

Long-distance space travel can wreak havoc on human health. There’s radiation and microgravity to contend with, as well as the psychological toll of isolation and confinement. Research on identical twin astronauts has... Read more »

Space travel is dangerous. Could genetic testing and gene editing make it safer?

Whether people are going into space as tourists, employees, scientists, or research subjects, figuring out how to send them safely is vitally important. After all, space tourism is nothing like regular tourism.... Read more »

The Role of Cryptocurrency in Future Satellite Technology Investments

Cryptocurrency has rapidly transformed the financial landscape, offering secure and decentralized transactions across the globe. The technology behind cryptocurrencies, blockchain, has the potential to revolutionize various industries, including satellite technology investments. In... Read more »

The Download: a CRISPR patent battle, and the promise of tiny AI

In the decade-long fight to control CRISPR, the super-tool for modifying DNA, it’s been common for lawyers to try to overturn patents held by competitors. But now, in a surprise twist, the... Read more »

Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island

That nuclear power plant is typically associated with a very specific event. One of its reactors, Unit 2, suffered a partial meltdown in 1979 in what remains the most significant nuclear accident... Read more »