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The Download: the Kids issue arrives, and Bill Gates reveals his AI fears

A surprising—maybe troubling—number of people who work in big tech also keep their kids at arm’s distance from technology. They lock down their phones, if they have phones at all, and keep... Read more »

AI models flub these intelligence tests. Can you fare any better?

Increasing Complexity In some cases, whether an LLM can complete a puzzle is a matter of scale. One study from researchers at Apple found that LLMs can ace simple versions of the... Read more »

Raised on AI

What happened? I watched the promise of the early internet give way to the reality of its potential for abuse. I myself was already fully in the throes of smartphone and social... Read more »

Bill Gates says we’ve passed AI’s danger thresholds. Now what?

So everyone’s concerned about these negative effects, and everyone said that when we got to these thresholds, that we would do things. We’re crossing the thresholds, and we have voluntary review, and... Read more »

MIT tech powered the Artemis II livestreams

During the original US missions to the moon in the 1960s and ’70s, astronauts relied on radio-­frequency systems to communicate, sending grainy, low-quality images and videos to Earth. But on the Artemis... Read more »

Seeing through murky waters

When remotely operated vehicles settle on the seafloor or dig through a sand bed, they can kick up clouds of sediment that onboard cameras struggle to see through. Often, the only thing... Read more »

Taking your temperature from the inside

The circuit detects temperature within 0.01 °C and can be powered with a 1.55-volt coin cell battery. A strategy known as backscattering further cuts energy consumption, allowing most of the power requirements... Read more »

AgeLab research inspires an A I startup

One such problem: Many older adults “can’t even use a modern cell phone,” he says, “and very few people can use something like an Apple Watch.” So Kiwi Health, which he founded... Read more »

Your brain on AI

Many people find AI-based chatbots helpful in keeping up with news, but a study by Pattie Maes and her colleagues at the MIT Media Lab points to a big problem with this... Read more »

Amping up T cells to target cancer

Most vaccines generate not only antibodies but also T cells that can activate antigen-­presenting cells, which help tell the immune system what to attack. In their study, the researchers boosted that response... Read more »