This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through August 2)

Artificial Intelligence

Inside OpenAI’s Rocky Path to GPT-5Stephanie Palazzolo, Erin Woo, and Amir Efrati | The Information

“OpenAI is now nearing the release of GPT-5, its next flagship AI model, which improves upon existing models’ ability to complete practical computer programming and math tasks, among other things, according to people who have used it or are familiar with the company’s internal evaluations. …The improvements won’t be comparable to the leaps in performance of earlier GPT-branded models, such as the improvements between GPT-3 in 2020 and GPT-4 in 2023, one of the people said.”

Biotechnology

The First Widespread Cure for HIV Could Be in ChildrenDavid Cox | Wired

“In a study published last year, Goulder described how all five remained in remission, despite having not received regular antiretroviral medication for some time, and in one case, up to 17 months. In the decades-long search for an HIV cure, this offered a tantalizing insight: that the first widespread success in curing HIV might not come in adults, but in children.”

TECH

Big Tech’s $400 Billion AI Spending Spree Just Got Wall Street’s BlessingRolfe Winkler, Nate Rattner, and Sebastian Herrera | The Wall Street Journal

“Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta Platforms are set to spend nearly $400 billion this year on capital expenditures, largely to build their artificial-intelligence infrastructure. That is more than the European Union spent on defense last year. Those firms and others plan to boost outlays even more. Morgan Stanley projects $2.9 trillion in spending from 2025 to 2028 on chips, servers and data-center infrastructure.”

Biotechnology

Scientists Are Learning to Rewrite the Code of LifeCarl Zimmer | The New York Times

“Over the past decade, scientists have built microbes with smaller [genetic] codes that lack some of [their natural] redundancy. A new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, describes a microbe with the most streamlined genetic code yet. Remarkably, the engineered bacteria can run on an abridged code, making it clear that a full genetic code isn’t required for life.”

Physicists Create First-Ever Antimatter Qubit, Making the Quantum World Even WeirderGayoung Lee | Gizmodo

“This hard work paid off; the antiproton performed a stable quantum swing for 50 seconds—a motion akin to how qubits exist in superpositions of states, which theoretically could allow them to store exponential loads of information.”

Energy

AI in Wyoming May Soon Use More Electricity Than State’s Human ResidentsBenj Edwards | Ars Technica

“On Monday, Mayor Patrick Collins of Cheyenne, Wyoming, announced plans for an AI data center that would consume more electricity than all homes in the state combined, according to The Associated Press. The facility, a joint venture between energy infrastructure company Tallgrass and AI data center developer Crusoe, would start at 1.8 gigawatts and scale up to 10 gigawatts of power use.”

Future

The Stratosphere Will Be Telecom’s Next FrontierMaurizio Arseni | IEEE Spectrum

“Starting next year, Tokyo’s SoftBank Corp. will be beaming a prototype 4G and 5G phone and broadband service from the stratosphere to Japanese end users. Floating 20 kilometers above the Earth, the company’s airship-based mast will be using energy-regeneration tech and newly allocated spectrum. And the tech could ultimately pose a real, competitive threat to satellite-based platforms like Starlink.”

Future

AI Won’t Boost Human Productivity Yet, US Federal Reserve SaysEce Yildirim | Gizmodo

“Generative AI is not just another tech hype cycle that is bound to die down but is instead a game-changer for human productivity, according to the Federal Reserve. The big caveat, though, is the road to get there will be ‘inherently slow’ and ‘fraught with risk.'”

OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent Casually Clicks Through ‘I Am Not a Robot’ Verification TestBenj Edwards | Ars Technica

“The agent [provided] real-time narration of its actions, stating ‘The link is inserted, so now I’ll click the ‘Verify you are human’ checkbox to complete the verification on Cloudflare. This step is necessary to prove I’m not a bot and proceed with the action.'”

Future

So Far, Only One-Third of Americans Have Ever Used AI for WorkBenj Edwards | Ars Technica

“On Tuesday, The Associated Press released results from a new AP-NORC poll showing that 60 percent of US adults have used AI to search for information, while only 37 percent of all Americans have used AI for work tasks. Meanwhile, younger Americans are adopting AI tools at much higher rates across multiple categories, including brainstorming, work tasks, and companionship.”

Artificial Intelligence

I Watched AI Agents Try to Hack My Vibe-Coded WebsiteWill Knight | Wired

“Ariel Herbert-Voss, CEO and cofounder of RunSybil, says that increasingly capable AI models are likely to revolutionize both offensive and defensive cybersecurity. ‘I would argue that we’re definitely on the cusp of a technology explosion in terms of capabilities that both bad and good actors can take advantage of,’ Herbert-Voss told me.”