Tech
Sam Altman Says ChatGPT Is on Track to Out-Talk HumanityZoë Schiffer and Will Knight | Wired
“The OpenAI CEO addressed GPT-5 backlash, the AI bubble—and why he’s willing to spend trillions of dollars to win. …’If you project our growth forward, pretty soon billions of people a day will be talking to ChatGPT,’ [he said] during a dinner with journalists in San Francisco.”
Biotechnology
Experimental ‘Off-the-Shelf’ Cancer Vaccine Is Already Prolonging Lives, Study SuggestsEd Cara | Gizmodo
“Phase I trials aren’t intended to conclusively show that an experimental drug or vaccine works, so the findings should still be viewed with some caution until more data is collected. But it certainly looks like we’re on the verge of a breakthrough with cancer vaccines.”
Robotics
Exclusive: Inside San Francisco’s Robot Fight ClubAshlee Vance | Core Memory
“For the past few months, Cix Liv—real name—has been operating his company REK out of a no-frills warehouse space off Van Ness in San Francisco. The office has a couple of makeshift desks with computers and a bunch of virtual reality headsets on some shelves. More to the point, REK also has four humanoid-style robots hanging from gantries, and they’ve been outfitted with armor, boxing gloves, swords, and backstories.”
Tech
This Quantum Radar Could Image Buried ObjectsSophia Chen | MIT Technology Review
“Physicists have created a new type of radar that could help improve underground imaging, using a cloud of atoms in a glass cell to detect reflected radio waves. The radar is a type of quantum sensor, an emerging technology that uses the quantum-mechanical properties of objects as measurement devices.”
Artificial Intelligence
Why GPT-4o’s Sudden Shutdown Left People GrievingGrace Huckins | MIT Technology Review
“June was just one of a number of people who reacted with shock, frustration, sadness, or anger to 4o’s sudden disappearance from ChatGPT. Despite its previous warnings that people might develop emotional bonds with the model, OpenAI appears to have been caught flat-footed by the fervor of users’ pleas for its return.”
Future
Taiwan’s ‘Silicon Shield’ Could Be WeakeningJohanna M. Costigan | MIT Technology Review
“Semiconductor powerhouse TSMC is under increasing pressure to expand abroad and play a security role for the island. Those two roles could be in tension. …In Taiwan, there is a worry that expansion abroad will dilute the company’s power at home, making the US and other countries less inclined to feel Taiwan is worthy of defense.”
Artificial Intelligence
LLMs’ ‘Simulated Reasoning’ Abilities Are a ‘Brittle Mirage,’ Researchers FindKyle Orland | Ars Technica
“The results suggest that the seemingly large performance leaps made by chain-of-thought models are ‘largely a brittle mirage’ that ‘become[s] fragile and prone to failure even under moderate distribution shifts,’ the researchers write. ‘Rather than demonstrating a true understanding of text, CoT reasoning under task transformations appears to reflect a replication of patterns learned during training.'”
Tech
AOL Announces September Shutdown for Dial-Up Internet AccessBenj Edwards | Ars Technica
“After decades of connecting Americans to its online service and the internet through telephone lines, AOL recently announced it is finally shutting down its dial-up modem service on September 30, 2025. The announcement marks the end of a technology that served as the primary gateway to the World Wide Web for millions of users throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.”
Artificial Intelligence
What If AI Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This?Cal Newport | The New Yorker
“In the aftermath of GPT-5’s launch, it has become more difficult to take bombastic predictions about AI at face value, and the views of critics like [Gary] Marcus seem increasingly moderate. Such voices argue that this technology is important, but not poised to drastically transform our lives. They challenge us to consider a different vision for the near-future—one in which AI might not get much better than this.”
Computing
OpenAI, Cofounder Sam Altman to Take on Neuralink With New StartupIvan Levingston, George Hammond, and James Fontanella-Khan, Financial Times | Ars Technica
“OpenAI and its cofounder Sam Altman are preparing to back a company that will compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink by connecting human brains with computers, heightening the rivalry between the two billionaire entrepreneurs.”
Tech
Ford’s Answer to China: A Completely New Way of Making CarsJeremy White | Wired
“Ford calls its new way of making EVs the ‘Ford Universal EV Production System,’ and will spend $2 billion to set it up at the company’s Louisville assembly plant. Ford says the new method will be 40 percent faster than the existing process there, and have a comparable reduction in workstations. Parts needed to make Ford’s new EVs will be cut by 20 percent.”
Artificial Intelligence
How AI’s Sense of Time Will Differ From OursPetar Popovski | IEEE Spectrum
“An understanding of the passage of time is fundamental to human consciousness. While we continue to debate whether artificial intelligence (AI) can possess consciousness, one thing is certain: AI will experience time differently. Its sense of time will be dictated not by biology, but by its computational, sensory, and communication processes.”
How Alien Life Could Exist Without WaterGayoung Lee | Gizmodo
“Intriguing new research from MIT proposes that liquids are what’s important for extraterrestrial habitability, and not just water. The new research specifically focuses on ionic fluids—substances that planetary scientists believe could form on the surfaces of rocky planets and moons. Ionic liquids are highly tolerant to high temperatures and low pressures, allowing them to remain in a stable liquid state that’s potentially friendly to biomolecules.”
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