This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through October 18)

Artificial Intelligence

Self-Improving Language Models Are Becoming Reality With MIT’s Updated SEAL TechniqueCarl Franzen | VentureBeat

“Researchers at [MIT] are gaining renewed attention for developing and open sourcing a technique that allows large language models (LLMs)—like those underpinning ChatGPT and most modern AI chatbots—to improve themselves by generating synthetic data to fine-tune upon.”

Biotechnology

95% of Kids With ‘Bubble Boy’ Disease Cured by One-Time Gene TherapyPaul McClure | New Atlas

“The researchers followed these patients for a median of 7.5 years, totaling 474 patient-years. …The study was the largest and longest follow-up of a gene therapy of this kind to date. Importantly, all 62 children survived to the end of the trial. Of the 62 participants, 59 of them—that’s 95%—were successfully treated.”

Computing

Paralyzed Man Can Feel Objects Through Another Person’s HandCarissa Wong | New Scientist ($)

“Keith Thomas, a man in his 40s with no sensation or movement in his hands, is able to feel and move objects by controlling another person’s hand via a brain implant. The technique might one day even allow us to experience another person’s body over long distances.”

Computing

Why Signal’s Post-Quantum Makeover Is an Amazing Engineering AchievementDan Goodin | Ars Technica

“Eleven days ago, the nonprofit entity that develops the protocol, Signal Messenger LLC, published a 5,900-word write-up describing its latest updates that make Signal fully quantum-resistant. The complexity and problem-solving required for making the Signal Protocol quantum safe are as daunting as just about any in modern-day engineering.”

Tech

AI Economics Are Brutal. Demand Is the Variable to Watch.Steven Rosenbush | The Wall Street Journal ($)

“Even the most likely eventual winners in AI are losing billions of dollars right now. It’s hard to predict how this will play out in the financial markets, but here’s a clue. Keep an eye on demand for AI, measured in units of data processed. It’s soaring right now. The entire AI bet may turn on how far and fast it ramps from here.”

Future

California Becomes First State to Regulate AI Companion ChatbotsRebecca Bellan | TechCrunch

“The law, SB 243, is designed to protect children and vulnerable users from some of the harms associated with AI companion chatbot use. It holds companies—from the big labs like Meta and OpenAI to more focused companion startups like Character AI and Replika—legally accountable if their chatbots fail to meet the law’s standards.”

Future

Meet the Man Building a Starter Kit for CivilizationTiffany Ng | MIT Technology Review ($)

“[The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is] a set of 50 machines—everything from a tractor to an oven to a circuit maker—that are capable of building civilization from scratch and can be reconfigured however you see fit.”

Robotics

Waymo Plans to Launch a Robotaxi Service in London in 2026Kirsten Korosec | TechCrunch

“Waymo will start with human safety drivers behind the wheel before it launches driverless testing and eventually invites the public to hail its robotaxis, a strategy that it has used in other commercial markets such as Phoenix and San Francisco.”

Computing

Nvidia Sells Tiny New Computer That Puts Big AI on Your DesktopBenj Edwards | Ars Technica

“On Tuesday, Nvidia announced it will begin taking orders for the DGX Spark, a $4,000 desktop AI computer that wraps one petaflop of computing performance and 128GB of unified memory into a form factor small enough to sit on a desk. Its biggest selling point is likely its large integrated memory that can run larger AI models than consumer GPUs.”

Artificial Intelligence

The AI Industry’s Scaling Obsession Is Headed for a CliffWill Knight | Wired ($)

“By mapping scaling laws against continued improvements in model efficiency, the researchers found that it could become harder to wring leaps in performance from giant models whereas efficiency gains could make models running on more modest hardware increasingly capable over the next decade.”

Energy

In Austin, This 100% Geothermal Neighborhood Is Designed to Shrink Utility BillsAdele Peters | Fast Company

“Heat pumps in each house connect to pipes that loop hundreds of feet underground, making use of the earth’s steady temperature for heating and cooling. The houses are also built to use as little energy as possible, with features like deep eaves that shade the interior and reduce the need for air-conditioning. Solar shingles on the roofs produce enough power to match each home’s expected electricity use.”

Tech

Rise of the Cursor Resistance: Why Some Techies Want to Ignore AI Coding ToolsRocket Drew | The Information ($)

“The technology has indeed become an inescapable part of Silicon Valley, but the rush to adopt it has brought a backlash among programmers. Partly that’s because the AI coding tools have some obvious technical limitations—sometimes producing error-ridden code, among other problems—and partly it’s because human coders worry any sort of adoption of the tools will hasten their own obsolescence.”

Artificial Intelligence

Why AI Startups Are Taking Data Into Their Own HandsRussell Brandom | TechCrunch

“Where training sets were once scraped freely from the web or collected from low-paid annotators, companies are now paying top dollar for carefully curated data. With the raw power of AI already established, companies are looking to proprietary training data as a competitive advantage. And instead of farming out the task to contractors, they’re often taking on the work themselves.”

Future

From Slop to Sotheby’s? AI Art Enters a New PhaseGrace Huckins | MIT Technology Review ($)

“Amid all the muck, there are people using AI tools with real consideration and intent. Some of them are finding notable success as AI artists: They are gaining huge online followings, selling their work at auction, and even having it exhibited in galleries and museums.”

Long-Lived Gamma Ray Burst Could Signal a New Kind of Cosmic CatastropheDaniel Clery | Science

“Some theorists [are considering] perhaps the most unusual scenario of all: a black hole ripping up another star from within. This model starts with a stellar-mass black hole and a large star orbiting each other. When the star has burned up all its hydrogen fuel, it is left with a dense helium core and an outer envelope that swells up. That envelope can drag on the black hole, causing it to spiral in and ultimately fall into the helium core.”