Future
The Smartest People in AI Believe This Is the World’s Most Important ChartBen Cohen | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Anthropic refers to [recursive self-improvement] as ‘closing the loop,’ a cycle in which each improvement makes the machines better and faster at improving themselves. AI companies say they are now seeing the early signs of recursive self-improvement, which is speeding up their research—and freaking everyone out.”
Biotechnology
An AI Agent Injected Drugs Into a Live Mouse’s BrainEmily Mullin | Wired ($)
“If you give an AI agent a robotic arm, an injector, and a live mouse, it might just perform brain surgery. Biotech founder Gabriel Ocana Santero recently did that using an agent to successfully carry out a brain injection procedure on a living mouse. Though it required some extra steps, it offers a glimpse into how AI could eventually become an active participant in laboratory research.”
Tech
Ramp Data Shows AI Spending Stalling Just as Anthropic Nears Its IPORebecca Bellan | TechCrunch
“A new report from Ramp shows AI spending flatlined over late summer even as token volumes rose, a sign that price competition and savvier customers may be capping revenue for OpenAI and Anthropic. According to Ramp’s data, token spend only grew 1.5% across August and September. To compare, in July, it grew 42% from the previous month. As Anthropic gears up for its IPO, the data suggests investors might be wrong to assume AI companies will keep growing at breakneck speed.”
Tech
The Tangled Web of AI Bets Is Reason to Fear Tech StocksJames Mackintosh | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Circular financing would worsen any downturn. And buying shares in a company raising money in part to buy your product is as circular as it gets. The companies are essentially doubling down on AI bets, making AI stocks even more volatile because good news is better for them and bad news worse.”
Robotics
I Watched a Humanoid Robot Clean My Apartment. It Felt Like a Taste of the Future.Grace Huckins | MIT Technology Review ($)
“Tau Robotics still has a long way to go: The amount of data needed to train robots to do the varied and complicated tasks of apartment cleaning is probably enormous, and the company has completed only a couple hundred cleanings so far. But it’s remarkable that there are now humanoid robots able to clean your toilets and mop your floors, even if they need quite a bit of human help to do so.”
Biotechnology
Silicon Valley Promises AI Will Cure Disease. Drugmaker CEOs Aren’t Buying It.Xavier Martinez | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“The promises are grandiose: Anthropic’s chief executive said artificial intelligence could cure most human diseases within a decade. …Pharma executives don’t buy it. ‘That’s complete BS,’ said Jeff Leiden, executive chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, recalling a recent conversation with a tech leader who claimed AI would cure 90% of human disease in the next seven years.”
Future
This $749 Device Turns Seawater Into Drinking WaterAdele Peters | Fast Company
“If your city’s water supply gets shut off in a disaster, extra bottled water in your cupboard won’t last long. A startup founded by former SpaceX engineers proposes a different option today: a portable desalination device that can quickly purify almost any natural source of water nearby, including seawater.”
Space
Orbital Matter 3D-Printed the First Rigid Beam in the Vacuum of SpaceTim Fernholz | TechCrunch
“A satellite built by the German startup Orbital Matter 3D-printed a half-meter long beam out of a custom plastic material, in what executives called a first for a free-flying spacecraft in orbit, and a step toward constructing large structures in space.”
Computing
Sony Shrinks Glasses-Free 3D Tech Into 6-Inch Desktop Character DisplayMonica J. White | New Atlas
“The ELF-MN1 is all about personal content: anime characters, avatars, and digital figures that appear to be standing right in front of you, with no headset or special glasses required. It hooks up to a smartphone or PC with a single cable, and Sony is pitching it as a way to bring 3D creations into everyday life on your desk.”
Computing
Google Energy Chief: Space Data Centers Cost Up to 100 Times More Than Those on EarthAmir Efrati | The Information ($)
“Launch costs for sending computing hardware into orbit are ‘incredibly, incredibly expensive, up to 100 times more expensive than building on earth,’ Peterson Corio said. Beyond cost, operators would also need to figure out how to maintain and upgrade equipment in orbit. On Earth, data center staff constantly swap out computers and rewire systems, she said.”
Artificial Intelligence
New Research Tests Whether AI Models Know Their Own ThoughtsBen Brubaker | Quanta Magazine
“After over a century of studying introspection in humans and animals, researchers are beginning to explore the phenomenon in unlikely new subjects—large language models. These systems, which are based on mathematical structures called neural networks, excel at cognitive tasks that until recently seemed exclusive to humans. Can they introspect as well?”
Robotics
Watch: Robots Race Up 3,100 Ancient Steps on Clear Path to Beat US TechBronwyn Thompson | New Atlas
“The route—3.9 km, or just over 2.4 miles, with an elevation of around 600 m (0.37 miles)—would take an average hiker an hour or two. …But like humans, not all machine climbers conquered. The one that did, however, was a robot from Beijing’s Lingyi Technology, a subsidiary of Hangzhou’s famous Unitree Robotics. The four-legged robot scored top marks for speed, finishing the route in just 43 minutes and 41 seconds.”
Biotechnology
Tiny Injectable Glucose Sensor Could Make Blood Sugar Monitoring 10 Times CheaperRachit Agarwal | Digital Trends
“[The sensor] relies on a protein that latches onto sugar and a near-infrared dye attached to a sugar molecule. When your glucose climbs, glucose kicks the dye-tagged molecule loose, and its glow changes. Near-infrared light travels through skin well, so a reader outside your body could pick up the signal without any electronics inside the implant.”
Space
This Space Company Is Betting Its Future on a Propellant Available EverywhereEric Berger | Ars Technica
“The propulsion system is basically a small rocket that uses hydrogen and oxygen as propellants. However, instead of launching with separate tanks of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, Chiron starts with liquid water. In space, the vehicle uses solar power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases and burns them to generate thrust.”
