Artificial Intelligence
In This Manhattan Lab, AI Designs Materials From ScratchAdele Peters | Fast Company
“The lab uses standard materials science equipment, but it’s almost all automated and run by AI; if it has a new idea at 4am, it starts running again. It can run as many as 50 experiments in a day, and the team is aiming to increase that to 100 experiments a day by the end of the summer. A human materials scientist, Krause says, might do 50 experiments in a year.”
Biotechnology
One-and-Done Heart Disease Prevention? Scientists Show It May Be Possible.Gina Kolata | The New York Times ($)
“In a small, preliminary study, an experimental gene-editing treatment dramatically lowered cholesterol levels, perhaps permanently, after just one infusion, scientists reported on Monday. If confirmed in larger studies, researchers hope the findings may lead to a one-and-done way to prevent heart disease in large numbers of people.”
Robotics
3D-Printable Humanoid Legs Let Robotics Experiments Run WildJeremy Hsu | Ars Technica
“A $2,500 pair of humanoid robot legs built from 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf components is not going to win marathons just yet. But such relatively inexpensive hardware could enable researchers to more easily test and train AI-powered robotics software in a physical body during real-world experiments.”
Biotechnology
Pancreatic Cancer Halted by Virus Injection in Three PatientsAlice Klein | New Scientist ($)
“Further evaluation is needed in larger trials, but the early results are encouraging, especially since only small doses of the virus were administered for initial safety testing. ‘We only injected one-tenth of the dose we are eventually aiming at, so the efficacy is better than I expected, especially as this is pancreatic cancer,’ says Masato Yamamoto at the University of Minnesota, who led the development of the viral treatment.”
Future
A Reality Check on the AI Jobs HysteriaDavid Rotman | MIT Technology Review ($)
“Haven’t you heard? White-collar jobs are going away, decimated by AI. …But before you quit your job as a software developer or financial analyst—or tech journalist—and look to join the plumbers’ union, it’s worth considering today’s economic research on whether artificial intelligence has actually begun to devour white-collar work. The short answer is: No.”
Artificial Intelligence
The AI Superstars Who Say a ‘Vibe Slop’ Crisis Is ComingChristopher Mims | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Two engineers who built the core of the massively popular OpenClaw AI agent have a stark warning: The artificial intelligence supposedly capable of replacing well-paid software developers is flooding the world with bad, potentially even dangerous, code. It’s a phenomenon they call ‘vibe slop’—a combination of ‘vibe coding,’ creating software with AI tools by describing it in plain English, and ‘AI slop,’ the endless, low-value AI-generated content all over social media.”
Future
Mirror Life: Scientists Clash Over Threat of Lab-Engineered BacteriaJames Woodford | New Scientist ($)
“Microbes based on mirror images of molecules in the natural world would have a hard time surviving outside the laboratory, according to a modeling study. To do so, they would need a ready supply of ‘mirror food,’ or some novel way to feed themselves. But the research has drawn a backlash from other experts in the field who warn that it may underestimate the grave risks posed by so-called mirror life.”
Tech
Uber President Says AI Spending Is Getting ‘Harder to Justify’Jess Weatherbed | The Verge
“After reportedly exhausting its annual AI budget just four months into 2026, Uber is now questioning whether it’s actually seeing meaningful returns on its investments. In an interview with Rapid Response, Uber president and chief operating officer Andrew Macdonald said the company isn’t seeing a connection between rising token consumption for Claude Code and more useful features being delivered to consumers.”
Future
Illinois Lawmakers Just Passed America’s Strongest AI Safety BillMaxwell Zeff | Wired ($)
“The Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday requiring frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to have their safety practices audited by a third party. If signed into law, AI safety experts tell Wired, it would be the nation’s leading check on the power of major AI companies.”
Artificial Intelligence
RSI Is the New AGI—and It’s Just as Hard to Pin DownRussell Brandom | TechCrunch
“The word ‘recursion’ is the latest buzzword in AI circles. Two separate startups have taken on the name, and many more have started referencing recursive self-improvement (RSI) in their roadmaps. Like AGI before it, RSI has become a three-letter byword for a cataclysmic AI takeoff—even if there’s still a little disagreement about what it exactly means.”
Artificial Intelligence
I’m a Professional Fact-Checker. AI Is Wrong More Than You Think.Meghan Herbst | Wired ($)
“Over the past year or so, more and more people have looked at me with great pity. Surely a fact-checker at a magazine isn’t long for this AI-upgraded world. Call me foolish, but I’m not that worried. Very little of humanity’s collective knowledge, I’ve concluded, lives on the internet. And according to my research, AI is even more wrong than people might think.”
Space
Millions of Planets Might Form Around Supermassive Black HolesJonathan O’Callaghan | New Scientist ($)
“Eventually planets would begin to grow in huge numbers, and with strange properties. ‘This is a really amazing new pathway to form very alien planets,’ says McKernan. ‘If these things exist, they’re quite unlike planets that we know and love.'”
