This is the current edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s happening in the world of technology.
Bacteria can be engineered to fight cancer in mice. Human trials are coming.
The news: There are trillions of microbes living in and on our bodies—and we can change them to help us treat diseases. Scientists have modified the genomes of some of these bacteria, specifically engineering microbes that can prevent or cure cancer.
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How they do it: The team chose a microbe commonly found on human skin and modified it by inserting a new gene that codes for a protein that sits on the surface of certain cells in the skin. cancer. They applied it to the heads of mice that had been injected with skin cancer cells, and observed how the development of cancer was significantly slowed down in mice that were given the engineered microbe, compared to those that received a regular germ.
What’s next: Although the team must find a good candidate microbe that they are confident can induce the same immune response in humans, human trials are on the cards for the next few years. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Banning ChatGPT will do more harm than good
—Rohan Mehta is a high school senior at Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The release of ChatGPT sent shock waves through the halls of education. Although universities have rushed to release guidelines on how to use them, the idea of a measured response to the emergence of this powerful chatbot seems to have barely penetrated K-12 classrooms. As a result, high schools across the country are facing a silent coup of blocked AI websites.
That’s embarrassing. When teachers actively engage with students about the capabilities and limitations of technology—and work with them to define new academic standards—generative AI can democratize and revitalize -also in K-12 education on an unprecedented scale. Read the full story.
A test told me that my brain and liver were older than they should be. Should I be worried?
Last year, our senior biotech writer Jessica Hamzelou took a test to determine her biological age. These tests, which include assessing chemical markers in your DNA, aim to estimate how much wear and tear you’ve experienced so far—and, essentially, how many years of life you have left. to you
Jessica’s results suggest that her biological age is 35, the same age when she took the test, indicating that she is aging at a normal rate. But the company reanalyzed the results to give him an individual biological age for each of the nine systems, including his brain, liver, heart, and blood.
Jessica was disappointed by their findings. But how much should we read into results like this? Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Jessica’s story comes from The Checkup, her weekly newsletter that gives you the inside track on all things biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.
A must read
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most entertaining/important/scary/interesting stories about technology.
1 Amazon is jumping on the generative AI hype train
It hopes to make money from corporate web service customers. (WSJ$)
+ It will sell the tools businesses need to create their equivalent of ChatGPT. (Wired $)
+ Generative AI changes everything. But what’s left when the hype wears off? (MIT Technology Review)
2 The Discord channel leaker has been identified
The FBI arrested a 21-year-old man in Massachusetts. (NYT$)
+ That doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the leak, though. (Economist $)
+ Members of the Discord group explained how the documents were leaked. (WP$)
3 Intel wants to rise to the challenge of making chips in the US
Now it’s up to the Biden administration to decide how much money to give it. (FT $)
+ The US is also throwing money at Taiwan’s chip-making machines. (Bloomberg $)
+ Chinese chips will continue to power your daily life. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Children are vulnerable to abuse in the metaverse
Safety experts have urged Meta to halt plans to allow teenagers into virtual worlds. (Bloomberg $)
+ The metaverse has a palpable problem. (MIT Technology Review)
5 France clamps down on bad influencers
A new law hopes to stamp out scams plaguing social media platforms. (Motherboard)
6 Why ChatGPT is not as smart as it seems
Answering questions is not a true measure of intelligence, for one. (New Yorker $)
+ The model is an irresistible target for hacking. (Wired $)
+ Cloning a group chat using AI is very easy. (The Circle)
+ The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who built it. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Swatting services are available for rent on Telegram
They make bomb and shooting threats to the police using synthetic voices. (Motherboard)
+ AI voice cloning software is convincing. (Slate $)
8 Latin America relies on WhatsApp to reach doctors
This means that it is not always clear what is billed and what is not. (Left of the World)
9 The rising price of childhood nostalgia
VHS tapes and pop culture memorabilia command huge price tags online. (NYT$)
10 Those public telephone charging points are not a security risk
‘Juice jacking’ is not the threat the FBI has us believe. (Slate $)
Quote of the day
“They fired everyone I know twice. I operated as if I had been fired.”
—Daniel Olayiwola, a gig worker for Amazon, explains what it’s like to work in an environment with increasingly strict performance metrics to the New York Times.
The big story
Psychedelics have a chance and women can benefit
August 2022
Psychedelics had a moment. After decades of ban and ridicule, they are increasingly being used as therapies. Drugs such as ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin mushrooms are being studied in clinical trials to treat depression, substance abuse, and other disorders.
And since these long-banned drugs are making a comeback in the scientific community, it’s possible that they’re especially promising for women.
Is this the beginning of a brighter future for women’s health? While psychiatrists are optimistic, they are rightly concerned about the potential for abuse. Read the full story.
—Taylor Majewski
We can still have beautiful things
A place for comfort, entertainment and distraction in these strange times. (Got an idea? Drop me a line or they tweet me.)
+ The Super Mario Bros. theme tune became the first bit of video game music to be included in the US Library of Congress.
+ If you are a Picard fan, see what you think of this ranking of each starship Enterprise.
+ it The Twitter account documenting the source of the iconic images is endlessly entertaining and informative.
+ Lots going on at Floor796 (thanks Stefan!)
+ Let’s find some real maple syrup.