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The Download: how AI really works, and phasing out animal testing

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. OpenAI’s new LLM exposes the secrets of how AI really works The news: ChatGPT maker OpenAI has built an experimental large language model that is far easier to understand than typical models. Why…
These technologies could help put a stop to animal testing

Earlier this week, the UK’s science minister announced an ambitious plan: to phase out animal testing. Testing potential skin irritants on animals will be stopped by the end of next year, according to a strategy released on Tuesday. By 2027, researchers are “expected to end” tests of the strength of Botox on mice. And drug tests…
EmTech AI 2025: How AI is revolutionizing science
OpenAI’s new LLM exposes the secrets of how AI really works

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has built an experimental large language model that is far easier to understand than typical models. That’s a big deal, because today’s LLMs are black boxes: Nobody fully understands how they do what they do. Building a model that is more transparent sheds light on how LLMs work in general, helping researchers…
Google DeepMind is using Gemini to train agents inside Goat Simulator 3

Google DeepMind has built a new video-game-playing agent called SIMA 2 that can navigate and solve problems in a wide range of 3D virtual worlds. The company claims it’s a big step toward more general-purpose agents and better real-world robots. Google DeepMind first demoed SIMA (which stands for “scalable instructable multiworld agent”) last year. But…
The Download: AI to measure pain, and how to deal with conspiracy theorists

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. AI is changing how we quantify pain Researchers around the world are racing to turn pain—medicine’s most subjective vital sign—into something a camera or sensor can score as reliably as blood pressure. The…
Google is still aiming for its “moonshot” 2030 energy goals

Last week, we hosted EmTech MIT, MIT Technology Review’s annual flagship conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the course of three days of main-stage sessions, I learned about innovations in AI, biotech, and robotics. But as you might imagine, some of this climate reporter’s favorite moments came in the climate sessions. I was listening especially closely…
The Download: how to survive a conspiracy theory, and moldy cities

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. What it’s like to be in the middle of a conspiracy theory (according to a conspiracy theory expert) —Mike Rothschild is a journalist and an expert on the growth and impact of conspiracy…
Improving VMware migration workflows with agentic AI

For years, many chief information officers (CIOs) looked at VMware-to-cloud migrations with a wary pragmatism. Manually mapping dependencies and rewriting legacy apps mid-flight was not an enticing, low-lift proposition for enterprise IT teams. But the calculus for such decisions has changed dramatically in a short period of time. Following recent VMware licensing changes, organizations are…
The Download: surviving extreme temperatures, and the big whale-wind turbine conspiracy

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures Climate change is subjecting vulnerable people to temperatures that push their limits. In 2023, about 47,000 heat-related deaths are believed to…