Your gut microbes might encourage criminal behavior
A few years ago, a Belgian man in his 30s drove into a lamppost. Twice. Local authorities found that his blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit. Over…
The Download: AI benchmarks, and Spain’s grid blackout
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. How to build a better AI…
How to build a better AI benchmark
It’s not easy being one of Silicon Valley’s favorite benchmarks. SWE-Bench (pronounced “swee bench”) launched in November 2024 to evaluate an AI model’s coding skill, using more than 2,000 real-world…
What Spain’s blackout says about the grid
At roughly midday on Monday, April 28, the lights went out in Spain. The grid blackout, which extended into parts of Portugal and France, affected tens of millions of people—flights…
Roundtables: A New Look at AI’s Energy Use
Big Tech’s appetite for energy is growing rapidly as adoption of AI accelerates. But just how much energy does even a single AI query use? And what does it mean…
The business of the future is adaptive
Manufacturing is in a state of flux. From supply chain disruptions to rising costs, tougher environmental regulations, and a changing consumer market, the sector faces a series of competing challenges.…
The Download: Neuralink’s AI boost, and Trump’s tariffs
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. This patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets…
This patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets a boost from generative AI
Last November, Bradford G. Smith got a brain implant from Elon Musk’s company Neuralink. The device, a set of thin wires attached to a computer about the thickness of a…
The Download: a longevity influencer’s new religion, and humanoid robots’ shortcomings
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. Bryan Johnson wants to start a…
Why the humanoid workforce is running late
On Thursday I watched Daniela Rus, one of the world’s top experts on AI-powered robots, address a packed room at a Boston robotics expo. Rus spent a portion of her…