This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through July 11)
Every week, we scour the web for important, insightful, and fascinating stories in science and technology.
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Artificial Intelligence
Khosla-Backed Startup Claims Breakthrough With Largest-Ever AI Model on an iPhoneAaron Tilley | The Information ($)
"The largest AI models, which can measure in the trillions of parameters, are still far too big to run on mobile devices. But the model PrismML has working on an iPhone is capable of tasks like complex chat, reasoning, fully autonomous agents and software coding, the startup said."
Robotics
Humanoid Robots Controlled by Surgeons Did World-First Operation on Live PigsJeremy Hsu | Ars Technica
"Humanoid robots have surgically removed the gallbladders from living animals in an unprecedented medical experiment—but not as autonomous machines capable of replacing human doctors. Instead, skilled human surgeons remotely controlled the robots’ movements in a new example of human-robot teamups."
Biotechnology
mRNA Vaccines Clear Sweeping Global Review of Safety and EffectivenessBronwyn Thompson | Refractor
"An international team...reviewed data from laboratory studies, clinical trials, and real-world statistics to fully investigate this relatively novel class of vaccine, from design and manufacturing to its long-term performance. 'After billions of doses, we now have an extraordinary amount of scientific evidence,' says lead author Dr. Anna Blakney, assistant professor at UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories and School of Biomedical Engineering."
Tech
Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX Are Bigger Than the Last 25 Years of Tech ExitsRussell Brandom | TechCrunch
"SpaceX has already gone public at a $1.77 trillion valuation, and with both Anthropic and OpenAI pushing into the trillions it’s likely the trio together will land somewhere north of $4 trillion. By comparison, the US Securities and Exchange Commission counted just $70 billion in US-based IPO proceeds last year."
Biotechnology
11% of Americans Are Currently Taking a GLP-1 Weight Loss Drug Like WegovyMatt Novak | Gizmodo
"Gallup notes that obesity reached a record high in the US in 2022 at 39.9% but has ticked down to 36.4%, according to the latest data based on self-reported height and weight. That dip has been credited to the large number of Americans now using GLP-1 drugs."
Tech
The Mistrust of AI Labs Bubbles OverLiz Hoffman | Semafor
"Forward-deployed engineers, dispatched by AI labs to help customers implement their models, will come back to the mother ship with a deep understanding of how banks, consulting firms, retailers, manufacturers, and consultants operate. That customer support, to a suspicious eye, looks a lot like reconnaissance."
Future
Microsoft’s Carbon Emissions Went Up 25 Percent Last YearStevie Bonifield | The Verge
"Microsoft says this was 'driven primarily by the expansion of our datacenter infrastructure,' as well as the company’s decision last February to stop purchasing 'non-additional, unbundled renewable energy certificates.'"
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Tech
China’s Answer to AI Sticker ShockMatteo Wong | The Atlantic ($)
"Having successfully persuaded corporate America to give their products a try, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are now struggling to prove that their tools are worth the money. ...While it’s too soon to know whether GLM-5.2 is really capable of replacing America’s top-tier AI agents, any firm or developer who is balking at the costs now might have an alternative."
Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic Found a Hidden Space Where Claude Puzzles Over ConceptsWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review ($)
"The J-space contains individual words that are related to the words and phrases that the model is most likely to spit out in a response in the near future. If Claude were a person (which it is not), you might say that these hidden words can reveal what’s on its mind before it actually speaks."
Artificial Intelligence
Hackers Can Use 9 of the Most Popular AI Tools to Assemble Massive BotnetsDan Goodin | Ars Technica
"A new attack the researchers have named HalluSquatting has the potential to assemble massive botnets, perform large-scale DDoSes, and infect devices at scale, a first for prompt-injection attacks. The attack works against AI coding assistants and agents, including Cursor, Cursor CLI, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, Cline, OpenClaw, ZeroClaw, and NanoClaw, which are all susceptible."
Future
UN Secretary-General Seeks Ban on AI WeaponsTom Chivers | Semafor
"The UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a ban on 'killer robots,' saying the decision to take life 'must remain forever human.' ...Guterres called AI-controlled weapons 'morally repugnant,' although not all ethicists agree: One roboticist argues they are more discriminate in their killing than scared human soldiers, while a philosopher said in 2022 that using robots will prevent young men and women bearing 'the moral burden' of wars."
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