The Download: Pigeons’ role in developing AI, and Native artists’ tech interpretations
People looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction by authors like Isaac Asimov or thought experiments…
Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening
Squarely in the middle Taiwan’s modern security uncertainties stem from the long-contested issue of the island’s sovereignty. After losing the…
Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines
So perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised when the US Department of Health and Human Services, which RFK Jr. now…
Indigenous knowledge meets artificial intelligence
Suzanne Kite’s AI art installations, for example, model a Lakota framework of data sovereignty: intelligence that emerges only through reciprocal,…
After an outcry, OpenAI swiftly rereleased 4o to paid users. But experts say it should not have removed the model so suddenly.
OpenAI’s decision to replace 4o with the more straightforward GPT-5 follows a steady drumbeat of news about the potentially harmful…
The Download: Taiwan’s silicon shield, and ChatGPT’s personality misstep
Taiwanese politics increasingly revolves around one crucial question: Will China invade? China’s ruling party has wanted to seize Taiwan for…
Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies
Reagan, by all accounts, believed that SDI would be the ultimate tool of peace for all nations, and he even…
The US could really use an affordable electric truck
As Andrew Hawkins pointed out in The Verge this week, “Ford seems to realize its timing is unfortunate.” During the…
The Download: affordable EV trucks, and Russia’s latest internet block
One more thing How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world Environmental DNA is a…
The Download: Trump’s golden dome, and fueling AI with nuclear power
Within a week of his inauguration, President Trump issued an executive order to develop “The Iron Dome for America” (rebranded…