The Download: how ChatGPT was made, and a boost for infertility treatment

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This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.

The wrong communicative of however ChatGPT was built from the radical who made it

When OpenAI launched ChatGPT, with zero fanfare, successful precocious November 2022, cipher wrong the institution was prepared for a viral mega-hit. It was viewed in-house arsenic a “research preview,” a tease of a much polished mentation of a two-year-old exertion and a mode to robust retired immoderate of its flaws.

But past it perfectly blew up. The steadfast has been scrambling to drawback up—and capitalize connected its success—ever since.

To get the wrong communicative down the chatbot—how it was made, however OpenAI has been updating it since release, and however its makers consciousness astir its success—our elder AI exertion Will Douglas Heaven talked to 4 radical who helped physique what has go the astir fashionable net app ever.

—Will Douglas Heaven

The thought of utilizing a “three-parent baby” method for infertility conscionable got a boost

This week, my workfellow Jessica Hamzelou published a big story astir a arguable attraction that creates babies with 3 familial parents. The “three-parent baby” method was thought to assistance parents debar passing diseases connected to their kids. But caller findings suggest it doesn’t ever work—and could make babies astatine hazard of terrible diseases.

The grounds comes from 2 babies calved aft the process was utilized to assistance couples with a antithetic problem: infertility. It’s fortunate we recovered the occupation successful these cases—these babies didn’t person parents with disease-causing mutations, truthful they should beryllium fine.

And there’s different metallic lining. The results adhd to increasing grounds that the “three-parent” method mightiness assistance dainty infertility and shed airy connected wherefore immoderate radical conflict to conceive. Read the afloat story.

This communicative is from The Checkup, Jessica’s play newsletter covering each sorts of biotech breakthroughs. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Thursday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.

1 US regulators rejected Neuralink’s bid to trial encephalon chips successful humans
They’re got large information concerns and dozens of issues with the project. (Reuters)
+ An ALS diligent acceptable a grounds for communicating via a encephalon implant. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Solar geoengineering is our “only option” to rapidly chill the planet  
That’s the statement of the United Nations, which is calling for a full-scale reappraisal of the arguable climate-cooling technique. (Motherboard)
+ Climate scientists are besides calling for much research. (The Guardian)
+ Researchers launched a star geoengineering trial formation successful the UK past fall. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Major crypto firms person severed ties with the industry’s favourite bank
Silvergate Bank warned yesterday it was reviewing its books. (CoinDesk)
+ What’s adjacent for crypto. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A method called Cell Painting could velocity cause discovery
A consortium has released a immense postulation of image-based compartment profiles. (MIT Technology Review)
+ AI is dreaming up drugs that nary 1 has ever seen. Now we’ve got to spot if they work. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Moonshots are dead
Silicon Valley’s favourite risky ventures person tally retired of road. (WP $)

6 DeepMind and LinkedIn’s founders are getting into the AI idiosyncratic adjunct game
They’re looking to rise millions of dollars to backmost their ambitious plans. (FT $)
+ Apple has blocked a ChatGPT-powered app update. (WSJ $)
+ ChatGPT is simply a mediocre online dating wingman. (Slate $)

7 South Korea isn’t blessed astir the US chips subsidies conditions
Mainly due to the fact that it doesn’t fancy sharing excess profits. (FT $)
+ These elemental plan rules could crook the spot manufacture connected its head. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How generative AI fuels conspiracy theories
They’re changing the ways successful which disinformation is dispersed online.(The Atlantic $)

9 Why large Russian women are flocking to Argentina 
One wildly-popular momfluencer has a batch to bash with it. (Rest of World)

10 What to bash erstwhile your therapist is besides an influencer
The ethical guidelines are clear, but therapists don’t ever instrumentality to them. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“There’s each these radical trying to marque the AI look stupid. It’s fine, there’s nary threat.” 

—Bill Gates shuts down scaremongering implicit AI’s capabilities successful an interrogation with the Financial Times.

The large story

This startup wants to transcript you into an embryo for organ harvesting

August 2022

In a hunt for caller forms of longevity medicine, a biotech institution based successful Israel says it intends to make embryo-stage versions of radical successful bid to harvest tissues for usage successful transplant treatments.

The company, Renewal Bio, is pursuing caller advances successful stem-cell exertion and artificial wombs. Starting with rodent stem cells, the laboratory could signifier highly realistic-looking rodent embryos and support them increasing successful a mechanical womb for respective days until they developed beating hearts, flowing blood, and cranial folds.

It’s the archetypal clip specified an precocious embryo has been mimicked without sperm, eggs, oregon adjacent a uterus. Now Renewal Bio has acceptable its sights connected extending the exertion to humans—it’s already experimenting with quality cells and hopes to yet nutrient artificial models of quality embryos. Read the afloat story.

—Antonio Regalado

We tin inactive person bully things

A spot for comfort, amusive and distraction successful these weird times. (Got immoderate ideas? Drop maine a line oregon tweet 'em astatine me.)

+ Wow, I had nary thought sushi restaurants fundamentally sent their dirty plates connected a lazy stream ride.
+ Photographing priceless artifacts sounds incredibly stressful to me.
+ A load of The Last of Us easter eggs you mightiness person missed.
+ I’m atrocious to study that if a assemblage prof successful the UK dressed similar Joe from You, they’d beryllium laughed retired of the lecture hall.
+ I enjoyed this list of words from different languages with nary English equivalent.

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