-Cawei Chen
If I had to pinpoint the moment when AI glitches entered the popular consciousness, I’d choose the video of rabbits bouncing on trampolines that went viral last summer. For many savvy Internet users, myself included, this was the first time we were fooled by an AI video, and it spawned a wave of nearly identical generated clips.
My first reaction was that, broadly speaking, this is all useless. It has become a familiar refrain at discussions and dinner parties. Now everything online is useless – the Internet has become “dumb”, much of which lies with AI. Initially, I largely agreed. But then friends started sharing AI clips in group chats that were extremely strange or funny. Some even had a touch of talent.
I had to admit that I didn’t fully understand what I was rejecting – what I found so offensive. To try to get to the bottom of how I feel (and why), I talked to people who make videos, a company that makes specialized tools for creators, and experts who study how new media forms culture. What I found leads me to believe that maybe generative AI won’t ruin everything. Read the full story.
A new CRISPR startup is betting that regulators will ease gene-editing
over here MIT Technology Review We’ve been writing about the gene-editing technology CRISPR since 2013, calling it the biggest biotech breakthrough of the century. Yet, so far, only one gene-editing drug has been approved, and it has been used commercially on only about 40 patients, all suffering from sickle-cell disease.
It is becoming clear that CRISPR’s impact is not as large as we all expected. In fact, there is an air of pessimism across the field – some journalists say that the gene-editing revolution has “lost its momentum.”
So what does CRISPR need to do to help more people? A new startup says the answer may be an “umbrella approach” to testing and commercializing treatments that could avoid costly new trials or approval for every new version. Read the full story.
-Antonio Regalado
America’s new dietary guidelines ignore decades of scientific research
