We did the math on the energy footprint of AI. Here’s the story you may not have heard.
Understanding the energy use of AI was a big global conversation in 2025 as millions of people started using generative AI tools on a regular basis. Senior journalists James O’Donnell and Casey Crownheart dig into the numbers and take an unprecedented look at AI’s resource demand, down to the level of a question, helping us learn how much energy and water AI may require going forward.
We’re learning more about how vitamin D affects our bodies
Vitamin D deficiency occurs extensively, especially in winter when there is less sunlight to increase its production in our body. The “sunshine vitamin” is important for bone health, but as senior journalist Jessica Hamzelo points out, recent research is also uncovering surprising new insights into other ways it can affect our bodies, including our immune system and heart health.
What is AI?
Senior editor Will Douglas Haven’s detailed look at how to define AI was published in 2024, but it still managed to connect with many readers this year. He explains why no one can agree on what AI is – and explains why this ambiguity matters, and how it can inform our own critical thinking about this technology.
Ethically obtained “surplus” human bodies could revolutionize medicine
In this thought-provoking op-ed, a team of experts at Stanford University argue that creating living human bodies that cannot think, have no awareness, and cannot feel pain could shake up medical research and drug development by providing the biological material needed for testing and transplantation. Recent advances in biotechnology now provide a potential route to such “bodycodes”, although many technical challenges and ethical hurdles still remain.
