The Download: AI's existential dangers and the menace of bioweapons

The Download: AI existential risk Q&A, bioweapon warnings, and Rubin Observatory's sky map

This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter delivering a daily roundup of what's happening in technology.

Could AI really kill us all? Your questions, answered

On Wednesday, MIT Technology Review held a live Roundtables event tackling the question on many minds lately: could AI actually wipe out humanity? Since attendee questions outnumbered the time we had, we asked senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and AI reporter Grace Huckins to respond to some of the strongest ones afterward.

The topics they addressed include: am I going to die? Why would AI want to kill us, if it ever would? Is AI genuinely dangerous, or are tech companies simply stoking hype for publicity? And what measures could ensure AI is properly controlled, monitored, and regulated?

You can read their full answers here.

—Will Douglas Heaven and Grace Huckins

AI-designed bioweapons sound an alarm for the biotech industry

One plausible route to catastrophic AI harm involves helping design and produce biological weapons. Back in 2022, researchers demonstrated how easily this could happen with an AI "molecule generator" originally built to discover drugs. Within under six hours, the model produced 40,000 molecules capable of acting as chemical warfare agents.

Nowadays, AI systems can field questions across virtually every scientific discipline, while breakthroughs in gene editing and synthetic biology have lowered the barriers to biotech tools. Safeguards exist, but none are foolproof—and scientists themselves remain divided on just how grave the threat really is.

Read why designing deadly pathogens has never been easier.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This article comes from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Subscribe to get it in your inbox each Thursday.

The astronaut's job is being redefined

Humanity travels to space for geopolitical standing, manifest destiny, spiritual meaning, scientific discovery, and increasingly, commercial gain. Following Artemis II, a wave of new books argues all these reasons ultimately rest on a single truth: humans are restless by nature, built to wander.

In The Ultraview Effect, space anthropologist Deana L. Weibel casts human spaceflight as an extension of our impulse toward pilgrimage. In A Heart for Space, civilian astronaut Eiman Jahangir describes his own journey with Blue Origin. And in Dinner with an Astronaut, former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao contends that people simply "need to know what's on the other side."

Explore what these three books reveal about why we venture into space.

—Becky Ferreira

The must-reads

I've scoured the web to bring you today's most entertaining, important, alarming, and intriguing tech stories.

1. Microsoft and OpenAI employees say AI is wrecking the web

Absorbing clicks that would otherwise go to websites destroys the business models sustaining original content. (404 Media)
+ The employees worried publishers won't survive AI scraping. (NYT $)
+ The remarks surfaced during the NYT's copyright case. (WP $)
+ They could undercut OpenAI and Microsoft's legal defense. (Reuters $)
+ AI signals the end of internet search as we know it. (MIT Technology Review)

1. Robot boats have battled each other for the first time

A Ukrainian vessel sank a Russian one in combat. (New Scientist $)
+ US companies are developing combat-ready humanoids. (WSJ $)

1. Security researchers broke into OpenAI using Anthropic's tools

They accessed an employee's ChatGPT account and internal code. (FT $)
+ They reached internal systems by exploiting a third-party forum. (WSJ $)

1. OpenAI reportedly expects to soon solve another famous math problem

The question is whether it can sidestep another backlash when it announces the result. (Information $)
+ The target problem is the Hodge Conjecture. (Gizmodo)
+ OpenAI's math controversies offer troubling hints about the field's trajectory. (MIT Technology Review)

1. Elon Musk's xAI wants to purchase data from failed startups

It's hunting for fresh training data sources for Grok. (Bloomberg $)
+ Customer and operational data are in its sights. (Gizmodo)
+ OpenAI, meanwhile, is paying to generate new biology data. (MIT Technology Review)

1. Schools are resisting Big Tech's takeover of the classroom

AI is intensifying worries about corporate influence. (New Yorker $)
+ Schools need smarter approaches to using AI. (MIT Technology Review)

1. Hackers exposed how Flock cameras track cars—and people

A single camera logged 1.6 million images of 50,000 vehicles. (Wired $)
+ The cameras also detect people and misidentify objects. (404 Media)

1. Chinese firms have doubled down on science since US tech restrictions

Patents from these firms citing scientific papers rose 72%. (Nature)

1. A three-year-old's cancer vanished after an experimental cell therapy

CAR T therapy may at last be able to tackle solid tumors. (Gizmodo)

1. NYC's new robotoilets will eject you after 10 minutes

The doors swing open automatically once time runs out. (Fast Company)

Quote of the day

"The largest theft of labor in human history."

—Brent Hecht, Microsoft's director of Applied Science, voices his concerns about the data used to train AI systems, in comments disclosed in court filings from the New York Times vs. OpenAI copyright lawsuit.

One more thing

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is set to reshape how we see the universe

High on Chile's 2,700-meter Cerro Pachón, the air is dry and clear, with barely a cloud to obscure the stars. This is where the Vera C. Rubin Observatory operates a car-sized 3,200-megapixel digital camera—the largest ever constructed—to chart a complete map of the night sky every three days.

Producing 20 terabytes of data nightly, Rubin will capture fine detail across the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe's large-scale structure. Over a decade, it will catalogue billions of previously unknown objects, giving scientists an unmatched view of what's shifting in the cosmos.

Step inside the observatory mapping the universe as never before.

—Adam Mann

We can still have nice things

A corner for comfort, fun, and distraction to lift your day. (Have a suggestion? Send me a note.)

+ Sherry the dog has adopted motherhood for any kitten without one.
+ Seven life lessons from puzzle master Will Shortz that reach far beyond the crossword.
+ Experience "Stairway to Heaven" reimagined as ancient Japanese court music fused with epic rock.
+ Browse the stunning winners of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest.