Plus: A judge has blocked the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic.
This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
A startup claims it’s found a drug to make your blood young
—Antonio Regalado
I knew I’d officially become a “longevity influencer” when a company called Generation Lab offered me the chance to write about—and even receive—their new rejuvenation treatment.
This wasn’t just any antiaging treatment, either. A company fact sheet says that it “blocks the systemic spread of aging in the bloodstream, reawakens the body’s own repair mechanism and restores health and youth to multiple tissues.”
The approach is based on research by Generation Lab’s irascible scientific founder, Irina Conboy. She found that joining the circulatory systems of old and young mice improved the old animals’ ability to heal from injury.
Conboy now says she has found a combination of two existing drugs that can produce youthful effects without the need for any bodily fluid exchange. But Generation Lab won’t reveal what the drugs are, making the proposition hard to take seriously.
Read the full story on the drug combo that claims to “stop the spread of aging.”
How to sign up for a virtual power plant—and decide whether you should
Your thermostat may not look like a power plant. Neither does your electric vehicle, home battery, or HVAC system. But utility and energy companies increasingly want to treat them like one.
That’s the idea behind a virtual power plant, or VPP, a collection of household devices (such as smart thermostats, EV chargers, and solar panels) that a utility can control, usually by commanding them to draw less electricity during peak hours. In exchange, participants receive a discount on their energy bills and, in some cases, a signing bonus.
Here’s how to sign up for a VPP—and decide whether it’s worth it.
—Eshan Raul
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s How To series, which gives you practical advice on getting things done. Check out the rest of the series here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 A judge has blocked the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic
The court found the designation violated First Amendment rights. (NYT $)
+ And ruled that the designation was based on retaliation. (CNBC)
+ Anthropic still faces a separate case in Washington, DC. (Reuters $)
+ The Pentagon’s culture war against Anthropic backfired. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Tech giants have called for a defensive surge to defeat AI-driven hacks
Over 100 companies warned that a wave of cyberattacks is imminent. (BBC)
+ And urged government and industry leaders to take rapid action. (Quartz)
+ Their main solution, unsurprisingly, is more AI. (Gizmodo)
+ Here’s why OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Anthropic has launched an AI tool that conducts scientific experiments
It lets AI agents autonomously operate microscopes, lasers, and robotic arms. (FT $)
+ And includes rules designed for safe operations in labs. (Wired $)
+ It’s Anthropic’s first tool designed for the physical world. (Ars Technica)
4 India’s data center boom is leaving the people it displaces with nothing
Policymakers courting Big Tech are sidelining local communities. (Rest of World)
+ No one wants a data center in their backyard. (MIT Technology Review)
5 OpenAI is testing a “persistent” AI agent that keeps working
Codex could continue tasks until it’s “put to sleep.” (Wired $)
+ And generate follow-up tasks without prompting. (Gizmodo)
6 A lawsuit alleges that Grok was trained on child sexual abuse material
It claims victims’ images entered the chatbot’s training data. (Ars Technica)
+ A federal judge says AI has outpaced child-abuse laws. (WP $)
7 AI writing has reached a turning point in the media
Sparked by the Wall Street Journal defending an AI-written op-ed. (Atlantic $)
8 China’s robotic racers are exposing the limits of human speed
Their advances are revealing what our bodies can’t do. (Reuters $)
9 Young workers are turning to “AI-proof” traditional crafts
They’re drawn to creative, hands-on skills that tech can’t easily replicate. (Guardian)
10 Scientists have a new army to fight invasive crabs: 150,000 baby octopuses
Italian researchers just released the animals into the Adriatic Sea. (New Scientist $)
Quote of the day
“The academic record is being quietly haunted.”
—A new preprint research paper from Samsung and the University of Warsaw warns that a torrent of AI-generated study papers written by fake researchers is contaminating academic publishing.
One more thing
The problem with thinking you’re part Neanderthal
There’s a theory that many of us have an “inner Neanderthal.” The idea is that Homo sapiens and a cousin species once bred, leaving some people today with a trace of Neanderthal DNA.
This DNA is arguably the 21st century’s most celebrated discovery in human evolution. But in 2024, a pair of French geneticists called into question the theory’s very foundations.
They proposed that what scientists interpret as interbreeding could instead be explained by population structure—the way genes concentrate in smaller, isolated groups.
Find out what it all means for human evolution.
—Ben Crair
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Check out the dazzling photos in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
+ Bowerbirds in Australia are turning human trash into treasure to impress females.
+ A Los Angeles Costco parking lot has become a low-risk skate park for the over-40s.
+ The Listening Museum has lovingly curated and sound-mapped acoustic signatures of mechanical keyboards.
Deep Dive
The Download
The Download: Claude’s inner workings and OpenAI’s “super app”
Plus: OpenAI has unveiled its long-awaited "super app."
The Download: Claude’s inner workings, and the future of world models
Plus: New York has become the first state to enact a data center moratorium.
The Download: AI’s self-improvement problem, and what’s driving the heat
Plus: OpenAI has paused some model work over safety concerns.
The Download: Anthropic launches Claude Science, and California’s carbon manure math
Plus: The US has lifted restrictions on Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable models.
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Facts Only
* Generation Lab claims its treatment blocks the systemic spread of aging in the bloodstream and restores health to multiple tissues.
* The approach is based on research by Irina Conboy, involving the circulatory systems of old and young mice.
* Conboy found a combination of two existing drugs that produce youthful effects without bodily fluid exchange.
* A virtual power plant (VPP) involves collecting household devices (smart thermostats, EV chargers, solar panels) for utility control.
* Participants in VPPs receive energy bill discounts or signing bonuses.
* A judge blocked the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic due to First Amendment violations and retaliation concerns.
* Over 100 companies warned that a wave of cyberattacks is imminent.
* Anthropic launched an AI tool capable of autonomously operating microscopes, lasers, and robotic arms in labs.
* OpenAI is testing a “persistent” AI agent that can continue tasks without prompting.
Executive Summary
Full Take
The narrative juxtaposes radical biological claims with complex technological infrastructure and ongoing legal/societal shifts. The longevity research presents a mechanism rooted in biological systems, yet the claim relies on undisclosed drug combinations, creating an immediate barrier to objective verification outside of the company’s assertion. Simultaneously, the VPP discussion highlights a shift in energy management toward decentralized control, balancing economic incentives against household autonomy. The sequence of news items concerning Anthropic—legal challenges, AI capability demonstration, and public discourse—suggests that the development of advanced AI is immediately intersecting with constitutional and security frameworks. This pattern implies that as technological capabilities accelerate rapidly, the regulatory and legal structures struggle to keep pace, leading to conflict between emergent realities (like autonomous AI or genetic claims) and established governance (like constitutional law or national security policy). The underlying implication is a tension between rapid, often secretive, scientific progress and the slower, deliberate processes of establishing societal consensus and legal precedent.
Bridge Questions: If physiological longevity research moves forward rapidly, what ethical constraints must precede widespread application? How does the framework for regulating autonomous AI agents need to evolve when their capabilities outpace existing safety protocols? What responsibility do entities hold when proprietary scientific findings are presented as public propositions?