Curated from MIT Technology Review — Here’s what matters right now:
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. Google’s still not giving us the full picture on AI energy use —Casey Crownhart Google just announced that a typical query to its Gemini app uses about 0.24 watt-hours of electricity . That’s about the same as running a microwave for one second—something that feels insignificant. I run the microwave for many more seconds than that most days. I welcome more openness from major AI players about their estimated energy use per query. But I’ve noticed that some folks are taking this number and using it to conclude that we don’t need to worry about AI’s energy demand. That’s not the right takeaway here. Let’s dig into why . This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here . + If you’re interested in AI’s energy footprint, earlier this year, MIT Technology Review published Power Hungry: a comprehensive series on AI and energy . The AI Hype Index: AI-designed antibiotics show promise Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Take a look at this month’s edition here . The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The White House has fired the director of the CDC But Susan Monarez is refusing to go quietly. ( WP $) + Monarez is said to have clashed with RFK Jr over vaccine policy. ( NYT $) + She was confirmed by the Senate to the position just last month. ( The Guardian ) + Vaccine consensus is splintering across the US. ( Vox ) 2 A Chinese hacking campaign hit at least 200 US organizations Intelligence agencies say the breaches are among the most significant ever. ( WP $) + AI-generated ransomware is on the rise. ( Wired $) 3 Ukraine’s new Flamingo cruise missile took just months to build Russia’s air defenses are weakening. Can this missile exploit the gaps? ( Economist $) + 14 people were killed in an overnight bombardment of Kyiv. ( BBC ) + On the ground in Ukraine’s largest Starlink repair shop. ( MIT Technology Review ) 4 AI infrastructure spending is boosting the US economy Companies are throwing so much money at AI hardware it’s lifting the real economy, not just the stock market. ( NYT $) + How to fine-tune AI for prosperity. ( MIT Technology Review) 5 OpenAI and Anthropic safety-tested each other’s AI They found Claude is a lot more cautious than OpenAI’s mini models. ( Engadget ) + Sycophancy was a repeated issue among OpenAI’s models. ( TechCrunch ) + This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us. ( MIT Technology Review ) 6 Climate change exacerbated Europe’s deadly wildfires And fires across the Mediterranean are likely to become more fr
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Original reporting: MIT Technology Review