The Obtain: weight-loss medicine slowing getting old and carbon dioxide batteries

That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s happening on the earth of know-how.

Weight-loss medicine present indicators of slowing organic getting old, say drugmakers

Widespread weight-loss medicine could do greater than assist folks shed kilos. They could additionally gradual the getting old course of.

Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say sufferers taking their GLP-1 medicine age much less rapidly, in keeping with molecular “getting old clocks” that monitor adjustments in DNA or ranges of key proteins. 

The findings add to hypothesis that GLP-1 medicine could possibly be appearing on fundamental causes of getting old and is likely to be true longevity therapies. However how a lot can we learn into these outcomes?

Learn the complete story on what the brand new findings reveal about GLP-1 medicine and getting old.

—Antonio Regalado

10 Local weather Tech Corporations to Watch: Vitality Dome and its carbon dioxide batteries

Vitality Dome is certainly one of MIT Know-how Assessment’s10 Local weather Tech Corporations to Watch 2026, obtainable completely to subscribers.

Photo voltaic and wind are among the many least expensive and quickest methods so as to add electrical energy to the grid. However they’re topic to variations in climate patterns, so provides may be intermittent. Vitality Dome has an uncommon answer: large batteries that use compressed carbon dioxide to retailer power for when the grid wants it.

Compressing gasoline to retailer power isn’t new. Utilities have used compressed air in underground caverns to hold on to reserves for many years. However Vitality Dome’s strategy doesn’t require any particular geology to work, so it could possibly be extra simply scaled to assist grids all over the world.

Right here’s how the corporate is utilizing carbon dioxide to retailer renewable power.

—Casey Crownhart

Subscribers can now entry the complete 10 Local weather Tech Corporations to Watch, spanning every little thing from cellular flood obstacles and electrical buses to next-generation nuclear reactors.

MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated: Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t motive

—Thore Graepel, a core member of DeepMind’s AlphaGo staff

Ten years in the past, I watched a program I helped construct stun the world by beating Go champion Lee Sedol. AlphaGo gained after making a transfer so unusual that some commentators thought it was a programming glitch. It was AlphaGo’s powers of reasoning that made this artistic alternative—and these are powers that immediately’s AI lacks. 

That is why I not too long ago left my place at Google DeepMind. I imagine we’d like a recent strategy to machine reasoning, one that pulls on AlphaGo’s structure.

That is our newest story to change into an MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated podcast, which we publish every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Simply navigate to MIT Know-how Assessment Narrated on both platform, and observe us to get all our new content material because it’s launched.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.

1 OpenAI has launched 377 new math findings, additional rattling the sphere
They span quantity principle, algebra, geometry, and physics. (NYT $)
+ They got here from testing an unreleased OpenAI mannequin. (Verge)
+ And price far lower than its earlier math breakthroughs. (SciAm)
+ OpenAI additionally revealed a prolonged protection of its strategy. (Gizmodo)
+ AI has put arithmetic at a crossroads. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

2 Mistral says its new open-weight mannequin is the most effective exterior China
Mistral Massive 4 is a 1-trillion-parameter mannequin. (Reuters $)
+ Also referred to as le Chonk, its weights will arrive on October 27. (CNBC)
+ French president Macron described it as “a 3rd method in AI.” (TechCrunch)

3 Finland has ordered Google to halt a document knowledge heart challenge
The order follows issues over environmental impacts. (Guardian)
+ The €13 billion challenge is Google’s largest-ever European funding. (BBC)
+ However nobody needs an information heart of their yard. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

4 The EU plans to tax Huge Tech by means of a brand new company levy
The levy would apply to firms incomes greater than €100 million. (FT $)
+ Tesla is pushing the EU towards “Full Self-Driving” approval. (Reuters $)

5 Anduril’s $2.9 billion Navy submarine deal has sparked ethics issues
Co-founder Palmer Luckey not too long ago joined a brand new Pentagon challenge. (CNBC)
+ Anduril can also be making sensible glasses for warfare. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

6 Apple is partnering with LG on a sensible lock, thermostat, and doorbell
Apple’s new smart-home hub is predicted to launch subsequent week. (Bloomberg $)
+ The businesses are additionally co-developing safety cameras. (TechCrunch)

7 The creator of a space-particle observatory has gained the physics Nobel
Francis Halzen used Antarctic ice to detect elusive neutrinos. (New Scientist $)

8 Drones are getting used to make rain on demand
They seed clouds with silver iodide to encourage precipitation. (BBC)
+ A startup claims it could possibly cease lightning. (MIT Know-how Assessment)

9 A brand new hydrogel may allow shape-shifting sensible units
The fabric can evolve alongside dwelling tissue. (SCMP)

10 You most likely aren’t going to get the plague
Specialists say the danger to the general public stays very low. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“I’ve ‘NI’—pure intelligence. I’m good with that.”

—Mike Tyran, a 66-year-old nurse and tech improve holdout, tells The Atlantic why he gained’t swap his previous devices for the newest AI-powered units.

Yet another factor

Future AI chips could possibly be constructed on glass

Human-made glass is 1000’s of years previous. Nevertheless it’s now poised to seek out its method into the AI chips used on the earth’s latest and largest knowledge facilities. 

This 12 months, a South Korean firm referred to as Absolics will begin producing particular glass panels that make next-generation computing {hardware} extra highly effective and environment friendly. Different firms, together with Intel, are additionally pushing ahead on this space. 

If all goes effectively, the know-how may scale back the power calls for of chips in AI knowledge facilities—and even shopper laptops and cellular units. Learn the complete story.

—Jeremy Hsu

We will nonetheless have good issues

A spot for consolation, enjoyable, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line.)

+ Swiss boffins have turned prepare tracks into solar energy crops.
+ Right here’s an intriguing rationalization of why you’ll be able to see a transparent picture by means of a window.
+ A teen with a uncommon genetic dysfunction has walked for the primary time after receiving an experimental drugs.
+ Beautiful pictures of guillemots, penguins, and a protecting tawny frogmouth contended for prizes on the Chook Photographer of the Yr competitors.