The Download: an intro to AI, and ChatGPT’s bias

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.

Intro to AI: a beginner’s guide to artificial intelligence from MIT Technology Review

It feels as though AI is moving a million miles a minute. Every week, it seems, there are product launches, fresh features and other innovations, and new concerns over ethics and privacy. It’s a lot to keep up with. Maybe you wish someone would just take a step back and explain some of the basics.

Look no further. Intro to AI is MIT Technology Review’s first newsletter that also serves as a mini-course. You’ll get one email a week for six weeks, and each edition will walk you through a different topic in AI.

Sign up here to receive it for free. Or if you’re already an AI aficionado, send it on to someone in your life who’s curious about the technology but is just starting to explore what it all means. Read on to learn more about the topics we’ll cover.

OpenAI says ChatGPT treats us all the same (most of the time)

Does ChatGPT treat you the same whether you’re a Laurie, Luke, or Lashonda? Almost, but not quite. 

OpenAI has analyzed millions of conversations with its hit chatbot and found that ChatGPT will produce a harmful gender or racial stereotype based on a user’s name in around one in 1000 responses on average, and as many as one in 100 responses in the worst case.

Those rates sound pretty low. But with OpenAI claiming that 200 million people use ChatGPT every week, it can still add up to a lot of bias. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Super-light materials that help suppress EV battery fires just got a big boost

What’s new: A company called Aspen Aerogels, which makes materials to go inside EVs’ batteries to stop fires spreading, just got a $670.6 million loan commitment from the US Department of Energy. The company will use the money to finish building a new factory in Georgia to produce its materials.

Why it matters: As more EVs hit the roads, concern is growing about the relatively rare but dangerous problem of battery fires. Materials like Aspen Aerogels’ thermal barriers could help improve safety. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Inside the quest to engineer climate-saving “super trees”

Biotech startup Living Carbon is trying to design trees that grow faster and grab more carbon than their natural peers, as well as trees that resist rot, keeping that carbon out of the atmosphere.

Last year, the startup planted the first forest in the United States that contains genetically engineered trees. But there’s still much we don’t know. How will these trees affect the rest of the forest? How far will their genes spread? And how good are they, really, at pulling more carbon from the atmosphere?

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast. In partnership with News Over Audio, we’ll be making a selection of our stories available, each one read by a professional voice actor. You’ll be able to listen to them on the go or download them to listen to offline.

We’re publishing a new story each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, including some taken from our most recent print magazine. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 How Meta suppresses your political posts
Democracy dies on Instagram. (WP $)+ The company is facing multiple lawsuits over social media addiction among teens. (Reuters)

2 How to safeguard the Europa Clipper from failure
The spacecraft is on a multi-year mission, and the stakes are high. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is set to look for life-friendly conditions around Jupiter. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The chip industry’s taking longer to bounce back than expected
Demand for AI chips is still there, but manufacturers are still working through their stockpiles. (WSJ $)

4 Where it all went wrong for 23andMe
The genetic testing company is facing a perfect storm. (FT $)
+ How to delete your 23andMe data. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Google has backed a legal transparency bill
It wants to know who’s paying for—and profiting from—taking legal action. (Bloomberg $)

6 Anyone can make an AI chatbot in your likeness
The bad news is, it’s virtually impossible to stop them. (Wired $)
+ A bereaved father discovered that his murdered daughter has been turned into a bot. (WP $)
+ An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Far-right Hindu nationalists are conspiring over WhatsApp
In a bid to convert Christians by force. (Rest of World)

8 This man is suing a Welsh council for half a billion pounds
He accidentally recycled a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoin back in 2013. (Wales Online)
+ His Welsh hometown would “look like Dubai” if he could find it, he claims. (The Register)

9 What it’s like to ride in a robotaxi for 6.5 hours
Surprisingly uneventful, apparently. (Insider $)
+ What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)

10 It’s time to rawdog iPhone photography
Free from AI optimization. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“I am at a top London hospital and yet at times I feel as though we are operating in the stone age.”

—A pediatrician tells the Financial Times about the challenges of working within the National Health Service’s fragmented technological systems.

The big story

Recapturing early internet whimsy with HTML

January 2024 

Websites weren’t always slick digital experiences.

There was a time when surfing the web involved opening tabs that played music against your will and sifting through walls of text on a colored background. In the 2000s, before Squarespace and social media, websites were manifestations of individuality—built from scratch using HTML, by users who had some knowledge of code.

Scattered across the web are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated approach. And the movement is anything but a superficial appeal to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human touch in digital experiences. Read the full story.

—Tiffany Ng

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 or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Forget Emily in Paris: here’s how to breakfast as the French do, according to a top French chef.
+ It’s all kicking off in England, after a veteran conkers competitor denied cheating in the sport’s highest level.
+ As Titanic Celtic whistle impressions go, this one is up there.
+ Brace yourself for brat autumn.