They don’t tell you beforehand that it will be a choice between having a career in science or starting a family. But that’s the message I heard loud and clear 17 years ago, in my first job after completing my Ph.D. in evolutionary biology. During a routine departmental meeting, a senior academic announced that pregnant […]
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Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR
Generative A.I. technologies can write poetry and computer programs or create images of teddy bears and videos of cartoon characters that look like something from a Hollywood movie. Now, new A.I. technology is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA, pointing to a future when scientists can battle illness and diseases […]
Read MoreThe Music Episode
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. kevin roose I’m Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at “The New York Times.” casey newton I’m Casey Newton from […]
Read MoreNational Academy Asks Court to Strip Sackler Name From Endowment
The National Academy of Sciences is asking a court to allow it to repurpose about $30 million in donations from the wealthy Sackler family, who controlled the company at the center of the opioid epidemic, and to remove the family name from the endowment funds. The petition filed by the Academy in Superior Court in […]
Read More‘Hard Fork’: A.I.’s Data Wall, a Surprise Privacy Bill, and What Happened to the TikTok Ban?
Listen and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube This week, the companies building artificial intelligence are facing a limit to what training data is publicly available on the internet. Will that stop them from building God? Then, a new bipartisan national privacy law proposal just dropped. We ask what’s in it. And […]
Read MoreThe Eclipse That Ended a War and Shook the Gods Forever
In the spring of 585 B.C. in the Eastern Mediterranean, the moon came out of nowhere to hide the face of the sun, turning day into night. Back then, solar eclipses were cloaked in scary uncertainty. But a Greek philosopher was said to have predicted the sun’s disappearance. His name was Thales. He lived on […]
Read MoreIf A.I. Takes All Our Jobs, Will It Also Take Our Purpose?
What would life be like if artificial intelligence solved all your problems? You wouldn’t have to work anymore. You could get any luxury you wanted by raising an eyebrow. Feelings of pleasure would wash over you constantly. Death would become almost optional because you could take on digital form and keep going for a billion […]
Read MoreIs A.I. Already Taking Jobs? +A Filmmaker Tries Sora + The XZ Backdoor Caper
Listen to and follow ‘Hard Fork’Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube This week we look at how A.I. is affecting jobs. As companies start announcing A.I.-related job cuts and experimenting with customer service bots, economists are placing bets on whether A.I. will lead to major gains for companies and workers. Some are even predicting […]
Read MoreTechnology Hates Me
It is never easy to re-examine one’s fundamental convictions, but now I am forced to question my previous disbelief in the existence of Satan. I am compelled to confront this ugly possibility by the fact that from time to time my electronic devices seem to fall under demonic possession. Now, I should start by saying […]
Read MoreTo Slow Global Warming, Scientists Test Solar Geoengineering
A little before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, an engineer named Matthew Gallelli crouched on the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in San Francisco Bay, pulled on a pair of ear protectors, and flipped a switch. A few seconds later, a device resembling a snow maker began to rumble, then produced a great and deafening […]
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