The World as You'll Know It
Newsletter / Issue No. 89
How to Build an AI Kill Switch
Fears about the rising risks of AI are inspiring demands for ways to turn it off. All come with downsides and risks of their own. Experts say they’re needed all the same.
Plus
A roundup of Nobel Prize winners in physics, physiology, chemistry and economics. How effective altruism conquered the world. And when anesthesia goes wrong.
Robotics / Feature
AI Breakthroughs In Robotics Won’t Change Your Life Any Time Soon
Advances in AI are leading to glimpses of a future in which robots navigate the world the way humans do. As progress inches forward, the question is whether the same techniques that fueled AI’s advances will be enough to get there, or if an entirely new path is required.
By Jamie Condliffe
Technology / Feature
A $10-Billion Plan to Sell Africa's Wind and Sun to Countries 7,000 Miles Away
A deep look at how green hydrogen could capitalize on remote areas of renewable resources and redraw the world's energy map.
By Paul Tullis
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about the Future of Aging
Podcast / Podcast
A Podcast Series about the Future of Aging
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Robotics / Feature
Small, Flexible and Sometimes Weird. The Next Generation of Robots is Here.
By Clive Thompson
Artificial Intelligence / Feature
One Company's Decision to Put AI Into the Ground
What does it mean to adopt AI? For John Deere it meant hundreds of millions of dollars, a new corporate culture and forever changing the relationship between a farmer and the land.
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Robotics / Feature
Robots' final frontier? Taking care of us.
To understand how far robots are from replacing humans, just look at the everyday task of using a fork.
By Clive Thompson