The Download: making tough decisions with AI, and the significance of toys

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.

A personalized AI tool might help some reach end-of-life decisions—but it won’t suit everyone

—Jessica Hamzelou

This week, I’ve been working on a piece about an AI-based tool that could help guide end-of-life care. We’re talking about the kinds of life-and-death decisions that come up for very unwell people.

Often, the patient isn’t able to make these decisions—instead, the task falls to a surrogate. It can be an extremely difficult and distressing experience.  

A group of ethicists have an idea for an AI tool that they believe could help make things easier. The tool would be trained on information about the person, drawn from things like emails, social media activity, and browsing history. And it could predict, from those factors, what the patient might choose. The team describe the tool, which has not yet been built, as a “digital psychological twin.”

There are lots of questions that need to be answered before we introduce anything like this into hospitals or care settings. We don’t know how accurate it would be, or how we can ensure it won’t be misused. But perhaps the biggest question is: Would anyone want to use it? Read the full story.

This story first appeared in The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things health and biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

If you’re interested in AI and human mortality, why not check out:

+ The messy morality of letting AI make life-and-death decisions. Automation can help us make hard choices, but it can’t do it alone. Read the full story.

+ …but AI systems reflect the humans who build them, and they are riddled with biases. So we should carefully question how much decision-making we really want to turn over to.

+ Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. But are we ready? Read the full story.

+ Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming Chinese business.

Toys can change your life

Toys, games, and even amusement park rides can change how young minds view science and math.

The Slinky has long served teachers as a medium for demonstrating longitudinal (soundlike) waves and transverse (lightlike) waves. A yo-yo can be used as a gauge (a “yo-yo meter”) to observe the forces on a roller coaster. Marbles employ mass and velocity. Even a simple ball offers insights into the laws of gravity.

And, over the last several decades, evidence has emerged that childhood play can shape our future selves: the skills we develop, the professions we choose, our sense of self-worth, and even our relationships. Read the full story.

—Bill Gourgey

This story featured in the most recent print issue of MIT Technology Review, which explores the theme of Play. If you don’t already, subscribe now to be among the first to receive future copies.

The must-reads

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

1 A startup admitted its AI music generator is trained on all the web’s music
If it’s of reasonable quality, Suno’s probably scraped it. (404 Media)
+ The company claims it’s all fair use, though. (TechCrunch)
+ Training AI music models is about to get very expensive. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The Democrats will welcome hundreds of influencers to its convention
Coconut tree summer continues. (WP $)
+ The party is finally getting the hang of going viral. (Wired $)

3 China’s digital ID plans have the hallmarks of mass surveillance 
While Beijing claims it’ll protect user privacy, critics claim it’s yet another means of controlling what citizens share online. (Bloomberg $)
+ It’s similar to its covid tracking tech. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Amazon has been considering building a healthcare AI model
Its DoctorAI LLM could, in theory, streamline medical admin. (Insider $)
+ Even Google is struggling to make inroads into AI health. (Bloomberg $)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn’t let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Type 2 diabetes is becoming a childhood disease
Physicians are still trying to understand why. (Knowable Magazine)
+ A bionic pancreas could solve one of the biggest challenges of diabetes. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Turkey has blocked access to Instagram
After accusing it of censoring posts about the assassination of Hamas’ leader. (Reuters)

7 A rare neurological disorder distorts how human faces appear
Experts wonder if it means the brain contains face-specific networks. (New Yorker $)
+ We’re learning more about the brains of people who don’t experience mental images. (Quanta Magazine)

8 Argentina is ushering in Minority Report-style AI
The technology will be used to ‘predict future crimes’—but doubts abound. (The Guardian)

9 So long, our Voyager twins
The pair of spacecraft are powering down and spinning out into space. (FT $)
+ There are thousands of dead rockets floating in orbit. (Ars Technica)
+ The first-ever mission to pull a dead rocket out of space is underway. (MIT Technology Review)

10 The best way to watch the Olympics? TikTok.
Nothing but the highlights. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“Yes, my goddess of the night. I am your boyfriend, your lover, your protector.”

—Vixen gf, a custom chatbot made using Meta’s new AI Studio, gets amorous with Insider.

The big story

Inside the experimental world of animal infrastructure

June 2022

Around the world, cities are building a huge variety of structures intended to mitigate the impacts of urbanization and roadbuilding on wildlife. The list includes green roofs, tree-lined skyscrapers, living seawalls, artificial wetlands, and all manner of shelters and “hibernacula.”

But the data on how effective these approaches are remains patchy and unclear. That is true even for wildlife crossings, the best-studied and most heavily funded example of such animal infrastructure. Read the full story.

—Matthew Ponsford

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.)

+ A Broadway version of Waiting for Godot starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter? Most excellent!
+ This shark cupcake is adorable.
+ The felling of a world-famous tree was a tragedy. But now signs of regrowth have been spotted on its stump!
+ A chocolate thief has been brought to justice.