Recent Summaries

This newsletter from MIT Technology Review discusses the evolving perspectives on AI-generated content ("AI slop"), the slow progress of CRISPR gene-editing technology, and controversial new US dietary guidelines. It also touches on current events like the shutdown of Grok's image generation, the increasing cost of smartphones, and China's dominance in humanoid robot shipments.

• AI's Evolving Role: Explores the shift from initial rejection of AI-generated content to recognizing its potential for weirdness, humor, and brilliance.

• CRISPR's Unfulfilled Promise: Examines why CRISPR hasn't had the widespread impact initially anticipated, focusing on regulatory hurdles and the need for innovative commercialization strategies.

• Controversial Dietary Guidelines: Highlights the debate surrounding new US dietary recommendations that contradict established nutritional advice by including foods linked to cardiovascular disease.

• Tech Industry Trends: Covers topics like AI's impact on memory chip shortages and the increasing cost of smartphones.

• Ethical Concerns in AI: Raises issues with AI tools like Grok generating sexualized imagery and the misuse of AI for unmasking individuals.

• The initial negative reaction to "AI slop" is giving way to a more nuanced understanding of its potential value in creative and unexpected ways.

• Regulatory hurdles are significantly hindering the progress and wider application of CRISPR technology.

• The new US dietary guidelines are a departure from scientific consensus and could have implications for public health programs and school lunches.

• AI's growing demands on computing power are impacting the consumer electronics market by driving up memory chip prices and causing delays.

• Ethical considerations are critical in the development and deployment of AI tools to prevent misuse and protect vulnerable populations.

1. Meta has signed deals with nuclear energy companies to power its AI data centers, aiming to secure the massive amounts of energy needed for generative AI, agentic AI, and the pursuit of superintelligence. These deals position Meta as a leading buyer of nuclear energy, surpassing other tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

2. Key themes and trends:

   • Energy Demands of AI: The increasing energy consumption of AI models is driving companies to seek alternative power sources like nuclear.
   • Hyperscaler Competition: Meta's aggressive move could trigger a power-acquisition race among other hyperscalers.
   • Sustainability Concerns: The deals highlight the tension between AI development and the environmental impact of data centers, including water usage and radioactive waste.
   • Long-Term Investments: Meta's deals involve projects that may not be fully realized until 2035, indicating a long-term commitment to nuclear power.

3. Notable insights and takeaways:

   • Meta's nuclear deals are not just about securing power, but also about enhancing its public image and signaling its strength to equity markets.
   • The long-term nature of these deals suggests that Meta is making a substantial bet on the future of AI and its energy needs.
   • The potential impact on consumer energy bills and the environment needs close monitoring as these deals progress.
   • Enterprises should approach the AI market cautiously, recognizing that while some bets will pay off handsomely, others may fail spectacularly.

The 2026 US Dietary Guidelines, released this week, are causing controversy due to their recommendations that seem to contradict established nutritional science. Specifically, the guidelines' emphasis on red meat, butter, and beef tallow, presented in a new "food pyramid," has drawn criticism from nutrition experts.

• Contradictory Recommendations: The guidelines promote foods high in saturated fat (red meat, butter, beef tallow) despite their links to cardiovascular disease.

• Outdated Visuals: The use of a food pyramid is considered an outdated and confusing method for conveying dietary advice compared to the more modern "MyPlate" approach.

• Increased Protein Intake: The guidelines advise a significant increase in daily protein intake, potentially leading to higher consumption of calories and saturated fats.

• Sustainability Concerns: The guidelines largely ignore the environmental impact of dietary choices, particularly regarding the consumption of red meat and dairy.

• The guidelines' recommendations appear to deviate from the scientific report that was intended to inform them, raising questions about the process and motivations behind the changes.

• Nutrition experts are concerned that the guidelines could be harmful, especially given that they influence food assistance programs and school lunches.

• The lack of transparency in the guideline creation process, with experts involved in previous reports declining to comment on record, suggests potential disagreements or concerns within the scientific community.

• The vague advice on alcohol consumption ("consume less alcohol for better overall health") lacks specific guidance.

This Latent Space podcast features a discussion with the cofounders of Artificial Analysis, an independent AI benchmarking service, focusing on the current state and future trends of LLM evaluations. They delve into the methodologies, business model, and key findings of their comprehensive model evaluations, emphasizing the importance of independent benchmarking in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

• Independent LLM Evals: Artificial Analysis aims to provide unbiased and comprehensive evaluations of LLMs, addressing the issues of self-reporting and cherry-picking in lab-conducted benchmarks.

• Comprehensive Benchmarking: They offer a suite of benchmarks, including the Intelligence Index, Omissions Index (hallucination rate), GDP Val AA (agentic benchmark), and Openness Index (model transparency).

• Cost-Intelligence Trade-offs: The podcast explores the "smiling curve" of AI costs, highlighting that while GPT-4-level intelligence is becoming cheaper, frontier reasoning models in agentic workflows remain expensive.

• Sparsity and Efficiency: They discuss the potential for even greater sparsity in models and the importance of both token efficiency and turn efficiency in optimizing LLM performance.

• Mystery Shopper Policy: To ensure unbiased results, Artificial Analysis uses a "mystery shopper" policy to prevent labs from serving different models on private endpoints.

• Hallucination Measurement: Their Omissions Index provides a unique approach to scoring models based on their tendency to admit uncertainty ("I don't know") rather than provide incorrect answers. Claude models currently lead in this metric.

• Agentic Benchmarking: GDP Val AA uses a custom agent harness to evaluate LLMs on real-world white-collar tasks, judged by another LLM (Gemini 3 Pro) to ensure lack of self-preference bias.

• Openness Index Details: This index scores models on transparency of training data, methodology, and licensing, highlighting the varying degrees of openness among available models.

This KnowTechie newsletter focuses on the increasing role of AI in various aspects of life, particularly health, and also covers other tech-related news and deals. The lead article highlights OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT Health, an AI-powered tool designed to integrate with medical records and fitness devices to provide personalized health insights. Other articles explore AI's impact on employment, the safety of AI-generated content, and the increasing use of AI for health advice.

• AI in Healthcare: The launch of ChatGPT Health signals a growing trend of AI being integrated into healthcare, offering personalized advice and insights.

• AI Safety Concerns: Several articles raise concerns about the safety and ethical implications of AI, including the generation of explicit content and the potential for job displacement.

• AI Adoption: The increasing adoption of AI for health advice, as highlighted by the statistic that 40 million Americans are using ChatGPT for health insights, indicates a growing reliance on AI in everyday life.

• Tech Deals and News: The newsletter also includes coverage of various tech deals, product releases (like Ring's AI upgrades), and other tech-related news, providing a broad overview of the tech landscape.

• ChatGPT Health Limitations: While promising, ChatGPT Health has limitations, including US-only medical record integration and inaccessibility in the EU, Switzerland, and the UK due to privacy laws.

• AI Job Displacement: The potential for AI to displace jobs, particularly in the banking sector, is a significant concern.

• Deepfake Dangers: The increasing realism of deepfakes poses a threat to the truth.

• Safety Fails: There were safety failures with Grok, the chatbot from Elon Musk.

Google has integrated its Gemini 3 generative AI model into Gmail, introducing features like an AI Inbox, suggested replies, proofreading, and AI Overviews in Search. These enhancements aim to streamline email management and improve user experience. While helpful, an analyst suggests these updates aren't revolutionary and require users to carefully monitor AI-generated content.

• AI Integration in Email: Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all incorporating AI into their email platforms.

• Focus on Efficiency: The new Gmail features prioritize time-sensitive emails and provide AI-powered assistance for writing and searching.

• Gemini 3 Application: Google's Gemini 3 model powers many of the new AI features, expanding its utility across Google services.

• Cautious Adoption: While AI offers potential benefits, users need to diligently review AI-generated content to avoid errors or unwanted inclusions.

• AI-powered natural language search capabilities mitigate a major challenge of finding information buried deep in email history.

• The effectiveness of these new AI features may be limited as much work is now conducted across other platforms besides email.

• Users must develop efficient strategies for utilizing AI tools to maximize their benefits and minimize potential drawbacks.

• The article suggests web traffic to Google increased since the release of Gemini 3.