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The Download: AI benchmarks, and Spain’s grid blackout

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. How to build a better AI benchmark It’s not easy being one of Silicon Valley’s favorite benchmarks. SWE-Bench (pronounced “swee bench”) launched in November 2024 as a way to evaluate an AI model’s…
Did solar power cause Spain’s blackout?

At roughly midday on Monday, April 28, the lights went out in Spain. The grid blackout, which extended into parts of Portugal and France, affected tens of millions of people—flights were grounded, cell networks went down, and businesses closed for the day. Over a week later, officials still aren’t entirely sure what happened, but some…
How to build a better AI benchmark

It’s not easy being one of Silicon Valley’s favorite benchmarks. SWE-Bench (pronounced “swee bench”) launched in November 2024 to evaluate an AI model’s coding skill, using more than 2,000 real-world programming problems pulled from the public GitHub repositories of 12 different Python-based projects. In the months since then, it’s quickly become one of the most…
The business of the future is adaptive

Manufacturing is in a state of flux. From supply chain disruptions to rising costs, tougher environmental regulations, and a changing consumer market, the sector faces a series of competing challenges. But a new way of operating offers a way to tackle complexities head-on: adaptive production hardwires flexibility and resilience into the enterprise, drawing on powerful…
The Download: Neuralink’s AI boost, and Trump’s tariffs

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. This patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets a boost from generative AI Last November, Bradford G. Smith got a brain implant from Elon Musk’s company Neuralink. The device, a set of thin wires attached…
This patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets a boost from generative AI

Last November, Bradford G. Smith got a brain implant from Elon Musk’s company Neuralink. The device, a set of thin wires attached to a computer about the thickness of a few quarters that sits in his skull, lets him use his thoughts to move a computer pointer on a screen. And by last week he…
The Download: a longevity influencer’s new religion, and humanoid robots’ shortcomings

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. Bryan Johnson wants to start a new religion in which “the body is God” Bryan Johnson is on a mission to not die. The 47-year-old multimillionaire has already applied his slogan “Don’t Die”…
Why the humanoid workforce is running late

On Thursday I watched Daniela Rus, one of the world’s top experts on AI-powered robots, address a packed room at a Boston robotics expo. Rus spent a portion of her talk busting the notion that giant fleets of humanoids are already making themselves useful in manufacturing and warehouses around the world. That might come as…
Bryan Johnson wants to start a new religion in which “the body is God”

Bryan Johnson is on a mission to not die. The 47-year-old multimillionaire has already applied his slogan “Don’t Die” to events, merchandise, and a Netflix documentary. Now he’s founding a Don’t Die religion. Johnson, who famously spends millions of dollars on scans, tests, supplements, and a lifestyle routine designed to slow or reverse the aging…
The Download: foreign disinformation intel, and gene-edited pork

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 senior State Department official demanded records of communications with journalists, European officials, and Trump critics A previously unreported document distributed by senior US State Department official Darren Beattie reveals a sweeping...