The Download: the first personalized gene-editing drug, and Montana’s Right to Try experiment
Plus: Grok’s fixation on white genocide was the result of an unauthorized modification, xAI says
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 baby boy was treated with the first personalized gene-editing drug
Doctors say they constructed a bespoke gene-editing treatment in less than seven months and used it to treat a baby with a deadly metabolic condition. The rapid-fire attempt to rewrite the child’s DNA marks the first time gene editing has been tailored to treat a single individual.
The baby who was treated, Kyle “KJ” Muldoon Jr., suffers from a rare metabolic condition caused by a particularly unusual gene misspelling. Researchers say their attempt to correct the error demonstrates the high level of precision new types of gene editors offer.
The project also highlights what some experts are calling a growing crisis in gene-editing technology. That’s because even though the technology could cure thousands of genetic conditions, most are so rare that companies could never recoup the costs of developing a treatment for them. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
Access to experimental medical treatments is expanding across the US
—Jessica Hamzelou
A couple of weeks ago I was in Washington, DC, for a gathering of scientists, policymakers, and longevity enthusiasts. They had come together to discuss ways to speed along the development of drugs and other treatments that might extend the human lifespan.
One approach that came up was to simply make experimental drugs more easily accessible. Now, the state of Montana has passed a new bill that sets out exactly how clinics can sell experimental, unproven treatments in the state to anyone who wants them.
The passing of the bill could make Montana something of a US hub for experimental treatments. But it represents a wider trend: the creep of Right to Try across the US. And a potentially dangerous departure from evidence-based medicine. Read the full story.
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
Take a new look at AI’s energy use
Big Tech’s appetite for energy is growing rapidly as adoption of AI accelerates. But just how much energy does even a single AI query use? And what does it mean for the climate?
Join editor in chief Mat Honan, senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart, and AI reporter James O’Donnell at 1.30pm ET on Wednesday May 21 for a subscriber-only Roundtables conversation exploring AI’s energy demands now and in the future. Register here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 xAI has blamed Grok’s white genocide fixation on an ‘unauthorized modification’
Made by an unnamed employee at 3.15am. (TechCrunch)
+ The topic is one the far-right comes back to again and again. (The Atlantic $)
+ Memphis residents are struggling to live alongside xAI’s supercomputer. (CNBC)
2 Meta has delayed the launch of its next flagship AI model
Its engineers are struggling to improve its Behemoth LLM enough. (WSJ $)
3 Elon Musk is tapping up friends and allies for federal jobs
It’s creating an unprecedented web of potential conflicts of interests. (WSJ $)
+ Musk is posting on X less than he used to. (Semafor)
4 The US is slashing funding for scientific research
Such projects produced GPS, LASIK eye surgery, and CAPTCHAs. (NYT $)
+ US tech visa applicants are under seriously heavy scrutiny. (Wired $)
+ The foundations of America’s prosperity are being dismantled. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Big Tech wants its AI agents to remember everything about you 🧠
They’re focusing on improving chatbots’ memory—but critics are worried. (FT $)
+ AI agents can spontaneously develop human-like behavior. (The Guardian)
+ Generative AI can turn your most precious memories into photos that never existed. (MIT Technology Review)
6 People keep making anti-DEI modifications for The Sims 4
And the gamemaker EA’s attempts to stamp them out aren’t working. (Wired $)
7 This chatbot promises to help you get over your ex
Closure creates an AI version of ex-partners for users to vent their frustrations at. (404 Media)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)
8 How this AI song became a viral megahit in Japan
YAJU&U is completely inescapable, and totally nonsensical. (Pitchfork)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Your future overseas trip could be by zeppelin
If these startups get their way. (WP $)
+ Welcome to the big blimp boom. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Are you a ‘dry texter’? 💬
It’s a conflict-averse teen’s worst nightmare. (Vox)
Quote of the day
“It’s OK to be Chinese overseas.”
—Chris Pereira, the CEO of iMpact, a communications firm advising Chinese companies expanding abroad, tells Rest of World that DeepSeek has given Chinese startups the confidence not to hide their origins.
One more thingWe’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change.
When you’re starving, hunger is like a demon. It awakens the most ancient and primitive parts of the brain, then commandeers other neural machinery to do its bidding until it gets what it wants.
Although scientists have had some success in stimulating hunger in mice, we still don’t really understand how the impulse to eat works. Now, some experts are following known parts of the neural hunger circuits into uncharted parts of the brain to try and find out.
Their work could shed new light on the factors that have caused the number of overweight adults worldwide to skyrocket in recent years. And it could also help solve the mysteries around how and why a new class of weight-loss drugs seems to work so well. Read the full story.
—Adam Piore
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 skeet ’em at me.)+ Who knew—Harvard Law School’s Magna Carta may be the real deal after all.
+ Early relatives of reptiles might have walked the Earth much earlier than we realised.
+ New York University’s MFA Students are a talented bunch.
+ The Raines sandwich sounds unspeakably awful 🥪
