The Download: AI’s coding promises, and OpenAI’s longevity push

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.

The second wave of AI coding is here

Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right now—what they’re really fired up about—and many will tell you: coding.

Everyone from established AI giants to buzzy startups is promising to take coding assistants to the next level. Instead of providing developers with a kind of supercharged autocomplete, this next generation can prototype, test, and debug code for you. The upshot is that developers could essentially turn into managers, who may spend more time reviewing and correcting code written by a model than writing it from scratch themselves.

But there’s more. Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology that a number of top firms claim to have in their sights.Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

OpenAI has created an AI model for longevity science

When you think of AI’s contributions to science, you probably think of AlphaFold, the Google DeepMind protein-folding program that earned its creator a Nobel Prize last year. Now OpenAI says it’s getting into the science game too—with a model for engineering proteins.

The company says it has developed a language model that dreams up proteins capable of turning regular cells into stem cells—and that it has handily beat humans at the task.

The work represents OpenAI’s first model focused on biological data and its first public claim that its models can deliver unexpected scientific results. But until outside scientists get their hands on it, we can’t say just how impressive it really is. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

Cleaner jet fuel: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2025

New fuels made from used cooking oil, industrial waste, or even gases in the air could help power planes without fossil fuels. Depending on the source, they can reduce emissions by half or nearly eliminate them. And they can generally be used in existing planes, which could enable quick climate progress.

These alternative jet fuels have been in development for years, but now they’re becoming a big business, with factories springing up to produce them and new government mandates requiring their use. So while only about 0.5% of the roughly 100 billion gallons of jet fuel consumed by planes last year was something other than fossil fuel, that could soon change. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

Cleaner jet fuel is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, MIT Technology Review’s annual list of tech to watch. Check out the rest of the list, and cast your vote for the honorary 11th breakthrough.

The must-reads

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

1 TikTok is back online in the US  
The company thanked Donald Trump for vowing to fight the federal ban it’s facing. (The Verge)
+ The app went dark for users in America for around 14 hours. (WP $)
+ AI search startup Perplexity has suggested merging with TikTok. (CNBC)
+ Here’s how people actually make money on TikTok. (WSJ $)

2 Trump’s staff has an Elon Musk problem
Aides are annoyed by his constant contributions to matters he has little knowledge of. (WSJ $)
+ A power struggle between the two men is inevitable. (Slate $)
+ The great and the good of crypto attended a VIP Trump party on Friday. (NY Mag $)

3 AI is speeding up the Pentagon’s ‘kill list’ 
Although the US military can’t use the tech to directly kill humans, AI is making it faster and easier to plan how to do just that. (TechCrunch)
+ OpenAI’s new defense contract completes its military pivot. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The majority of Americans haven’t had their latest covid booster 
Though they could help to protect you—and others. (Undark)
+ It’s five years today since the US registered its first covid case. (USA Today)

5 Europol is cracking down on encryption
The agency plans to pressure Big Tech to give police access to encrypted messages. (FT $)

6 This Swiss startup has created a powerful robotic worm
Borobotics wants to deploy the bots to dig for geo-thermal heat in our gardens. (The Next Web)

7 Thousands of lithium batteries were destroyed in a massive fire
The world’s largest battery storage plant went up in flames in California. (New Scientist $)
+ Three takeaways about the current state of batteries. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Amazon’s delivery drones struggle in the rain Read More