Research & Development news

The Download: AI’s extinction risk and bioweapons threat

18-09-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com

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.
Could AI really kill us all? Your questions, answeredOn Wednesday, MIT Technology Review hosted a live Roundtables event that asked the question many seem to be asking right now: could AI really kill us all? But attendees had more questions than we had time to answer, so we asked senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and AI reporter Grace Huckins to

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Could AI really kill us all? Your questions, answered.

18-09-2026 13:29 via technologyreview.com

On Wednesday, MIT Technology Review hosted a live Roundtables event for subscribers that asked the question everyone’s asking right now: Could AI really kill us all?But attendees had so many more questions than we had time to answer in the 30 minute session. So we asked our senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and AI reporter Grace Huckins to round up some of the best questions attendees submitted and try their best to answer them.Thanks to all who submitted questions!Am I gonna die?Yes,

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The specter of AI-enabled bioweapons is a wake-up call for biotech

18-09-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com

In recent weeks, leaders of some of the biggest AI companies have warned that the very tech they are developing is dangerous. Last weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued that AI carries serious risk and that progress should be slowed. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded on X: “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier.”Those posts came a few days after the AI researcher Jacob Coxon announced that he was leaving a role at Anthropic, charging that neither it nor O

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The virtual worlds where robots are trained

18-09-2026 01:00 via bbc.co.uk

Training systems that allow robots to negotiate the real world are getting more sophisticated.

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