The Download: a smoking “endgame” and a new Elizabeth Bear story

4 hours ago 3

As the parent of two little girls, I often think about how their childhood is different from mine. The seven-year-old is learning about AI at school. The five-year-old is given internet-based homework every week. And they are both absolutely repulsed by the idea of smoking.

That was not the prevailing sentiment when I was young. Smoking was a central part of our culture. Which is why the UK’s recent passing of a generational sales ban on tobacco products feels like such a big deal.

This is what’s described as an “endgame” approach. While many tobacco control strategies—such as taxation or gory imagery—aim to reduce consumption, policies like the UK’s are designed to eliminate it entirely. It’s a new approach, and no one knows whether it will work. But it’s an enticing prospect—and it’s starting to look a lot less radical.

Find out why generational tobacco bans are gaining support.

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

You do your own time

—You do your own time is a short story by Elizabeth Bear, an award-winning speculative fiction author.

There we were, a regular murderers' row of librarians. Turning around in the nave of our library to greet the sound of footsteps, pistols leveled in case whoever was coming in didn't respect sanctuary.

I pulled down a solid-state drive full of biographies and case studies of people who had spent time—and sometimes their whole lives—in labor camps or chattelhood. It was illegal to possess, and the feds used smart agents to track down and obliterate any copies. Which was why we were sending one to the stars.

What’s left behind when a name is erased from the system? No legacy, no memory—that is the point of media and narrative control. So that was our plan: to preserve it, for later generations, or just as a silent record of our existence.

Read the rest of this short story in full.

—Elizabeth Bear

This story is from the latest edition of our magazine, which is all about engineering. Subscribe now to get a copy, plus all our other issues and a range of subscriber-only content.

The must-reads

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

1 An EU lawmaker investigating spyware was hacked by that spyware
Citizen Lab found Pegasus spyware on Stelios Kouloglou’s phone. (Wired $)
+ It said the EU “looks the other way” on spyware abuses. (Guardian)
+ Meet the director of Citizen Lab. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Anthropic is closing loopholes that allow Chinese access to Claude
It’s targeting VPNs, relay services, and overseas accounts. (FT $)
+ Users in China keep finding new workarounds. (Wired $)

3 A Tesla driver has been charged with manslaughter after a fatal crash
Court records show he was using automated driver-assistance. (WSJ $)
+ Tesla sales have surged 25% after a rebound in Europe. (NYT $)

4 Trump bought lots of tech stock the day he unveiled his AI Action Plan
He acquired up to $5 million in stock from Amazon and others. (Engadget)
+ His AI Action Plan was a distraction. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Companies are throttling employees’ AI use because it’s too expensive
They’re pleading with workers to use less powerful models. (404 Media)
+ Tesla has capped their AI spending at $200 per week. (The Information $)

6 The Energy Dept wants data centers on backup power in heat waves
It wants them to free up power for AC. (NYT $)
+ People near data centers are dreading heat wave pollution. (Politico $)
+ No one wants a data center in their backyard. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A Meta glasses feature just went from free to a subscription service
"Conversation Focus" will now cost $19.99 per month. (BBC)
+ The move heralds a new era of consumer tech subscriptions. (Wired $)

8 Random wobbles in time could solve gravity’s greatest mystery
A new idea could reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. (New Scientist $)

9 Peter Thiel claims the pope is “working for the Chinese Communists”
By pushing for stricter AI rules that may benefit Chinese interests. (CNN)
+ Pope Leo XIV said AI must be “disarmed” in his first major teaching. (BBC)
+ His encyclical offered a template for steering AI. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Supersonic flight over land could finally be legal again
Regulators want to lift a ban—so long as the planes are quiet. (Ars Technica)

Quote of the day

“We don't have robots that are nearly as good at understanding the physical world as a rat.”

—Yann LeCun, the founder of AMI Labs and Meta's former chief AI scientist, tells the BBC that AI isn't as smart as many think.

One More Thing

How two brothers became go-to experts on America’s “mystery drone” invasion

On a Friday evening in December, every tier of US law enforcement was dispatched to a military research installation outside Boston after a squadron of 15 to 20 drones was spotted violating restricted airspace. The culprits could not be found.

It was the latest in a series of purported drone sightings along the US East Coast. Lacking coordination or clarity from the White House, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community, law enforcement officers turned to an unlikely source: twin brothers from Long Island who hunt UFOs.

The Tedescos have built a mobile field lab to investigate unexplained aerial phenomena. Now members of the FBI want their support.

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.)

+ This record-breaking drone show is a mind-bending display of aerial light.
+ A Paris bakery is taking a bite out of food waste by repurposing croissants.
+ Relive your childhood with a classic episode from the Mister Rogers archive.
+ See graffiti through new eyes with this project that prettifies tags and makes them legible.

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