{"id":864900,"date":"2025-08-14T21:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/the-download-how-ai-is-improving-itself-and-hidden-greenhouse-gases\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T21:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:05:12","slug":"the-download-how-ai-is-improving-itself-and-hidden-greenhouse-gases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/14\/the-download-how-ai-is-improving-itself-and-hidden-greenhouse-gases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: how AI is improving itself, and hidden greenhouse gases"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trump’s latest tariffs are here<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

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This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Five ways that AI is learning to improve itself<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Last week, Mark Zuckerberg declared that Meta aims to achieve smarter-than-human AI. He seems to have a recipe for achieving that goal, and the first ingredient is human talent: Zuckerberg has reportedly tried to lure top researchers to Meta Superintelligence Labs with nine-figure offers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second ingredient is AI itself.\u00a0 Zuckerberg recently said on an earnings call that Meta will focus on building self-improving AI\u2014systems that can bootstrap themselves to higher and higher levels of performance. He hopes to tap into a very real trend. Here are five ways that AI is already making itself better<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Grace Huckins<\/em><\/p>\n

The greenhouse gases we’re not accounting for<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 2021, climate scientists noticed that levels of methane had soared in the atmosphere the previous year, rising at the fastest rate on record despite the global covid-19 lockdowns.<\/p>\n

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Researchers eventually spotted a clear pattern: Methane emissions had increased sharply across the tropics, where wetlands were growing wetter and warmer.<\/p>\n

The findings offer one of the clearest cases so far where climate change itself is driving additional greenhouse-gas emissions from natural systems, triggering a feedback effect that threatens to produce more warming, more emissions, and on and on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There’s now a major endeavor underway to better track and understand what’s going on. Read our story about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2014James Temple<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review\u2019s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, <\/strong>sign up here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 The Trump administration\u2019s punishing new tariffs have come into effect\u00a0<\/strong>
And prices are already climbing. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Economists fear the US economy is poised to shrink. <\/em>(WP<\/a> $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 Sections of the US Constitution have been deleted online<\/strong>
Passages about Congress\u2019 powers and citizens\u2019 unlawful detention have been scrubbed from the US government\u2019s website. (TechCrunch<\/a>)
+ The Library of Congress blamed a coding error. <\/em>(Ars Technica<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3 China is fighting a mosquito-borne virus<\/strong>
It\u2019s deploying drones to search for standing water where the insects lay eggs. (AP News<\/a>)
+ Chikungunya virus is rarely fatal, but can cause fever and joint pain. <\/em>(CNN<\/a>)
+ Authorities are taking a leaf out of their covid-fighting playbooks. <\/em>(NYT<\/a> $)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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4 US federal agencies will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise\u00a0<\/strong>
For the grand sum of $1 a year. (Ars Technica<\/a>)
+ It won\u2019t use workers\u2019 data to train ChatGPT, apparently. <\/em>(Bloomberg<\/a> $)
+ The news comes after major AI firms were greenlit as federal vendors. <\/em>(Engadget<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 Chinese drug discovery startups are striking deals with Big Pharma<\/strong>
Western pharmaceutical giants are confident they can deliver. (Rest of World<\/a>)
+ An AI-driven \u201cfactory of drugs\u201d claims to have hit a big milestone. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

6 Is it possible to build truly green AI data centers?
<\/strong>The tech industry appears pretty hooked on fossil fuels. (FT<\/a> $)
+ We did the math on AI\u2019s energy footprint. Here\u2019s the story you haven\u2019t heard. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

7 The US is increasingly reliant on private companies for weather data
<\/strong>Experts are wary about losing access to vital tools. (Undark<\/a>)
+ How US research cuts are threatening crucial climate data. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

8 Genetic factors could contribute to the risk of developing chronic fatigue syndrome
<\/strong>It\u2019s the first robust evidence that genetics play a role. (New Scientist<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

9 An experimental pill is showing weight-loss promise<\/strong>
Obese participants in Eli Lilly\u2019s trial lost more than 12% of their body weight. (Wired<\/a> $)
+ We\u2019re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 Finding a job online is a nightmare<\/strong>
Some companies are going back to basics to find the best recruits. (WSJ<\/a> $)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t vote for ChatGPT.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Virginia Dignum, a professor of responsible artificial intelligence at Sweden\u2019s Ume\u00e5 University, criticizes the country\u2019s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson for admitting he regularly consults AI tools, the Guardian<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n
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Why AI could eat quantum computing\u2019s lunch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that they\u2019ll be a game changer for fields as diverse as finance, drug discovery, and logistics.<\/p>\n

But while the field struggles with the realities of tricky quantum hardware, another challenger is making headway in some of these most promising use cases. AI is now being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science in a way that suggests quantum computing\u2019s purported home turf might not be so safe after all. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Edd Gent<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Rhiannon Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump’s latest tariffs are here This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download ,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Five ways that AI is learning to improve itself Last week, Mark Zuckerberg declared that Meta aims to achieve smarter-than-human AI. He seems to have a recipe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24097,28369,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-864900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-download","category-improving","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}