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The Download: the future of AlphaFold, and chatbot privacy concerns
In 2017, fresh off a PhD on theoretical chemistry, John Jumper heard rumors that Google DeepMind had moved on from game-playing AI to a secret project to predict the structures of proteins. He applied for a job. Just three years later, Jumper and CEO Demis Hassabis had led the development of an AI system called AlphaFold 2 that was able to predict the structures of proteins to within the width of an atom, matching lab-level accuracy, and doing it many times faster--returning results in hours instead of months. Last year, Jumper and Hassabis shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now that the hype has died down, what impact has AlphaFold really had? How are scientists using it?
Can Tech Get Rid of Bad Trips?
Can Tech Get Rid of Bad Trips? In this episode of, we talk about some of the latest drug trends and all the ways drugs are changing as they continue to be intertwined with tech. Whether it's teenagers reviving the Benadryl TikTok challenge or people signing up for an out-of-body experience program previously used by the CIA, some of us are chasing unconventional trips--bad trips, essentially. But these trends are happening at a time when AI companies are also looking to create a "cleaner" trip for users, and others are using AI chatbots to therapeutically guide their psychedelic trips. Host Michael Calore sits down with staff writer Boone Ashworth and senior editor Manisha Krishnan to discuss these trends--and the promises and limitations of relying on tech to avoid bad trips. Young People Are Tripping on Benadryl--and It's Always a Bad Time The CIA Used This Psychic Meditation Program. It's Never Been More Popular Please help us improve by filling out our listener survey . Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Hey, Mike, how are you? This is your first appearance on, is it not? It's really nice to be back in the studio.
Revealed: The five key stages of the human brain - with the 'adolescent' phase lasting until age 32
'Guerilla' liberals form a'Fight Club' to oust Schumer after walking right into Trump's Oval Office trap Billionaire family posts VERY unusual obituary after heir, 40, met violent end at $2.8m hunting lodge following marriage scandal I know why Usha Vance ditched her wedding ring. Most women would do the same if they'd suffered her humiliation: KENNEDY'Canceled' comedian Louis C.K. devours Hollywood legend's widow on streets of NYC as steamy romance is revealed Troubled 350lbs son of Hollywood icon is forced to humiliating new low... as his movie star brother luxuriates in $7m Montecito mansion Brigitte Bardot, 91, is rushed to hospital again as she battles a'serious illness' after undergoing surgery'Dementia gene' now linked to another devastating neurological disease, study shows Trump's losing control... MAGA's imploding... and White House insiders tell me why they're REALLY worried: ANDREW NEIL Anna Kepner's grim cause of death aboard Carnival cruise ship confirmed, as homicide investigation continues Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek looks healthy in new social media video as his wife gushes'he's bouncing back' amid cancer battle Her moving videos about the handsome boyfriend who ghosted her went viral and catapulted her to overnight fame. Pam Bondi's furious response after beauty queen prosecutor who upstaged her has Comey and James indictments thrown out by judge Google Maps blunder turns tiny village into shortcut route, causing it to be'bombarded' by lorries that are damaging people's Grade II-listed homes READ MORE: Scientists issue warning over mind-altering'brain weapons' There are five key stages of the human brain, a new study has revealed. Researchers from the University of Cambridge compared brain scans of 3,802 people aged between 0 and 90. Their analysis revealed that the average human life is split up by four pivotal'turning points' between five key stages - childhood, adolescence, adulthood, early ageing, and late ageing.
Logic of Montage
Takahashi, Hayami, Takahashi, Kensuke
In expressing emotions, as an expression form separate from natural language, we propose an alternative form that complements natural language, acting as a proxy or window for emotional states. First, we set up an expression form "Effect of Contradictory Structure." "Effect of Contradictory Structure" is not static but dynamic. Effect in "Effect of Contradictory Structure" is unpleasant or pleasant, and the orientation to avoid that unpleasantness is considered pseudo-expression of will. Second, "Effect of Contradictory Structure" can be overlapped with each other. This overlapping operation is called "montage." A broader "Structure" that includes related "Effect of Contradictory Structure" and "Effect of Structure" are set up. Montage produces "Effect of Structure". In montage, it is necessary to set something like "strength," so we adopted Deleuze and Deleuze/Guattari's word "intensity" and set it as an element of our model. We set up a general theoretical framework - Word Import Between Systems (Models) and justified the import of "intensity" through Austin's use of the word "force." "Effect of Structure" process is demonstrated using the example of proceeding to the next level of education.
AnimAgents: Coordinating Multi-Stage Animation Pre-Production with Human-Multi-Agent Collaboration
Wang, Wen-Fan, Lu, Chien-Ting, Ng, Jin Ping, Chiu, Yi-Ting, Lee, Ting-Ying, Wang, Miaosen, Chen, Bing-Yu, Chen, Xiang 'Anthony'
Animation pre-production lays the foundation of an animated film by transforming initial concepts into a coherent blueprint across interdependent stages such as ideation, scripting, design, and storyboarding. While generative AI tools are increasingly adopted in this process, they remain isolated, requiring creators to juggle multiple systems without integrated workflow support. Our formative study with 12 professional creative directors and independent animators revealed key challenges in their current practice: Creators must manually coordinate fragmented outputs, manage large volumes of information, and struggle to maintain continuity and creative control between stages. Based on the insights, we present AnimAgents, a human-multi-agent collaborative system that coordinates complex, multi-stage workflows through a core agent and specialized agents, supported by dedicated boards for the four major stages of pre-production. AnimAgents enables stage-aware orchestration, stage-specific output management, and element-level refinement, providing an end-to-end workflow tailored to professional practice. In a within-subjects summative study with 16 professional creators, AnimAgents significantly outperformed a strong single-agent baseline that equipped with advanced parallel image generation in coordination, consistency, information management, and overall satisfaction (p < .01). A field deployment with 4 creators further demonstrated AnimAgents' effectiveness in real-world projects.
Point of Order: Action-Aware LLM Persona Modeling for Realistic Civic Simulation
Merrill, Scott, Srivastava, Shashank
Large language models offer opportunities to simulate multi-party deliberation, but realistic modeling remains limited by a lack of speaker-attributed data. Transcripts produced via automatic speech recognition (ASR) assign anonymous speaker labels (e.g., Speaker_1), preventing models from capturing consistent human behavior. This work introduces a reproducible pipeline to transform public Zoom recordings into speaker-attributed transcripts with metadata like persona profiles and pragmatic action tags (e.g., [propose_motion]). We release three local government deliberation datasets: Appellate Court hearings, School Board meetings, and Municipal Council sessions. Fine-tuning LLMs to model specific participants using this "action-aware" data produces a 67% reduction in perplexity and nearly doubles classifier-based performance metrics for speaker fidelity and realism. Turing-style human evaluations show our simulations are often indistinguishable from real deliberations, providing a practical and scalable method for complex realistic civic simulations.
Leaked recording reveals Campbell's exec's sickening remarks about iconic soup's ingredients
Leaked recording reveals Campbell's exec's sickening remarks about iconic soup's ingredients How Lauren Sanchez would REALLY look if she'd never had rumored plastic surgery Trump's losing control... MAGA's imploding... and White House insiders tell me why they're REALLY worried: ANDREW NEIL Billionaire family posts VERY unusual obituary after heir, 40, met violent end at $2.8m hunting lodge following marriage scandal These women have lost as much as nine stone WITHOUT jabs: Now they reveal secret to their stunning success, the extraordinary event that brought them together and how it's changed their lives... Judge throws out Comey and James cases as Trump's beauty queen prosecutor is humiliated Her moving videos about the handsome boyfriend who ghosted her went viral and catapulted her to overnight fame. Kate Gosselin's ex Jon is seen at his splashy wedding for the first time as son Collin weighs in on his siblings not attending Fugitive'Slender Man' stabber Morgan Geyser snapped'just Google me' when asked for ID by cops who found her with MUCH older lover It all seems to be falling apart now! Pete Hegseth drops hammer on Democrat senator in'sedition' storm as court martial looms after Trump's execution threat Sabrina Carpenter looks unrecognisable in throwback snap from seven years ago as fans call her rebranding'wild' Neuralink's'Patient 4' feared missing months after getting revolutionary brain chip... now his wife tells the REAL heartbreaking story NFL's first transgender cheerleader makes explosive allegation against Carolina Panthers Slash your cholesterol by a third in just a month... hundreds of thousands are on a new diet that's transforming lives. Leaked recording reveals Campbell's exec's sickening remarks about iconic soup's ingredients Campbell Soup is facing a firestorm after a former employee allegedly secretly recorded a vice president insulting both the company's products and its customers. Robert Garza of Michigan filed a lawsuit against Campbell's on Thursday and released audio he says features Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Martin Bally.
Neuralink's 'Patient 4' feared missing months after getting revolutionary brain chip... now his wife tells the REAL heartbreaking story
Leaked recording reveals Campbell's exec's sickening remarks about iconic soup's ingredients How Lauren Sanchez would REALLY look if she'd never had rumored plastic surgery Trump's losing control... MAGA's imploding... and White House insiders tell me why they're REALLY worried: ANDREW NEIL Billionaire family posts VERY unusual obituary after heir, 40, met violent end at $2.8m hunting lodge following marriage scandal These women have lost as much as nine stone WITHOUT jabs: Now they reveal secret to their stunning success, the extraordinary event that brought them together and how it's changed their lives... Judge throws out Comey and James cases as Trump's beauty queen prosecutor is humiliated Her moving videos about the handsome boyfriend who ghosted her went viral and catapulted her to overnight fame. Kate Gosselin's ex Jon is seen at his splashy wedding for the first time as son Collin weighs in on his siblings not attending Fugitive'Slender Man' stabber Morgan Geyser snapped'just Google me' when asked for ID by cops who found her with MUCH older lover It all seems to be falling apart now! Pete Hegseth drops hammer on Democrat senator in'sedition' storm as court martial looms after Trump's execution threat Sabrina Carpenter looks unrecognisable in throwback snap from seven years ago as fans call her rebranding'wild' Neuralink's'Patient 4' feared missing months after getting revolutionary brain chip... now his wife tells the REAL heartbreaking story NFL's first transgender cheerleader makes explosive allegation against Carolina Panthers Slash your cholesterol by a third in just a month... hundreds of thousands are on a new diet that's transforming lives. Neuralink's'Patient 4' feared missing months after getting revolutionary brain chip... now his wife tells the REAL heartbreaking story Rumors are swirling that one of Elon Musk's brain chip patients has vanished under mysterious circumstances. Whispers about the disappearance of Mike Melgarejo, known as'Patient 4,' began after his social media accounts went dark and a GoFundMe appeared claiming he was'not in a good place.'
Cod and chips could soon be off the menu! Scientists say Britain should replace the popular white flaky fish with saithe...if diners are able to look past the colour
Leaked recording reveals Campbell's exec's sickening remarks about iconic soup's ingredients How Lauren Sanchez would REALLY look if she'd never had rumored plastic surgery Trump's losing control... MAGA's imploding... and White House insiders tell me why they're REALLY worried: ANDREW NEIL Billionaire family posts VERY unusual obituary after heir, 40, met violent end at $2.8m hunting lodge following marriage scandal These women have lost as much as nine stone WITHOUT jabs: Now they reveal secret to their stunning success, the extraordinary event that brought them together and how it's changed their lives... Judge throws out Comey and James cases as Trump's beauty queen prosecutor is humiliated Her moving videos about the handsome boyfriend who ghosted her went viral and catapulted her to overnight fame. Kate Gosselin's ex Jon is seen at his splashy wedding for the first time as son Collin weighs in on his siblings not attending Fugitive'Slender Man' stabber Morgan Geyser snapped'just Google me' when asked for ID by cops who found her with MUCH older lover It all seems to be falling apart now! Pete Hegseth drops hammer on Democrat senator in'sedition' storm as court martial looms after Trump's execution threat Sabrina Carpenter looks unrecognisable in throwback snap from seven years ago as fans call her rebranding'wild' Neuralink's'Patient 4' feared missing months after getting revolutionary brain chip... now his wife tells the REAL heartbreaking story NFL's first transgender cheerleader makes explosive allegation against Carolina Panthers Slash your cholesterol by a third in just a month... hundreds of thousands are on a new diet that's transforming lives. Cod and chips could soon be off the menu! Scientists say Britain should replace the popular white flaky fish with saithe...if diners are able to look past the colour If you think battered cod doesn't pack quite enough flavour, experts claim to have the perfect alternative.
Thanksgiving chaos looms for millions of Americans as massive coast-to-coast storm threatens to cripple holiday travel
Leaked recording reveals Campbell's exec's sickening remarks about iconic soup's ingredients How Lauren Sanchez would REALLY look if she'd never had rumored plastic surgery Trump's losing control... MAGA's imploding... and White House insiders tell me why they're REALLY worried: ANDREW NEIL Billionaire family posts VERY unusual obituary after heir, 40, met violent end at $2.8m hunting lodge following marriage scandal These women have lost as much as nine stone WITHOUT jabs: Now they reveal secret to their stunning success, the extraordinary event that brought them together and how it's changed their lives... Judge throws out Comey and James cases as Trump's beauty queen prosecutor is humiliated Her moving videos about the handsome boyfriend who ghosted her went viral and catapulted her to overnight fame. Kate Gosselin's ex Jon is seen at his splashy wedding for the first time as son Collin weighs in on his siblings not attending Fugitive'Slender Man' stabber Morgan Geyser snapped'just Google me' when asked for ID by cops who found her with MUCH older lover It all seems to be falling apart now! Pete Hegseth drops hammer on Democrat senator in'sedition' storm as court martial looms after Trump's execution threat Sabrina Carpenter looks unrecognisable in throwback snap from seven years ago as fans call her rebranding'wild' Neuralink's'Patient 4' feared missing months after getting revolutionary brain chip... now his wife tells the REAL heartbreaking story NFL's first transgender cheerleader makes explosive allegation against Carolina Panthers Slash your cholesterol by a third in just a month... hundreds of thousands are on a new diet that's transforming lives. A'coast-to-coast storm' could throw the holiday plans for millions of Americans into chaos as a record number of people travel this week for Thanksgiving . Meteorologists said the fast-moving system will impact travelers in the Southwest on Monday, before quickly affecting millions in the Midwest and then bringing a wintry blast to the Northeast on Wednesday.