This Week's Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through April 21)

Pedro Domingos on the Arms Race in Artificial Intelligence Christoph Scheuermann and Bernhard Zand Spiegel Online "AI lowers the cost of knowledge by orders of magnitude. One good, effective machine learning system can do the work of a million people, whether it's for commercial purposes or for cyberespionage. Imagine a country that produces a thousand times more knowledge than another. This is the challenge we are facing." Gene Therapy Could Free Some People From a Lifetime of Blood Transfusions Emily Mullin MIT Technology Review "A one-time, experimental treatment for an inherited blood disorder has shown dramatic results in a small study. 'They have been tied to this ongoing medical therapy that is burdensome and expensive for their whole lives,' she says. 'Gene therapy has allowed people to have aspirations and really pursue them.' " The Revolutionary Giant Ocean Cleanup Machine Is About to Set Sail Adele Peters Fast Company "By the end of 2018, the nonprofit says it will bring back its first harvest of ocean plastic from the North Pacific Gyre, along with concrete proof that the design works. The organization expects to bring 5,000 kilograms of plastic ashore per month with its first system. With a full fleet of systems deployed, it believes that it can collect half of the plastic trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch--around 40,000 metric tons--within five years."