The Download: speaking to robots, and growing pharmaceutical mushrooms

Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment? Researchers are using generative AI and other techniques to teach robots new skills--including tasks they could perform in homes. Studies have indicated that psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin and MDMA, have swift-acting and enduring antidepressant effects. Though the US Food and Drug Administration denied the first application for medical treatments involving psychedelics (an MDMA-based therapy) last August, these drugs appear to be on the road to mainstream medicine. Research into psilocybin has been slowed in part by the complexity of the trials, but the data already shows promise for the psychedelic compound within so-called magic mushrooms.