The Download: AI for debates, and what to know about the Oropouche virus

Reaching a consensus in a democracy is difficult because people hold such different ideological, political, and social views. Perhaps an AI tool could help. Researchers from Google DeepMind trained a system of large language models to operate as a "caucus mediator," generating summaries that outline a group's areas of agreement on complex but important social or political issues. The researchers say their work highlights the potential of AI to help groups of people find common ground when discussing contentious subjects. But it's not going to replace human mediators anytime soon.