The Download: AI for cancer diagnosis, and HIV prevention

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Why it’s so hard to use AI to diagnose cancer

Finding and diagnosing cancer is all about spotting patterns. Radiologists use x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging to illuminate tumors, and pathologists examine tissue from kidneys, livers, and other areas under microscopes. They look for patterns that show how severe a cancer is, whether particular treatments could work, and where the malignancy may spread.

Visual analysis is something that AI has gotten quite good at since the first image recognition models began taking off nearly 15 years ago. Even though no model will be perfect, you can imagine a powerful algorithm someday catching something that a human pathologist missed, or at least speeding up the process of getting a diagnosis.

We’re starting to see lots of new efforts to build such a model—at least seven attempts in the last year alone. But they all remain experimental. What will it take to make them good enough to be used in the real world? Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

Long-acting HIV prevention meds: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2025

In June 2024, results from a trial of a new medicine to prevent HIV were announced—and they were jaw-dropping. Lenacapavir, a treatment injected once every six months, protected over 5,000 girls and women in Uganda and South Africa from getting HIV. And it was 100% effective.

So far, the FDA has approved the drug only for people who already have HIV that’s resistant to other treatments. But its producer Gilead has signed licensing agreements with manufacturers to produce generic versions for HIV prevention in 120 low-income countries.

The United Nations has set a goal of ending AIDS by 2030. It’s ambitious, to say the least: We still see over 1 million new HIV infections globally every year. But we now have the medicines to get us there. What we need is access. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Long-acting HIV prevention meds is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, MIT Technology Review’s annual list of tech to watch. Check out the rest of the list, and cast your vote for the honorary 11th breakthrough.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Donald Trump signed an executive order delaying TikTok’s ban
Parent company ByteDance has 75 days to reach a deal to stay live in the US. (WP $)
+ China appears to be keen to keep the platform operating, too. (WSJ $)

2 Neo-Nazis are celebrating Elon Musk’s salutes
They’re thrilled by the two Nazi-like salutes he gave at a post-inauguration rally. (Wired $)
+ Whether the gestures were intentional or not, extremists have chosen to interpret them that way. (Rolling Stone $)
+ MAGA is all about granting unchecked power to the already powerful. (Vox)
+ How tech billionaires are hoping Trump will reward them for their support. (NY Mag $)

3 Trump is withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization
He’s accused the agency of mishandling the covid 19 pandemic. (Ars Technica)+ He first tried to leave the WHO in 2020, but failed to complete it before he left office. (Reuters)
+ Trump is also working on pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement. (The Verge)

4 Meta will keep using fact checkers outside the US—for now
It wants to see how its crowdsourced fact verification system works in America before rolling it out further. (Bloomberg $)

5 Startup Friend has delayed shipments of its AI necklace
Customers are unlikely to receive their pre-orders before Q3. (TechCrunch)
+ Introducing: The AI Hype Index. (MIT Technology Review)

6 This sophisticated tool can pinpoint where a photo was taken in seconds
Members of the public have been trying to use GeoSpy for nefarious means for months. (404 Media)

7 Los Angeles is covered in ash
And it could take years before it fully disappears. (The Atlantic $)

8 Singapore is turning to AI companions to care for its elders
Robots are filling the void left by an absence of human nurses. (Rest of World)
+ Inside Japan’s long experiment in automating elder care. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The lost art of using a pen 🖊️
Typing and swiping are replacing good old fashioned paper and ink. (The Guardian)

10 LinkedIn is getting humorous
Posts are getting more personal, with a decidedly comedic bent. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“It’s been really beautiful to watch how two communities that would be considered polar opposites have come together.”

—Khalil Bowens, a content creator based in Los Angeles, reflects on the influx of Americans joining Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu to the Wall Street Journal.

The big story

Inside the messy ethics of making war with machines

August 2023

In recent years, intelligent autonomous weapons—weapons that can select and fire upon targets without any human input—have become a matter of serious concern. Giving an AI system the power to decide matters of life and death would radically change warfare forever.

Intelligent autonomous weapons that fully displace human decision-making have (likely) yet to see real-world use.

However, these systems have become sophisticated enough to raise novel questions—ones that are surprisingly tricky to answer. What does it mean when a decision is only part human and part machine? And when, if ever, is it ethical for that decision to be a decision to kill? Read the full story.

—Arthur Holland Michel

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Baby octopuses aren’t just cute—they can change color from the moment they’re born 🐙
+ Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura played a key role in making the company the gaming juggernaut it is today.
+ David Lynch wasn’t just a master of imagery, the way he deployed music to creep us out was second to none.
+ Only got a bag of rice in the cupboard? No problem.