Should we worry about AI doomsday?

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Researchers who set up camera traps in a Ugandan national park have captured a host of animals feasting on Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) on film. The footage offers real-time insight into how viruses might spread: the bats are known carriers of the Marburg virus, which can cause a fatal haemorrhagic fever in people. Scientists know that viruses can be passed from bats to intermediate animals and then on to humans, but this is the first time that potential intermediates have been caught on camera, the team says.

Nature | 5 min read

Reference: Current Biology paper

The Reddit-style social network Agent4Science is offering artificial intelligence agents a space to share, debate and discuss research papers — without human interruption. The site hosts different subgroups for agents to chew over AI-generated research papers on topics such as AI safety, prompts and deep learning. Human researchers can observe the chatter, but can’t contribute. The site is an experiment to have AI agents “freely discuss science and see where that will lead us”, says AI researcher Chenhao Tan, co-creator of the site.

Nature | 5 min read

Children in Tanzania that lived in specially designed houses were less likely to get malaria, diarrhoea and respiratory infections than were those living in conventional homes during a 3-year trial. The two-storey ‘Star Home’ puts bedrooms on the upper floor, where mosquitoes are less likely to venture, and the latrine outside to help reduce the spread of diarrhoeal diseases. Star Homes cost around US$8,800 to build, which is prohibitively expensive for many of the people it might help the most. But the design is a proof of concept to demonstrate that research can inform architecture that improves health outcomes, says health researcher and study co-author Lorenz von Seidlein.

Science | 6 min read

Reference: Nature Medicine paper

Features & opinion

Some researchers are getting increasingly nervous about the possibility of doomsday scenarios brought about by ever more powerful and autonomous artificial intelligence systems. Others say that such warnings distract from well-documented risks of AI, such as spreading misinformation and enabling mass surveillance — or motivate leaders to join a dangerous AI arms race, lest they be left at a disadvantage. Studies suggest that some systems are already becoming misaligned with human goals, but evidence that AI could cause human extinction is hard to come by. “The companies are raking in funding, and letting society pick up the pieces,” says neuroscientist and AI researcher Gary Marcus.

Nature | 15 min read

In February, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a radical rethink of how to develop personalized CRISPR therapies, such as the one that saved the life of baby KJ Muldoon last year. Rather than classing each effort as a new drug — which means years of testing at the cost of many millions — drug companies would be able to treat many people with different mutations as part of a single clinical trial. Biomedical researcher Fyodor Urnov and Sadik Kassim, a biotechnology executive and scientist, advise how the FDA can make the most of this plan by ramping its resources, engaging with patient advocates and ensuring that supply chains, insurers and manufacturing capacity are all in place.

Nature | 13 min read

“For air breathers, hunger and thirst are of primary importance,” note environmental scientist Jennifer Jacquet and zoologist Daniel Pauly. “But for water-breathing ectotherms, the availability of dissolved oxygen is preeminent.” They argue that our air-breathing bias has blinded us to the welfare requirements of aquatic animals in research labs, fish farms, aquariums and the wild. “Even if we cannot imagine the water-breather’s pleasure, we can make the intellectual and moral effort of considering hypoxia-caused suffering,” they write.

Issues in Science and Technology | 12 min read

Today I’m taking the advice of science writer Elizabeth Preston, whose new book The Creatures’ Guide to Caring explores how our parenting skills match up to our fellow Earthlings’. On her blog, Preston considers how we can protect our most vulnerable parts by emulating the way the male octopus watches out for one of its most important arms (the hectocotylus, or as Preston terms it, the ‘penis arm’, which helps the cephalopod to reproduce). “It doesn’t just throw all its limbs out into the world with abandon,” writes Preston. “It protects the part of itself that it can least afford to lose.” In her case, it means not reading bad reviews of her book; for others it might mean turning off your non-essential push notifications.

One source of feedback I won’t be switching off is your e-mails about this newsletter. Please let us know what you think — whether positive or critical — at briefing@nature.com.

Thanks for reading,

Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing

With contributions by Jacob Smith

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