When OpenAI launched ChatGPT, without fanfare, in late November 2022, no one within the company was prepared for a viral mega-hit. It was seen internally as a “research preview,” a tease of a more polished version of a two-year-old technology, and a way to address some of its flaws.
But then it absolutely exploded. The company has been struggling to catch up and build on its success ever since.
To get the inside story behind the chatbot—how it was created, how OpenAI has been updating it since launch, and how its creators feel about its success—our senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven spoke to four people who they helped build what has become the most popular Internet application ever.
—Will Douglas Heaven
The idea of
This week, my colleague Jessica Hamzelou posted a great story about a controversial treatment that creates babies with three genetic parents. The “three-parent baby” technique was thought to help parents avoid passing diseases to their children. But new findings suggest it doesn’t always work and could create babies at risk of serious illness.
The evidence comes from two babies born after using the procedure to help couples with a different problem: infertility. It’s lucky we found the problem in these cases: these babies didn’t have parents with disease-causing mutations, so they should be fine.
And there is another silver lining. The findings add to growing evidence that the “three-parent” technique could help treat infertility and shed light on why some people struggle to conceive. Read the whole story.
This story is from The Checkup, Jessica’s weekly newsletter that covers all kinds of biotech breakthroughs. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.
Required readings
