This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s happening in the tech world.
Sam Altman invested $180 million in a company that tried to delay death
When a startup called Retro Biosciences came out of stealth mode in mid-2022, it announced it had raised $180 million to fund an audacious mission: add 10 years to the average human life.
The business has always been vague about where its money had come from. Now MIT Technology Reveal can reveal that the entire sum was contributed by Sam Altman, the 37-year-old startup guru and investor who is CEO of OpenAI.
The amount is among the largest ever invested by an individual in a startup pursuing human longevity and will fund Retro’s “aggressive mission” to slow or even reverse aging. Read the whole story.
—Antoni Regalat
If you want to read more about OpenAI:
+ Read the inside story of how ChatGPT was created from the people who made it.
+ Sam Altman: Here’s what I learned from DALL-E 2.
Forget designer babies. This is how CRISPR is really changing lives
Gene editing is a technology that many people tend to associate with its ethically fraught ability to create designer babies. But this is also a distraction from the real story of how technology is changing people’s lives through treatments used in seriously ill adults.
There are now more than 50 ongoing experimental studies using gene editing in human volunteers to treat everything from cancer to HIV to blood diseases, according to a count shared with MIT Technology Review.
But this first generation of treatments will be very expensive and difficult to implement, and could quickly be replaced by a next generation of improved editing drugs. Read the whole story.
—Antoni Regalat
How China Takes Extreme Measures to Keep Teens Off TikTok
The American people and the Chinese people have much more in common than either side would like to admit. Take the shared concern about the time children and teenagers spend on TikTok (or its Chinese domestic version, Douyin).
Several US senators have called for bills that would restrict underage users’ access to apps like TikTok. But ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is no stranger to these requests. In fact, it has been facing similar government pressure in China since at least 2018. Read the full story.
— Zeyi Yang
Zeyi’s story is from China Report, its weekly newsletter covering China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday.
Required readings
I’ve combed the internet to find you the funniest/important/scary and fascinating stories about technology.
1 Google developed a powerful chatbot years before ChatGPT
However, he was dismayed that the system did not meet safety and fairness standards. (WSJ$)+ How Technology’s AI Obsession Masks Abuses of Power. (Bloomberg$)
+ In theory, copyright law could derail generative AI. (Insider $)
+ ChatGPT is everywhere. This is where it came from. (MIT Technology Review)
2 A pro-Ukrainian group may have orchestrated the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline
But there is no evidence that Ukrainian officials were involved. (NYT$)
+ Ukraine has denied any involvement in last year’s attack. (BBC)
+ This is how the Nord Stream pipelines could be fixed. (MIT Technology Review)
3 How the FBI pushed for more powerful facial recognition
It could be used to power a vast surveillance network. (WP$)
+ Fake CCTV footage is also on the rise. (via cable $)
+ South Africa’s private surveillance machine is fueling a digital apartheid. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Crypto startups are looking for funding
Times are tougher than ever since things went south for the industry’s favorite bank. (The $ info)
5 Meta’s large language model has been leaked on 4Chan
It’s the first model from a major company to leak. (motherboard)
+ Why Meta’s Last Big Language Model Survived Only Three Days Online (MIT Technology Review)
6 Japan was forced to fly its own rocket
The vehicle’s second engine failed to ignite during takeoff. (Ars Technique)
+ What happens in space. (MIT Technology Review)
7 YouTube just can’t get rid of Andrew Tate
His misogynistic videos are being re-uploaded, despite an existing ban. (The Atlantic $)
8 The hidden risks of the social economy
When almost anything can be rented to strangers, not everyone is well-intentioned. (The Guardian)
9 Viral TikTok Drinks Leave a Bad Taste in Your Mouth
Users are making weirder and weirder briefs on a view offer. (FT$)
+ The porcelain challenge didn’t have to be real to get views. (MIT Technology Review)
10 The work phone is ringing 
Partly because of the companies cracking down on TikTok. (Bloomberg$)
quote of the day
“I made my money independently, instead of say, I inherited an emerald mine.”
—Halli, a recently fired Twitter employee, it shoots to her former boss Elon Musk, who accused Halli of shirking her job responsibilities.
The great story
Why can’t technology solve your gender problem?
August 2022
Despite the tech sector’s vast wealth and loudly self-proclaimed corporate commitments to the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, and racial minorities, the industry remains largely a white man’s world.
It wasn’t always like that. Software programming was once an almost entirely female profession. As recently as 1980, women held 70% of programming jobs in Silicon Valley, but since then the ratio has completely changed. While many things contributed to the shift, from the education channel to the persistently tired fiction of technology as a gender-blind “meritocracy,” none quite explains it. What really lies at the heart of tech’s gender problem is money. Read the whole story.
—Margaret O’Mara
We can still have beautiful things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these strange times. (Do you have any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet them to me.)
+ Aww, Dave Grohl has solidified his status as the nicest man in rock.
+ These photos of a cheetah cub and a cub are the cutest thing you’ll see today.
+ If you enjoy looking at emails from tech executives, this Your Twitter account is yours.
+ The 10 things actor Jeremy Strong can’t live without are often baffling.
+ This story sent shivers down my spine.
