The Download: kids outlearning AI, and space travel agents

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.

Kids outlearn AI—and we still don’t know why

Teaching a computer to use human language requires an inhuman amount of data. An LLM can easily churn through a hundred thousand times more words than a person will experience in the process of mastering their mother tongue.

This yawning divide between children and machines is called the data efficiency gap. It raises a tantalizing question for cognitive scientists and a challenge for the architects of AI models: how can children still outperform the most linguistically sophisticated machines ever built?

Kids show that it could be possible to learn more with less. Far less. By reverse-engineering the way they learn, scientists hope to create more data-efficient AI models—and perhaps settle enduring questions about language and children’s developing minds.

Here’s how researchers are trying to close the data gap.

—Elise Cutts

Job titles of the future: space travel agent

As co-owner of a luxury lifestyle firm, Roman Chiporukha has long turned wild vacation dreams into reality. In 2018, he got a phone call that would open up a new frontier: Axiom Space wanted to find citizen explorers willing to pay $50 million each to join the first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), slated for April 2022.

This showed Chiporukha that the sky was no longer the limit; it was the market. He successfully signed up a private astronaut and then launched SpaceVIP in 2021 to offer celestial experiences that mix culture, science, and purpose.

Find out what it takes to become the Expedia of the cosmos.

—Linda Childers

These stories are from the next issue of our magazine, which is all about kids. to get your copy as soon as it lands.

The must-reads

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

1 Both parties are turning against AI data centers ahead of the midterms
The backlash is spilling onto the campaign trail. (NYT $)
+ Republicans have sharply turned against them. (WP $)
+ Texas’ governor says data centers “dug their own grave.” (Axios)
+ Here’s why data center opposition crosses party lines. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Chinese humanoids have smashed Usain Bolt’s 100-metre world record
One ran it in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games. (Verge)
+ Another, also built by X-Humanoid, beat a high jump record. (ESPN)
+ But intricate real-world tasks pose greater challenges. (Reuters $)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Uber has been fined nearly $1 billion over automated suspensions
Dutch regulators say drivers were deactivated without human review. (Quartz)
+ It’s the second-largest fine issued yet under the EU’s GDPR. (Reuters $)

4 New Zealand plans to ban under-16s from social media
It’s joined a throng of countries trying to restrict access. (Bloomberg $)
+ But opposition parties could torpedo the bill. (Reuters $)

5 TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a US child privacy case
It was sued for allegedly violating ‌children’s online privacy. (BBC)
+ The US DOJ said TikTok illegally collected kids’ information. (Reuters $)

6 China’s largest-ever car recall covers nearly 3 million Teslas
They’re being recalled over door safety concerns. (Quartz)
+ The action covers roughly 4.3 million vehicles in total. (NYT $)

7 Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine think AI is good for music
They compared fear of AI to resistance to earlier technologies. (NYT $)
+ AI let a musician with MLS sing again. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Taiwan has indicted nine people over alleged illegal AI exports to China
They include employees of ​Nvidia and Super Micro (Reuters $)

9 NASA’s new telescope could discover 200,000 new planets
Roman could also reveal new details about dark matter. (Wired $)
+ And detect killer asteroids. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Plastic bottles can be turned into edible, vanilla-flavour cookies
Thanks to genetically-engineered yeast. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“Credit where credit is due: the tech sector has managed to unite a deeply divided country at a time of maximal partisanship.”

—Max Steele, Senior Director of Communications at Everytown, reacts on X to a new poll showing that support for data centers in the US has plummeted.

One More Thing

How next-generation nuclear reactors break out of the 20th-century blueprint

As worries about climate change and energy independence drown out concerns about meltdowns and radioactive waste, demand for nuclear power has surged. The problem is, building nuclear power plants is expensive and slow.

Now, a new generation of nuclear power technology could reinvent what a reactor looks like—and how it works. Advocates hope it can refresh the industry and help replace fossil fuels without emitting greenhouse gases.

Small modular reactors could bring the assembly line to nuclear development, while new designs are experimenting with different fuels and coolants, from TRISO to molten salt.

Here’s what the next generation of nuclear reactors could look like.

— Casey Crownhart

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.)

+ Welcome to WikiCity, where every building is a Wikipedia article.
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+ Here are 18 ridiculous yet cathartic new words to describe modern tech irritants.
+ Feast your eyes on these Porsche 912s customized for the Japanese police in the 1960s.