Dario Amodei, chief executive of the high-profile A.I. start-up Anthropic, told Congress last year that new A.I. technology could soon help unskilled but malevolent people create large-scale biological attacks, such as the release of viruses or toxic substances that cause widespread disease and death. Senators from both parties were alarmed, while A.I. researchers in industry…
For all the misguided complaints about the melodrama that can be the NBA at times, or the claims that its “wokeness” will be its ruin, or how the league beats itself up over load management or whatever else, it still offers something that none of the other three non-NFL leagues can. And that’s regular-season games…
This column is part of a series for the Design special section of The New York Times. Readers are invited to send questions to designadvice@nytimes.com. After a column I wrote last summer that touched on Ping-Pong tables, a reader asked if I could recommend companies supplying a pinball machine for his home. In researching, I…
It’s on. Such was the gist of President Biden’s State of the Union address; such was the message of the women of the Democratic caucus sitting in the House chamber wearing white en masse; such, even, was the statement contained in the Laken Riley pins and T-shirts of some Republicans. Even if Mr. Biden was…
Decades ago, your vacation most likely began with a visit to a travel agent, who relied on a combination of expertise and connections to find the best deals on plane tickets, hotels, tours and more. Since then, the internet has turned most of us into our own travel agents, and artificial intelligence software is making…
One of the few treatments the Food and Drug Administration has approved for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has failed a large clinical trial, and its manufacturer said Friday that it was considering whether to withdraw it from the market. The medication, called Relyvrio, was approved less than two years ago, despite questions about its effectiveness in…
In early February Arturo Payamps, the general manager of a City Fresh Market grocery store in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, received a message on WhatsApp from a friend. It included a link to a TikTok video showing the outside of the store with a sign for Erewhon, the trendy organic grocer in Los Angeles,…
The Food and Drug Administration has decided to delay action on a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, donanemab, which the agency was widely expected to approve this month. The F.D.A. will instead require donanemab to undergo the scrutiny of a panel of independent experts, the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly and Company, said Friday. “The F.D.A. has…
The United States should commit $1.6 billion to building an “extremely large telescope” that would vault American astronomy into a new era, according to the National Science Board, which advises the National Science Foundation. In a statement on Feb. 27, the board gave the foundation until May to decide how to choose between two competing…
I recently hosted a strange family gathering: an end-of-life lunch. It was my sister Dinah’s idea. She had been saying for months that it was time to discuss my parents’ final wishes while they were both still able to weigh in. But I kept putting off the conversation. Who wants to think about it, whether…
