The Download: how humans make decisions, and Moderna’s “vaccine” word games

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.

You have no choice in reading this article-maybe

How do humans make decisions? The question has been on Uri Maoz's mind since he read an article in his early twenties suggesting that... maybe they didn't.

Had he even had a choice about whether to read that article in the first place? How would he ever know if he was truly responsible for making any decisions? After that, there was no turning back," says Maoz, now a professor of computational neuroscience at Chapman University.

Today, Maoz is a central figure in efforts to understand how desires and beliefs turn into actions. He's also uncovered new wrinkles in the debate. Read the full story on his discoveries.

-Sarah Scoles

This article is from the next issue of our print magazine, packed with stories all about nature. Subscribe now to read the full thing when it lands on Wednesday, April 22.

What's in a name? Moderna's vaccine" vs. therapy" dilemma

Moderna, the covid-19 shot maker, is using its mRNA technology to destroy tumors through a very, very promising technique known as a cancer vacc-

It's not a vaccine," a spokesperson for Merck said before the V-word could be uttered. It's an individualized neoantigen therapy."

Oh, but it is a vaccine, and it looks like a possible breakthrough. But it's been rebranded to avoid vaccine fearmongering-and not everyone is happy about the word game. Read the full story.

-Antonio Regalado

This article is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter covering the latest in biotech.Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must reads

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

1 SamAltman'shome hasbeenattackedtwiceintwodays
AdriverreportedlyfiredagunathispropertyonSunday. (SF Standard)
+ A MolotovcocktailwasthrownathishomeonFriday.(NBC News)
+ThesuspectwroteessayswarningAIwouldendhumanity.(SF Chronicle)
+Theattacksexposegrowingdivides inopiniononAI.(Axios)

2 AIweaponsareusheringin a newkindofarmsrace
Countries areracingtodeployAI inmilitarysystems. (NYT$)
+ThePentagonwantsAIfirmstotrainonclassifieddata.(MIT Technology Review)
+WhereOpenAI'stechnologycouldshowup inIran.(MIT Technology Review)

3 Artemis IIwasasuccess
Astronauts did an array of experiments that will be crucial to the future of both the program itself and deep-space missions.(Guardian)
+ButnextstepsfortheArtemismissionsareuncertain.(Ars Technica)

4 OpenAI and Elon Musk are heading toward a massive courtroom clash
ThecompanyhasaccusedMuskofa legalambush."(Engadget)
+He'slostastreakofcasesaheadoftheshowdown.(FT$)

5 AIjobfearsin China arefuelinga viral abilityharvester" project
ItclaimstoturnhumanskillsintoAItools. (SCMP)
+HustlersarecashinginonChina'sOpenClawAIcraze.(MIT Technology Review)

6GovernmentsarehidinginformationabouttheIranwaronline
Throughrestrictionsoninternetaccessandsatelliteimagery. (NPR)

7 Appleistestingfoursmartglassesthatcouldrival Meta Ray-Bans
They'repartofabroaderwearablesstrategy. (Bloomberg$)

8 Meta is building an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg to interact with staff
It'sbeingtrainedonhismannerisms,voice, andstatements. (FT$)

9AnthropicisaskingChristianleadersforguidance
It'sseeingadviceonbuildingmoral machines. (WP$)
+ AIagentshavespreadtheirownreligions.(MIT Technology Review)

10AdancerwithMNDisperformingagainthroughanavatar
Herbrainwavespoweredthedigitaldancer. (BBC)

Quote of the day

Earth was this lifeboat hanging in the universe."

-Artemis IIastronautChristina Koch describesherviewofEarthfromspace,the Guardianreports.

One more thing

RAVEN JIANGHow AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral

When Kenneth Wehr started managing the Greenlandic-language version of Wikipedia, he discovered that almost every article had been written by people who didn't speak the language.

A growing number of them had been copy-pasted into Wikipedia from machine translators-and were riddled with elementary mistakes. This is beginning to cause a wicked problem.

AI systems, from Google Translate to ChatGPT, learn new languages by scraping text from Wikipedia. This could push the most vulnerable languages on Earth toward the precipice.

Read the full story on what happens when AI gets trained on junk pages.

-Jacob Judah

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.)

+Hungary'snexthealthministercanthrow some serious shapes.
+Here'sawelcomeroutetoan AI-free Google search.
+Movieviaeschewsendlessscrollingtofindtherightfilmforyourneeds
+ A photography trick has turned a giant glacier into a tiny, living diorama.