The Download: AI for cancer diagnosis, and HIV prevention

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.

Why it’s so hard to use AI to diagnose cancer

Finding and diagnosing cancer is all about spotting patterns. Radiologists use x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging to illuminate tumors, and pathologists examine tissue from kidneys, livers, and other areas under microscopes. They look for patterns that show how severe a cancer is, whether particular treatments could work, and where the malignancy may spread.

Visual analysis is something that AI has gotten quite good at since the first image recognition models began taking off nearly 15 years ago. Even though no model will be perfect, you can imagine a powerful algorithm someday catching something that a human pathologist missed, or at least speeding up the process of getting a diagnosis.

We’re starting to see lots of new efforts to build such a model—at least seven attempts in the last year alone. But they all remain experimental. What will it take to make them good enough to be used in the real world? Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

Long-acting HIV prevention meds: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2025

In June 2024, results from a trial of a new medicine to prevent HIV were announced—and they were jaw-dropping. Lenacapavir, a treatment injected once every six months, protected over 5,000 girls and women in Uganda and South Africa from getting HIV. And it was 100% effective.

So far, the FDA has approved the drug only for people who already have HIV that’s resistant to other treatments. But its producer Gilead has signed licensing agreements with manufacturers to produce generic versions for HIV prevention in 120 low-income countries.

The United Nations has set a goal of ending AIDS by 2030. It’s ambitious, to say the least: We still see over 1 million new HIV infections globally every year. But we now have the medicines to get us there. What we need is access. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Long-acting HIV prevention meds is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025, MIT Technology Review’s annual list of tech to watch. Check out the rest of the list, and cast your vote for the honorary 11th breakthrough.

The must-reads

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

1 Donald Trump signed an executive order delaying TikTok’s ban
Parent company ByteDance has 75 days to reach a deal to stay live in the US. (WP $)
+ China appears to be keen to keep the platform operating, too. (WSJ $)

2 Neo-Nazis are celebrating Elon Musk’s salutes
They’re thrilled by the two Nazi-like salutes he gave at a post-inauguration rally. (Wired $)
+ Whether the gestures were intentional or not, extremists have chosen to interpret them that way. (Rolling Stone $)
+ MAGA is all about granting unchecked power to the already powerful. (Vox)
+ How tech billionaires are hoping Trump will reward them for their support. (NY Mag $)

3 Trump is withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization
He’s accused the agency of mishandling the covid 19 pandemic. (Ars Technica)+ He first tried to leave the WHO in 2020, but failed to complete it before he left office. (Reuters)
+ Trump is also working on pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement. (The Verge)

4 Meta will keep using fact checkers outside the US—for now
It wants to see how its crowdsourced fact verification system works in America before rolling it out further. (Bloomberg $)

5 Startup Friend has delayed shipments of its AI necklace
Customers are unlikely to receive their pre-orders before Q3. (TechCrunch)
+ Introducing: The AI Hype Index. (MIT Technology Review)

6 This sophisticated tool can pinpoint where a photo was taken in seconds
Members of the public have been trying to use GeoSpy for nefarious means for months. (404 Media)

7 Los Angeles is covered in ash
And it could take years before it fully disappears. (The Atlantic $)

8 Singapore is turning to AI companions to care for its elders
Robots are filling the void left by an absence of human nurses. (Rest of World)
+ Inside Japan’s long experiment in automating elder care. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The lost art of using a pen Read More