#141 - Reviving Dodos, Mini CRISPR, and Humanity's Last Exam!
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In the News
🦤 Scientists are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to support an effort of de-extincting the Dodo bird
🧬 A new gene editing tool called NanoCas is one third the size of normal CRISPR -Cas9 and unlocks greater potential for reaching genes that were otherwise very difficult to target.
💭 Researchers have used a generative model to help them design a new material that is as light as foam but strong as steel.
🫀 Allografts, or muscular “patches,” are starting to show promise for human hearts.
Opportunities
Human Rights First is an advocacy organization working to establish the US as a global leader in defending human rights. They’re looking for interns and program associates, and you can see their open roles here.
Anthropic is hiring a research scientist for their societal impacts team. “As a societal impacts research scientist at Anthropic, you'll join a team conducting empirical research on AI's effects across society. You'll help develop and apply novel measurement systems to understand AI's real-world impact, while working to ensure these powerful technologies benefit humanity.” Please keep in mind, we do not endorse working at Anthropic or any frontier AI company in any role - but specific roles (like this one) stand to minimize potential harms from AI, which is why we at Impact Labs want kind, caring people working in these roles.
In a similar vein, OpenAI is hiring a research engineer to focus on bio + CBRN safety. “The Safety Systems team is responsible for various safety work to ensure our best models can be safely deployed to the real world to benefit the society and is at the forefront of OpenAI's mission to build and deploy safe AGI, driving our commitment to AI safety and fostering a culture of trust and transparency.”
“Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) is a nonprofit organization protecting and defending journalism in the 21st century. We give journalists the tools to protect themselves and their sources, monitor aggressions against the press and advocate for a more informed electorate, all in defense of the First Amendment.” They’re currently looking for a software engineer and a digital security trainer.
BlueDot Impact is a nonprofit that runs courses which aim to help participants develop the knowledge, community and network needed to pursue high-impact careers. They’re currently looking for a teaching fellow to join their sporadic AI safety education cohorts.
What We’re Watching
We really like Reboot’s latest article on measuring biological data and anchoring our experiences of tech in our bodies.
Remarkable progress in solar for Turkiyë - they’ve doubled their output in just 2.5 years and met their goals a year ahead of schedule.
Super interesting read on how humanity has gotten better at managing natural disasters and the death tolls of most disasters have gone down in recent decades.
Have you seen Humanity’s Last Exam? In January, GPT-4o scored 3% correctly on the test. In February, their Deep Research model scored 26% correctly. These models are advancing at incredible speed.
Quotes We Love
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much."
— Helen Keller
That’s all for now! See you in your inbox in another two weeks! ❤️