Some things are in our control and others not. Inside: a cancer caught on scans taken for something else, forecasts for 100 million farmers, and two more good things. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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Lately in AI
Four things AI got right lately.
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A cancer found on scans taken for something else. Forecasts headed to 100 million farmers. A law that keeps a person in the room. Three minutes, start to finish.
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Stoic anchor
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“Of things, some are in our power, and others not.”
Epictetus · Enchiridion 1 · translated by Elizabeth Carter
Nobody controls the monsoon. Whether to plant before it arrives is up to the farmer, if the forecast gets there first. Most of this good news has that shape: better foresight about what no one controls, and the decisions that are ours staying ours.
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The big one · Health
The scan you already had might catch it.
Esophageal cancer is usually found late, because there is no simple screening test for it. A team at Alibaba's DAMO Academy trained a model called EAGLE to spot it on ordinary chest CT scans, the kind many people already get for other reasons. In Nature Medicine on Sept. 22, it held up in hospitals across China, the Czech Republic and Australia.
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90%
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Cancers found
of cancers, in validation
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98.5%
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Correctly cleared
of people without it, 8 test centers
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9+ mo.
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Earliest flag
ahead of diagnosis, in 4 look-back cases
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No new machine, no new appointment. Just a second look at a picture that already exists.
The catch: it is far weaker on precancerous changes, catching about half (52.5%) in testing.
Source: Nature Medicine
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Also good lately
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Farms
Weather forecasts for 100 million farmers.
The OpenAI Foundation put $60 million over three years behind AI forecasts of monsoon timing, rain and extreme heat, sent by phone to small farms in South and Southeast Asia and East Africa. Better timing on when to plant and harvest is money in a family's pocket.
Source: OpenAI Foundation
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Work
A machine can't fire you on its own.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 947, the "No Robo Bosses" Act. Starting July 2027, a person has to check the decision whenever an employer leans mainly on an AI system to fire or discipline someone, and the worker gets a written notice when that happens.
Source: Office of Sen. Jerry McNerney
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Research
A world-class AI for under $8,000.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Stanford and MIT built Ataraxos, which beat Pim Niemeijer, the most decorated Stratego player ever, 15–1 with four draws. It trained in about a week on 16 GPUs, plus a shorter run on four, roughly 1/500th of what the last attempt used. Serious AI is getting cheap enough for a university lab.
Source: Nature
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Unexpected connection
A brainless mold drew a map like Tokyo’s trains.
Researchers in Japan set out food on a dish in the pattern of the cities around Tokyo, then let a slime mold, a single cell with no brain, grow between them. The web of tubes it built looked a lot like the region’s rail network, and it scored about as well on efficiency, cost and holding up when a link breaks. Good answers sometimes come from places nobody thought to look, like a scan taken for something else.
Source: Tero et al., Science (2010)
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Try this week
One prompt. Not clever.
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Here's what's worrying me: [describe it]. Sort it into what's in my control and what isn't, then give me the one next step that is mine.
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Epictetus taught this sorting nearly two thousand years ago. Claude makes a patient partner for it, on a bad week or a messy project.
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Onward
Good news in AI, with a Stoic anchor.
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Your turn
What's one thing AI did for you this week that actually helped? Hit reply and tell me.
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