OpenSnow, a startup built by two former ski bums, outperforms federally-funded forecasting services by combining NOAA government data with proprietary AI models and hands-on alpine expertise. The app has become essential during one of the most erratic winters on record, and its forecasters have developed genuine followings by publishing detailed Daily Snow reports for locations worldwide. The full story, reported from Tahoe, traces how a bootstrapped operation became the most trusted snow prediction tool available.
A federal judge has halted the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, with the judge citing attempts to suppress public debate. Separately, Elon Musk lost his lawsuit against an ad boycott targeting X, with the court calling the case a fishing expedition, as ad revenue on the platform has dropped more than 50 percent since his takeover. OpenAI has also shelved erotic chatbot plans indefinitely after pushback from staff and investors, a notable reversal given the company's concurrent strategic pivot away from its nonprofit structure.
Cryonics researcher L. Stephen Coles had his frozen brain studied after death, and the resulting MIT Technology Review investigation asks a harder question than whether the science works: why do people choose this knowing revival odds are vanishingly small. Separately, MIT Technology Review editor Amanda Silverman spoke with science journalist Robin George Andrews about the next era of space exploration, covering Mars life detection, asteroid deflection, and permanent lunar habitation. The cryonics piece is worth reading in full for what it reveals about how people rationalize a bet with near-zero expected value.
[READ ORIGINAL →]