The Download: America’s gun crisis, and how AI video models work
Summary
This edition of The Download highlights two major threads: the disturbing omission of gun violence from a new US children’s health strategy, and an explainer on how modern AI models generate video — a fast-moving area with big creative upsides and serious harms.
The newsletter also flags a fresh (but undisclosed) revised deal between OpenAI and Microsoft, profiles Sneha Goenka as MIT Technology Review’s 2025 Innovator of the Year for speeding genomic diagnoses, and rounds up other notable tech stories from measles and drone warfare to copyright suits against AI firms.
Key Points
- The Trump administration’s “Make Our Children Healthy Again” strategy focuses on diet and exercise but omits gun violence, the leading cause of death for US children and teens.
- Experts argue gun violence should be treated as a public-health crisis to improve child safety and outcomes.
- AI video generation has exploded: OpenAI’s Sora, DeepMind’s Veo 3, and Runway’s Gen-4 produce clips that can mimic filmed footage or animation convincingly.
- AI video tools create new creative opportunities but also fuel deepfakes, misinformation and platform clutter with low-quality outputs.
- Generating video is far more energy-intensive than producing text or images, raising environmental and cost concerns for widespread use.
- OpenAI and Microsoft have reportedly agreed a revised deal; details remain undisclosed, but it matters for the AI industry’s financing and product strategies.
- Sneha Goenka’s work could drastically shorten genome-based diagnoses for critically ill children, potentially saving lives by accelerating treatment decisions.
- The newsletter curates other must-reads: measles fatality reminders about vaccination, Ukrainian drone-driven internet disruptions in Russia, debates on AI and drug discovery timelines, and growing AI copyright litigation.
Why should I read this?
Short version: it’s a neat pack of what actually matters today. If you care about kids’ safety, AI’s trajectory (and its carbon bill), or who’s shaping the next wave of biotech, this saves you time — and points you to the deeper reads you’ll actually need to follow up on.
Author style
Punchy and no-nonsense: the pieces chosen here cut to the crux of public-health blindspots and the technical trade-offs of hot new AI tools. If you’re tracking policy, safety, or the real-world impacts of generative AI, the details are worth your attention.
Context and Relevance
Why it matters: treating gun violence as a public-health problem would shift funding, data collection and prevention strategies — and could change outcomes for children across the US. Meanwhile, AI video models are moving from research demos to consumer-facing tools; their rise affects content creation, misinformation risks, energy consumption and legal frameworks (copyright and responsibility).
How it connects to trends: the newsletter threads together policy, ethics and commercial shifts in AI and biotech — sectors where regulatory choices and corporate deals (for example, OpenAI–Microsoft) will strongly influence who benefits and who bears the costs.