The Download: OpenAI launches search, and AI-generated video games

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.

OpenAI has brought a new web search tool to ChatGPT

The news: ChatGPT can now search the web for up-to-date answers to a user’s queries. Previously it was restricted to generating answers from its training data, and had limited web search capabilities. But now, ChatGPT will automatically search the web in response to queries about recent information such as sports, stocks, or news of the day, and can deliver rich multi-media results.

How to use it: The feature is available now for the chatbot’s paying users, but OpenAI intends to make it available for free later, even when people are logged out. It also plans to combine search with its voice features.

The context: OpenAI is the latest tech company to debut an AI-powered search assistant, challenging similar tools from competitors such as Google, Microsoft, and startup Perplexity. However, none of these tools are immune from the persistent tendency of AI language models to make things up or get them wrong. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä and Mat Honan

AI search could break the web

—Benjamin Brooks is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard scrutinizing the regulatory and legislative response to AI. 

At its best, AI search can better infer a user’s intent, amplify quality content, and synthesize information from diverse sources. But if AI search becomes our primary portal to the web, it threatens to disrupt an already precarious digital economy. 

Today, the production of content online depends on a fragile set of incentives tied to virtual foot traffic: ads, subscriptions, donations, sales, or brand exposure. By shielding the web behind an all-knowing chatbot, AI search could deprive creators of the visits and “eyeballs” they need to survive. Here’s what the industry should do to make AI search sustainable.

This AI-generated Minecraft may represent the future of real-time video generation

When you walk around in a version of the video game Minecraft from the AI companies Decart and Etched, it feels a little off. Sure, you can move forward, cut down a tree, and lay down a dirt block, just like in the real thing. If you turn around, though, the dirt block you just placed may have morphed into a totally new environment. That doesn’t happen in Minecraft. But this new version is entirely AI-generated, so it’s prone to hallucinations. Not a single line of code was written.

For Decart and Etched, this demo is a proof of concept. But they believe that, with innovations in chip design and further improvements, there’s no reason it won’t soon be possible to develop a high-fidelity version of Minecraft, or really any game, using AI. Read the full story. 

—Scott J Mulligan

Read next: AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersive. Read our feature about how generative AI could reinvent what it means to play.

How exosomes could become more than just an “anti-aging” fad

—Jessica Hamzelou 

Over the past month or so, I’ve been working on a story about exosomes. They’re being touted as a hot new beauty treatment, a fountain of youth, and generally a cure-all therapy for a whole host of ailments.

Any cell biologist, though, will tell you what exosomes really are: tiny little blobs that bud off from cells and contain a mixture of proteins and other components. We’re not entirely clear what those components are or what they do, despite the promises made by medspas and cosmetic clinics charging thousands of dollars for exosome “therapies.” 

However, there is some very exciting scientific research underway to better understand exactly what exosomes do. It might take longer for these kinds of exosome applications to get to the clinic, but when they do, at least they’ll be evidence based. Read all about what’s going on. 

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech and health. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must-reads

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

1 As the US election looms, social media platforms have given up moderating
Efforts to fight falsehoods have drastically backslid since 2020. (Wired $)
+ Young voters are encountering Trump’s ‘grab them’ comment for the first time on TikTok. (WP $) 
+ Ignore the noise—the US election system is actually stronger than ever, experts say. (CNET)
 
2 AI policy is something Harris and Trump broadly agree on
On the surface, they look miles apart. But dig into their track records, and there are lots of similarities. (The Atlantic $)
+ Investors are getting tired of waiting for returns on their AI investments. (Quartz $)
+ What even is AI? No one seems to agree—and that’s a problem. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 Inside Elon Musk’s grand plan to remake the US government
If he gets his promised role as efficiency ‘tsar’, he plans to go on a slashing and burning spree. (WP $)
 
4 Outside the US, the world is increasingly using Chinese technology
Despite US sanctions, it dominates fields like drones, solar panels, and electric vehicles. (Bloomberg $)
+ Chinese sanctions are causing a supply chain crisis for Skydio, the US’s largest drone maker. (FT $)
+ BYD posted higher quarterly revenues than Tesla for the first time. (FT $)
+ What’s next for drones. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 Here’s how to make all the political text messages go away
Whatever you do, do not actually reply ‘Stop’ (seriously). (WSJ $)
 
6 Amazon workers are furious over its return-to-office policy
They say the company is failing to provide evidence to back it up, and misrepresenting their views. (Reuters $)
 
7 Hundreds of Dubliners turned up for a fake AI-generated Halloween parade 🎃
We can expect to see more and more examples like this, of AI fakery spilling over into the physical world. (Metro)
 
8 Ghost jobs are haunting tech workers
Fake jobs posted by real companies are growing irritation for people seeking work. (SFGate)
 
9 ‘Cloud-milking’ is a new zero-energy way to extract water from fog ☁️💧
It’s been successfully tested in the Canary Islands, but it could help other areas recovering from natural disasters. (The Guardian)
 
10 Your wall paints could soon do much more than look pretty
Innovators are working on paints that can peel off, resist dirt, and even provide insulation. (BBC)

Quote of the day

"We’re going to add a whole new category of content, which is AI generated or AI summarized content or kind of existing content pulled together by AI in some way. And I think that that’s going to be just very exciting."

—Mark Zuckerberg says we can expect our timelines to be filled with more and more AI slop during a call with investors, 404 Media reports. 

 The big story

Why Generation Z falls for online misinformation

June 2021

In November 2019, a TikTok video claiming that if Joe Biden is elected president of the United States, “trumpies” will commit mass murder of LGBT individuals and people of color rapidly went viral. It was viewed, shared, liked and commented on by hundreds of thousands of young people.

Clearly, the claims were false. Why, then, did so many members of Generation Z—a label applied to people aged roughly 9 to 24, who are presumably more digitally savvy than their predecessors—fall for such flagrant misinformation? The answer is complex, but may partly lie in a sense of common identity with the person who shared it in the first place. Read the full story.

—Jennifer Neda John

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)

+ Here are some words to warm you up on this first day of November.

+ Becky Barnicoat’s comics always make me laugh.

+ If you were also obsessed with Tom and Greg in Succession, you’ll enjoy this.  

+ Let’s hear it for Missy Elliott—here’s why she’s such a peerless entertainer. ($)