NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

Can AI Really Cure Every Disease in 10 Years?

When Demis Hassabis helped create AlphaGo—the first AI to beat a world champion at Go—it made a move no human had ever considered. For Hassabis, it was a glimpse into AI’s potential as a creative partner.

Now, nearly a decade later, he’s applying that vision to medicine.

As CEO of Isomorphic Labs—a DeepMind spinout—Hassabis is using AI to accelerate drug discovery in areas like cancer and autoimmune disease and is partnering with pharma giants like Eli Lilly and Novartis. The goal? Speed up drug development that normally takes years and billions.

Hassabis believes AI can drastically shrink that timeline. In a recent 60 Minutes interview, he made a bold claim: AI could eradicate all disease within the next decade. 😲

It sounds wild—but tools like AlphaFold, which mapped 200 million protein structures in a year (a task that would've taken centuries), suggest it’s possible.

He imagines a future where early detection and treatment are routine. “It won’t seem extraordinary,” he says. “It’ll be like taking an antibiotic.”

Amen to that.

Check out this 14-minute snippet from 60 Minutes that features the interview with Hassabis and Google’s AI initiatives.

Saving Pakistan’s Snow Leopards with AI

High in Pakistan’s mountains, one of the world’s most elusive big cats is fighting for survival. And now, conservationists are turning to AI to help.

Snow leopards are endangered, with only 4,000 to 6,000 left in the wild—around 300 of these live in Pakistan. Each year, hundreds are killed in retaliation after attacking livestock. The reasons are complicated: shrinking habitats, changing weather, and farmers moving into higher altitudes to graze animals—all bringing them closer to these predators.

But what if AI combined with a text message could help change that?

That’s the idea behind a new project from World Wide Fund (WWF) and Pakistan’s LUMS University. They have installed solar-powered AI-enabled cameras in remote snow leopard habitats, where electricity and access is limited.

Using AI to distinguish between humans, livestock, and snow leopards, the camera instantly sends a text alert to nearby villagers when a leopard appears. Farmers can then move their livestock out of harm’s way, preventing attacks and reducing the chances of retaliatory killings.

WWF reports that the technology has already reduced snow leopard attacks on livestock at targeted sites.

Welcome to the Human-Robot Marathon

Beijing just hosted the world’s first humanoid half-marathon, where 21 robots ran 21 kilometers alongside thousands of human runners.

The winning robot, Tiangong Ultra, completed the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes. For context, that’s more than double the winning human time—and slower than many casual runners. It also didn’t run entirely on its own: a human support runner carried a signaling device that guided the robot’s movements.

Most other robots fared worse. Only four finished under the 4-hour cutoff. One robot sparked and stopped mid-race. Another veered into a fence and shattered. A third collapsed at the starting line.

Yet, the fact that any robots finished at all is a milestone. To qualify, robots had to be bipedal, humanoid in appearance, and run in a separate fenced-off lane.

While some felt the robots brought some excitement to the marathon, others felt that mixing robots and humans in a race misses the point of competition. What do you think?

Meet May Habib, CEO & Co-founder of Writer

Celebrating this Week's Woman in tech 🥳: Meet May Habib, CEO and co-founder of Writer, an AI-assisted writing platform that serves 250 enterprise clients including Accenture, Uber and L'Oréal.

Born in Lebanon, Habib emigrated with her family to Canada at a young age and later completed her Bachelor's in Economics from Harvard University.

May’s startup Writer is a full-stack enterprise AI platform used by over 300 companies to do the kind of work that usually takes months—in days. From translating product descriptions to helping financial analysts automate earnings-call summaries, Writer is quietly reshaping how knowledge work gets done.

In November 2024, Writer closed a $200 million Series C funding round, raising its valuation to $1.9 billion—a milestone for both the company and female founders in AI.

Habib has been named in the Forbes AI 50 (2023) and Inc.’s Female Founder Award (2023). She is also a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum (2024) and a recognized Fellow with the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Habib, once the only English speaker in her immigrant family, now leads one of the most practical AI companies in the enterprise space. And in a tech world still dominated by male founders, she’s become a symbol of what’s possible with clarity, confidence, and sheer grit. 😊