Microsoft Says AI Diagnoses 4 Times Better Than Doctors; Apple-New Cheaper MacBook Running iPhone Silicon; Trump Claims He Has Buyer for TikTok; Scientists Create ‘Living’ Material that Sucks CO2 from Atmosphere

Microsoft is claiming to have made “a genuine step towards medical superintelligence,” according to Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of the company’s artificial intelligence division. Wired.com reports that the new AI tool can diagnose disease four times more accurately and at significantly less cost than a panel of human physicians. The Microsoft team used 304 case studies sourced from the New England Journal of Medicine to devise a test called the Sequential Diagnosis Benchmark (SDBench). A language model broke down each case into a step-by-step process that a doctor would perform in order to reach a diagnosis. Microsoft says the model was 80% accurate, versus 20% for the doctors. Of course, it is cheaper, as well. Microsoft hasn’t not yet decided if it will try to commercialize the tech…which says something about their actual confidence in it being 4 times more accurate than doctors. Call me when AI can turn straw into gold…paging Rumpelstiltskin!

Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo announced in his blog more upcoming Apple hardware…including the usual improved and less costly Vision Pro headsets…a few years from now. More interestingly, Kuo is quoted by 9to5mac.com as saying that Apple will start selling a cheaper MacBook powered by an iPhone processor! The present entry-level MacBook Air starts at $999, but we may see a new cheaper model in late 2025 or early 2026. The cheaper MacBook will be powered by an A18 Pro iPhone processor instead of an M-series like all the other laptops. According to Kuo, it will come in colorful cases like pink and yellow. Could we even see a return to plastic cased MacBooks? That, he didn’t say. Those would necessarily have to be thicker in order to be structurally sound…you can make the metal cases thinner and still quite strong. How cheap will cheap enough be to sell the things? Would it be worth it to just drop $600 or $700 for it when a ‘real’ MacBook air is $999? We’ll see what Cupertino does…perhaps late this year. 

Donald Trump says he has assembled a group of ‘very wealthy people’ to buy TikTok from ByteDance. TechCrunch.com notes that he did say “I think I’ll need probably China’s approval. I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.” Who are these mysterious rich buyers? Trump said he would reveal them in 2 weeks…everything is two weeks away with Trump! 

Scientists in Switzerland have developed a new type of material that grows, ‘lives,’ and sucks carbon dioxide out of the air. Bgr.com reports that it may offer a new low-energy way for carbon capture in architecture and design. It is a water rich hydrogel filled with an ancient type of bacteria. They absorb the CO2 then form solid carbonates that store the carbon in a stable mineral form. They have already built structures from the material. It is thought the living material could be used as a coating on wood as well as for individual structures. Anything that can reduce the excess carbon dioxide in the air is welcome.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.