This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US’s health agencies, has been facing questions from senators as part of his confirmation hearing for the role. So far, it’s been a dramatic watch, with plenty of fiery exchanges, screams from audience members, and damaging revelations.
There’s also been a lot of discussion about vaccines. Kennedy has long been a vocal critic of vaccines. He has spread misinformation about the effects of vaccines. He’s petitioned the government to revoke the approval of vaccines. He’s sued pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines.
Kennedy has his supporters. But not everyone who opts not to vaccinate shares his worldview. There are lots of reasons why people don’t vaccinate themselves or their children. Understanding those reasons will help us tackle an issue considered to be a huge global health problem today. And plenty of researchers are working on tools to do just that. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
What DeepSeek’s breakout success means for AI
The tech world is abuzz over a new open-source reasoning AI model developed by DeepSeek, a Chinese startup. The company claims that this new model, called DeepSeek R1, matches or even surpasses OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1 in performance but operates at a fraction of the cost.
Its success is even more remarkable given the constraints that Chinese AI companies face due to US export controls on cutting-edge chips. DeepSeek’s approach represents a radical change in how AI gets built, and could shift the tech world’s center of gravity.
Join news editor Charlotte Jee, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and China reporter Caiwei Chen for an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation on Monday 3 February at 12pm ET discussing what DeepSeek’s breakout success means for AI and the broader tech industry. Register here.
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