Good morning. It's Thursday, May 22, and we're covering OpenAI teaming up with the designer of the iPhone, a study showing drastic weight loss in mice, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is dismissing pending settlements and dropping investigations into several US police departments, senior officials revealed yesterday. The move comes days before the fifth anniversary of the death of George Floyd, whose killing by a police officer triggered widespread Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and calls for reform.
Following the killings of Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the Biden administration’s DOJ launched probes into Minneapolis and Louisville, finding patterns of misconduct concerning the civil rights of Black people. The investigations prompted police reform agreements known as consent decrees with the two cities, intended to rectify civil rights violations with reforms overseen by a court-appointed monitor.
The head of the division said yesterday the decrees were unjustified and would have led to micromanagement. The news comes as an estimated 250 of the division's attorneys (roughly 70%) are leaving the department in response to changes. |
OpenAI has purchased designer Jony Ive's hardware startup io, the company announced yesterday. The all-equity deal, valued at $6.4B, will involve the development of AI-powered hardware devices, the first of which will be unveiled next year. Read the announcement here (w/video).
As former chief design officer at Apple, Ive is credited with designing iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air. In yesterday's announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hinted at Ive's development of a laptop-replacing device, with reports suggesting his team has designed headphones and other screenless devices to better integrate AI into everyday life. Ive and his team—many of them former Apple employees—will assume creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io, which will merge.
The purchase is OpenAI’s largest and comes weeks after the company announced it would buy AI coding tool Windsurf for $3B. OpenAI is granting Ive and his creative team $5B in OpenAI stock, with the company recently valued at $300B. |
Eliminating a single amino acid caused mice to lose 30% of their body weight in one week, a new study has found. Cysteine is found in nearly all foods, with the study showcasing its critical role in metabolic processes. Read the full study here.
Researchers fed adult mice a cysteine-free diet and genetically engineered the mice to be incapable of producing the amino acid. The combined interventions interrupted cells' ability to produce the energy-carrying molecule adenosine triphosphate. The interventions also triggered two separate stress responses—a phenomenon previously seen only in cancer cells. The mice burned fat rapidly in a failed effort to produce energy. The elimination of cysteine outperformed any of the nine essential amino acids in achieving rapid weight loss.
Cysteine is present in all fruits, vegetables, and meat, making a cysteine-free diet impractical for humans. Fruits and vegetables have lower levels of cysteine's precursor, methionine, whose restriction has been associated with various health benefits. |
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$1B Startup Disrupting Retirement Industry |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins NBA MVP after finishing runner-up in the voting last season (More) | Jim Irsay, Indianapolis Colts owner and CEO, dies at age 65 (More) |
> Universal Orlando's Epic Universe officially opens to the public today; the theme park includes Super Mario World and themed "Harry Potter" and "How to Train Your Dragon" sections (More) |
> "Heart Lamp," a short story anthology by Indian author Banu Mushtaq, wins prestigious 2025 International Booker Prize for best work of fiction translated into English (More) |
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> Humpback whales have poor eyesight despite relatively large eyes, new study reveals; animals may have trouble resolving details of potential threats beyond three to four body lengths (More) |
> Volcanoes trigger cloud formation during eruptions, with ash providing a surface for ice to begin forming in the atmosphere; findings fill a knowledge gap around how eruptions influence climate (More) |
> New manufacturing process significantly reduces corrosion of steel rebar, could eventually lead to a tripling of the lifetime of bridges to around 100 years (More) |
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> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -1.6%, Dow -1.9%, Nasdaq -1.4%) amid jump in Treasury yields and concerns tax bill moving through Congress will add to the US deficit (More) | Bitcoin price jumps to all-time high of $109,500, closing the day at $108,955.10 (More) |
> Target shares close down 5.2% after reporting 3.8% year-over-year decline in same-store sales; company attributes the drop in part to tariff uncertainty, boycott over ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (More) |
> United Arab Emirates launches Arabic-language AI model it says can match the performance of models up to 10 times its size (More) |
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> Rep. Gerry Connolly (D, VA-11) dies at age 75, weeks after announcing he would not seek reelection following the return of esophageal cancer (More) |
> Rep. LaMonica McIver (D, NJ-10) makes first court appearance following assault charges stemming from May 9 visit to ICE facility (More) | Justice Department opens investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's (D) House committee testimony on spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes (More) |
> Department of Defense accepts $400M luxury Boeing jet from Qatar, intended to serve as Air Force One (More) | Federal judge rules against Department of Homeland Security for sending eight migrants convicted of violent crime to South Sudan, requires DHS to keep migrants in US custody (More) |
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> Power Hungry
MIT Tech Review | James O'Donnell, Casey Crownhart. Recent estimates suggest data centers account for around 4.4% of US electricity consumption, with new facilities supporting the AI boom consuming more power than the state of New Hampshire each year. The energy impact of individual prompts varies greatly based on question, model, and more. (Read)
> The People Who Are Too Friendly
BBC | Jasmin Fox-Skelly. Affecting around one in 7,500 people, one of the striking symptoms of Williams syndrome is the propensity to treat strangers as close friends. Understanding this rare genetic condition may shed light on the evolution of our drive to be social. (Read) |
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*Disclosure: "Journal of Retirement Study Winter" (2020). The projections or other information regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not guarantees of your future results. Please follow the link to see the methodologies employed in the Journal of Retirement study.
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