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.

Today’s AI models are trained to refuse a vast number of prompts. If you ask your chatbot how to poison a colleague or how to tie a noose, chances are it’ll turn you down. But refusal fails, sometimes horrifically.

Some people are attempting to use AI to hone biological pathogens and build autonomous drone swarms. Sooner or later, failed refusals may result in global calamity. What’s more, relying on refusal means drawing a line between what a model should obey and what it must disobey.

Governments will also get to draw their own lines, potentially restricting free speech. At the same time, the capabilities that make AI useful could also make it dangerous. If we want it to help cure cancer, AI needs genetics expertise that could also produce bioweapons.

Read the full story on the formidable tradeoffs of AI refusal.

This story is from the next issue of our print magazine. Subscribe now to get your hands on a copy as soon as it lands on Wednesday 21 October!  

This week my colleague Antonio Regalado reported on new research suggesting GLP-1 drugs may slow biological aging. It’s the latest in a raft of potential benefits associated with these drugs. But there are also some weird side effects.

The most common are gastrointestinal, but researchers are also investigating possible links to hair loss, nail disorders and damage to the nerves behind the eye.

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