We calculated the energy footprint of AI. Here's a story you haven't heard.
Understanding AI's energy use became a major global discussion in 2025, when hundreds of millions of people began regularly using generative AI tools. Senior reporters James O'Donnell and Casey Crownhart dug into the numbers and published an unprecedented look at AI resource demands, down to the single-request level, to help us learn how much energy and water AI might need to get ahead.
We're learning more about how vitamin D affects our bodies
Vitamin D deficiency is widespread, especially in winter when there is less sunlight to stimulate its production in our bodies. The sunshine vitamin is important for bone health, but as senior reporter Jessica Hamzelu reported, recent research is also revealing surprising new insights into other ways it may affect our bodies, including our immune system and heart health.
Senior editor Will Douglas Haven's expansive look at defining AI was published in 2024, but still managed to grab the attention of many readers this year. He explains why no one can agree on what AI is, and explains why this ambiguity matters and how it can affect our critical thinking about this technology.
Ethically sourced 'spare' human bodies could revolutionize medicine
In this thought-provoking paper, a team of Stanford University experts argue that creating living human bodies that cannot think, have no consciousness, and feel no pain could undermine medical research and drug development by providing vital biological materials for testing and transplantation. Recent advances in biotechnology now offer a potential path to such “bodyoids,” although many technical challenges and ethical hurdles remain.
