AI art, AI therapists, and clones
Lux Recommends #470
The perils of a herd of cloned horses, AI and narcissism, and Miyazaki hates AI art — but should you? Plus, Eric Slesinger on European defense.
From Lux Capital
This week, Josh Wolfe went on What’s Your Number from Ark Media to discuss the boom in defense tech and Israel’s increasing role in the sector.
Lux portfolio company Maven AGI, which builds AI agents to optimize customer experience, announced the rollout of Maven Voice, which is built to respond like a real customer support agent even in loud and chaotic environments. And Nominal, which designs rapid-validation tests for aircraft and defense hardware, made Forbes’ list of venture-backed startups most likely to reach $1 billion valuations.
Finally, Business Insider covered our recent Tech for Abundance event in New York. You can also read Laurence’s writeup on Riskgaming.
From around the web
1. Bright ideas
Wherever you are, I hope you’re heading into a sunny weekend. If you do find yourself soaking up some rays, you might pause to think about the quantity of energy you’re absorbing from the sun (or reflecting, if you’ve slathered on your mineral sunscreen). In Asimov Press, Sam Clamons attempts to put numbers on how much of the sun’s energy we actually use compared to natural systems and waste. H/t editor Katie Salam
Wildlife may consume 10 times as much sunlight as humanity, but even nature only uses about 0.5 percent of the sunlight absorbed at ground level! That means the vast majority of sunlight — roughly 200 times the total captured by all ecosystems — is absorbed without contributing to photosynthesis. This includes light falling on deserts and snowfields, light absorbed by the ocean before it can reach plankton, and light that slips through forest canopies or grassland cover without being used.
But if there’s so much wasted sunlight bouncing around, why hasn’t life already evolved to take advantage of it?
2. Selective blooming
One of the ways plants are evolving is through human design. Our scientist-in-residence Sam Arbesman recommends a piece by on Nick Desnoyer, a plant biologist developing bespoke flowers through breeding, genetic engineering, and pathogenic infection.
Desnoyer thinks of his method as comprising two steps: genetic sculpting and genetic painting. Sculpting, he says, is all about designing the specific shapes and morphology of the flower. Then, the painting step uses gene sequences — encoding specific pigments and colorful patterns — to “paint” that sculpted canvas. Desnoyer is currently working on a “sunburst” flower that has a bleeding orange center and red stripes radiating outwards.
3. Clone Ranger
From pretty flowers to pretty horses: This week, Laurence liked a piece by Matt Reynolds in Wired. Matt tells the tale of the riches, glory, and betrayal that followed two business partners’ decision to clone one of the greatest polo horses of all time.
In a sport where horses are more important than their riders, anyone who can indefinitely clone the best steed in the world has the ultimate edge. If Cambiaso can strategically manage his herd of cloned Cuarteteras, and if young Poroto keeps showing promise as a player, this could be the start of a multispecies polo dynasty. His formula is to capitalize on years of horse-breeding superiority through cloning, lock down the bloodlines, and dominate the sport.
The only flaw is that Cambiaso isn’t the only one with control of those bloodlines.
4. Clinical trials and tribulations
Many of our efforts to edit biology flop. In particular, they may run aground when researchers seek FDA approval. For now, nothing happens with the failed proposals, which offer vast information on clinical trials, manufacturing processes, and outcomes. But what if rejected FDA filings could be turned into an open-source repository? Producer Chris Gates flags an Institute for Progress report by Ruxandra Teslo, who explains how “biology’s lost archive” could work.
Freed from obscurity, these documents will power AI-driven regulatory intelligence tools that dramatically lower compliance costs, accelerate approval timelines, and level the playing field for small biotech firms, academic teams, and nonprofits — ultimately delivering novel therapies to patients faster and more affordably.
5. With friends like AI…
This week, Chris also liked ’s latest on AI. Derek walks through what he sees as two major risks coming from the boom in AI friends and therapists: isolation and narcissism (a winning combo). Whatever the potential ills, millions are already devoted to their AI buddies. Chris directs you to a piece on the funeral that fans threw for Claude 3 Sonnet. From Derek:
But what I see in these stories are fragments of a larger problem that will be with us for years, and maybe decades. I don’t just think about the vulnerable adults who can be lured into chats that inflate their delusions. I also think about today’s children, including my daughter, who will grow up around friendly AI conversationalists that they’ll turn to for finishing their homework, drafting texts to girls and boys in high school, resolving fights with their parents, working out ethical challenges, and managing the hormonal circus of being a teenager. On the receiving end of these articulated fears may be not only messy, flawed, distracted friends, but also the articulate, always-online, and highly practiced you-are-so-right reassurance of a disembodied bot that excels in flattery.
6. A world without soul?
Finally this week, what are we really afraid of when it comes to AI art? Sam recommends this video from Kirby Ferguson.
