// MIT TECH REVIEW — INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
The Download: AI’s real extinction threat and age-reversal tech for eyes
Plus: Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk have called for an AI slowdown.
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.
Employees at the world's leading AI labs are saying there's a real possibility that advanced AI could destroy humanity. Are they right? Or is this more scaremongering and hype?
Join MIT Technology Review executive editor Niall Firth, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and AI reporter Grace Huckins for a subscriber-only conversation unpacking the debate around AI extinction. They’ll explore where the fears come from, whether they hold any water and, if they do, what we should do about them.
Register now to attend on Tuesday, September 15 at 16:00 BST / 11:00am EST / 8:00am PST.
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Yuancheng (Ryan) Lu is obsessed with aging. And with eyes. As he steps outside the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his aviator glasses darken automatically in the sun. Age-related blindness runs in his family, and his own 23andMe test came back with a mutation for macular degeneration, a top cause of vision loss in old age.
That obsession extends to his work. Lu is behind one of the coolest results in rejuvenation science and eye research: an age-reversal technique called reprogramming that repaired the optic nerves of blind mice, restoring their vision. Now, nearly the same genetic therapy he developed as a student has entered human clinical trials.
Learn more about Lu’s work on restoring sight with age-reversal therapy.
Yuancheng (Ryan) Lu is one of the biotechnology and health honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the rest of them here, or explore the full list across the biotechnology and health, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.