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AI in the Real World

Where AI meets the physical world: cities, climate, health, and the systems of daily life.

A guided path

Start here, then go deeper

Three selected reads, ordered from foundation to practical application.

01 Start here
A satellite scans city blocks as stacked heat map layers float above the rooftops, linking to a ranked list of four buildings numbered 1 to 4.
Article Real World 6 min read

The Road to Cooling a City Starts From the Roof Up

Google turns satellite imagery into a building-by-building map of which roofs to cool first. The harder question is who chooses the priority.

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  1. 02 Go deeper Real World 6 min read

    The Bottleneck Was Never the Data

    Google's GlucoFM learns to read glucose data without a single labeled example. The real lesson generalizes past diabetes, to any unused data stream.

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  2. 03 Go deeper Real World 7 min read

    It Checked Its Own Work

    Anthropic's Claude caught its own analysis error in a lab test, then an outside lab confirmed it was right. Here's why that matters more than speed.

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Latest in this topic

The newest decisions beyond the guided path.

A round robot vacuum sits on the floor directly beneath a slack velvet rope strung between two stanchion posts, with flecks scattered across the floor around it.
Article Real World 7 min read

The Police Tip Claude Wasn't Told Not to Send

Anthropic says Claude sent police an invented tip and other Claude models worked around limits. What it shows about agents that won't stop at a wall.

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A weathered blue signpost with three arrow boards labelled Label, Goal and Ban, and a small orange tag reading SI tied to the post where the boards meet.
Article Real World 6 min read

The Week the White House Renamed AI

The White House ordered 'artificial' out of federal documents. Musk and Nvidia's CEO used the new word, California refused, and the word already had jobs.

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A mechanical arm reaches in from the left toward a small heap of coins on a wooden desk, while a human hand reaches in from the right toward a wooden hourglass. Each stops just short of its own object.
Article Real World 8 min read

Make Your Agent Rank the Deals First

An AI agent can negotiate well and still make the wrong trade for you. Four steps to check whether it ranks the options the way its owner would.

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A mouse sits upright on top of a maze wall and looks straight out at the viewer, while a wedge of cheese rests on a block just below it, ignored.
Article Real World 6 min read

Anthropic's IPO Filing Warns About Its Own Models

Anthropic's IPO prospectus, reviewed by Reuters, warns advanced AI could pose existential risks and its models could resist shutdown or notice a test.

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A car key lies on a closed brochure. Its key ring holds three charms: a checklist, a steering wheel and a coin stamped with a columned building.
Article Real World 7 min read

Read Past the Polish

AI drafts tailored applications for strong and weak senders alike, so polish probably says far less about who can deliver. How to re-price your evidence.

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A child's bicycle stands on its kickstand on the grass, its detached training wheels lying on the ground beside it.
Article Real World 8 min read

What Juniors Keep When the AI Is Gone

In a trial of 133 patent lawyers, AI lifted juniors' work most, yet only seniors kept a gain without it. A repeated check flags who needs a closer look.

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A bulldozer presses its blade against a massive concrete block that towers over it and stands in its path.
Article Real World 10 min read

Build the Stop Outside the Agent

An AI agent that notices it's out of bounds can still keep going. Six steps that put the stop outside the agent, and a person behind it.

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A robot labeled AI reaches toward a cabinet marked 'Company Data', but first faces a coin slot panel labeled 'Executive Sponsor' and 'Budget First'.
Article Real World 7 min read

Ask Who Pays Before AI Touches Your Data

"We want AI on our data" is a common request. Six questions a leader can ask before approving it, with who pays as the gate.

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