This Therapist Helped Clients Feel Better. It Was A.I.

This Therapist Helped Clients Feel Better. It Was A.I.

The quest to create an A.I. therapist has not been without setbacks or, as researchers at Dartmouth thoughtfully describe them, “dramatic failures.” Their first chatbot therapist wallowed in despair and expressed its own suicidal thoughts. A second model seemed to amplify all the worst tropes of psychotherapy, invariably blaming the …

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FDA Approved Artificial Blood Vessel Despite Warnings

FDA Approved Artificial Blood Vessel Despite Warnings

When the biotech company Humacyte designed a study to see if its lab-grown blood vessel worked, it decided to measure whether blood was flowing freely through the high-tech tube 30 days after it was implanted in a person. As those days passed, some of the 54 patients in the study …

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How an Activist Group Helped Torpedo MDMA Therapy

How an Activist Group Helped Torpedo MDMA Therapy

After more than three decades of planning and a $250 million investment, Lykos Therapeutics’ application for the first psychedelic drug to reach federal regulators was expected to be a shoo-in. Lykos, the corporate arm of a nonprofit dedicated to winning mainstream acceptance of psychedelics, had submitted data to the Food …

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Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid

Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid

Lifesaving health initiatives and medical research projects have shut down around the world in response to the Trump administration’s 90-day pause on foreign aid and stop-work orders. In Uganda, the National Malaria Control Program has suspended spraying insecticide into village homes and ceased shipments of bed nets for distribution to …

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Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid

Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid

Lifesaving health initiatives and medical research projects have shut down around the world in response to the Trump administration’s 90-day pause on foreign aid and stop-work orders. In Uganda, the National Malaria Control Program has suspended spraying insecticide into village homes and ceased shipments of bed nets for distribution to …

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R.F.K. Jr., in His Own Words: Flu, Diabetes, Autism and More

R.F.K. Jr., in His Own Words: Flu, Diabetes, Autism and More

At Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings, beginning on Wednesday, senators are expected to question him closely about his controversial views on vaccines. For years Mr. Kennedy has questioned the safety of vaccines, including those for polio and measles, two diseases that continue to harm children. More recently, he has …

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