💡 Warp News #333
👦 U.S. teenagers are drinking, smoking, and fighting less and less. 👮 Largest drop in violent crime and murder in the US since 1937. 🦝 The numbat was nearly extinct, now it is no longer classified as endangered.
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Free newsletter with fact-based optimistic news about technology, science, and human progress with the angry optimist, Mathias Sundin. If you are not a subscriber, become one here.
🦾 AI isn't just wow anymore
Since ChatGPT was released, I've gotten used to saying or feeling "wow, this is magic!" almost every week.
Mixed with a facepalm when AI does something obviously stupid or claims something completely wrong.
Both categories are still around, but in recent months AI has also started handling perfectly ordinary and often tedious everyday tasks.
That's wow too, really, but it's crowded out by a feeling of relief. Not having to spend time on brain-dead work.
In my case, it has also helped me with a fear that has constantly nagged at me.
I write about that in this week's Premium Supporter piece (open and free for everyone to read).
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
🏆 This week's Premium Supporter article
🦾 AI is finally starting to help with grunt work (and my biggest fear)
There's a fear that constantly nags at the back of my mind. It makes me check and double-check, compulsively, and it never helps. Then one day it was gone.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
💉 937 billion dollars in vaccine costs have saved 154 million lives and 15,000 billion dollars
That means every dollar invested has returned 16.06 dollars, and in low-income countries the return is even higher: 23.63 dollars per dollar invested.
🌌 The universe is now being filmed for ten years, and everyone gets access to the footage
The Vera Rubin Observatory is now photographing the entire southern sky and making all the data openly available. During a single test run, it discovered over 11,000 previously unknown asteroids, 33 of them near Earth.
🦝 The numbat was nearly extinct, now it is no longer classified as endangered
The numbat was close to extinction. By the late 1970s, only around 300 individuals remained. After more than 40 years of conservation work, the population has grown to between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals. The IUCN has now moved the species from the endangered category to near threatened.
👦 American teenagers are drinking, smoking, and fighting less and less
An American teenager today is about half as likely to die as a teenager in 1990.
🚑 261,000 Americans have their medical debt erased thanks to nonprofit
A total of $550 million in medical debt has been paid off through a donation. Every $10 donated removes an average of $1,000 in debt. The organization behind the effort has erased more than $40 billion in all 50 states so far.
👮 Largest drop in violent crime and murder in the US since 1937
Violent crime in the US fell by 9.3 percent in 2025, according to preliminary FBI figures. Murder fell by 18.1 percent and robbery by 18.5 percent.
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