Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Scientists make pregnancy sickness cure breakthrough

Summary: Researchers at the University of Cambridge, working with others in Scotland, the US, and Sri Lanka have discovered why some women become incredibly sick when pregnant, why there’s variation in sickness between different people, and which specific, single hormone is responsible for said sickness.

Context: The GDF15 hormone is produced by burgeoning babies in the womb, and is responsible for both minor bouts of morning sickness and more severe versions of the same, which in some cases becomes a hospital-worthy situation impacting one to three women out of every 100 during their pregnancies; previous studies had gestured toward GDF15 as a potential source of this issue, but this new research provides clear evidence of its origin and shows that the amount of hormone produced lines up with the severity of the sickness experienced, which in turn provides a pathway toward treatments for this collection of (at times quite severe) related ailments.

—BBC News

One Sentence News is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI to pay Politico parent for using its content

Summary: Publishing giant Axel Springer has made a deal—the terms of which are still under wraps—to provide OpenAI access to its large catalog of published work for AI training purposes.

Context: This is notable in part because it will provide OpenAI, which makes the very popular ChatGPT chatbot, among other AI-based tools, with up-to-the-minute information from publications like Politico and Business Insider, while also representing a potential sea-change from a moment in which most AI companies have basically soaked-up any content they can find to use for training, without compensating the creators of that content, to a period in which these companies pay for the training materials they use—which could increase their cost of operation, but would also create a moat around their offerings that newer, upstart companies would find difficult to traverse, while also getting ahead of potential, future legislation requiring they pay creators something when their work is used in this way.

—The Wall Street Journal

Tesla recalls nearly all vehicles sold in US to fix system that monitors drivers using Autopilot

Summary: More than 2 million Tesla vehicles have been “recalled” due to a defective software system that’s supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention to the road when using their car’s Autopilot, pseudo-self-driving function, but which doesn’t actually do so, at least not up to legal standards.

Context: Important to note here is that most recalls performed by Tesla, though they’re still called “recalls,” are actually over-the-air software updates similar to software updates that go to your phone or computer, so this won’t be as big or costly a deal for the company as it would be for other, less software-first automobile entities; that said, this software update is the consequence of a two-year investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found a series of Tesla crashes, some of them deadly, were the consequence of folks using this Autopilot system, and the agency deemed Tesla’s method of ensuring drivers were paying attention to the road was inadequate—so this update adds a more adequate version of the same to pretty much all Tesla vehicles in the US.

—The Associated Press

Though COP28 is considered to be historic in several senses, analysts at Bloomberg have given it a 3.8 out of 10 ranking in terms of progress, which is 2.2 points lower than the Glasgow COP conference in 2021.

—Bloomberg

~$180 billion

Approximate (reported) valuation of SpaceX based on an impending tender offer (which allows folks who hold shares of the company to sell those shares, despite the company being private) that would value shares at around $97 apiece.

That would make SpaceX the second highest-valued privately held startup in the world (after ByteDance, which is valued at around $225 billion), though the terms of this tender offer could change before it becomes a reality, which would change this purported valuation, as well.

—Bloomberg

Trust Click

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit onesentencenews.substack.com