Technology: Dangers of trusting AI, jet fuel made by microbes, LGBTQ+ gamers

March 19–This week we're covering how video games can be a form of safe expression for LGBTQ+ gamers, the scientific dangers of placing too much trust in artificial intelligence, and the ways outlandish headlines may distort our belief in what's plausible. -Ben Guarino, Associate Editor, Technology

Top Stories

When Real Life Is Hostile, LGBTQ+ Gamers Find Friendship Online Many LGBTQ+ video gamers use gaming to build community, especially in jurisdictions that are considering anti-LGBTQ+ legislation Shannon Liao, contract writer

Too Much Trust in AI Poses Unexpected Threats to the Scientific Process It's vital to "keep humans in the loop" to avoid humanizing machine-learning models in research Lauren Leffer

Pollinators Flock to Flower-Filled Solar Panel Fields Solar farms seeded with wildflowers can boost pollinator populations Syris Valentine

How Blatantly False Headlines Can Distort What We Believe In New research highlights the necessity of stopping huge falsehoods during the presidential election cycle Chris Stokel-Walker

Your Next Flight's Fuel Could Be Made By Microbes The aviation industry is getting ready to embrace fuel produced by fermentation Emily Waltz; Nature Biotechnology

Voyager 1's Immortal Interstellar Requiem NASA is reaching across more than 15 billion miles to rescue its malfunctioning Voyager 1 probe—but this hallowed interstellar mission can't live forever Nadia Drake

The God Chatbots Changing Religious Inquiry Large language models trained on religious texts claim to offer spiritual insights on demand. What could go wrong? Webb Wright

First Comprehensive Plastics Database Tallies Staggering 16,000 Chemicals—And It's Still Incomplete A massive new dataset highlights more than 4,200 plastic chemicals linked to health and environmental risks. But scientists say there are still large gaps in the scientific understanding of plastic ingredients Katherine Bourzac

In NASA's Push for the Moon, Commercial Partners Soar—And Stumble NASA's partnership with private industry to accelerate the U.S.'s return to the moon is delivering lunar payloads—and mixed results Leonard David

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