Weekly Dose of Optimism #142
Neuralink, Joby, Distributed AI, Diabetes Down Under, Hill & Valley
Hi friends 👋,
Happy Friday and welcome back to our 142nd Weekly Dose of Optimism. We’ve been pumping out content lately: Chaos is a Ladder (a long strategy banger from Packy, episodes of Hyperlegible (most recently with Mike Solana), and of course your Weekly Dose of Optimism. And if the world keeps being a complex place that needs explaining, writers keep publishing great essays that deserve discussion, and people keep doing things that push us forward, then we’ll keep pumping out the content.
Let’s get to it.
This week’s Weekly Dose is brought to you by… ElevenLabs
At this point, you’ve probably heard of ElevenLabs — the company that makes AI voices that don’t sound like AI voices.
My friends at ElevenLabs were nice enough to cook up a Packy voice for me, which I’ve been using to make the audio version of every Not Boring essay and Weekly Dose. The voice was so good that my mom just thought it was me.
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The video you just watched was narrated, edited, and posted with only the use of thoughts. That’s possible because Brad Smith, the first nonverbal ALS patient to receive Neuralink’s brain implant, now controls his MacBook using only brain signals.
Brad edited and narrated an entire video using Neuralink’s BCI and an AI-cloned version of his actual voice (maybe with ElevenLabs?), importantly bypassing previous limitations of eye-gaze tech which allows him to interact with the world even when in a sunny outdoor environment. His Neuralink implant sits in the motor cortex and uses 1,024 electrodes to record neural activity every 15 milliseconds. AI then decodes these signals to translate movement intentions, like tongue flicks or jaw clenches, into cursor movement and clicks, enabling real-time computer control. Put this way, BCI or Brain Computer Interface, you understand why it’s called a brain-computer-interface.
Not going to lie, Brad’s video hit me deep. How he appreciates his caring wife, how Neuralink has untrapped thoughts he’s had in his mind for years, and how his involvement in Neuralink will help other people with similar conditions. It was a reminder how technology can truly be a force for real good in real peoples’ lives.
And the crazy thing about Neuralink, or BCIs in general, is that this is the worst the tech is ever going to be. It’s only going to get smarter, less invasive, and more accessible over time. It already works (look at Brad’s video!) and these are essentially just highly advanced prototypes. I am very much looking forward to a world in which more people like Brad get access to tech that untraps their brains.
Update: As if just on cue, yesterday afternoon Neuralink received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for individuals with severe speech impairment. This designation gives Neuralink priority access to FDA reviews, rolling reviews, and more flexible trials. Essentially, this means the FDA sees high potential for Neuralink to serve serious medical needs than anything else on the market. If all goes to plan more people, like Brad, will get access to Neuralink soon!
(2) Joby Logs eVTOL Aircraft Transition Flights with Pilots Onboard
Charles Alcock for AIN
Joby Aviation has completed several piloted test flights with its eVTOL aircraft prototype, covering full transition from vertical to cruise flight and back again.
I cannot wait to hail an air taxi and Joby is making important strides in making that possible. The eVTOL company completed its first batch of piloted vertical and horizontal flights earlier this month, a key milestone for getting these little air taxis ready for the big leagues of commercial, live flights.
Previous transition flights were either remotely piloted or in hover/low-speed mode. This is the first time human pilots flew the aircraft through full vertical-to-horizontal transitions and back. The flights showed the aircraft behaves predictably and safely under direct human control, which is generally important but also specifically important for Joby as it’s a perquisite for the FAA final certification stage.
eVTOLs are basically if a helicopter and an airplane had a baby. They can take off, hover, and land like a helicopter but can fly like an airplane at higher speeds and efficiencies. And, don’t forget that “e,” these babies are powered by electricity rather than fuel burning engines.
I wouldn’t expect Jobys to be whizzing around Manhattan anytime soon. The company is planning to deliver some aircraft for commercial use in Dubai soon, but stricter regulations and general air traffic congestion will mean a longer wait time in the U.S.
Which, frankly, is as embarrassing as Chinese nuclear on the Moon. Mr. President, if you’re reading this, give us our big beautiful flying cars.
(3) These Startups Are Building Advanced AI Models Without Data Centers
Will Knight for Wired
Researchers have trained a new kind of large language model (LLM) using GPUs dotted across the world and fed private as well as public data—a move that suggests that the dominant way of building artificial intelligence could be disrupted. Flower AI and Vana, two startups pursuing unconventional approaches to building AI, worked together to create the new model, called Collective-1.
Shoutout Not Boring Capital portfolio company Vana!
Vana, along with Flower AI, created a new AI model called Collective-1 which was trained using decentralized GPUs across the internet with both public and user-contributed private data. In the partnership Flower AI is enabling the distributed training while Vana is supplying the public and user-contributed private data. Collective-1 is currently a 7B parameter model, but Flower is scaling up with plans for 30B and 100B parameter models, and open-sourced a new tool, Photon, that enhances efficiency for distributed training.
The current approach to building AI relies on centralized data centers packed with high-end GPUs, ultra-fast fiber connections, and massive datasets. Then training is done on tightly coupled hardware where data and compute are pooled in one place for speed and efficiency. And as the scale of AI continues to grow rapidly, this approach will really only be feasible for a number of tech giants.
A distributed approach like Collective-1 flips this: training happens across many independent machines and is connected via slower public internet. Training and running models doesn’t require pooling data or compute in one place. Instead, data stays decentralized, often on user devices or across organizations, and compute is spread out, with coordination handled by open-sourced tools like Photon. This means smaller AI players can tap in, without needing to build massive infrastructure.
Beating highly centralized large models at their own game is not necessarily the goal. Rather, offering a more decentralized, accessible option could open opportunities for a whole set up builders and users that aren’t considered in the current approach.
But the hope is that with data that no one else can access, Vana and Flower AI can build models that no one else can.
(4) World-first type 1 diabetes drug trial aims to reprogram immune system
Janelle Miles for ABC News Australia
A world-first human trial of a drug designed to treat the underlying cause of type 1 diabetes has begun in Australia. University of Queensland researcher Ranjeny Thomas has spent more than a quarter of a century developing the drug, designed to rebalance the body's immune response in people with type 1 diabetes, which affects more than 130,000 Australians.
Croikey! The Aussies are developing a first-of-its-kind type 1 diabetes drug. Good on ‘em!
The experimental drug, ASITI-201, was developed over 25 years by Professor Ranjeny Thomas, and retrains the immune system to stop attacking insulin-producing beta cells. It works by injecting a combo of beta cell protein fragments and vitamin D, which teaches immune cells to recognize those proteins as safe instead of threats This approach addresses the disease, not just its symptoms.
The trial, just now currently dosing its first participants, aims to preserve pancreatic function and reduce insulin dependence. If proven safe and effective, it could pave the way for early type 1 diabetes intervention, or even prevention, in at-risk individuals and reduce the need for insulin injections. If this approach is ultimately successful, it signals a major shift in how we can treat autoimmune diseases, moving beyond reactive care to immune system reprogramming.
If you read Not Boring and you’re on X, chances are your feed is jam-packed with Hill and Valley Forum content right now. The annual conference is a bipartisan gathering of U.S. lawmakers and tech leaders focused on national security and technological competition, hosted by Jacob Helberg, Christian Garrett, and Delian Asparouhov. It has a pretty start-studded lineup of folks like Jensen Huang, Alex Karp, Doug Burgum, Josh Kusher, Ritchie Torres, Mike Johnson, Ruth Porat, and Mike Johnson. Big names across both government and tech. Government and tech have never, at least in my lifetime, seemed so intertwined: tariffs, the AI race, anti-trust, reindustrialization, etc, etc.
The 2,851 mile journey between Silicon Valley and DC has never been so short. With the Hill and Valley Forum, the internet got an inside peek as to how these two worlds are working together. And we got an even sneakier peek thanks to the fine gentlemen over at TBPN who reported live from the entire event.
BONUS: Hyperlegible 008: Mike Solana, Golden Age
Speaking of what’s possible when SF and DC come together… Pirate Wires’ Mike Solana joined Packy on Hyperlegible to talk about building Disney-inspired Golden Cities where houses are cheap, rare earth metals are refined, and it’s legal to manufacture things. A day in, it’s the most popular Hyperlegible to date.
The people have spoken. Build the Golden Cities.
Have a great weekend y’all.
Thanks to ElevenLabs for sponsoring. We’ll be back in your inbox next week.
Thanks for reading,
Packy + Dan
I was optimistic for a whole 3 hour train journey through England!
Inject the Optimism into my veins…