| The Covid crisis, thankfully, has abated, but 2025 will have its own critical challenges. Artificial intelligence has the power to transform lives for the better, but without careful and ethical deployment, it could wreak havoc and suffer what the physician and author Siddhartha Mukherjee has called an “AI Fukushima”, a catastrophe that derails its potential. AI made headlines in 2024 for delivering precision forecasts for flash floods, heatwaves, and the climate more broadly, but its huge energy consumption could hinder crucial efforts to combat the climate crisis.
What happens in the US, of course, will have consequences around the world. Among researchers, concern is running high at the prospect of a climate sceptic energy secretary, a health secretary who founded an anti-vax group, and a president who has form on interfering with and censoring scientific evidence.
We will challenge any misinformation coming from official sources – but we’ll also bring you positive scientific news. There is much to get excited about. AI is poised to turbocharge science and medicine. Drugs are in line for a hefty boost if the technology delivers on its promise to slash development time. Meanwhile, cancer vaccines, and new cancer treatments based on modified immune cells, are on the horizon. A private fusion reactor that will operate at near-commercial scale is due to open. And in space exploration, the first private mission to another planet, the ambitious Venus Life Finder, is slated for launch. There will, inevitably, be important unexpected breakthroughs too. We’ll cover them all.
With so much at stake, fact-based journalism has never been more important. At the Guardian, we are determined to look beyond the spin, to challenge the lies, and present the truth as we find it. Because without the facts we are powerless. |
