Track 12. Meet the Bullet Train Express

Bullet Train is your express route to the stories, products & concepts shaping our future. No short-term headlines, no fluff—just the innovations transforming the world and our place in it, curated by the team behind the Meco App.

Hi Bullet Trainers,

We’re trying something new for August — bringing you an abbreviated read during these dog days of summer. If you like it better — it might just stick around!

It’s August 7^th . Today’s stops include:

• For Google, the verdict is “Do Not Pass Go” 🎩 

• Neuralink presses on with patient 2 🧠 

• The future of ethical AI ⚖️ 

• Youth mental health is a big deal 🙁 

And don’t miss our #offtherails segment — not so future-focused, just a bit of fun

Weekly coverage of stories shaping the future — brought to you in streamlined bullet points:

For Google, the verdict is “Do Not Pass Go“

• What to know: a judge ruled that Google has actively maintained a monopoly in the general search engine business (and that’s illegal)

• Monopolizing moves: Google paid Apple ~$20 billion to be the iPhone maker’s default search engine and shares over a third of Safari search ad revenue with the company — not considered friendly competition

• What’s next: Google will appeal this to kingdom come, but the internet giant could be forced to shake up its business practices…

• What we’re thinking: anti-trust cases like this have happened before and any changes would take a long time — but we’re wondering, are we finally on the verge of a reckoning for the tech giants?

Dive deeper into this story here

Neuralink presses on with patient 2

• What to know: a second person has received a brain implant from Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface (BCI) company, Neuralink

• Who has Neuralink: patient 1 was 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh, and while not much is known about patient 2, the Neuralink trials are only targeting those with quadriplegia (paralysis of all 4 limbs)

• Stretch goals: brain chips allow patients to control computers and even robotic limbs for now, but Musk envisions a future where BCIs could cure paralysis, restore sight to the blind, and even treat dementia

• What’s to come: there are concerns with BCIs we could spiral on — but if they can get this technology right and safe, it could be life-changing for those who are paralyzed or facing other “incurable” disabilities

If you’re into that kind of thing, there’s an 8 hour long podcast with Elon discussing Neuralink (among other things)… here

The future of ethical AI

• What to know: OpenAI just lost another co-founder, this time to the “safer, steerable AI” hands of Anthropic — further signs of the industry division on how safe we should be keeping AI

• Who else to watch: Ilya Sutsekever (another OpenAI cofounder who publicly opposed Altman’s company direction) recently co-founded Safe Superintelligence Inc. — where AI security is the #1 goal

• Is ethical AI possible: AI development costs a lot, and in a for-profit world, these businesses could be forced to make decisions that might not put safety first — so unfortunately money might be what decides the future of ethical AI

Dive deeper into this story here

A story that drummed up big emotions and bigger opinions for the team:

The social network of youth mental illness

• What to know: the US Surgeon General called to have a warning label for social media apps, linking them to mental illness — similar to health risks flagged on cigarettes

• How we got here: depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders are a leading cause of illness among adolescents — rates are skyrocketing

• A contagious trend: a large study from Finland found that teens are more likely to experience mental illness themselves if they’ve had a classmate diagnosed with a mental illness

• What we’re thinking: it’s hard to see a social media warning label truly working, and you can’t prevent kids from interacting with peers who have a mental illness — so… are we going to need to wait on the social media platforms themselves to make a meaningful change?

A bit of fun to round out your ride

• I just visited my 102-year-old Nana this past week and I swear some days she looks better than I do — for all my fellow longevity lovers, check out this more technical read on the secret to living past 120 

• These generative AI images from a new text-to-image model are insanely good

• After watching Mondo light up the pole vault event, we’re now big fans of the sport… which is why this caught our eye: one company is developing technology to build a self-healing pole vault pole, which could also be applied to bike frames and surfboards — pretty cool!

Here’s what Bullet Train readers had to say about last week’s polar(izing) express topic:

What's your prediction on Meta's create-your-own chatbot?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Sounds like a cool tool! (25%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I think it will fizzle out (75%)

Please mind the gap as you get off the train ✌️