What I'm Reading This Week

🤿 Putting down my snorkel gear to bring you some deep dives: AI in Science, Quantum Threats & Surprising AI Use Cases

Author

Sebastian Muehl
April 10, 2025

Aloha! This week I am writing you from Kauai - the Garden Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

It’s spring break, and we are traveling to avoid having the kids “spring” around the house. I am technically on vacation, but the last thing I’ll let happen is my 52-week writing streak coming to a halt, and you not getting any value from me for a week.

I wanted to share some standout reads I’ve specifically marked for you — covering topics like:

  • AI breakthroughs in science

  • A cool use-case of GenAI in sports broadcasting

  • The current state of the AI race (Stanford research report)

  • Bonus - A super intriguing piece on the Quantum Apocalypse (yes, it could be a thing)

Let’s dive in.

đź’ˇStandout Deep Dives That I Marked for You.

1. Scientific Discovery is AI’s Killer Application.

The Financial Times interviewed Microsoft’s Christopher Bishop, who runs Microsoft’s AI for Science research unit. His (possibly biased) take: scientific discovery will prove to be the single most important application of AI.

It’s a strong case as he puts it:

“scientific discovery is about gaining a better understanding of the world, in order that we can improve the human condition.”

👉 [Here’s the Link - bypasses the paywall. So hopefully that’s okay.]

2. Warner Bros. Discovery Launches Generative AI-Powered Cycling Central Intelligence Platform

Whenever I watch sports, I imagine the days of work commentators must put in to collect little stories about the athletes currently being featured. Gen AI seems like a very natural extension and companion for this. The AWS CCI (Contact Center Intelligence) platform will support commentators with data and stories to keep the viewers engaged. I thought it was an out-of-the-box example of AWS CCI’s application, which is generally used for customer service interactions.

👉 [Here’s the Link.]

3. The AI Race Has Gotten Crowded - and China is Closing In on the US

As readers of this newsletter, you already know that the AI race is getting crowded. A recent report from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI underlines this with interesting data and trends. The US is still the most productive. However, in terms of performance, models from China and France are closing in. Of the most notable models, 40 were produced in the US, 15 in China, and 3 in Europe.

👉 [Here’s the Link.]

Source: Stanford HAI - through Wired

🔥 Super Interesting Bonus Read: The Quantum Apocalypse (aka Q-Day)

This piece in Wired explains the imminent risk of Q-Day - the theoretical moment when quantum computers are getting powerful enough to break the encryption that secures EVERYTHING on the internet today.

Quantum computers are likely to be able to break RSA encryption, which protects most online communication, financial data, and even government secrets (the data that’s not yet a public Signal post anyway ).

So, Hackers (and governments) who see this coming are already harvesting data in anticipation of this moment. Steal encrypted data today - decrypt later.

It’s time we start thinking about post-Q-Day cryptography, but most companies are not ready. It's time to act—there are probably a lot of opportunities in this field.

👉 [Here’s the Link]

If you’ve read any tech deep dives that made you think, send it my way — I’ve got a few more hours this week where I’ll put down the snorkel gear to read a bit. 🤿

Have a great rest of the week,

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