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Anthropic says risks for investors include blowback from runaway AI

The risks laid out by the San Francisco company in its filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission range from the mundane to involvement in cyberattacks and the spread of dangerous misinformation.

Would you pay to have the ‘best baby’? Liberal eugenics and the troubling quest for human perfection

27 October 2026 at 08:00

For decades the idea of eugenics has been taboo. Now it is returning in a new commercial guise

For a very long time, I dreamed of being cured. I was born in 1981. I learned to walk early enough, but I stumbled and fell more easily than other children. My parents began to worry that something was wrong, that my muscles were weaker than they should be. Eventually, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In the 1980s, the precise mechanics were not yet understood, but the condition was known to be hereditary, probably linked to a recessive gene. It was also known to be progressive. As I aged, my muscles would not keep pace. At eight, I began to use a wheelchair for longer distances. By the time I was 18, I rarely walked outdoors any more.

It is hard to be young and to know that you are growing weaker rather than stronger. I had all the same aspirations that my nondisabled friends did, but I lived in fear of the future in a way they did not. I spent a lot of time thinking about what my life would have been like if I didn’t have SMA. The images in my head were of something like a double: myself, only rid of this one deficit, imprecisely defined, but encoded somewhere in my body.

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© Illustration: Ryan Evans/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ryan Evans/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ryan Evans/The Guardian

My mother donated her body to science. I really wasn’t prepared for what came next

24 October 2026 at 15:00

The process included a gala featuring medical students doing aerial yoga and singing Taylor Swift to donors’ families. In some ways, it was absolutely perfect

When my mother, Erin O’Connell, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer in late 2022, one of her first thoughts was: “What will I do if I can’t work?”

At the time, she was 62 years old and working as a physical therapist in Portland, Oregon, where she had recently moved to live closer to me and my family. Reluctantly, she filed for short-term disability from her job and paused her training to become a volunteer search and rescue EMT.

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© Illustration: Ibrahim Rayintakath/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ibrahim Rayintakath/The Guardian

© Illustration: Ibrahim Rayintakath/The Guardian

Christina Applegate's experience highlights challenges of diagnosing MS

When actor Christina Applegate revealed that she had been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it triggered not only an outpouring of empathy for her, but raised important questions about how often people are told they have the condition when they don't. William Brangham discussed why MS can be so difficult to diagnose with Dr. Michael Kornberg of Johns Hopkins University.

Christina Applegate says she was misdiagnosed and does not have MS

Applegate revealed that despite the misdiagnosis, she still has "every symptom of someone with MS," adding, "I still have to use wheelchairs when I go to the doctor's office. I can't walk from the car to the room."

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