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A gene-edited pig kidney has now been functioning inside a living patient for nine months, setting a new record in xenotransplantation. For the roughly hundred thousand Americans waiting on a kidney donor list, that number carries real weight. Researchers say the milestone suggests this approach may be closer to clinical reality than many expected.
Meanwhile, on the regulatory front, Utah has become the first state to go after VPNs as part of its age-verification law for adult content online. The legislation essentially tries to close the workaround that lets users bypass identity checks by masking their location. Privacy advocates are already raising First Amendment concerns, and legal challenges are expected to follow quickly.
And in a deal that has antitrust watchers paying close attention, Nvidia has agreed to acquire Hugging Face, the open-source platform that has become the central library for AI models worldwide, for nearly thirteen billion dollars. Critics argue the chip giant that already dominates AI hardware should not also control the primary distribution point for AI software. Regulators in the United States and Europe are expected to weigh in before any deal closes.
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