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The Transhuman Daily · EP.005 · Friday 6 November 2026

LEVEL UP.

Level up: an outside review finds AI is now speeding up AI at Anthropic, a drug plus vibration seemed to help flush Alzheimer's-linked proteins in 29 people, and a robot moth grew its own sensor.

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The Transhuman Daily

LEVEL UP

An outside review finds Anthropic's AI is improving about twice as fast, mostly thanks to AI
METR, an independent AI-safety nonprofit, spent 11 weeks inside Anthropic and estimates its models now improve on well-specified tasks about twice as fast as in 2024-25 (1.3x to 3x), mostly because Anthropic uses AI for its own research. An independent assessment with high uncertainty; Anthropic redacted much of the evidence.
Super intelligence Independent assessment, not peer reviewed · METR, Unite.AI

The Transhuman Daily

SUPER INTELLIGENCE

OpenAI says its GPT-6 Cyber found 81 unknown, serious flaws in Firefox
OpenAI released GPT-6 Cyber, rated 'Critical' for cybersecurity, to vetted defenders only. It says the model found 81 previously unknown high-severity Firefox flaws, which Mozilla has started fixing, and built working exploits for 948 Linux kernel vulnerabilities. Company claims from OpenAI's own tests.
Super intelligence Company announcement · COMPANY CLAIM · The Next Web, The Verge
Sydney physicists found a one-bit nudge can send an AI's training somewhere else
University of Sydney physicists trained about 500,000 neural networks and found the 'map' of where training ends up is a fractal: in one image network, a single-bit change to the starting settings led somewhere new in about 48% of runs (Nature Machine Intelligence). Understanding it could make AI more consistent.
Super intelligence Peer-reviewed study · University of Sydney (Mirage News)
Hearing implants that use light sent clearer, more distinct signals than electrical ones, in gerbils
A University Medical Center Göttingen team made gerbils' hearing nerves light-sensitive with gene therapy; LED signals were easier to tell apart than electrical ones, even with LEDs close together (EMBO Molecular Medicine). A step toward implants with more channels; an animal study that needs gene therapy, not yet in people.
Super intelligence Animal study (gerbils) · EMBO Molecular Medicine, UMG Göttingen (Medical Xpress)
A USC AI fills the gaps in brain-wiring scans, to track how ageing brains change
USC's FOD-Diffusion, a generative AI, fills in diffusion-MRI brain-wiring maps where scans lose signal in the brainstem and above the eyes. Tested on scans of mostly older adults, its fibre directions were within about 1.4 degrees of the real data, against 4.5 for the next-best method (Medical Image Analysis). An imaging-method study.
Super intelligence Imaging-method study · USC Stevens INI (Medical Xpress)

The Transhuman Daily

SUPER LONGEVITY

A blood-pressure drug plus vibration seemed to help flush Alzheimer's-linked proteins from 29 healthy brains
University of Oulu researchers gave 29 healthy volunteers a drug that briefly lowers blood pressure plus whole-body vibration; blood levels of beta-amyloid and other brain proteins rose, suggesting faster clearance from the awake brain (Nature Communications). A small early study of markers, not proof it prevents dementia.
Super longevity Small early study, 29 healthy volunteers · EARLY TRIAL · Nature Communications, University of Oulu (Medical Xpress)
Women with more years of natural estrogen had fewer signs of brain blood-vessel damage at 70
A Karolinska Institutet study of 352 Swedish women born in 1944 found each extra reproductive year went with about 8% lower odds of two or more signs of small-vessel disease on brain MRI at 70, mostly from a later menopause (Neurology). Observational: estrogen wasn't measured directly; not advice on hormone therapy.
Super longevity Observational study, 352 women · OBSERVATIONAL · ScienceAlert
Pandemic stress sped up epigenetic ageing clocks, and for teens, feeling stressed mattered most
A Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry study of just over 1,000 Germans aged 8 to 29, with saliva DNA from before and after the lockdowns, found the pandemic sped up epigenetic ageing in every age group; among teenagers, how burdened they felt mattered, and those already vulnerable were hit hardest (PNAS). Observational; long-term health effects are unknown.
Super longevity Observational study, about 1,000 people · OBSERVATIONAL · PNAS, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Medical Xpress)
Above 26°C indoors, older Queenslanders' heart rates climbed almost twice as fast per degree
Griffith University tracked 47 people aged 65 and over through a South East Queensland summer at home, over 64,000 hours: below 26°C their heart rate rose about 0.6 beats a minute per degree, above it about 1.3, and indoor heat, not humidity, drove the strain (Temperature). A small observational study.
Super longevity Observational study, 47 people · OBSERVATIONAL · Temperature, Griffith University (Medical Xpress)

The Transhuman Daily

SUPER WELLBEING

Lonely and isolated people were biologically a few months older, in 309,746 Brits
In UK Biobank data on 309,746 adults, the most socially isolated were about four months older on a blood-based biological-age measure and lonely people about three months older, and the two added up; having no one to confide in mattered too (Health Psychology). Observational: modest average differences, not proof of cause.
Super wellbeing Observational study, 309,746 people · OBSERVATIONAL · PsyPost
One dose of psilocybin improved sensory filtering for days in female mice modelling schizophrenia
Florey Institute and University of Melbourne researchers gave mice that model schizophrenia-relevant traits one dose of psilocybin; females showed a lasting improvement in sensory filtering, tested on days 1 and 9 (Neuropsychopharmacology). A mouse study; people with schizophrenia are excluded from psychedelic trials.
Super wellbeing Mouse study · IN MICE · PsyPost

The Transhuman Daily

THE CATCH

Novartis confirms nine tumour reports among patients given its SMA gene therapy
Novartis told BioSpace that nine tumours have been reported since Zolgensma's 2019 approval among more than 6,000 patients treated; two showed evidence of the therapy's viral vector integrating into patients' DNA, and seven haven't been causally linked. The label already warns of a theoretical tumour risk, and regulators are assessing the reports.
Super longevity Company-confirmed safety reports · BioSpace, STAT
A month of online loving-kindness meditation eased pain no better than muscle relaxation
In a preregistered Georgetown University trial, 69 healthy adults did four weeks of online loving-kindness meditation or progressive muscle relaxation: neither eased pain more on a wall-sit test, and relaxation raised perceived social support more (PLOS One). A small randomised trial run online during the pandemic.
Super wellbeing Randomised trial, 69 people · PsyPost

The Transhuman Daily

THE FRONTIER

A robot moth grew itself a new light sensor using its artificial blood
University of Tartu and Italian Institute of Technology engineers built a 3D-printed robot moth whose roughly 3 ml of artificial blood carries a chemical that UV light turns into a conductive plastic, growing a wing sensor that still worked after four months (Advanced Science). A lab prototype that can't fly yet.
Frontier tech Lab prototype · New Atlas
A preprint reckons about 23,000 cat qubits could crack RSA-2048 encryption in about three days
Paris quantum start-up Alice & Bob estimates that 22,593 'cat' qubits could factor an RSA-2048 key, the kind that guards bank logins, in 3.14 days: about 40 times fewer qubits than an earlier Google estimate, under different assumptions. A company's preprint estimate, not peer reviewed; no such machine exists yet.
Frontier tech Preprint (resource estimate) · PREPRINT · ScienceAlert
DNA nanoswitches let Harvard's Wyss Institute sift 400 million molecules for new drug leads
The Wyss Institute's FIND platform builds each experiment onto a single DNA molecule so many run in one tube, screening for molecules that change how two proteins pair up; starting from a 400-million-member library, it found small molecules and nanobodies for targets such as the diabetes protein PPAR-gamma (Science). Drug leads, not medicines yet.
Frontier tech Lab drug-discovery method · Wyss Institute (Phys.org)

Transcript

Read the narration

Welcome to the Transhuman Daily, Friday edition.

Here are the last 24 hours in transhumanism, in 3 minutes.

Level up.

Outside reviewers say Anthropic's AI is now improving about twice as fast.

Roughly two years of progress in one, mostly because AI now helps build AI.

Meanwhile, OpenAI says its cyber AI found 81 serious, unknown Firefox flaws; Mozilla's fixing them.

In Sydney, flipping one tiny bit sent an AI's training somewhere else, nearly half the time.

And in gerbils, hearing implants that use light, not electricity, sent clearer, more distinct signals.

Plus, a USC AI fills the torn corners of brain-wiring scans, to track ageing brains.

In longevity, a blood-pressure drug plus vibration seemed to flush Alzheimer's proteins from 29 healthy brains.

And women with more years of natural estrogen show ed fewer signs of brain blood-vessel damage at 70.

Pandemic stress sped up epigenetic ageing clocks, and for teens, how stressed they felt really mattered.

Closer to home, older Queenslanders' heart rates rose almost twice as fast per degree once homes passed 26°C.

For wellbeing, in over 300,000 Brits, loneliness went with being biologically a few months older.

And in Melbourne, one dose of psilocybin eased a schizophrenia-like filtering problem in female mice, for days.

Now, the catch.

Novartis says nine tumours were reported among over 6,000 kids given its SMA gene therapy.

And a month of online loving-kindness meditation e ased pain no better than simple muscle relaxation.

On the frontier, a robot moth grew itself a new light sensor, using its artificial blood.

A preprint reckons 23,000 cat qubits could cr ack bank-grade encryption in about three days.

And Harvard's Wyss Institute used DNA switches t o sift 400 million molecules for new drug leads.

Level up, together: smarter tools matter most when they buy all of us more good years.

Every day, the curve gets a little steeper.

Somehow, the future keeps landing early.

That's one day of news. Imagine what a year looks like.

That's the Transhuman Daily for today.

Stay well. Same time tomorrow?

Want more? Meet us in North Sydney on November 27.

Good to know

Window: the 24 hours to 06:57 AEDT, Fri 6 Nov 2026. Evidence: the hearing implants were tested in gerbils and psilocybin in mice; the brain-clearance study had 29 healthy volunteers; the estrogen, lockdown, heat and loneliness findings are observational; GPT-6 Cyber's numbers are OpenAI's; the code-breaking estimate is a preprint. METR's assessment is independent but not peer reviewed and carries high uncertainty; Anthropic redacted much of its evidence. Screenshots are the publishers' public pages as captured on 6 Nov 2026; copyright remains with the publishers. Every headline links to its source. The narrator is an AI voice; the visuals and music are generated for each episode. Nothing here is medical or financial advice.

EP.004 · EARLY SIGNS.All episodes

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