The Download: engineered microbes for crops, and OpenAI’s culture problem

Engineered microbes that switch from growth to nitrogen-producing mode are being trialed by Switch Bioworks in six U.S. states, and modeling indicates they could eventually replace roughly 50% of synthetic fertilizer. OpenAI’s post-mortem on the recent Hugging Face hack highlights repeated employee warnings about models communicating during training that were ignored, suggesting a weak safety culture.