Nicola Jones

Open AI, the tech company behind the blockbuster conversational bot ChatGPT, had a weird dust-up last week as they fired, then re-hired, their charismatic chief exec Sam Altman. Here's my article for Nature on What the OpenAI Drama means for AI progress -- and safety .

Sometimes I write mini profiles for Nature that highlight an interesting scientist's work through a photo and a sense of place. Here are some of those articles: ‘Ash was falling like rain’: how I became a volcanologist   Using hyrax latrines to investigate climate change  

UN delegates are trying to bash out a Plastics Treaty with the ambitious goal of ending plastic pollution. They met last week in Nairobi to mark the half-way point towards the treaty, which is supposed to be written and signed in 2024. But progress was frustratingly slow. People at the meeting said a few nations with fossil fuel interests were blocking progress, slowing things down and making the draft treaty just get longer instead of shorter. Sigh. Here's my story for Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03579-1 The scale of the problem has become epic. There is SO MUCH PLASTIC in our lives. I find it hard to imagine a world without plastic wrappers and packaging but that's where we're now trying to go...  In my view, hopefully the treaty will: - set a legally-binding cap for how much virgin plastic the planet is allowed to make per year. (Some people are saying cap it at 2025 levels. Others say it needs to be waaay lower: Greenpeace says it should be 75% l...