The Download: South Korea’s hottest bachelors, and advancing eye transplants

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This is today’s edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Baek, a 35-year-old manager at the South Korean semiconductor titan SK Hynix, was enrolled in a matchmaking company a year ago. In a move typical of anxious South Korean parents, his mother signed him up, hoping to find a good wife for her son.

Lately, says Baek, he and his coworkers are having better luck finding dates—perhaps because of the dazzling bonuses they just got. Flush with eye-popping profits from the AI chip boom, SK Hynix agreed to pay 10% of operating profits to employees, which translates to an extra $476,000 per employee this year. Samsung workers received a similar deal this May.

With their newfound wealth, chip workers like Baek have become the most sought-after bachelors and bachelorettes in South Korea.

Discover how AI chip profits are transforming South Korea’s dating market—and stoking anxieties .

It’s not easy to transplant a whole human eye. The surgery is difficult, and eyes start to degenerate as soon as they’ve left the body. When surgeons attempted it a few years ago, the newly transplanted eye couldn’t see.

But researchers believe they might have a solution: a device that maintains and revives freshly removed eyeballs using a technique called perfusion. Treated eyes don’t degrade as quickly and appear to retain the ability to transmit electrical signals—and potentially see.

The device could one day make whole-eye transplants a viable possibility. Here’s how it works .

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The UN’s chief has warned that AI is outpacing global rules He’s called for globally harmonised guardrails. ( Reuters $) + The UN also said AI could worsen global inequality. ( Guardian )

2 An Israeli battlefield system identified 850,000 targets in Gaza and Lebanon Elbit Systems says it detected targets in real time. ( Guardian ) + Congress wants to permanently integrate US and Israeli defence tech. ( Intercept ) + How AI turned the Iran conflict into theater. ( MIT Technology Review )

3 EU transparency rules have exposed Microsoft’s tax haven tactics A new report shows how it shifts profits around to reduce tax bills. ( NYT $) + Other US companies will soon need to provide similar reports. ( Engadget )

4 A spacecraft has launched an audacious mission to rescue a NASA telescope LINK will try to tug the SWIFT observatory to a higher orbit. ( New Scientist $) + It will attempt to grab the telescope with three robotic arms. ( BBC ) + The observatory studies gamma-ray bursts. ( NBC News ) + We’re putting more stuff into space than ever. ( MIT Technology Review )