~$1600 gross per month doesn't really seem like a living wage for Bayarea; in Seattle you could probably get by. I think even startups up here usually pay north of $20/hr. I've heard of Google/FB paying north of $30/hr for interns.
$10/hr may dodge a lawsuit, but I think you'll have your interns bought out from under you by someone less cheap.
If anyone in the HN audience is participating in an unpaid internship — which I doubt, but … — please stop immediately. In this industry (software development) there is absolutely no reason to accept being stepped on like that.
You can easily find a paying internship at any half-decent tech company, just interview around at a few places. Speaking as a developer, mentor, and interviewer: internships are where we get our best hires and are an extremely good deal for us — paying $25+/hr no benefits is a STEAL for us. And you should name and shame your current "internment" office, for being total assholes.
For example, polio was cured less than 60 years ago. We know much more about the effects of radiation (sunscreen, anyone?) than we did 40 years ago. Genome sequencing is becoming slightly more affordable (than even 10 years ago) due to tech advances; we can predict hereditary disease in some instances (BRCA mutations, etc).
Steve Jobs is actually a terrible example. To quote wikipedia, "Despite his diagnosis, Jobs resisted his doctors' recommendations for medical intervention for nine months,[170] instead consuming a psuedo-medicine diet in an attempt to thwart the disease." Pseudo is Greek for "false." And if you want cancer solved by the time you get it, you probably have to pony up the money before your diagnosis.
I'm not disagreeing that medical advances are relatively slow, but on the scale of human life, Page has probably at least another 40 years of advances left to see. And that's a lot.
To what extent is this guided by the self-interest of aging tech darling CEOs (Larry Page must be in his 40s by now)? As a young person I tend to think "some of these health issues ought to be solved problems by the time I'm older." But I don't have the kind of capital to spend on it that companies like Google, or persons like Larry Page, do.
Regardless of motivation, I'm happy to see investment in this domain.
$10/hr may dodge a lawsuit, but I think you'll have your interns bought out from under you by someone less cheap.