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.
Expanded carrier screening: Is it worth it?
Carrier screening tests would-be parents for hidden genetic mutations that might affect their children. It initially involved testing for specific genes in at-risk populations.
Expanded carrier screening takes things further, giving would-be parents an option to test for a wide array of diseases in prospective parents and egg and sperm donors.
The companies offering these screens “started out with 100 genes, and now some of them go up to 2,000,” Sara Levene, genetics counsellor at Guided Genetics, said at a meeting I attended this week. “It’s becoming a bit of an arms race amongst labs, to be honest.”
But expanded carrier screening comes with downsides. And it isn’t for everyone.Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
Southeast Asia seeks its place in space
It’s a scorching October day in Bangkok and I’m wandering through the exhibits at the Thai Space Expo, held in one of the city’s busiest shopping malls, when I do a double take. Amid the flashy space suits and model rockets on display, there’s a plain-looking package of Thai basil chicken. I’m told the same kind of vacuum-sealed package has just been launched to the International Space Station.
It’s an unexpected sight, one that reflects the growing excitement within the Southeast Asian space sector. And while there is some uncertainty about how exactly the region’s space sector may evolve, there is plenty of optimism, too. Read the full story.
—Jonathan O’Callaghan
This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Disney just signed a major deal with OpenAI Meaning you’ll soon be able to create Sora clips starring 200 Marvel, Pixel and Star Wars characters. (Hollywood Reporter $) + Disney used to be openly skeptical of AI. What changed? (WSJ $) + It’s not feeling quite so friendly towards Google, however. (Ars Technica) + Expect a load of AI slop making its way to Disney Plus. (The Verge)
2Donald Trump has blocked US states from enforcing their own AI rules But technically, only Congress has the power to override state laws. (NYT $) + A new task force will seek out states with “inconsistent” AI rules. (Engadget) + The move is particularly bad news for California. (The Markup)
3 Reddit is challenging Australia’s social media ban for teens It’s arguing that the ban infringes on their freedom of political communication. (Bloomberg $) + We’re learning more about the mysterious machinations of the teenage brain. (Vox)
4 ChatGPT’s “adult mode” is due to launch early next year But OpenAI admits it needs to improve its age estimation tech first. (The Verge) + It’s pretty easy to get DeepSeek to talk dirty. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The death of Running Tide’s carbon removal dream The company’s demise is a wake-up call to others dabbling in experimental tech. (Wired $) + We first wrote about Running Tide’s issues back in 2022. (MIT Technology Review) + What’s next for carbon removal? (MIT Technology Review)
6 That dirty-talking AI teddy bear wasn’t a one-off It turns out that a wide range of LLM-powered toys aren’t suitable for children. (NBC News) + AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)
7 These are the cheapest places to create a fake online account For a few cents, scammers can easily set up bots. (FT $)
8 How professors are attempting to AI-proof exams ChatGPT won’t help you cut corners to ace an oral examination. (WP $)
9 Can a font be woke? Marco Rubio seems to think so. (The Atlantic $)
10 Next year is all about maximalist circus decor That’s according to Pinterest’s trend predictions for 2026. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“Trump is delivering exactly what his billionaire benefactors demanded—all at the expense of our kids, our communities, our workers, and our planet.”
—Senator Ed Markey criticizes Donald Trump’s decision to sign an order cracking down on US states’ ability to self-regulate AI, the Wall Street Journal reports.
One more thing
Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening
Taiwanese politics increasingly revolves around one crucial question: Will China invade? China’s ruling party has wanted to seize Taiwan for more than half a century. But in recent years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has placed greater emphasis on the idea of “taking back” the island (which the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, has never controlled).
Many in Taiwan and elsewhere think one major deterrent has to do with the island’s critical role in semiconductor manufacturing. Taiwan produces the majority of the world’s semiconductors and more than 90% of the most advanced chips needed for AI applications.
But now some Taiwan specialists and some of the island’s citizens are worried that this “silicon shield,” if it ever existed, is cracking. Read the full story.
—Johanna M. Costigan
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
Solar geoengineering startups are getting serious
Solar geoengineering aims to manipulate the climate by bouncing sunlight back into space. In theory, it could ease global warming. But as interest in the idea grows, so do concerns about potential consequences.
A startup called Stardust Solutions recently raised a $60 million funding round, the largest known to date for a geoengineering startup. My colleague James Temple has a new story out about the company, and how its emergence is making some researchers nervous.
So far, the field has been limited to debates, proposed academic research, and—sure—a few fringe actors to keep an eye on. Now things are getting more serious. So what does it mean for geoengineering, and for the climate? Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
If you’re interested in reading more about solar geoengineering, check out:
+ Why the for-profit race into solar geoengineering is bad for science and public trust. Read the full story.
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI is being sued for wrongful death By the estate of a woman killed by her son after he engaged in delusion-filled conversations with ChatGPT. (WSJ $) + The chatbot appeared to validate Stein-Erik Soelberg’s conspiratorial ideas. (WP $) + It’s the latest in a string of wrongful death legal actions filed against chatbot makers. (ABC News)
2 ICE is tracking pregnant immigrants through specifically-developed smartwatches They’re unable to take the devices off, even during labor. (The Guardian) + Pregnant and postpartum women say they’ve been detained in solitary confinement. (Slate $) + Another effort to track ICE raids has been taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Meta’s new AI hires aren’t making friends with the rest of the company Tensions are rife between the AGI team and other divisions. (NYT $) + Mark Zuckerberg is keen to make money off the company’s AI ambitions. (Bloomberg $) + Meanwhile, what’s life like for the remaining Scale AI team? (Insider $)
4 Google DeepMind is building its first materials science lab in the UK It’ll focus on developing new materials to build superconductors and solar cells. (FT $)
5 The new space race is to build orbital data centers And Blue Origin is winning, apparently. (WSJ $) + Plenty of companies are jostling for their slice of the pie. (The Verge) + Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)
6 Inside the quest to find out what causes Parkinson’s A growing body of work suggests it may not be purely genetic after all. (Wired $)
7 Are you in TikTok’s cat niche? If so, you’re likely to be in these other niches too. (WP $)
8 Why do our brains get tired? Researchers are trying to get to the bottom of it. (Nature $)
9 Microsoft’s boss has built his own cricket app Satya Nadella can’t get enough of the sound of leather on willow. (Bloomberg $)
10 How much vibe coding is too much vibe coding? One journalist’s journey into the heart of darkness. (Rest of World) + What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“I feel so much pain seeing his sad face…I hope for a New Year’s miracle.”
—A child in Russia sends a message to the Kremlin-aligned Safe Internet League explaining the impact of the country’s decision to block access to the wildly popular gaming platform Roblox on their brother, the Washington Post reports.
One more thing
Why it’s so hard to stop tech-facilitated abuse
After Gioia had her first child with her then husband, he installed baby monitors throughout their home—to “watch what we were doing,” she says, while he went to work. She’d turn them off; he’d get angry. By the time their third child turned seven, Gioia and her husband had divorced, but he still found ways to monitor her behavior.
One Christmas, he gave their youngest a smartwatch. Gioia showed it to a tech-savvy friend, who found that the watch had a tracking feature turned on. It could be turned off only by the watch’s owner—her ex.
Gioia is far from alone. In fact, tech-facilitated abuse now occurs in most cases of intimate partner violence—and we’re doing shockingly little to prevent it. Read the full story.
—Jessica Klein
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The New Yorker has picked its best TV shows of 2025. Let the debate commence! + Check out the winners of this year’s Drone Photo Awards. + I’m sorry to report you aren’t half as intuitive as you think you are when it comes to deciphering your dog’s emotions. + Germany’s “home of Christmas” sure looks magical.
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.
OpenAI has trained its LLM to confess to bad behavior
What’s new: OpenAI is testing a new way to expose the complicated processes at work inside large language models. Researchers at the company can make an LLM produce what they call a confession, in which the model explains how it carried out a task and (most of the time) own up to any bad behavior.
Why it matters: Figuring out why large language models do what they do—and in particular why they sometimes appear to lie, cheat, and deceive—is one of the hottest topics in AI right now. If this multitrillion-dollar technology is to be deployed as widely as its makers hope it will be, it must be made more trustworthy. OpenAI sees confessions as one step toward that goal. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven
How AI is uncovering hidden geothermal energy resources
Sometimes geothermal hot spots are obvious, marked by geysers and hot springs on Earth’s surface. But in other places, they’re obscured thousands of feet underground. Now AI could help uncover these hidden pockets of potential power.
A startup company called Zanskar announced today that it’s used AI and other advanced computational methods to uncover a blind geothermal system—meaning there aren’t signs of it on the surface—in the western Nevada desert. The company says it’s the first blind system that’s been identified and confirmed to be a commercial prospect in over 30 years. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
Why the grid relies on nuclear reactors in the winter
In the US, nuclear reactors follow predictable seasonal trends. Summer and winter tend to see the highest electricity demand, so plant operators schedule maintenance and refueling for other parts of the year.
This scheduled regularity might seem mundane, but it’s quite the feat that operational reactors are as reliable and predictable as they are. Now we’re seeing a growing pool of companies aiming to bring new technologies to the nuclear industry. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump has scrapped Biden’s fuel efficiency requirements It’s a major blow for green automobile initiatives. (NYT $) + Trump maintains that getting rid of the rules will drive down the price of cars. (Politico)
2 RFK Jr’s vaccine advisers may delay hepatitis B vaccines for babies The shots are a key part in combating acute cases of the infection. (The Guardian) + Former FDA commissioners are worried by its current chief’s vaccine views. (Ars Technica) + Meanwhile, a fentanyl vaccine is being trialed in the Netherlands. (Wired $)
3 Amazon is exploring building its own US delivery network Which could mean axing its long-standing partnership with the US Postal Service. (WP $)
4 Republicans are defying Trump’s orders to block states from passing AI laws They’re pushing back against plans to sneak the rule into an annual defense bill. (The Hill)+ Trump has been pressuring them to fall in line for months. (Ars Technica) + Congress killed an attempt to stop states regulating AI back in July. (CNN)
5 Wikipedia is exploring AI licensing deals It’s a bid to monetize AI firms’ heavy reliance on its web pages. (Reuters) + How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)
6 OpenAI is looking to the stars—and beyond Sam Altman is reportedly interested in acquiring or partnering with a rocket company. (WSJ $)
7 What we can learn from wildfires This year’s Dragon Bravo fire defied predictive modelling. But why? (New Yorker $) + How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)
8 What’s behind America’s falling birth rates? It’s remarkably hard to say. (Undark)
9 Researchers are studying whether brain rot is actually real Including whether its effects could be permanent. (NBC News)
10 YouTuber Mr Beast is planning to launch a mobile phone service Beast Mobile, anyone? (Insider $) + The New York Stock Exchange could be next in his sights. (TechCrunch)
Quote of the day
“I think there are some players who are YOLO-ing.”
—Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggests some rival AI companies are veering into risky spending territory, Bloomberg reports.
One more thing
The quest to show that biological sex matters in the immune system
For years, microbiologist Sabra Klein has painstakingly made the case that sex—defined by biological attributes such as our sex chromosomes, sex hormones, and reproductive tissues—can influence immune responses.
Klein and others have shown how and why male and female immune systems respond differently to the flu virus, HIV, and certain cancer therapies, and why most women receive greater protection from vaccines but are also more likely to get severe asthma and autoimmune disorders.
Klein has helped spearhead a shift in immunology, a field that long thought sex differences didn’t matter—and she’s set her sights on pushing the field of sex differences even further. Read the full story.
—Sandeep Ravindran
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Digital artist Beeple’s latest Art Basel show features Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg robotic dogs pooping out NFTs + If you’ve always dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights, here’s your best bet at doing so. + Check out this fun timeline of fashion’s hottest venues. + Why monkeys in ancient Roman times had pet piglets
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.
Everything you need to know about AI and coding
AI has already transformed how code is written, but a new wave of autonomous systems promise to make the process even smoother and less prone to making mistakes.
Amazon Web Services has just revealed three new “frontier” AI agents, its term for a more sophisticated class of autonomous agents capable of working for days at a time without human intervention. One of them, called Kiro, is designed to work independently without the need for a human to constantly point it in the right direction. Another, AWS Security Agent, scans a project for common vulnerabilities: an interesting development given that many AI-enabled coding assistants can end up introducing errors.
To learn more about the exciting direction AI-enhanced coding is heading in, check out our team’s reporting:
+ A string of startups are racing to build models that can produce better and better software. Read the full story.
+ Anthropic’s cofounder and chief scientist Jared Kaplan on 4 ways agents will improve. Read the full story.
+ How AI assistants are already changing the way code gets made. Read the full story.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Amazon’s new agents can reportedly code for days at a time They remember previous sessions and continuously learn from a company’s codebase. (VentureBeat) + AWS says it’s aware of the pitfalls of handing over control to AI. (The Register) + The company faces the challenge of building enough infrastructure to support its AI services. (WSJ $)
2 Waymo’s driverless cars are getting surprisingly aggressive The company’s goal to make the vehicles “confidently assertive” is prompting them to bend the rules. (WSJ $) + That said, their cars still have a far lower crash rate than human drivers. (NYT $)
3 The FDA’s top drug regulator has stepped down After only three weeks in the role. (Ars Technica)+ A leaked vaccine memo from the agency doesn’t inspire confidence. (Bloomberg $)
4 Maybe DOGE isn’t entirely dead after all Many of its former workers are embedded in various federal agencies. (Wired $)
5 A Chinese startup’s reusable rocket crash-landed after launch It suffered what it called an “abnormal burn,” scuppering hopes of a soft landing. (Bloomberg $)
6 Startups are building digital clones of major sites to train AI agents From Amazon to Gmail, they’re creating virtual agent playgrounds. (NYT $)
7 Half of US states now require visitors to porn sites to upload their ID Missouri has become the 25th state to enact age verification laws. (404 Media)
8 AGI truthers are trying to influence the Pope They’re desperate for him to take their concerns seriously.(The Verge) + How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Marketers are leaning into ragebait ads But does making customers annoyed really translate into sales? (WP $)
10 The surprising role plant pores could play in fighting drought At night as well as daytime. (Knowable Magazine) + Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“Everyone is begging for supply.”
—An anonymous source tells Reuters about the desperate measures Chinese AI companies take to secure scarce chips.
One more thing
The case against humans in space
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are bitter rivals in the commercial space race, but they agree on one thing: Settling space is an existential imperative. Space is the place. The final frontier. It is our human destiny to transcend our home world and expand our civilization to extraterrestrial vistas.
This belief has been mainstream for decades, but its rise has been positively meteoric in this new gilded age of astropreneurs.
But as visions of giant orbital stations and Martian cities dance in our heads, a case against human space colonization has found its footing in a number of recent books, from doubts about the practical feasibility of off-Earth communities, to realism about the harsh environment of space and the enormous tax it would exact on the human body. Read the full story.
—Becky Ferreira
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
The State of AI: Welcome to the economic singularity
—David Rotman and Richard Waters
Any far-reaching new technology is always uneven in its adoption, but few have been more uneven than generative AI. That makes it hard to assess its likely impact on individual businesses, let alone on productivity across the economy as a whole.
At one extreme, AI coding assistants have revolutionized the work of software developers. At the other extreme, most companies are seeing little if any benefit from their initial investments.
That has provided fuel for the skeptics who maintain that—by its very nature as a probabilistic technology prone to hallucinating—generative AI will never have a deep impact on business. To students of tech history, though, the lack of immediate impact is normal. Read the full story.
If you’re an MIT Technology Review subscriber, you can join David and Richard, alongside our editor in chief, Mat Honan, for an exclusive conversation digging into what’s happening across different markets live on Tuesday, December 9 at 1pm ET. Register here!
The State of AI is our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power. Sign up to receive future editions every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 DeepSeek has unveiled two new experimental AI models DeepSeek-V3.2 is designed to match OpenAI’s GPT-5’s reasoning capabilities. (Bloomberg $) + Here’s how DeepSeek slashes its models’ computational burden. (VentureBeat) + It’s achieved these results despite its limited access to powerful chips. (SCMP $)
2 OpenAI has issued a “code red” warning to its employees It’s a call to arms to improve ChatGPT, or risk being overtaken. (The Information $) + Both Google and Anthropic are snapping at OpenAI’s heels. (FT $) + Advertising and other initiatives will be pushed back to accommodate the new focus. (WSJ $)
3 How to know when the AI bubble has burst These are the signs to look out for. (Economist $) + Things could get a whole lot worse for the economy if and when it pops. (Axios) + We don’t really know how the AI investment surge is being financed. (The Guardian)
4 Some US states are making it illegal for AI to discriminate against you California is the latest to give workers more power to fight algorithms. (WP $)
5 This AI startup is working on a post-transformer future Transformer architecture underpins the current AI boom—but Pathway is developing something new. (WSJ $) + What the next frontier of AI could look like. (IEEE Spectrum)
6 India is demanding smartphone makers install a government app Which privacy advocates say is unacceptable snooping. (FT $) + India’s tech talent is looking for opportunities outside the US. (Rest of World)
7 College students are desperate to sign up for AI majors AI is now the second-largest major at MIT behind computer science. (NYT $) + AI’s giants want to take over the classroom. (MIT Technology Review)
8 America’s musical heritage is at serious risk Much of it is stored on studio tapes, which are deteriorating over time. (NYT $) + The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Celebrities are increasingly turning on AI That doesn’t stop fans from casting them in slop videos anyway. (The Verge)
10 Samsung has revealed its first tri-folding phone But will people actually want to buy it? (Bloomberg $) + It’ll cost more than $2,000 when it goes on sale in South Korea. (Reuters)
Quote of the day
“The Chinese will not pause. They will take over.”
—Michael Lohscheller, chief executive of Swedish electric car maker Polestar, tells the Guardian why Europe should stick to its plan to ban the production of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.
One more thing
Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AI
Amsterdam thought it was on the right track. City officials in the welfare department believed they could build technology that would prevent fraud while protecting citizens’ rights. They followed these emerging best practices and invested a vast amount of time and money in a project that eventually processed live welfare applications. But in their pilot, they found that the system they’d developed was still not fair and effective. Why?
Lighthouse Reports, MIT Technology Review, and the Dutch newspaper Trouw have gained unprecedented access to the system to try to find out. Read about what we discovered.
—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
An AI model trained on prison phone calls now looks for planned crimes in those calls
A US telecom company trained an AI model on years of inmates’ phone and video calls and is now piloting that model to scan their calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes.
Securus Technologies president Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review that the company began building its AI tools in 2023, using its massive database of recorded calls to train AI models to detect criminal activity. It created one model, for example, using seven years of calls made by inmates in the Texas prison system, but it has been working on models for other states and counties.
However, prisoner rights advocates say that the new AI system enables a system of invasive surveillance, and courts have specified few limits to this power. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell
Nominations are now open for our global 2026 Innovators Under 35 competition
We have some exciting news: Nominations are now open for MIT Technology Review’s 2026 Innovators Under 35 competition. This annual list recognizes 35 of the world’s best young scientists and inventors, and our newsroom has produced it for more than two decades.
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 New York is cracking down on personalized pricing algorithms A new law forces retailers to declare if their pricing is informed by users’ data. (NYT $) + The US National Retail Federation tried to block it from passing. (TechCrunch)
2 The White House has launched a media bias tracker Complete with a “media offender of the week” section and a Hall of Shame. (WP $) + The Washington Post is currently listed as the site’s top offender. (The Guardian) + Donald Trump has lashed out at several reporters in the past few weeks. (The Hill)
3 American startups are hooked on open-source Chinese AI models They’re cheap and customizable—what’s not to like? (NBC News) + Americans also love China’s cheap goods, regardless of tariffs. (WP $) + The State of AI: Is China about to win the race? (MIT Technology Review)
4 How police body cam footage became viral YouTube content Recent arrestees live in fear of ending up on popular channels. (Vox) + AI was supposed to make police bodycams better. What happened? (MIT Technology Review)
5 Construction workers are cashing in on the data center boom Might as well enjoy it while it lasts. (WSJ $) + The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
6 China isn’t convinced by crypto Even though bitcoin mining is quietly making a (banned) comeback. (Reuters) + The country’s central bank is no fan of stablecoins. (CoinDesk)
7 A startup is treating its AI companions like characters in a novel Could that approach make for better AI companions? (Fast Company $) + Gemini is the most empathetic model, apparently. (Semafor) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Ozempic is so yesterday New weight-loss drugs are tailored to individual patients. (The Atlantic $) + What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs. (MIT Technology Review)
9 AI is upending how consultants work For the third year in a row, big firms are freezing junior workers’ salaries. (FT $)
10 Behind the scenes of Disney’s AI animation accelerator What took five months to create has been whittled down to under five weeks. (CNET) + Director supremo James Cameron appears to have changed his mind about AI. (TechCrunch) + Why are people scrolling through weirdly-formatted TV clips? (WP $)
Quote of the day
“[I hope AI] comes to a point where it becomes sort of mental junk food and we feel sick and we don’t know why.”
—Actor Jenna Ortega outlines her hopes for AI’s future role in filmmaking, Variety reports.
One more thing
The weeds are winning
Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to the biochemical mechanisms that herbicides leverage to kill them. This herbicidal resistance threatens to decrease yields—out-of-control weeds can reduce them by 50% or more, and extreme cases can wipe out whole fields.
At worst, it can even drive farmers out of business. It’s the agricultural equivalent of antibiotic resistance, and it keeps getting worse. Weeds have evolved resistance to 168 different herbicides and 21 of the 31 known “modes of action,” which means the specific biochemical target or pathway a chemical is designed to disrupt.
Agriculture needs to embrace a diversity of weed control practices. But that’s much easier said than done. Read the full story.
—Douglas Main
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs
Weight-loss drugs have been back in the news this week. First, we heard that Eli Lilly, the company behind Mounjaro and Zepbound, became the first healthcare company in the world to achieve a trillion-dollar valuation.
But we also learned that, disappointingly, GLP-1 drugs don’t seem to help people with Alzheimer’s disease. And that people who stop taking the drugs when they become pregnant can experience potentially dangerous levels of weight gain. On top of that, some researchers worry that people are using the drugs postpartum to lose pregnancy weight without understanding potential risks.
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
If you’re interested in weight loss drugs and how they affect us, take a look at:
+ GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro might benefit heart and brain health—but research suggests they might also cause pregnancy complications and harm some users. Read the full story.
+ We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change. Read the full story.
+ This vibrating weight-loss pill seems to work—in pigs. Read the full story.
What we know about how AI is affecting the economy
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to understanding how AI is changing the economy right now. Should we be pessimistic? Optimistic? Or is the situation too nuanced for that?
Hopefully, we can point you towards some answers. Mat Honan, our editor in chief, will hold a special subscriber-only Roundtables conversation with our editor at large David Rotman, and Richard Waters, Financial Times columnist, exploring what’s happening across different markets. Register here to join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday December 9.
The event is part of the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review “The State of AI” partnership, exploring the global impact of artificial intelligence. Over the past month, we’ve been running discussions between our journalists—sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Tech billionaires are gearing up to fight AI regulation By amassing multi-million dollar war chests ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections. (WSJ $) + Donald Trump’s “Manhattan Project” for AI is certainly ambitious. (The Information $)
2 The EU wants to hold social media platforms liable for financial scams New rules will force tech firms to compensate banks if they fail to remove reported scams. (Politico)
3 China is worried about a humanoid robot bubble Because more than 150 companies there are building very similar machines. (Bloomberg $) + It could learn some lessons from the current AI bubble. (CNN)+ Why the humanoid workforce is running late. (MIT Technology Review)
4 A Myanmar scam compound was blown up But its residents will simply find new bases for their operations. (NYT $) + Experts suspect the destruction may have been for show. (Wired $) + Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Navies across the world are investing in submarine drones They cost a fraction of what it takes to run a traditional manned sub. (The Guardian) + How underwater drones could shape a potential Taiwan-China conflict. (MIT Technology Review)
6 What to expect from China’s seemingly unstoppable innovation drive Its extremely permissive regulators play a big role. (Economist $) + Is China about to win the AI race? (MIT Technology Review)
7 The UK is waging a war on VPNs Good luck trying to persuade people to stop using them. (The Verge)
8 We’re learning more about Jeff Bezos’ mysterious clock project He’s backed the Clock of the Long Now for years—and construction is amping up. (FT $) + How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we can reverse it. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Have we finally seen the first hints of dark matter? These researchers seem to think so. (New Scientist $)
10 A helpful robot is helping archaeologists reconstruct Pompeii Reassembling ancient frescos is fiddly and time-consuming, but less so if you’re a dextrous machine. (Reuters)
Quote of the day
“We do fail… a lot.”
—Defense company Anduril explains its move-fast-and-break-things ethos to the Wall Street Journal in response to reports its systems have been marred by issues in Ukraine.
One more thing
How to build a better AI benchmark
It’s not easy being one of Silicon Valley’s favorite benchmarks.
SWE-Bench (pronounced “swee bench”) launched in November 2024 as a way to evaluate an AI model’s coding skill. It has since quickly become one of the most popular tests in AI. A SWE-Bench score has become a mainstay of major model releases from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google—and outside of foundation models, the fine-tuners at AI firms are in constant competition to see who can rise above the pack.
Despite all the fervor, this isn’t exactly a truthful assessment of which model is “better.” Entrants have begun to game the system—which is pushing many others to wonder whether there’s a better way to actually measure AI achievement. Read the full story.
—Russell Brandom
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Aww, these sharks appear to be playing with pool toys. + Strange things are happening over on Easter Island (even weirder than you can imagine) + Very cool—archaeologists have uncovered a Roman tomb that’s been sealed shut for 1,700 years. + This Japanese mass media collage is making my eyes swim, in a good way.
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.
This year’s UN climate talks avoided fossil fuels, again
Over the past few weeks in Belem, Brazil, attendees of this year’s UN climate talks dealt with oppressive heat and flooding, and at one point a literal fire broke out, delaying negotiations. The symbolism was almost too much to bear.
While many, including the president of Brazil, framed this year’s conference as one of action, the talks ended with a watered-down agreement. The final draft doesn’t even include the phrase “fossil fuels.”
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
New noninvasive endometriosis tests are on the rise
Endometriosis inflicts debilitating pain and heavy bleeding on more than 11% of reproductive-age women in the United States. Diagnosis takes nearly 10 years on average, partly because half the cases don’t show up on scans, and surgery is required to obtain tissue samples.
But a new generation of noninvasive tests are emerging that could help accelerate diagnosis and improve management of this poorly understood condition.Read the full story.
—Colleen de Bellefonds
This story is from the last print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI claims a teenager circumvented its safety features before ending his life It says ChatGPT directed Adam Raine to seek help more than 100 times. (TechCrunch) + OpenAI is strongly refuting the idea it’s liable for the 16-year old’s death. (NBC News) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The CDC’s new deputy director prefers natural immunity to vaccines And he wasn’t even the worst choice among those considered for the role. (Ars Technica) + Meet Jim O’Neill, the longevity enthusiast who is now RFK Jr.’s right-hand man. (MIT Technology Review)
3 An MIT study says AI could already replace 12% of the US workforce Researchers drew that conclusion after simulating a digital twin of the US labor market. (CNBC) + Separate research suggests it could replace 3 million jobs in the UK, too. (The Guardian) + AI usage looks unlikely to keep climbing. (Economist $)
4 An Italian defense group has created an AI-powered air shield system It claims the system allows defenders to generate dome-style missile shields. (FT $) + Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The EU is considering a ban on social media for under-16s Following in Australia’s footsteps, whose own ban comes into power next month. (Politico) + The European Parliament wants parents to decide on access. (The Guardian)
6 Why do so many astronauts keep getting stuck in space? America, Russia and now China have had to contend with this situation. (WP $) + A rescue craft for three stranded Chinese astronauts has successfully reached them. (The Register)
7 Uploading pictures of your hotel room could help trafficking victims A new app uses computer vision to determine where pictures of generic-looking rooms were taken. (IEEE Spectrum)
8 This browser tool turns back the clock to a pre-AI slop web Back to the golden age of pre-November 30 2022. (404 Media) + The White House’s slop posts are shockingly bad. (NY Mag $) + Animated neo-Nazi propaganda is freely available on X. (The Atlantic $)
9 Grok’s “epic roasts” are as tragic as you’d expect Test it out at parties at your own peril. (Wired $)
10 Startup founders dread explaining their jobs at Thanksgiving Yes Grandma, I work with computers. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“AI cannot ever replace the unique gift that you are to the world.”
—Pope Leo XIV warns students about the dangers of over-relying on AI, New York Magazine reports.
One more thing
Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs
People looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction or thought experiments like the Turing test. But an equally important, if surprising and less appreciated, forerunner is American psychologist B.F. Skinner’s research with pigeons in the middle of the 20th century.
Skinner believed that association—learning, through trial and error, to link an action with a punishment or reward—was the building block of every behavior, not just in pigeons but in all living organisms, including human beings.
His “behaviorist” theories fell out of favor in the 1960s but were taken up by computer scientists who eventually provided the foundation for many of the leading AI tools. Read the full story.
—Ben Crair
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
How AI is changing the economy
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to understanding how AI is changing the economy right now. Should we be pessimistic? Optimistic? Or is the situation too nuanced for that?
Hopefully, we can point you towards some answers. Mat Honan, our editor in chief, will hold a special subscriber-only Roundtables conversation with our editor at large David Rotman, and Richard Waters, Financial Times columnist, exploring what’s happening across different markets. Register here to join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday December 9.
The event is part of the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review “The State of AI” partnership, exploring the global impact of artificial intelligence. Over the past month, we’ve been running discussions between our journalists—sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
If you’re interested in how AI is affecting the economy, take a look at:
+ What will AI mean for economic inequality? If we’re not careful, we could see widening gaps within countries and between them. Read the full story.
+ Artificial intelligence could put us on the path to a booming economic future, but getting there will take some serious course corrections. Here’s how to fine-tune AI for prosperity.
The AI Hype Index: The people can’t get enough of AI slop
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How to fix the internet
We all know the internet (well, social media) is broken. But it has also provided a haven for marginalized groups and a place for support. It offers information at times of crisis. It can connect you with long-lost friends. It can make you laugh.
That makes it worth fighting for. And yet, fixing online discourse is the definition of a hard problem.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 How much AI investment is too much AI investment? Tech companies hope to learn from beleaguered Intel. (WSJ $) + HP is pivoting to AI in the hopes of saving $1 billion a year. (The Guardian) + The European Central bank has accused tech investors of FOMO. (FT $)
2 ICE is outsourcing immigrant surveillance to private firms It’s incentivizing contractors with multi-million dollar rewards. (Wired $) + Californian residents have been traumatized by recent raids. (The Guardian) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Poland plans to use drones to defend its rail network from attack It’s blaming Russia for a recent line explosion. (FT $) + This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)
4 ChatGPT could eventually have as many subscribers as Spotify According to erm, OpenAI. (The Information $)
5 Here’s how your phone-checking habits could shape your daily life You’re probably underestimating just how often you pick it up. (WP $) + How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Chinese drugs are coming Its drugmakers are on the verge of making more money overseas than at home. (Economist $)
7 Uber is deploying fully driverless robotaxis in an Abu Dhabi island Roaming 12 square miles of the popular tourist destination. (The Verge) + Tesla is hoping to double its robotaxi fleet in Austin next month. (Reuters)
8 Apple is set to become the world’s largest smartphone maker After more than a decade in Samsung’s shadow. (Bloomberg $)
9 An AI teddy bear that discussed sexual topics is back on sale But the Teddy Kumma toy is now powered by a different chatbot. (Bloomberg $) + AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)
10 How Stranger Things became the ultimate algorithmic TV show Its creators mashed a load of pop culture references together and created a streaming phenomenon. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“AI is a very powerful tool—it’s a hammer and that doesn’t mean everything is a nail.”
—Marketing consultant Ryan Bearden explains to the Wall Street Journal why it pays to be discerning when using AI.
One more thing
Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys?
In recent months, a new class of agents has arrived on the scene: ones built using large language models. Any action that can be captured by text—from playing a video game using written commands to running a social media account—is potentially within the purview of this type of system.
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The entries for this year’s Nature inFocus Photography Awards are fantastic. + There’s nothing like a good karaoke sesh. + Happy heavenly birthday Tina Turner, who would have turned 86 years old today. + Stop the presses—the hotly-contested list of the world’s top 50 vineyards has officially been announced
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.
What’s next for AlphaFold: A conversation with a Google DeepMind Nobel laureate
In 2017, fresh off a PhD on theoretical chemistry, John Jumper heard rumors that Google DeepMind had moved on from game-playing AI to a secret project to predict the structures of proteins. He applied for a job.
Just three years later, Jumper and CEO Demis Hassabis had led the development of an AI system called AlphaFold 2 that was able to predict the structures of proteins to within the width of an atom, matching lab-level accuracy, and doing it many times faster—returning results in hours instead of months.
Last year, Jumper and Hassabis shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now that the hype has died down, what impact has AlphaFold really had? How are scientists using it? And what’s next? I talked to Jumper (as well as a few other scientists) to find out. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
The State of AI: Chatbot companions and the future of our privacy
—Eileen Guo & Melissa Heikkilä
Even if you don’t have an AI friend yourself, you probably know someone who does. A recent study found that one of the top uses of generative AI is companionship: On platforms like Character.AI, Replika, or Meta AI, people can create personalized chatbots to pose as the ideal friend, romantic partner, parent, therapist, or any other persona they can dream up.
Some state governments are taking notice and starting to regulate companion AI. But tellingly, one area the laws fail to address is user privacy. Read the full story.
This is the fourth edition of The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review. Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the MIT Technology Review are able to read the whole thing on our site.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump has signed an executive order to boost AI innovation The “Genesis Mission” will try to speed up the rate of scientific breakthroughs. (Politico) + The order directs government science agencies to aggressively embrace AI. (Axios) + It’s also being touted as a way to lower energy prices. (CNN)
2 Anthropic’s new AI model is designed to be better at coding We’ll discover just how much better once Claude Opus 4.5 has been properly put through its paces. (Bloomberg $) + It reportedly outscored human candidates in an internal engineering test. (VentureBeat) + What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)
3 The AI boom is keeping India hooked on coal Leaving little chance of cleaning up Mumbai’s famously deadly pollution. (The Guardian) + It’s lethal smog season in New Delhi right now. (CNN) + The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Teenagers are losing access to their AI companions Character.AI is limiting the amount of time underage users can spend interacting with its chatbots. (WSJ $) + The majority of the company’s users are young and female. (CNBC) + One of OpenAI’s key safety leaders is leaving the company. (Wired $) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Weight-loss drugs may be riskier during pregnancy Recipients are more likely to deliver babies prematurely. (WP $) + The pill version of Ozempic failed to halt Alzheimer’s progression in a trial. (The Guardian) + We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)
6 OpenAI is launching a new “shopping research” tool All the better to track your consumer spending with. (CNBC) + It’s designed for price comparisons and compiling buyer’s guides. (The Information $) + The company is clearly aiming for a share of Amazon’s e-commerce pie. (Semafor)
7 LA residents displaced by wildfires are moving into prefab housing Their new homes are cheap to build and simple to install. (Fast Company $) + How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Why former Uber drivers are undertaking the world’s toughest driving test They’re taking the Knowledge—London’s gruelling street test that bypasses GPS. (NYT $)
9 How to spot a fake battery Great, one more thing to worry about. (IEEE Spectrum)
10 Where is the Trump Mobile? Almost six months after it was announced, there’s no sign of it. (CNBC)
Quote of the day
“AI is a tsunami that is gonna wipe out everyone. So I’m handing out surfboards.”
—Filmmaker PJ Accetturo, tells Ars Technica why he’s writing a newsletter advising fellow creatives how to pivot to AI tools.
One more thing
The second wave of AI coding is here
Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right now—what they’re really fired up about—and many will tell you: coding.
Everyone from established AI giants to buzzy startups is promising to take coding assistants to the next level. This next generation can prototype, test, and debug code for you. The upshot is that developers could essentially turn into managers, who may spend more time reviewing and correcting code written by a model than writing it.
But there’s more. Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology that a number of top firms claim to have in their sights. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ If you’re planning a visit to Istanbul here’s hoping you like cats—the city can’t get enough of them. + Rest in power reggae icon Jimmy Cliff. + Did you know the ancient Egyptians had a pretty accurate way of testing for pregnancy? + As our readers in the US start prepping for Thanksgiving, spare a thought for Astoria the lovelorn turkey
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.
Meet the man building a starter kit for civilization
You live in a house you designed and built yourself. You rely on the sun for power, heat your home with a woodstove, and farm your own fish and vegetables. The year is 2025.
This is the life of Marcin Jakubowski, the 53-year-old founder of Open Source Ecology, an open collaborative of engineers, producers, and builders developing what they call the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS).
It’s a set of 50 machines—everything from a tractor to an oven to a circuit maker—that are capable of building civilization from scratch and can be reconfigured however you see fit. It’s all part of his ethos that life-changing technology should be available to all, not controlled by a select few.Read the full story.
—Tiffany Ng
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
What it’s like to find yourself in the middle of a conspiracy theory
Last week, we held a subscribers-only Roundtables discussion exploring how to cope in this new age of conspiracy theories. Our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth were joined by conspiracy expert Mike Rothschild, who explained exactly what it’s like to find yourself at the center of a conspiracy you can’t control. Watch the conversation back here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 DOGE has been disbanded Even though it’s got eight months left before its official scheduled end. (Reuters) + It leaves a legacy of chaos and few measurable savings. (Politico) + DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)
2 How OpenAI’s tweaks to ChatGPT sent some users into delusional spirals It essentially turned a dial that increased both usage of the chatbot and the risks it poses to a subset of people. (NYT $) + AI workers are warning loved ones to stay away from the technology. (The Guardian) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
3 A three-year old has received the world’s first gene therapy for Hunter syndrome Oliver Chu appears to be developing normally one year after starting therapy. (BBC)
4 Why we may—or may not—be in an AI bubble It’s time to follow the data. (WP $) + Even tech leaders don’t appear to be entirely sure. (Insider $) + How far can the ‘fake it til you make it’ strategy take us? (WSJ $) + Nvidia is still riding the wave with abandon. (NY Mag $)
5 Many MAGA influencers are based in Russia, India and Nigeria X’s new account provenance feature is revealing some interesting truths. (The Daily Beast)
6 The FBI wants to equip drones with facial recognition tech Civil libertarians claim the plans equate to airborne surveillance. (The Intercept) + This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Snapchat is alerting users ahead of Australia’s under-16s social media ban The platform will analyze an account’s “behavioral signals” to estimate a user’s age. (The Guardian) + An AI nudification site has been fined for skipping age checks. (The Register) + Millennial parents are fetishizing the notion of an offline childhood. (The Observer)
8 Activists are roleplaying ICE raids in Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto It’s in a bid to prepare players to exercise their rights in the real world. (Wired $) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
9 The JWST may have uncovered colossal stars In fact, they’re so big their masses are 10,000 times bigger than the sun. (New Scientist $) + Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Social media users are lying about brands ghosting them Completely normal behavior. (WSJ $) + This would never have happened on Vine, I’ll tell you now. (The Verge)
Quote of the day
“I can’t believe we have to say this, but this account has only ever been run and operated from the United States.”
—The US Department of Homeland Security’s X account attempts to end speculation surrounding its social media origins, the New York Times reports.
One more thing
This company is planning a lithium empire from the shores of the Great Salt Lake
On a bright afternoon in August, the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake looks like something out of a science fiction film set in a scorching alien world.
This otherworldly scene is the test site for a company called Lilac Solutions, which is developing a technology it says will shake up the United States’ efforts to pry control over the global supply of lithium, the so-called “white gold” needed for electric vehicles and batteries, away from China.
The startup is in a race to commercialize a new, less environmentally-damaging way to extract lithium from rocks. If everything pans out, it could significantly increase domestic supply at a crucial moment for the nation’s lithium extraction industry. Read the full story.
—Alexander C. Kaufman
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ I love the thought of clever crows putting their smarts to use picking up cigarette butts (thanks Alice!) + Talking of brains, sea urchins have a whole lot more than we originally suspected. + Wow—a Ukrainian refugee has won an elite-level sumo competition in Japan. + How to make any day feel a little bit brighter.
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.
We’re learning more about what vitamin D does to our bodies
At a checkup a few years ago, a doctor told me I was deficient in vitamin D. But he wouldn’t write me a prescription for supplements, simply because, as he put it, everyone in the UK is deficient. Putting the entire population on vitamin D supplements would be too expensive for the country’s national health service, he told me.
But supplementation—whether covered by a health-care provider or not—can be important. As those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere spend fewer of our waking hours in sunlight, let’s consider the importance of vitamin D. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
If you’re interested in other stories from our biotech writers, check out some of their most recent work:
+ Advanced in organs on chips, digital twins, and AI are ushering in a new era of research and drug development that could help put a stop to animal testing. Read the full story.
+ Scientists are creating the beginnings of bodies without sperm or eggs. How far should they be allowed to go? Read the full story.
+ This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle. Read the full story.
Partying at one of Africa’s largest AI gatherings
It’s late August in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, and people are filling a large hall at one of Africa’s biggest gatherings of minds in AI and machine learning. Deep Learning Indaba is an annual AI conference where Africans present their research and technologies they’ve built, mingling with friends as a giant screen blinks with videos created with generative AI.
The main “prize” for many attendees is to be hired by a tech company or accepted into a PhD program. But the organizers hope to see more homegrown ventures create opportunities within Africa. Read the full story.
—Abdullahi Tsanni
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Google’s new Nano Banana Pro generates convincing propaganda The company’s latest image-generating AI model seems to have few guardrails. (The Verge) + Google wants its creations to be slicker than ever. (Wired $) + Google’s new Gemini 3 “vibe-codes” responses and comes with its own agent. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Taiwan says the US won’t punish it with high chip tariffs In fact, official Wu Cheng-wen says Taiwan will help support the US chip industry in exchange for tariff relief. (FT $)
3 Mental health support is one of the most dangerous uses for chatbots They fail to recognize psychiatric conditions and can miss critical warning signs. (WP $) + AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors. (MIT Technology Review)
4 It costs an average of $17,121 to deport one person from the US But in some cases it can cost much, much more. (Bloomberg $) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Grok is telling users that Elon Musk is the world’s greatest lover What’s it basing that on, exactly? (Rolling Stone $) + It also claims he’s fitter than basketball legend LeBron James. Sure. (The Guardian) 6 Who’s really in charge of US health policy? RFK Jr. and FDA commissioner Marty Makary are reportedly at odds behind the scenes. (Vox) + Republicans are lightly pushing back on the CDC’s new stance on vaccines. (Politico) + Why anti-vaxxers are seeking to discredit Danish studies. (Bloomberg $) + Meet Jim O’Neill, the longevity enthusiast who is now RFK Jr.’s right-hand man. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Inequality is worsening in San Francisco As billionaires thrive, hundreds of thousands of others are struggling to get by. (WP $) + A massive airship has been spotted floating over the city. (SF Gate)
8 Donald Trump is thrusting obscure meme-makers into the mainstream He’s been reposting flattering AI-generated memes by the dozen. (NYT $) + MAGA YouTube stars are pushing a boom in politically charged ads. (Bloomberg $) 9 Moss spores survived nine months in space And they could remain reproductively viable for another 15 years. (New Scientist $) + It suggests that some life on Earth has evolved to endure space conditions. (NBC News) + The quest to figure out farming on Mars. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Does AI really need a physical shape? It doesn’t really matter—companies are rushing to give it one anyway. (The Atlantic $)
Quote of the day
“At some point you’ve got to wonder whether the bug is a feature.”
—Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, ponders xAI and Grok’s proclivity for surfacing Elon Musk-friendly and/or far-right sources, the Washington Post reports.
One more thing
The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI
Back in 2022, the tech community was buzzing over image-generating AI models, such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, which could follow simple word prompts to depict fantasylands or whimsical chairs made of avocados.
But artists saw this technological wonder as a new kind of theft. They felt the models were effectively stealing and replacing their work.
Ben Zhao, a computer security researcher at the University of Chicago, was listening. He and his colleagues have built arguably the most prominent weapons in an artist’s arsenal against nonconsensual AI scraping: two tools called Glaze and Nightshade that add barely perceptible perturbations to an image’s pixels so that machine-learning models cannot read them properly.
But Zhao sees the tools as part of a battle to slowly tilt the balance of power from large corporations back to individual creators. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ If you’re ever tempted to try and recreate a Jackson Pollock painting, maybe you’d be best leaving it to the kids. + Scientists have discovered that lions have not one, but two distinct types of roars + The relentless rise of the quarter-zip must be stopped! + Pucker up: here’s a brief history of kissing
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.
Three things to know about the future of electricity
The International Energy Agency recently released the latest version of the World Energy Outlook, the annual report that takes stock of the current state of global energy and looks toward the future.
It contains some interesting insights and a few surprising figures about electricity, grids, and the state of climate change. Let’s dig into some numbers.
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
How to survive in the new age of conspiracies
Everything is a conspiracy theory now. Our latest series “The New Conspiracy Age” delves into how conspiracies have gripped the White House, turning fringe ideas into dangerous policy, and how generative AI is altering the fabric of truth.
If you’re interested in hearing more about how to survive in this strange new age, join our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth today at 1pm ET for an subscriber-exclusive Roundtable conversation. They’ll be joined by conspiracy expert Mike Rothschild, who’s written a fascinating piece for us about what it’s like to find yourself at the heart of a conspiracy theory. Register now to join us!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump is poised to ban AI state laws The US President is considering signing an order to give the federal government unilateral power over regulating AI. (The Verge) + It would give the Justice Department power to sue dissenting states. (WP $) + Critics claim the draft undermines trust in the US’s ability to make AI safe. (Wired $) + It’s not just America—the EU fumbled its attempts to rein in AI, too. (FT $)
2 The CDC is making false claims about a link between vaccines and autism Despite previously spending decades fighting misinformation connecting them. (WP $) + The National Institutes of Health is parroting RFK Jr’s messaging, too. (The Atlantic $)
3 China is going all-in on autonomous vehicles Which is bad news for its millions of delivery drivers. (FT $) + It’s also throwing its full weight behind its native EV industry. (Rest of World)
5 Major music labels have inked a deal with an AI streaming service Klay users will be able to remodel songs from the likes of Universal using AI. (Bloomberg $) + What happens next is anyone’s guess. (Billboard $) + AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)
5 How quantum sensors could overhaul GPS navigation Current GPS is vulnerable to spoofing and jamming. But what comes next? (WSJ $) + Inside the race to find GPS alternatives. (MIT Technology Review)
6 There’s a divide inside the community of people in relationships with chatbots Some users assert their love interests are real—to the concern of others. (NY Mag $) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
7 There’s still hope for a functional cure to HIV Even in the face of crippling funding cuts. (Knowable Magazine) + Breakthrough drug lenacapavir is being rolled out in parts of Africa. (NPR) + This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Is it possible to reverse years of AI brainrot? A new wave of memes is fighting the good fight. (Wired $) + How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Tourists fell for an AI-generated Christmas market outside Buckingham Palace If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. (The Guardian) + It’s unclear who is behind the pictures, which spread on Instagram. (BBC)
10 Here’s what people return to Amazon A whole lot of polyester clothing, by the sounds of it. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“I think we’re in an LLM bubble, and I think the LLM bubble might be bursting next year.”
—Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue has a slightly different take on the reports we’re in an AI bubble, TechCrunch reports.
One more thing
Inside a new quest to save the “doomsday glacier”
The Thwaites glacier is a fortress larger than Florida, a wall of ice that reaches nearly 4,000 feet above the bedrock of West Antarctica, guarding the low-lying ice sheet behind it.
But a strong, warm ocean current is weakening its foundations and accelerating its slide into the sea. Scientists fear the waters could topple the walls in the coming decades, kick-starting a runaway process that would crack up the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, marking the start of a global climate disaster. As a result, they are eager to understand just how likely such a collapse is, when it could happen, and if we have the power to stop it. Read the full story.
—James Temple
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ As Christmas approaches, micro-gifting might be a fun new tradition to try out. + I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—movies are too long these days. + If you’re feeling a bit existential this morning, these books are a great starting point for finding a sense of purpose. + This is a fun list of the internet’s weird and wonderful obsessive lists.
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.
Quantum physicists have shrunk and “de-censored” DeepSeek R1
The news: A group of quantum physicists at Spanish firm Multiverse Computing claims to have created a version of the powerful reasoning AI model DeepSeek R1 that strips out the censorship built into the original by its Chinese creators.
Why it matters: In China, AI companies are subject to rules and regulations meant to ensure that content output aligns with laws and “socialist values.” As a result, companies build in layers of censorship when training the AI systems. When asked questions that are deemed “politically sensitive,” the models often refuse to answer or provide talking points straight from state propaganda.
How they did it: Multiverse Computing specializes in quantum-inspired AI techniques, which it used to create DeepSeek R1 Slim, a model that is 55% smaller but performs almost as well as the original model. It allowed them to identify and remove Chinese censorship so that the model answered sensitive questions in much the same way as Western models. Read the full story.
—Caiwei Chen
Google’s new Gemini 3 “vibe-codes” responses and comes with its own agent
Google today unveiled Gemini 3, a major upgrade to its flagship multimodal model. The firm says the new model is better at reasoning, has more fluid multimodal capabilities (the ability to work across voice, text or images), and will work like an agent.
Gemini Agent is an experimental feature designed to handle multi-step tasks directly inside the app. The agent can connect to services such as Google Calendar, Gmail, and Reminders. Once granted access, it can execute tasks like organizing an inbox or managing schedules.Read the full story.
—Caiwei Chen
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Why climate researchers are taking the temperature of mountain snow
The Sierra’s frozen reservoir provides about a third of California’s water and most of what comes out of the faucets, shower heads, and sprinklers in the towns and cities of northwestern Nevada.
The need for better snowpack temperature data has become increasingly critical for predicting when the water will flow down the mountains, as climate change fuels hotter weather, melts snow faster, and drives rapid swings between very wet and very dry periods.
A new generation of tools, techniques, and models promises to improve water forecasts, and help California and other states manage in the face of increasingly severe droughts and flooding. However, observers fear that any such advances could be undercut by the Trump administration’s cutbacks across federal agencies.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Yesterday’s Cloudflare outage was not triggered by a hack An error in its bot management system was to blame. (The Verge) + ChatGPT, X and Uber were among the services that dropped. (WP $) + It’s another example of the dangers of having a handful of infrastructure providers. (WSJ $) + Today’s web is incredibly fragile. (Bloomberg $)
2 Donald Trump has called for a federal AI regulatory standard Instead of allowing each state to make its own laws. (Axios) + He claims the current approach risks slowing down AI progress. (Bloomberg $)
3 Meta has won the antitrust case that threatened to spin off Instagram It’s one of the most high-profile cases in recent years. (FT $) + A judge ruled that Meta doesn’t hold a social media monopoly. (BBC)
4 The Three Mile Island nuclear plant is making a comeback It’s the lucky recipient of a $1 billion federal loan to kickstart the facility. (WP $) + Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Roblox will block children from speaking to adult strangers The gaming platform is facing fresh lawsuits alleging it is failing to protect young users from online predators. (The Guardian) + But we don’t know much about how accurate its age verification is. (CNN) + All users will have to submit a selfie or an ID to use chat features. (Engadget)
6 Boston Dynamics’ robot dog is becoming a widespread policing tool It’s deployed by dozens of US and Canadian bomb squads and SWAT teams. (Bloomberg $)
7 A tribally-owned network of EV chargers is nearing completion It’s part of Standing Rock reservation’s big push for clean energy. (NYT $)
8 Resist the temptation to use AI to cheat at conversations It makes it much more difficult to forge a connection. (The Atlantic $)
9 Amazon wants San Francisco residents to ride its robotaxis for free It’s squaring up against Alphabet’s Waymo in the city for the first time. (CNBC) + But its cars look very different to traditional vehicles. (LA Times $) + Zoox is operating around 50 robotaxis across SF and Las Vegas. (The Verge)
10 TikTok’s new setting allows you to filter out AI-generated clips Farewell, sweet slop. (TechCrunch) + How do AI models generate videos? (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“The rapids of social media rush along so fast that the Court has never even stepped into the same case twice.”
—Judge James Boasberg, who rejected the Federal Trade Commission’s claim that Meta had created an illegal social media monopoly, acknowledges the law’s failure to keep up with technology, Politico reports.
One more thing
Namibia wants to build the world’s first hydrogen economy
Factories have used fossil fuels to process iron ore for three centuries, and the climate has paid a heavy price: According to the International Energy Agency, the steel industry today accounts for 8% of carbon dioxide emissions.
But it turns out there is a less carbon-intensive alternative: using hydrogen. Unlike coal or natural gas, which release carbon dioxide as a by-product, this process releases water. And if the hydrogen itself is “green,” the climate impact of the entire process will be minimal.
HyIron, which has a site in the Namib desert, is one of a handful of companies around the world that are betting green hydrogen can help the $1.8 trillion steel industry clean up its act. The question now is whether Namibia’s government, its trading partners, and hydrogen innovators can work together to build the industry in a way that satisfies the world’s appetite for cleaner fuels—and also helps improve lives at home. Read the full story.
—Jonathan W. Rosen
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.+ This art installation in Paris revolves around porcelain bowls clanging against each other in a pool of water—it’s oddly hypnotic. + Feeling burnt out? Get down to your local sauna for a quick reset. + New York’s subway system is something else. + Your dog has ancient origins. No, really!
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.
The State of AI: How war will be changed forever
—Helen Warrell & James O’Donnell
It is July 2027, and China is on the brink of invading Taiwan. Autonomous drones with AI targeting capabilities are primed to overpower the island’s air defenses as a series of crippling AI-generated cyberattacks cut off energy supplies and key communications. In the meantime, a vast disinformation campaign enacted by an AI-powered pro-Chinese meme farm spreads across global social media, deadening the outcry at Beijing’s act of aggression.
Scenarios such as this have brought dystopian horror to the debate about the use of AI in warfare. Military commanders hope for a digitally enhanced force that is faster and more accurate than human-directed combat.
But there are fears that as AI assumes an increasingly central role, these same commanders will lose control of a conflict that escalates too quickly and lacks ethical or legal oversight. Read the full story.
This is the third edition of The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times & MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power.
Every Monday, writers from both publications will debate one aspect of the generative AI revolution reshaping global power. While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the MIT Technology Review are able to read the whole thing. Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
Job titles of the future: AI embryologist
Embryologists are the scientists behind the scenes of in vitro fertilization who oversee the development and selection of embryos, prepare them for transfer, and maintain the lab environment. They’ve been a critical part of IVF for decades, but their job has gotten a whole lot busier in recent years as demand for the fertility treatment skyrockets and clinics struggle to keep up.
Klaus Wiemer, a veteran embryologist and IVF lab director, believes artificial intelligence might help by predicting embryo health in real time and unlocking new avenues for productivity in the lab. Read the full story.
—Amanda Smith
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Big Tech’s job cuts are a warning sign They’re a canary down the mine for other industries. (WP $) + Americans appear to feel increasingly unsettled by AI. (WSJ $) + Global fund managers worry companies are overinvesting in the technology. (FT $)
2 Iran is attempting to stimulate rain to end its deadly drought But critics warn that cloud seeding is a challenging process. (New Scientist $) + Parts of western Iran are now experiencing flooding. (Reuters) + Why it’s so hard to bust the weather control conspiracy theory. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Air taxi startups may produce new aircraft for war zones The US Army has announced its intentions to acquire most of its weapons from startups, not major contractors. (The Information $) + US firm Joby Aviation is launching flying taxis in Dubai. (NBC News) + This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Weight-loss drug make Eli Lilly is likely to cross a trillion-dollar valuation As it prepares to launch a pill alternative to its injections. (WSJ $) + Arch rival Novo Nordisk A/S is undercutting the company to compete. (Bloomberg $) + We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)
5 What’s going on with the US TikTok ban? Even the lawmakers in charge don’t seem to know. (The Verge)
6 It’s getting harder to grow cocoa Mass tree felling and lower rainfall in the Congo Basin is to blame. (FT $) + Industrial agriculture activists are everywhere at COP30. (The Guardian) + Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Russia is cracking down on its critical military bloggers Armchair critics are facing jail time if they refuse to apologize. (Economist $)
8 Why the auto industry is so obsessed with humanoid robots It’s not just Tesla—plenty of others want to get in on the act. (The Atlantic $) + China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Indian startups are challenging ChatGPT’s AI dominance They support a far wider range of languages than the large AI firms’ models. (Rest of World) + OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias. (MIT Technology Review)
10 These tiny sensors track butterflies on their journey to Mexico Scientists hope it’ll shed some light on their mysterious life cycles. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“I think no company is going to be immune, including us.”
—Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, warns the BBC about the precarious nature of the AI bubble.
One more thing
How a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics
—Jon Keegan
As a child of an electronic engineer, I spent a lot of time in our local Radio Shack as a kid. While my dad was locating capacitors and resistors, I was in the toy section. It was there, in 1984, that I discovered the best toy of my childhood: the Armatron robotic arm.
Described as a “robot-like arm to aid young masterminds in scientific and laboratory experiments,” it was a legit robotic arm. And the bold look and function of Armatron made quite an impression on many young kids who would one day have a career in robotics. Read the full story.
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The US Library of Congress has attained some handwritten drafts of iconic songs from The Wizard of Oz. + This interesting dashboard tracks the world’s top 500 musical artists in the world right now—some of the listings may surprise you (or just make you feel really old.) + Cult author Chris Kraus shares what’s floating her boat right now.+ The first images of the forthcoming Legend of Zelda film are here!
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.
What is the chance your plane will be hit by space debris?
The risk of flights being hit by space junk is still small, but it’s growing.
About three pieces of old space equipment—used rockets and defunct satellites—fall into Earth’s atmosphere every day, according to estimates by the European Space Agency. By the mid-2030s, there may be dozens thanks to the rise of megaconstellations in orbit.
So far, space debris hasn’t injured anybody—in the air or on the ground. But multiple close calls have been reported in recent years.
But some estimates have the risk of a single human death or injury caused by a space debris strike on the ground at around 10% per year by 2035. That would mean a better than even chance that someone on Earth would be hit by space junk about every decade. Find out more.
—Tereza Pultarova
This story is part of MIT Technology Review Explains: our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read the rest of the series here.
Chatbots are surprisingly effective at debunking conspiracy theories
—Thomas Costello, Gordon Pennycook & David Rand
Many people believe that you can’t talk conspiracists out of their beliefs.
This is good news, given the outsize role that unfounded conspiracy theories play in today’s political landscape. So while there are widespread and legitimate concerns that generative AI is a potent tool for spreading disinformation, our work shows that it can also be part of the solution. Read the full story.
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 China is quietly expanding its remote nuclear test site In the wake of Donald Trump announcing America’s intentions to revive similar tests. (WP $) + A White House memo has accused Alibaba of supporting Chinese operations. (FT $)
2 Jeff Bezos is becoming co-CEO of a new AI startup Project Prometheus will focus on AI for building computers, aerospace and vehicles. (NYT $)
3 AI-powered toys are holding inappropriate conversations with children Including how to find dangerous objects including pills and knives. (The Register) + Chatbots are unreliable and unpredictable, whether embedded in toys or not. (Futurism) + AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Big Tech is warming to the idea of data centers in space They come with a lot less red tape than their Earth-bound counterparts. (WSJ $) + There are a huge number of data centers mired in the planning stage. (WSJ $) + Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)
5 The mafia is recruiting via TikTok Some bosses are even using the platform to control gangs from behind bars. (Economist $)
6 How to resist AI in your workplace Like most things in life, there’s power in numbers. (Vox)
7 How China’s EV fleet could become a giant battery network If economic troubles don’t get in the way, that is. (Rest of World) + EV sales are on the rise in South America. (Reuters) + China’s energy dominance in three charts. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Inside the unstoppable rise of the domestic internet Control-hungry nations are following China’s lead in building closed platforms. (NY Mag $) + Can we repair the internet? (MIT Technology Review)
9 Search traffic? What search traffic? These media startups have found a way to thrive without Google. (Insider $) + AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Paul McCartney has released a silent track to protest AI’s creep into music That’ll show them! (The Guardian) + AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“All the parental controls in the world will not protect your kids from themselves.”
—Samantha Broxton, a parenting coach and consultant, tells the Washington Post why educating children around the risks of using technology is the best way to help them protect themselves.
One more thing
Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal
Apple (and its peers) are planting vast forests of eucalyptus trees in Brazil to try to offset their climate emissions, striking some of the largest-ever deals for carbon credits in the process.
The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.
The big question is: Can Latin America’s eucalyptus be a scalable climate solution? Read the full story.
—Gregory Barber
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Shepard Fairey’s retrospective show in LA looks very cool. + Check out these fascinating scientific breakthroughs that have been making waves over the past 25 years. + Good news—sweet little puffins are making a comeback in Ireland. + Maybe we should all be getting into Nordic walking.
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.
OpenAI’s new LLM exposes the secrets of how AI really works
The news: ChatGPT maker OpenAI has built an experimental large language model that is far easier to understand than typical models.
Why it matters: It’s a big deal, because today’s LLMs are black boxes: Nobody fully understands how they do what they do. Building a model that is more transparent sheds light on how LLMs work in general, helping researchers figure out why models hallucinate, why they go off the rails, and just how far we should trust them with critical tasks. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
Google DeepMind is using Gemini to train agents inside Goat Simulator 3
Google DeepMind has built a new video-game-playing agent called SIMA 2 that can navigate and solve problems in 3D virtual worlds. The company claims it’s a big step toward more general-purpose agents and better real-world robots.
The company first demoed SIMA (which stands for “scalable instructable multiworld agent”) last year. But this new version has been built on top of Gemini, the firm’s flagship large language model, which gives the agent a huge boost in capability. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
These technologies could help put a stop to animal testing
Earlier this week, the UK’s science minister announced an ambitious plan: to phase out animal testing.
Testing potential skin irritants on animals will be stopped by the end of next year. By 2027, researchers are “expected to end” tests of the strength of Botox on mice. And drug tests in dogs and nonhuman primates will be reduced by 2030.
It’s good news for activists and scientists who don’t want to test on animals. And it’s timely too: In recent decades, we’ve seen dramatic advances in technologies that offer new ways to model the human body and test the effects of potential therapies, without experimenting on animals. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Chinese hackers used Anthropic’s AI to conduct an espionage campaign It automated a number of attacks on corporations and governments in September. (WSJ $) + The AI was able to handle the majority of the hacking workload itself. (NYT $) + Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Blue Origin successfully launched and landed its New Glenn rocket It managed to deploy two NASA satellites into space without a hitch. (CNN) + The New Glenn is the company’s largest reusable rocket. (FT $) + The launch had been delayed twice before. (WP $)
3 Brace yourself for flu season It started five weeks earlier than usual in the UK, and the US is next. (Ars Technica) + Here’s why we don’t have a cold vaccine. Yet. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Google is hosting a Border Protection facial recognition app The app alerts officials whether to contact ICE about identified immigrants. (404 Media) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
5 OpenAI is trialling group chats in ChatGPT It’d essentially make AI a participant in a conversation of up to 20 people. (Engadget)
6 A TikTok stunt sparked debate over how charitable America’s churches really are Content creator Nikalie Monroe asked churches for help feeding her baby. Very few stepped up. (WP $)
7 Indian startups are attempting to tackle air pollution But their solutions are far beyond the means of the average Indian household. (NYT $) + OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias. (MIT Technology Review)
8 An AI tool could help reduce wasted efforts to transplant organs It predicts how likely the would-be recipient is to die during the brief transplantation window. (The Guardian) + Putin says organ transplants could grant immortality. Not quite. (MIT Technology Review)
9 3D-printing isn’t making prosthetics more affordable It turns out that plastic prostheses are often really uncomfortable. (IEEE Spectrum) + These prosthetics break the mold with third thumbs, spikes, and superhero skins. (MIT Technology Review)
10 What happens when relationships with AI fall apart Can you really file for divorce from an LLM? (Wired $) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“It’s a funky time.”
—Aileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, tells TechCrunch the AI boom has torn up the traditional investment rulebook.
One more thing
Restoring an ancient lake from the rubble of an unfinished airport in Mexico City
Weeks after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018, he controversially canceled ambitious plans to build an airport on the deserted site of the former Lake Texcoco—despite the fact it was already around a third complete.
Instead, he tasked Iñaki Echeverria, a Mexican architect and landscape designer, with turning it into a vast urban park, an artificial wetland that aims to transform the future of the entire Valley region.
But as López Obrador’s presidential team nears its end, the plans for Lake Texcoco’s rebirth could yet vanish. Read the full story.
—Matthew Ponsford
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Maybe Gen Z is onto something when it comes to vibe dating. + Trust AC/DC to give the fans what they want, performing Jailbreak for the first time since 1991. + Nieves González, the artist behind Lily Allen’s new album cover, has an eye for detail. + Here’s what AI determines is a catchy tune.
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.
AI is changing how we quantify pain
Researchers around the world are racing to turn pain—medicine’s most subjective vital sign—into something a camera or sensor can score as reliably as blood pressure.
The push has already produced PainChek—a smartphone app that scans people’s faces for tiny muscle movements and uses artificial intelligence to output a pain score—which has been cleared by regulators on three continents and has logged more than 10 million pain assessments. Other startups are beginning to make similar inroads.
The way we assess pain may finally be shifting, but when algorithms measure our suffering, does that change the way we treat it? Read the full story.
—Deena Mousa
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about our bodies. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
How to help friends and family dig out of a conspiracy theory black hole
—Niall Firth
Someone I know became a conspiracy theorist seemingly overnight.
It was during the pandemic. They suddenly started posting daily on Facebook about the dangers of covid vaccines and masks, warning of an attempt to control us.
As a science and technology journalist, I felt that my duty was to respond. I tried, but all I got was derision. Even now I still wonder: Are there things I could have done differently to talk them back down and help them see sense?
I gave Sander van der Linden, professor of social psychology in society at the University of Cambridge, a call to ask: What would he advise if family members or friends show signs of having fallen down the rabbit hole? Read the full story.
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here. It’s also part of our How To series, giving you practical advice to help you get things done.
If you’re interested in hearing more about how to survive in the age of conspiracies, join our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth for a subscriber-exclusive Roundtable conversation with conspiracy expert Mike Rothschild. It’s at 1pm ET on Thursday November 20—register now to join us!
Google is still aiming for its “moonshot” 2030 energy goals
—Casey Crownhart
Last week, we hosted EmTech MIT, MIT Technology Review’s annual flagship conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As you might imagine, some of this climate reporter’s favorite moments came in the climate sessions. I was listening especially closely to my colleague James Temple’s discussion with Lucia Tian, head of advanced energy technologies at Google.
They spoke about the tech giant’s growing energy demand and what sort of technologies the company is looking to to help meet it. In case you weren’t able to join us, let’s dig into that session and consider how the company is thinking about energy in the face of AI’s rapid rise. Read the full story.
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 ChatGPT is now “warmer and more conversational” But it’s also slightly more willing to discuss sexual and violent content. (The Register) + ChatGPT has a very specific writing style. (WP $) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
2 The US could deny visas to visitors with obesity, cancer or diabetes As part of its ongoing efforts to stem the flow of people trying to enter the country. (WP $)
3 Microsoft is planning to create its own AI chip And it’s going to use OpenAI’s internal chip-building plans to do it. (Bloomberg $) + The company is working on a colossal data center in Atlanta. (WSJ $)
4 Early AI agent adopters are convinced they’ll see a return on their investment soon Mind you, they would say that. (WSJ $) + An AI adoption riddle. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Waymo’s robotaxis are hitting American highways Until now, they’ve typically gone out of their way to avoid them. (The Verge) + Its vehicles will now reach speeds of up to 65 miles per hour. (FT $) + Waymo is proving long-time detractor Elon Musk wrong. (Insider $)
6 A new Russian unit is hunting down Ukraine’s drone operators It’s tasked with killing the pilots behind Ukraine’s successful attacks. (FT $) + US startup Anduril wants to build drones in the UAE. (Bloomberg $) + Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Anthropic’s Claude successfully controlled a robot dog It’s important to know what AI models may do when given access to physical systems. (Wired $)
8 Grok briefly claimed Donald Trump won the 2020 US election As reliable as ever, I see. (The Guardian)
9 The Northern Lights are playing havoc with satellites Solar storms may look spectacular, but they make it harder to keep tabs on space. (NYT $) + Seriously though, they look amazing. (The Atlantic $) + NASA’s new AI model can predict when a solar storm may strike. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Apple users can now use digital versions of their passports But it’s strictly for internal flights within the US only. (TechCrunch)
Quote of the day
“I hope this mistake will turn into an experience.”
—Vladimir Vitukhin, chief executive of the company behind Russia’s first anthropomorphic robot AIDOL, offers a philosophical response to the machine falling flat on its face during a reveal event, the New York Times reports.
One more thing
Welcome to the oldest part of the metaverse
Headlines treat the metaverse as a hazy dream yet to be built. But if it’s defined as a network of virtual worlds we can inhabit, its oldest corner has been already running for 25 years.
It’s a medieval fantasy kingdom created for the online role-playing game Ultima Online. It was the first to simulate an entire world: a vast, dynamic realm where players could interact with almost anything, from fruit on trees to books on shelves.
Ultima Online has already endured a quarter-century of market competition, economic turmoil, and political strife. So what can this game and its players tell us about creating the virtual worlds of the future? Read the full story.
—John-Clark Levin
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Unlikely duo Sting and Shaggy are starring together in a New York musical. + Barry Manilow was almost in Airplane!? That would be an entirely different kind of flying, altogether + What makes someone sexy? Well, that depends. + Keep an eye on those pink dolphins, they’re notorious thieves.
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.
What it’s like to be in the middle of a conspiracy theory (according to a conspiracy theory expert)
—Mike Rothschild is a journalist and an expert on the growth and impact of conspiracy theories and disinformation.
It’s something of a familiar cycle by now: Tragedy hits; rampant misinformation and conspiracy theories follow. It’s often even more acute in the case of a natural disaster, when conspiracy theories about what “really” caused the calamity run right into culture-war-driven climate change denialism. Put together, these theories obscure real causes while elevating fake ones.
I’ve studied these ideas extensively, having spent the last 10 years writing about conspiracy theories and disinformation as a journalist and researcher. I’ve covered everything from the rise of QAnon to whether Donald Trump faked his assassination attempt. I’ve written three books, testified to Congress, and even written a report for the January 6th Committee.
Still, I’d never lived it. Not until my house in Altadena, California, burned down. Read the full story.
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here. It’s also featured in this week’s MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
If you’d like to hear more from Mike, he’ll be joining our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth for a subscriber-exclusive Roundtable conversation exploring how we can survive in the age of conspiracies. It’s at 1pm ET on Thursday November 20—register now to join us!
This startup thinks slime mold can help us design better cities
It is a yellow blob with no brain, yet some researchers believe a curious organism known as slime mold could help us build more resilient cities.
Humans have been building cities for 6,000 years, but slime mold has been around for 600 million. The team behind a new startup called Mireta wants to translate the organism’s biological superpowers into algorithms that might help improve transit times, alleviate congestion, and minimize climate-related disruptions in cities worldwide. Read the full story.
—Elissaveta M. Brandon
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about our bodies. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 US government officials are skipping COP30 And American corporate executives are following their lead. (NYT $) + Protestors stormed the climate talks in Brazil. (The Guardian) + Gavin Newsom took aim at Donald Trump’s climate policies onstage. (FT $)
2 The UK may assess AI models for their ability to generate CSAM Its government has suggested amending a legal bill to enable the tests. (BBC) + US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Google is suing a group of Chinese hackers It claims they’re selling software to enable criminal scams. (FT $) + The group allegedly sends colossal text message phishing attacks. (CBS News)
4 A major ‘cryptoqueen’ criminal has been jailed Qian Zhimin used money stolen from Chinese pensioners to buy cryptocurrency now worth billions. (BBC) + She defrauded her victims through an elaborate ponzi scheme. (CNN)
5 Carbon capture’s creators fear it’s being misused Overreliance on the method could breed overconfidence and cause countries to delay reducing emissions. (Bloomberg $) + Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic. (MIT Technology Review)
6 The UK will use AI to phase out animal testing 3D bioprinted human tissues could also help to speed up the process. (The Guardian) + But the AI boom is looking increasingly precarious. (WSJ $)
7 Louisiana is dealing with a whooping cough outbreak Two infants have died to date from the wholly preventative disease. (Undark)
8 Here’s how ordinary people use ChatGPT Emotional support and discussions crop up regularly.(WP $) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Inside the search for lost continents A newly-discovered mechanism is shedding light on why they may have vanished. (404 Media) + How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world. (MIT Technology Review)
10 AI is taking Gen Z’s entry-level jobs Especially in traditionally graduate-friendly consultancies. (NY Mag $) + What the Industrial Revolution can teach us about how to handle AI. (Knowable Magazine) + America’s corporate boards are stumbling in the dark. (WSJ $)
Quote of the day
“We can’t eat money.”
—Nato, an Indigenous leader from the Tupinamba community, tells Reuters why they are protesting at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil against any potential sale of their land.
One more thing
How K-pop fans are shaping elections around the globe
Back in the early ‘90s, Korean pop music, known as K-pop, was largely conserved to its native South Korea. It’s since exploded around the globe into an international phenomenon, emphasizing choreography and elaborate performance.
It’s made bands like Girls Generation, EXO, BTS, and Blackpink into household names, and inspired a special brand of particularly fierce devotion in their fans.
Now, those same fandoms have learned how to use their digital skills to advocate for social change and pursue political goals—organizing acts of civil resistance, donating generously to charity, and even foiling white supremacist attempts to spread hate speech. Read the full story.
—Soo Youn
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures
Climate change is subjecting vulnerable people to temperatures that push their limits. In 2023, about 47,000 heat-related deaths are believed to have occurred in Europe. Researchers estimate that climate change could add an extra 2.3 million European heat deaths this century. That’s heightened the stakes for solving the mystery of just what happens to bodies in extreme conditions.
While we broadly know how people thermoregulate, the science of keeping warm or cool is mottled with blind spots. Researchers around the world are revising rules about when extremes veer from uncomfortable to deadly. Their findings change how we should think about the limits of hot and cold—and how to survive in a new world. Read the full story.
—Max G.Levy
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
Whales are dying. Don’t blame wind turbines.
Whale deaths have become a political flashpoint. There are currently three active mortality events for whales in the Atlantic, meaning clusters of deaths that experts consider unusual. And Republican lawmakers, conservative think tanks, and—most notably—President Donald Trump (a longtime enemy of wind power) are making dubious claims that offshore wind farms are responsible.
But any finger-pointing at wind turbines for whale deaths ignores the fact that whales have been washing up on beaches since long before the giant machines were rooted in the ocean floor. This is something that has always happened. And the scientific consensus is clear: There’s no evidence that wind farms are the cause of recent increases in whale deaths. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here.
The State of AI: Energy is king, and the US is falling behind
In the age of AI, the biggest barrier to progress isn’t money but energy. That should be particularly worrying in the US, where massive data centers are waiting to come online. It doesn’t look as if the country will build the steady power supply or infrastructure needed to serve them all.
It wasn’t always like this. For about a decade before 2020, data centers were able to offset increased demand with efficiency improvements. Now, though, electricity demand is ticking up in the US, with billions of queries to popular AI models each day—and efficiency gains aren’t keeping pace.
If we want AI to have the chance to deliver on big promises without driving electricity prices sky-high for the rest of us, the US needs to learn some lessons from the rest of the world on energy abundance. Just look at China.Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart & Pilita Clark
This is from The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times & MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power.
Every Monday for the next four weeks, writers from both publications will debate one aspect of the generative AI revolution reshaping global power. While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the magazine are able to read the whole thing. Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 How China narrowed its AI divide with the US America still has a clear lead—but for how long? (WSJ $) + The AI boom won’t offset tariffs and America’s immigration crackdown forever. (FT $) + How quickly is AI likely to progress really? (Economist $) + Is China about to win the AI race? (MIT Technology Review)
2 Anthropic is due to turn a profit much faster than OpenAI The two companies are taking very different approaches to making money. (WSJ $) + OpenAI has lured Intel’s AI chief away. (Bloomberg $)
3 The EU is setting up a new intelligence sharing unit It’s a bid to shore up intel in the wake of Donald Trump’s plans to reduce security support for Europe. (FT $)
4 Trump officials are poised to suggest oil drilling off the coast of California That’s likely to rile the state’s politicians and leaders. (WP $) + What role should oil and gas companies play in climate tech? (MIT Technology Review)
5 America’s cyber defenses are poor Repeated cuts and mass layoffs are making it harder to protect the nation. (The Verge)
6 China is on track to hit its peak CO2 emissions target early Although it’s likely to miss its goal for cutting carbon intensity. (The Guardian) + World leaders are heading to COP30 in Brazil this week. (New Yorker $)
7 OpenAI cannot use song lyrics without a license That’s what a German court has decided, after siding with a music rights society. (Reuters) + OpenAI is no stranger to legal proceedings. (The Atlantic $) + AI is coming for music. (MIT Technology Review)
8 A small Michigan town is fighting a proposed AI data center The planned center is part of a collaboration between the University of Michigan and nuclear weapons scientists. (404 Media) + Here’s where America’s data centers should be built instead. (Wired $) + Communities in Latin America are pushing back, too. (The Guardian) + Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)
9 AI models can’t tell the time Analog clocks leave them completely stumped. (IEEE Spectrum)
10 ChatGPT is giving daters the ick These refuseniks don’t want anything to do with AI, or love interests who use it. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“I never imagined that making a cup of tea or obtaining water, antibiotics, or painkillers would require such tremendous effort.”
—An anonymous member of startup accelerator Gaza Sky Geeks tells Rest of World about the impact the war has had on them.
One more thing
How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language
Many software projects emerge because—somewhere out there—a programmer had a personal problem to solve.
That’s more or less what happened to Graydon Hoare. In 2006, Hoare was a 29-year-old computer programmer working for Mozilla. After a software crash broke the elevator in his building, he set about designing a new computer language; one that he hoped would make it possible to write small, fast code without memory bugs.
That language developed into Rust, one of the hottest new languages on the planet. But while it isn’t unusual for someone to make a new computer language, it’s incredibly rare for one to take hold and become part of the programming pantheon. How did Rust do it? Read the full story.
—Clive Thompson
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Having a bit of a rubbish day so far? Here’s how to make it better. + A Hungarian man played Dance Dance Revolution for 144 hours non-stop, because he knows how to have a seriously good time. + A new book is celebrating cats, as it should (thanks Jess!) + How a poem from a medieval trickster sowed the seed for hundreds of years of bubonic plague misinformation
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.
Why it’s so hard to bust the weather control conspiracy theory
It was October 2024, and Hurricane Helene had just devastated the US Southeast. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia found an abstract target on which to pin the blame: “Yes they can control the weather,” she posted on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
She was repeating what’s by now a pretty familiar and popular conspiracy theory: that shadowy forces are out there, wielding technology to control the weather and wreak havoc on their enemies. This preposterous claim has grown louder and more common in recent years, especially after extreme weather strikes.
But here’s the thing: While Greene and other believers are not correct, this conspiracy theory—like so many others—holds a kernel of much more modest truth. Read the full story.
—Dave Levitan
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here.
AI could predict who will have a heart attack
For all the modern marvels of cardiology, we struggle to predict who will have a heart attack. Many people never get screened at all. Now, startups are applying AI algorithms to screen millions of CT scans for early signs of heart disease.
This technology could be a breakthrough for public health, applying an old tool to uncover patients whose high risk for a heart attack is hiding in plain sight. But it remains unproven at scale, while raising thorny questions about implementation and even how we define disease. Read the full story.
—Vishal Khetpal
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Spending on AI may be to blame for all those tech layoffs AI isn’t necessarily replacing jobs, but spending on it is gobbling up budgets. (Fast Company $) + Junior roles are likely to be the first on the chopping block. (FT $) + Are the crazy sums that businesses are sinking into AI sustainable? (WP $) + People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Anti-vaccine activists gathered in Austin over the weekend They celebrated RFK Jr’s rise and outlined their goals—including eliminating school vaccine mandates. (WP $) + We’re on the verge of stopping the next pandemic. But will we? (Vox) + How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office. (MIT Technology Review)
3 People who’ve experienced AI-induced delusions are forming a movement They’re pushing for legal action against chatbot makers. (Bloomberg $) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
4 AI-generated clips of women being strangled are flooding social media Many of them appear to have been created using OpenAI’s Sora 2. (404 Media)
5 Tech leaders are obsessed with bioengineering babies They’re not allowed to, but they’re not letting a little thing like ethics get in the way. (WSJ $) + The race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Apple has removed two popular gay dating apps in China The country ordered it to take down Blued and Finka from its app. (Wired $)
7 The UK government is worried China could turn off its buses remotely It fears hundreds of Chinese-made electric buses on British roads could be at risk. (FT $)
8 How AI is changing the world’s newsrooms It’s brilliant at analyzing large data sets—but shouldn’t be used to write stories. (NYT $)
9 How to contain an invasive species Experts argue that too much red tape is getting in the way. (Undark) + The weeds are winning. (MIT Technology Review)
10 The world’s largest electric ship is charging up Once it’s ready to go, it’ll serve as a ferry in 90 minute bursts. (IEEE Spectrum)
Quote of the day
“We would move heaven and Earth, pun intended, to try to get to the Moon sooner.”
—Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, says the company is raring to work with NASA to get humans back on the Moon, Ars Technica reports.
One more thing
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
In the 1990s, a six-step methodology for innovation called design thinking started to grow in popularity. Key to its spread was its replicable aesthetic, represented by the Post-it note: a humble square that anyone can use in infinite ways.
But in recent years, for a number of reasons, the shine of design thinking has been wearing off. Critics have argued that its short-term focus on novel and naive ideas results in unrealistic and ungrounded recommendations.
Today, some groups are working to reform both design thinking’s principles and its methodologies. These new efforts seek a set of design tools capable of equitably serving diverse communities and solving diverse problems well into the future. It’s a much more daunting—and crucial—task than design thinking’s original remit. Read the full story.
—Rebecca Ackermann
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ These tree-dwelling toads give birth to live young—who knew?! + Now’s the time to practice your baking skills ahead of Thanksgiving. + Younguk Yi’s glitching paintings are a lot of fun. + Place your bets! This fun game follows three balls in a race to the bottom, but who will win?
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.
The first new subsea habitat in 40 years is about to launch
Vanguard feels and smells like a new RV. It has long, gray banquettes that convert into bunks, a microwave cleverly hidden under a counter, a functional steel sink with a French press and crockery above. A weird little toilet hides behind a curtain.
But you can’t just fire up Vanguard’s engine and roll off the lot. Once it is sealed and moved to its permanent home beneath the waves of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary early next year, Vanguard will be the world’s first new subsea habitat in nearly four decades.
Cloning isn’t just for celebrity pets like Tom Brady’s dog
This week, we heard that Tom Brady had his dog cloned. The former quarterback revealed that his Junie is actually a clone of Lua, a pit bull mix that died in 2023.
Brady’s announcement follows those of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Barbra Streisand, who also famously cloned their pet dogs. But some believe there are better ways to make use of cloning technologies, such as diversifying the genetic pools of inbred species, or potentially bringing other animals back from the brink of extinction. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI is facing a wave of new lawsuits The cases concern wrongful death complaints, and claims ChatGPT caused mental breakdowns. (NYT $) + One family claims ChatGPT “goaded” their son into taking his own life. (CNN) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Tesla shareholders approved Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package More than 75% of voters backed it. (WSJ $) + Musk had hinted he’d leave Tesla if the deal wasn’t greenlit. (Axios) + Tesla has to hit its ambitious targets before he can get his hands on the cash. (Wired $)
3 The EU is poised to water down the AI act After pressure from Big Tech and the US government. (FT $) + While the legislation was passed last year, many provisions haven’t kicked in yet. (Reuters)
4 Meta is earning a colossal amount of money from scam ads They accounted for 10% of its revenue last year. (Reuters) + Meta claims it “aggressively” addresses scam ads on its platform. (CNBC)
5 The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is pivoting to AI It’s shifting its philanthropic focus from social justice programs to curing disease. (WP $) + To achieve its goals, the charity will need extra computing power. (NYT $)
6 Unesco has adopted global standards on neurotechnology Experts were increasingly concerned that a lack of guardrails could give rise to unethical practices. (The Guardian) + Meet the other companies developing brain-computer interfaces. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Benchmarks hugely oversell AI performance A new study questions their reliability and the validity of their results. (NBC News) + How to build a better AI benchmark. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Kim Kardashian blames ChatGPT for failing her law exams It’s almost like she shouldn’t have been consulting it for legal expertise in the first place. (Hollywood Reporter) + AI and social media is worsening brain rot. (NYT $) + How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Hyundai is using robot dogs to inspect its EV production line And they may soon be joined by a bipedal master. (IEEE Spectrum)
10 Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed yet again The highly anticipated video game has big, big shoes to fill. (Bloomberg $) + It’ll land a full 13 years after its previous incarnation—or will it? (BBC)
Quote of the day
“This is what oligarchy looks like.”
—Senator Bernie Sanders reacts to Tesla shareholders’ decision to award Elon Musk a $1 trillion pay package in a post on X.
One more thing
Finding forgotten Indigenous landscapes with electromagnetic technology
The fertile river valleys of the American Midwest hide tens of thousands of Indigenous earthworks, according to experts: geometric structures consisting of walls, mounds, ditches, and berms, some dating back nearly 3,000 years.
Archaeologists now believe that the earthworks functioned as religious gathering places, tombs for culturally important clans, and annual calendars, perhaps all at the same time. They can take the form of giant circles and squares, cloverleafs and octagons, complex S-curves and simple mounds.
Until recently, it seemed as if much of the continent’s pre-European archaeological heritage had been carelessly wiped out, uprooted, and lost for good. But traces remain: electromagnetic remnants in the soil that can be detected using specialty surveying equipment. And archaeologists and tribal historians are working together to uncover them. Read the full story.
—Geoff Manaugh
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ If you’re a wildlife fan, take a look at this compilation of the best places to catch a glimpse of unusual animals. + El Salvador’s annual fireball festival is a completely unhinged celebration of all things volcanic. + The most influential Bostonians of 2025 have been announced. + Get me in a potato bed, stat.
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.
How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office
As anyone who has googled their symptoms and convinced themselves that they’ve got a brain tumor will attest, the internet makes it very easy to self-(mis)diagnose your health problems. And although social media and other digital forums can be a lifeline for some people looking for a diagnosis or community, when that information is wrong, it can put their well-being and even lives in danger.
We spoke to a number of health-care professionals who told us how this modern impulse to “do your own research” is changing their profession. Read the full story.
—Rhiannon Williams
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
Stop worrying about your AI footprint. Look at the big picture instead.
—Casey Crownhart
As a climate technology reporter, I’m often asked by people whether they should be using AI, given how awful it is for the environment. Generally, I tell them not to worry—let a chatbot plan your vacation, suggest recipe ideas, or write you a poem if you want.
That response might surprise some. I promise I’m not living under a rock, and I have seen all the concerning projections about how much electricity AI is using. But I feel strongly about not putting the onus on individuals. Here’s why.
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
A new ion-based quantum computer makes error correction simpler
A company called Quantinuum has just unveiled Helios, its third-generation quantum computer, which includes expanded computing power and error correction capability.
Like all other existing quantum computers, Helios is not powerful enough to execute the industry’s dream money-making algorithms, such as those that would be useful for materials discovery or financial modeling.
But Quantinuum’s machines, which use individual ions as qubits, could be easier to scale up than quantum computers that use superconducting circuits as qubits, such as Google’s and IBM’s.Read the full story.
—Sophia Chen
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 A new California law could change how all Americans browse online It gives web users the chance to opt out of having their personal information sold or shared. (The Markup)
2 The FDA has fast-tracked a pill to treat pancreatic cancer The experimental drug appears promising, but experts worry corners may be cut. (WP $) + Demand for AstraZeneca’s cancer and diabetes drugs is pushing profits up. (Bloomberg $) + A new cancer treatment kills cells using localized heat. (Wired $)
3 AI pioneers claim it is already superior to humans in many tasks But not all tasks are created equal. (FT $) + Are we all wandering into an AGI trap? (Vox) + How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time. (MIT Technology Review)
4 IBM is planning on cutting thousands of jobs It’s shifting its focus to software and AI consulting, apparently. (Bloomberg $) + It’s keen to grow the number of its customers seeking AI advice. (NYT $)
5 Big Tech’s data centers aren’t the job-generators we were promised The jobs they do create are largely in security and cleaning. (Rest of World) + We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Microsoft let AI shopping agents loose in a fake marketplace They were easily manipulated into buying goods, it found. (TechCrunch) + When AIs bargain, a less advanced agent could cost you. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Sony has compiled a dataset to test the fairness of computer vision models And it’s confident it’s been compiled in a fair and ethical way. (The Register) + These new tools could make AI vision systems less biased. (MIT Technology Review)
8 The social network is no more We’re living in an age of anti-social media. (The Atlantic $) + Scam ads are rife across platforms, but these former Meta workers have a plan. (Wired $) + The ultimate online flex? Having no followers. (New Yorker $)
9 Vibe coding is Collins dictionary’s word of 2025 Beating stiff competition from “clanker.” (The Guardian) + What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)
10 These people found romance with their chatbot companions The AI may not be real, but the humans’ feelings certainly are. (NYT $) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“The opportunistic side of me is realizing that your average accountant won’t be doing this.”
—Sal Abdulla, founder of accounting-software startup NixSheets, tells the Wall Street Journal he’s using AI tools to gain an edge on his competitors.
One more thing
Ethically sourced “spare” human bodies could revolutionize medicine
Many challenges in medicine stem, in large part, from a common root cause: a severe shortage of ethically-sourced human bodies.
There might be a way to get out of this moral and scientific deadlock. Recent advances in biotechnology now provide a pathway to producing living human bodies without the neural components that allow us to think, be aware, or feel pain.
Many will find this possibility disturbing, but if researchers and policymakers can find a way to pull these technologies together, we may one day be able to create “spare” bodies, both human and nonhuman. Read the full story.
—Carsten T. Charlesworth, Henry T. Greely & Hiromitsu Nakauchi
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Make sure to look up so you don’t miss November’s supermoon. + If you keep finding yourself mindlessly scrolling (and who doesn’t?), maybe this whopping six-pound phone case could solve your addiction. + Life lessons from a 101-year old who has no plans to retire. + Are you a fan of movement snacking?
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.
Why the for-profit race into solar geoengineering is bad for science and public trust
—David Keith is the professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and Daniele Visioni is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University
Last week, an American-Israeli company that claims it’s developed proprietary technology to cool the planet announced it had raised $60 million, by far the largest known venture capital round to date for a solar geoengineering startup.
The company, Stardust, says the funding will enable it to develop a system that could be deployed by the start of the next decade, according to Heatmap, which broke the story.
As scientists who have worked on the science of solar geoengineering for decades, we have grown increasingly concerned about emerging efforts to start and fund private companies to deploy technologies that could alter the climate of the planet. We also strongly dispute some of the technical claims that certain companies have made about their offerings. Read the full story.
This story is part of Heat Exchange, MIT Technology Review’s guest opinion series offering expert commentary on legal, political and regulatory issues related to climate change and clean energy. You can read the rest of the series here.
Can “The Simpsons” really predict the future?
According to internet listicles, the animated sitcom The Simpsons has predicted the future anywhere from 17 to 55 times.
The show foresaw Donald Trump becoming US President a full 17 years before the real estate mogul was inaugurated as the 45th leader of the United States. Earlier, in 1993, an episode of the show featured the “Osaka flu,” which some felt was eerily prescient of the coronavirus pandemic. And—somehow!—Simpsons writers just knew that the US Olympic curling team would beat Sweden eight whole years before they did it.
Al Jean has worked on The Simpsons on and off since 1989; he is the cartoon’s longest-serving showrunner. Here, he reflects on the conspiracy theories that have sprung from these apparent prophecies. Read the full story.
—Amelia Tait
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” about how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered.
Declan would never have found out his therapist was using ChatGPT had it not been for a technical mishap where his therapist began inadvertently sharing his screen.
For the rest of the session, Declan was privy to a real-time stream of ChatGPT analysis rippling across his therapist’s screen, who was taking what Declan was saying, putting it into ChatGPT, and then parroting its answers.
But Declan is not alone. In fact, a growing number of people are reporting receiving AI-generated communiqués from their therapists. Clients’ trust and privacy are being abandoned in the process.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Amazon is suing Perplexity over its Comet AI agent It alleges Perplexity is committing computer fraud by not disclosing when Comet is shopping on a human’s behalf. (Bloomberg $) + In turn, Perplexity has accused Amazon of bullying. (CNBC)
2 Trump has nominated the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA Five months after he withdrew Isaacman’s nomination for the same job. (WP $) + It was around the same time Elon Musk left the US government. (WSJ $)
3 Homeland Security has released an app for police forces to scan people’s faces Mobile Fortify uses facial recognition to identify whether someone’s been given a deportation order. (404 Media) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Scientific journals are being swamped with AI-written letters Researchers are sifting through their inbox trying to work out what to believe. (NYT $) + ArXiv is no longer accepting certain papers for fear they’ve been written by AI. (404 Media)
5 The AI boom has proved a major windfall for equipment makers Makers of small turbines and fuel cells, rejoice. (WSJ $)
6 Chronic kidney disease may be the first chronic illness linked to climate change Experts have linked a surge in the disease to hotter temperatures. (Undark) + The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Brazil is proposing a fund to protect tropical forests It would pay countries not to fell their trees. (NYT $)
8 New York has voted for a citywide digital map It’ll officially represent the five boroughs for the first time. (Fast Company $)
9 The internet could be at risk of catastrophic collapse Meet the people preparing for that exact eventuality. (New Scientist $)
10 A Chinese space craft may have been hit by space junk Three astronauts have been forced to remain on the Tiangong space station while the damage is investigated. (Ars Technica)
Quote of the day
“I am not sure how I earned the trust of so many, but I will do everything I can to live up to those expectations.”
—Jared Isaacman, Donald Trump’s renomination to lead NASA, doesn’t appear entirely sure in his own abilities to lead the agency, Ars Technica reports.
One more thing
Is the digital dollar dead?
In 2020, digital currencies were one of the hottest topics in town. China was well on its way to launching its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC, and many other countries launched CBDC research projects, including the US.
How things change. Years later, the digital dollar—even though it doesn’t exist—has become political red meat, as some politicians label it a dystopian tool for surveillance. And late last year, the Boston Fed quietly stopped working on its CBDC project. So is the dream of the digital dollar dead? Read the full story.
—Mike Orcutt
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The world’s oldest air has been unleashed, after six million years under ice. + How to stop sweating the small stuff and try to be happy in this mad world. + Happy Bonfire Night to our British readers! + The spirit of Halloween is still with us: the scariest music ever recorded.
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.
How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time
—Will Douglas Heaven, senior AI editor
Are you feeling it?
I hear it’s close: two years, five years—maybe next year! And I hear it’s going to solve our biggest problems in ways we cannot yet imagine. I also hear it will bring on the apocalypse and kill us all…
We’re of course talking about artificial general intelligence, or AGI—that hypothetical near-future technology that (I hear) will be able to do pretty much whatever a human brain can do.
Every age has its believers, people with an unshakeable faith that something huge is about to happen—a before and an after that they are privileged (or doomed) to live through. For us, that’s the promised advent of AGI. And here’s what I think: AGI is a lot like a conspiracy theory, and it may be the most consequential one of our time. Read the full story.
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
The State of AI: Is China about to win the race?
Viewed from abroad, it seems only a matter of time before China emerges as the AI superpower of the 21st century.
In the West, our initial instinct is to focus on America’s significant lead in semiconductor expertise, its cutting-edge AI research, and its vast investments in data centers.
Today, however, China has the means, motive, and opportunity to win. When it comes to mobilizing the whole-of-society resources needed to develop and deploy AI to maximum effect, it may be rash to bet against it. Read the full story.
—John Thornhill & Caiwei Chen
This is the first edition of The State of AI, a collaboration between the Financial Times & MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power. Every Monday for the next six weeks, writers from both publications will debate one aspect of the generative AI revolution reshaping global power. Sign up to receive future editions every Monday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 China is prepared to cut its data centers a sweet deal If they agree to use native chips over American rivals’, that is. (FT $) + What happened when a data center moved into a small American town. (WSJ $) + Microsoft and OpenAI want more power—they just don’t know how much more. (TechCrunch) + The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Norway’s oil fund has rejected Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package The Tesla shareholder is concerned about the size of the reward. (WSJ $) + It says it will vote against the deal on Thursday. (FT $)
3 OpenAI has signed a massive compute deal with Amazon It’s the latest in a long string of blockbuster deals for the AI company. (Wired $)
4 Cybersecurity workers moonlighted as criminal hackers They’re accused of sharing their profits with the creators of the ransomware they deployed. (Bloomberg $) + The hackers demanded tens of millions in extortion payments. (The Register)
5 Tech’s elites are funding plans to safeguard MAGA Entrepreneur Chris Buskirk is using donor money to equip it to outlive Trump. (WP $)
6 These startups supply the labor to train multitasking humanoid robots Teams of humans are doing the dirty work, including filming themselves folding towels hundreds of times a day. (LA Times $) + This new system can teach a robot a simple household task within 20 minutes. (MIT Technology Review)
7 LLMs can’t accurately describe their internal processes Anthropic is on a mission to measure their so-called introspective awareness. (Ars Technica)
8 Why are people using AI to hack their hobbies? Talk about the death of fun. (NY Mag $) + While we’re at it, don’t use chatbots to answer friends’ dilemmas either. (Wired $) + Or to write research papers. (404 Media)
9 Coca-Cola is doubling down on AI in its ads Undeterred by criticism last year, it’s back with more for the 2025 holidays. (WSJ $) + Nothing says festive joy like AI slop. (The Verge)
10 Facebook Dating is a…hit? But you should still be on the lookout for scammers. (NYT $) + It’s not just for boomers—younger people are using it too. (TechCrunch) + For better or worse, AI is seeping into all the biggest dating platforms. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“That was the kick of it, that the AI actually did find compatibility. It was the human part that didn’t work out.”
—Emma Inge, a project manager looking for love in San Francisco, describes the trouble with using an AI matchmaker to the New York Times: it can’t stop you getting ghosted.
One more thing
Inside the most dangerous asteroid hunt ever
If you were told that the odds of something were 3.1%, it might not seem like much. But for the people charged with protecting our planet, it was huge.
On February 18, astronomers determined that a 130- to 300-foot-long asteroid had a 3.1% chance of crashing into Earth in 2032. Never had an asteroid of such dangerous dimensions stood such a high chance of striking the planet. Then, just days later on February 24, experts declared that the danger had passed. Earth would be spared.
How did they do it? What was it like to track the rising danger of this asteroid, and to ultimately determine that it’d miss us?
This is the inside story of how a sprawling network of astronomers found, followed, mapped, planned for, and finally dismissed the most dangerous asteroid ever found—all under the tightest of timelines and, for just a moment, with the highest of stakes. Read the full story.
—Robin George Andrews
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ People in the Middle Ages chose to depict the devil in very interesting ways, I’ll say that much. + We may be inching closer to understanding why the animal kingdom has developed such elaborate markings. + The music in the new game Pokémon Legends: Z-A sure is interesting. + Slow cooker dinners are beckoning.
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.
Here’s the latest company planning for gene-edited babies
The news: A West Coast biotech entrepreneur says he’s secured $30 million to form a public-benefit company to study how to safely create genetically edited babies, marking the largest known investment into the taboo technology.
How they’re doing it: The new company, called Preventive, is being formed to research so-called “heritable genome editing,” in which the DNA of embryos would be modified by correcting harmful mutations or installing beneficial genes. The goal would be to prevent disease.
Why it’s contentious: Creating genetically edited humans remains controversial. The first scientist to do it, in China, was imprisoned for three years. The procedure remains illegal in many countries, including the US, and doubts surround its usefulness as a form of medicine. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
This startup wants to clean up the copper industry
Demand for copper is surging, as is pollution from its dirty production processes. The founders of one startup, Still Bright, think they have a better, cleaner way to generate the copper the world needs.
The company uses water-based reactions, based on battery chemistry technology, to purify copper in a process that could be less polluting than traditional smelting. And the hope is that this alternative will also help ease growing strain on the copper supply chain. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The FDA’s top drug regulator has resigned George Tidmarsh allegedly abused his position to inflict financial harm on a former associate. (STAT) + He’s only been in the post since July. (WP $) + It’s just the latest in a long line of slapdash leadership changes at the agency. (AP News) + Here’s what food and drug regulation might look like under the Trump administration. (MIT Technology Review)
2America’s nuclear weapons testing won’t involve explosions So don’t expect to see mushroom clouds any time soon. (BBC) + The tests will involve “the other parts of a nuclear weapon,” apparently. (NYT $) + The US is working to modernize its nuclear stockpile too. (The Hill)
3 Mustafa Suleyman wants researchers to stop pursuing conscious AI The Microsoft AI boss believes consciousness is reserved for biological beings only. (CNBC) + Here’s what the man who coined the term AGI has to say. (Wired $) + “We will never build a sex robot,” says Mustafa Suleyman. (MIT Technology Review) 4 Elon Musk may relinquish control of Tesla If the company’s shareholders decide against awarding him close to $1 trillion in stock. (NYT $) + One major investor has already said it won’t be supporting the pay package. (Gizmodo)
5 The hottest job in AI right now? Forward-deployed engineers They’re specialists who help AI companies’ customers adopt their models. (FT $)
6 Hackers are stealing cargo shipments from transportation firms They’re successfully infecting networks with remote access tools. (Bloomberg $)
7 OpenAI’s o1 model can analyze languages like a human expert Experts suggest linguistic analysis is a key testbed for assessing the extent to which these models can reason like we can. (Quanta Magazine)
8 US obesity rates have started to drop And weight-loss drugs are highly likely to be the reason why. (Vox) + We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Why it’s so tricky to make a good grocery list app Notes just won’t cut it. (The Verge)
10 Many robots make light work Lots of machines working in tandem can achieve what they’d struggle to do alone. (WSJ $) + Tiny robots inspired by spiders could help deliver diagnoses. (IEEE Spectrum)
Quote of the day
“You can check if there’s a backdoor.”
—China’s leader Xi Jinping jokes about the security of two Chinese-made cellphones he gifted to South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, the New York Times reports.
One more thing
Digital twins of human organs are here. They’re set to transform medical treatment.
“Digital twins” are the same size and shape as the human organs they’re designed to mimic. They work in the same way. But they exist only virtually. Scientists can do virtual surgery on virtual hearts, figuring out the best course of action for a patient’s condition.
After decades of research, models like these are now entering clinical trials and starting to be used for patient care. The eventual goal is to create digital versions of our bodies—computer copies that could help researchers and doctors figure out our risk of developing various diseases and determine which treatments might work best.
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The Empire State Building Run-Up race sounds amazing, if completely gruelling. + Very cool: each year, the scientific staff of the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station screen horror classic The Thingto prepare themselves for the long, isolated winter ahead. + How caterpillars spin their protective little cocoons. + One-pot chicken sounds like a great winter warmer of a recipe.
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.
Why do so many people think the Fruit of the Loom logo had a cornucopia?
Quick question: Does the Fruit of the Loom logo feature a cornucopia?
Many of us have been wearing the company’s T-shirts for decades, and yet the question of whether there is a woven brown horn of plenty on the logo is surprisingly contentious.
According to a 2022 poll, 55% of Americans believe the logo does include a cornucopia, 25% are unsure, and only 21% are confident that it doesn’t, even though this last group is correct.
There’s a name for what’s happening here: the “Mandela effect,” or collective false memory, so called because a number of people misremember that Nelson Mandela died in prison. Yet while many find it easy to let their unconfirmable beliefs go, some spend years seeking answers—and vindication. Read the full story.
—Amelia Tait
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
Here’s why we don’t have a cold vaccine. Yet.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the season of the sniffles. As the weather turns, we’re all spending more time indoors. The kids have been back at school for a couple of months. And cold germs are everywhere.
So why can’t we get a vaccine to protect us against the common cold? Scientists have been working on this for decades, but it turns out that creating a cold vaccine is hard. Really hard. But not impossible. There’s still hope. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
Inside the archives of the NASA Ames Research Center
At the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, surrounded by the tech giants Google, Apple, and Microsoft, sits the historic NASA Ames Research Center. Its rich history includes a grab bag of fascinating scientific research involving massive wind tunnels, experimental aircraft, supercomputing, astrobiology, and more.
A collection of 5,000 images from NASA Ames’s archives paints a vivid picture of bleeding-edge work at the heart of America’s technology hub. Read the full story.
—Jon Keegan
This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of stories about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The US government is considering banning TP-Link routers An investigation has raised concerns over the company’s links to China. (WP $) + Lawmakers are worried its equipment is vulnerable to hacking. (Bloomberg $)
2 ICE has proposed building a deportation network in Texas The 24/7 operation would transfer detained immigrants into holding facilities. (Wired $) + But US citizens keep being detained, too. (NY Mag $) + Inside the operation giving ICE a run for its money. (Slate $) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Ukrainian drone teams are gamifying their war efforts Officials say rewarding soldiers for successful attacks keeps them motivated. (NYT $) + A Peter Thiel-backed drone startup crashed and burned during military trials. (FT $) + Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Meta has denied torrenting porn to train its AI models Instead, it claims, the downloads were for someone’s “private personal use.” (Ars Technica)
5 Bird flu is getting harder to keep tabs on The virus has wreaked havoc on the US poultry industry for close to four years. (Vox) + A new biosensor can detect bird flu in five minutes. (MIT Technology Review)
6 AI browsers are a cybersecurity nightmare They’re a hotbed of known—and unknown—risks. (The Verge) + I tried OpenAI’s new Atlas browser but I still don’t know what it’s for. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Robots are starting to do more jobs across America But they’re still proving buggy and expensive to run. (WSJ $) + When you might start speaking to robots. (MIT Technology Review)
8 These are the jobs that AI built From conversation designer to adoption strategist. (WP $) + if you fancy landing a job in quantum computing, here’s how to do it. (IEEE Spectrum)
9 Computer vision is getting much, much better Their blind spots are rapidly being eliminated. (Knowable Magazine)
10 A lock-cracking YouTuber is being sued by a lockmaking company It’s arguing he defamed the company, even though he didn’t say a word during the clip. (Ars Technica)
Quote of the day
“Yes, we’ve been to the Moon before… six times!”
—NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy reacts to Kim Kardashian’s belief that man has never set foot on the moon, the Guardian reports.
One more thing
What happens when you donate your body to science
Rebecca George doesn’t mind the vultures that complain from the trees that surround the Western Carolina University body farm. Her arrival has interrupted their breakfast. George studies human decomposition, and part of decomposing is becoming food. Scavengers are welcome.
In the US, about 20,000 people or their families donate their bodies to scientific research and education each year. Whatever the reason, the decision becomes a gift. Western Carolina’s FOREST is among the places where watchful caretakers know that the dead and the living are deeply connected, and the way you treat the first reflects how you treat the second. Read the full story.
—Abby Ohlheiser
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Zoo animals across the world are getting into the Halloween spirit with some tasty pumpkins. + If you’re stuck for something suitably spooky to watch tonight, this list is a great place to start. + New York’s historic Morris-Jumel Mansion is seriously beautiful—and seriously haunted. + Salem’s Lucipurr is on the prowl!
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.
Introducing: the new conspiracy age
Everything is a conspiracy theory now. Conspiracists are all over the White House, turning fringe ideas into dangerous policy. America’s institutions are crumbling under the weight of deep suspicion and the lasting effects of covid isolation. Online echo chambers are getting harder to escape, and generative AI is altering the fabric of truth. A mix of technology and politics has given an unprecedented boost to once-fringe ideas—but they are pretty much the same fantasies that have been spreading for hundreds of years.
MIT Technology Review helps break down how this moment is changing science and technology—and how we can make it through. We’re thrilled to present The New Conspiracy Age, a new series digging into how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
To kick us off, check out Dorian Lynskey’s fascinating piece explaining why it’s never been easier to be a conspiracy theorist. And stay tuned—we’ll be showcasing a different story from the package each day in the next few editions of The Download!
Four thoughts from Bill Gates on climate tech
Bill Gates doesn’t shy away or pretend modesty when it comes to his stature in the climate world today. “Well, who’s the biggest funder of climate innovation companies?” he asked a handful of journalists at a media roundtable event last week. “If there’s someone else, I’ve never met them.”
The former Microsoft CEO has spent the last decade investing in climate technology through Breakthrough Energy, which he founded in 2015. Ahead of the UN climate meetings kicking off next week, Gates published a memo outlining what he thinks activists and negotiators should focus on and how he’s thinking about the state of climate tech right now. Here’s what he had to say.
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 US Homeland Security shared false videos of immigration operations They claimed to show recent operations but used footage that was old, or recorded thousands of miles away. (WP $) + ICE is scanning pedestrians’ faces to verify their citizenship. (404 Media)
2 Character.AI is banning under-18s from talking to its virtual companions It’s currently facing several lawsuits from families who claim its chatbots have harmed their children. (NYT $) + The company says it’s introducing age assurance functionality. (FT $) + Teenage boys are using chatbots to roleplay as girlfriends. (The Guardian) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Trump directed the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing America hasn’t conducted such tests for more than 30 years. (BBC) + The US President made multiple incorrect assertions in his statement. (The Verge) + He doesn’t seem to even know why he wants to resume the tests himself. (The Atlantic $)
4 A Google DeepMind AI model accurately predicted Hurricane Melissa’s severity It’s the first time the US National Hurricane Center has deployed it. (Nature $) + Here’s how to actually help the people affected by its extensive damage. (Vox) + Google DeepMind’s new AI model is the best yet at weather forecasting. (MIT Technology Review)
5 A major record label has signed a deal with AI music firm Udio Universal Music Group had previously sued it for copyright infringement. (WSJ $) + AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Are companies using AI as a fig leaf to lay workers off? It’s sure starting to look that way. (NBC News) + Big Tech is going to keep spending billions on AI, regardless. (WP $)
7 Meta Ray-Ban users are filming themselves in massage parlors They’re harassing workers, who appear unaware they’re being recorded. (404 Media) + China’s smart glasses makers are keen to capture the market. (FT $)
8 Just three countries dominate the world’s space launches What will it take to get some other nations in the mix? (Rest of World)
9 Why you shouldn’t hire an AI agent Their freelancing capabilities are… limited. (Wired $) + The people paid to train AI are outsourcing their work… to AI. (MIT Technology Review)
10 This app’s AI-generated podcasting dog videos are a big hit But DogPack wants to make sure viewers know it’s not trying to trick them. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“Zuck spent five years and $70 billion dollars to build a business that loses $4.4 billion/year to create only $470 million in revenue. So bad you can’t give it away, I guess.”
—Greg Linden, a former data scientist at Microsoft, pokes fun at Meta’s beleaguered Reality Labs’ earnings in a post on Bluesky.
One more thing
How scientists want to make you young again
A little over 15 years ago, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan made a remarkable discovery. When they added just four proteins to a skin cell and waited about two weeks, some of the cells underwent an unexpected and astounding transformation: they became young again. They turned into stem cells almost identical to the kind found in a days-old embryo, just beginning life’s journey.
At least in a petri dish, researchers using the procedure can take withered skin cells from a 101-year-old and rewind them so they act as if they’d never aged at all.
Now, after more than a decade of studying and tweaking so-called cellular reprogramming, a number of biotech companies and research labs say they have tantalizing hints that the process could be the gateway to an unprecedented new technology for age reversal. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ 2025’s Comedy Wildlife Award winners and finalists are classics of the genre. + This Instagram account shared the same video of Thomas the Tank Engine’s daring railway stunts every day, and I think that’s just beautiful. + How to get more of that elusive deep sleep. + Here’s an interesting take on why we still find dragons so fascinating
As anyone who has googled their symptoms and convinced themselves that they’ve got a brain tumor will attest, the internet makes it very easy to self-(mis)diagnose your health problems. And although social media and other digital forums can be a lifeline for some people looking for a diagnosis or community, when that information is wrong, it can put their well-being and even lives in danger.
Unfortunately, this modern impulse to “do your own research” became even more pronounced during the coronavirus pandemic.
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.
We asked a number of health-care professionals about how this shifting landscape is changing their profession. They told us that they are being forced to adapt how they treat patients. It’s a wide range of experiences: Some say patients tell them they just want more information about certain treatments because they’re concerned about how effective they are. Others hear that their patients just don’t trust the powers that be. Still others say patients are rejecting evidence-based medicine altogether in favor of alternative theories they’ve come across online.
These are their stories, in their own words.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
The physician trying to set shared goals
David Scales
Internal medicine hospitalist and assistant professor of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College New York City
Every one of my colleagues has stories about patients who have been rejective of care, or had very peculiar perspectives on what their care should be. Sometimes that’s driven by religion. But I think what has changed is people, not necessarily with a religious standpoint, having very fixed beliefs that are sometimes—based on all the evidence that we have—in contradiction with their health goals. And that is a very challenging situation.
I once treated a patient with a connective tissue disease called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. While there’s no doubt that the illness exists, there’s a lot of doubt and uncertainty over which symptoms can be attributed to Ehlers-Danlos. This means it can fall into what social scientists call a “contested illness.”
Contested illnesses used to be causes for arguably fringe movements, but they have become much more prominent since the rise of social media in the mid-2010s. Patients often search for information that resonates with their experience.
This patient was very hesitant about various treatments, and it was clear she was getting her information from, I would say, suspect sources. She’d been following people online who were not necessarily trustworthy, so I sat down with her and we looked them up on Quackwatch, a site that lists health myths and misconduct.
“She was extremely knowledgeable, and had done a lot of her own research, but she struggled to tell the difference between good and bad sources.”
She was still accepting of treatment, and was extremely knowledgeable, and had done a lot of her own research, but she struggled to tell the difference between good and bad sources and fixed beliefs that overemphasize particular things—like what symptoms might be attributable to other stuff.
Physicians have the tools to work with patients who are struggling with these challenges. The first is motivational interviewing, a counseling technique that was developed for people with substance-use disorders. It’s a nonjudgmental approach that uses open-ended questions to draw out people’s motivations, and to find where there’s a mismatch between their behaviors and their beliefs. It’s highly effective in treating people who are vaccine-hesitant.
Another is an approach called shared decision-making. First we work out what the patient’s goals are and then figure out a way to align those with what we know about the evidence-based way to treat them. It’s something we use for end-of-life care, too.
What’s concerning to me is that it seems as though there’s a dynamic of patients coming in with a fixed belief of how to diagnose their illness, how their symptoms should be treated, and how to treat it in a way that’s completely divorced from the kinds of medicine you’d find in textbooks—and that the same dynamic is starting to extend to other illnesses, too.
The therapist committed to being there when the conspiracy fever breaks
Damien Stewart
Psychologist Warsaw, Poland
Before covid, I hadn’t really had any clients bring up conspiracy theories into my practice. But once the pandemic began, they went from being fun or harmless to something dangerous.
In my experience, vaccines were the topic where I first really started to see some militancy—people who were looking down the barrel of losing their jobs because they wouldn’t get vaccinated. At one point, I had an out-and-out conspiracy theorist say to me, “I might as well wear a yellow star like the Jews during the Holocaust, because I won’t get vaccinated.”
I felt pure anger, and I reached a point in my therapeutic journey I didn’t know would ever occur—I’d found that I had a line that could be crossed by a client that I could not tolerate. I spoke in a very direct manner he probably wasn’t used to and challenged his conspiracy theory. He got very angry and hung up the call.
It made me figure out how I was going to deal with this in future, and to develop an approach—which was to not challenge the conspiracy theory, but to gently talk through it, to provide alternative points of view and ask questions. I try to find the therapeutic value in the information, in the conversations we’re having. My belief is and evidence seems to show that people believe in conspiracy theories because there’s something wrong in their life that is inexplicable, and they need something to explain what’s happening to them. And even if I have no belief or agreement whatsoever in what they’re saying, I think I need to sit here and have this conversation, because one day this person might snap out of it, and I need to be here when that happens.
As a psychologist, you have to remember that these people who believe in these things are extremely vulnerable. So my anger around these conspiracy theories has changed from being directed toward the deliverer—the person sitting in front of me saying these things—to the people driving the theories.
The emergency room doctor trying to get patients to reconnect with the evidence
Luis Aguilar Montalvan
Attending emergency medicine physician Queens, New York
The emergency department is essentially the pulse of what is happening in society. That’s what really attracted me to it. And I think the job of the emergency doctor, particularly within shifting political views or belief in Western medicine, is to try to reconnect with someone. To just create the experience that you need to prime someone to hopefully reconsider their relationship with this evidence-based medicine.
When I was working in the pediatrics emergency department a few years ago, we saw a resurgence of diseases we thought we had eradicated, like measles. I typically framed it by saying to the child’s caregiver: “This is a disease we typically use vaccines for, and it can prevent it in the majority of people.”
“The doctor is now more like a consultant or a customer service provider than the authority. … The power dynamic has changed.”
The sentiment among my adult patients who are reluctant to get vaccinated or take certain medications seems to be from a mistrust of the government or “The System” rather than from anything Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says directly, for example. I’m definitely seeing more patients these days asking me what they can take to manage a condition or pain that’s not medication. I tell them that the knowledge I have is based on science, and explain the medications I’d typically give other people in their situation. I try to give them autonomy while reintroducing the idea of sticking with the evidence, and for the most part they’re appreciative and courteous.
The role of doctor has changed in recent years—there’s been a cultural change. My understanding is that back in the day, what the doctor said, the patient did. Some doctors used to shame parents who hadn’t vaccinated their kids. Now we’re shifting away from that, and the doctor is now more like a consultant or a customer service provider than the authority. I think that could be because we’ve seen a lot of bad actors in medicine, so the power dynamic has changed.
I think if we had a more unified approach at a national level, if they had an actual unified and transparent relationship with the population, that would set us up right. But I’m not sure we’ve ever had it.
STEPHANIE ARNETT/MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW | PUBLIC DOMAIN
The psychologist who supported severely mentally ill patients through the pandemic
Michelle Sallee
Psychologist, board certified in serious mental illness psychology Oakland, California
I’m a clinical psychologist who only works with people who have been in the hospital three or more times in the last 12 months. I do both individual therapy and a lot of group work, and several years ago during the pandemic, I wrote a 10-week program for patients about how to cope with sheltering in place, following safety guidelines, and their concerns about vaccines.
My groups were very structured around evidence-based practice, and I had rules for the groups. First, I would tell people that the goal was not to talk them out of their conspiracy theory; my goal was not to talk them into a vaccination. My goal was to provide a safe place for them to be able to talk about things that were terrifying to them. We wanted to reduce anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, and the need for psychiatric hospitalizations.
Half of the group was pro–public health requirements, and their paranoia and fear for safety was around people who don’t get vaccinated; the other half might have been strongly opposed to anyone other than themselves deciding they need a vaccination or a mask. Both sides were fearing for their lives—but from each other.
I wanted to make sure everybody felt heard, and it was really important to be able to talk about what they believed—like, some people felt like the government was trying to track us and even kill us—without any judgment from other people. My theory is that if you allow people to talk freely about what’s on their mind without blocking them with your own opinions or judgment, they will find their way eventually. And a lot of times that works.
People have been stuck on their conspiracy theory or their paranoia has been stuck on it for a long time because they’re always fighting with people about it, everyone’s telling them that this is not true. So we would just have an open discussion about these things.
“People have been stuck on their conspiracy theory for a long time because they’re always fighting with people about it, everyone’s telling them that this is not true.”
I ran the program four times for a total of 27 people, and the thing that I remember the most was how respectful and tolerant and empathic, but still honest about their feelings and opinions, everybody was. At the end of the program, most participants reported a decrease in pandemic-related stress. Half reported a decrease in general perceived stress, and half reported no change.
I’d say that the rate of how much vaccines are talked about now is significantly lower, and covid doesn’t really come up anymore. But other medical illnesses come up—patients saying, “My doctor said I need to get this surgery, but I know who they’re working for.” Everybody has their concerns, but when a person with psychosis has concerns, it becomes delusional, paranoid, and psychotic.
I’d like to see more providers be given more training around severe mental illness. These are not just people who just need to go to the hospital to get remedicated for a couple of days. There’s a whole life that needs to get looked at here, and they deserve that. I’d like to see more group settings with a combination of psychoeducation, evidence-based research, skills training, and process, because the research says that’s the combination that’s really important.
Editor’s note: Sallee works for a large HMO psychiatry department, and her account here is not on behalf of, endorsed by, or speaking for any larger organization.
The epidemiologist rethinking how to bridge differences in culture and community
John Wright
Clinician and epidemiologist Bradford, United Kingdom
I work in Bradford, the fifth-biggest city in the UK. It has a big South Asian population and high levels of deprivation. Before covid, I’d say there was growing awareness about conspiracies. But during the pandemic, I think that lockdown, isolation, fear of this unknown virus, and then the uncertainty about the future came together in a perfect storm to highlight people’s latent attraction to alternative hypotheses and conspiracies—it was fertile ground. I’ve been a National Health Service doctor for almost 40 years, and until recently, the NHS had a great reputation, with great trust, and great public support. The pandemic was the first time that I started seeing that erode.
It wasn’t just conspiracies about vaccines or new drugs, either—it was also an undermining of trust in public institutions. I remember an older woman who had come into the emergency department with covid. She was very unwell, but she just wouldn’t go into hospital despite all our efforts, because there were conspiracies going around that we were killing patients in hospital. So she went home, and I don’t know what happened to her.
The other big change in recent years has been social media and social networks that have obviously amplified and accelerated alternative theories and conspiracies. That’s been the tinder that’s allowed the wildfires to spread with these sort of conspiracy theories. In Bradford, particularly among ethnic minority communities, there’s been stronger links between them—allowing this to spread quicker—but also a more structural distrust.
Vaccination rates have fallen since the pandemic, and we’re seeing lower uptake of the meningitis and HPV vaccines in schools among South Asian families. Ultimately, this needs a bigger societal approach than individual clinicians putting needles in arms. We started a project called Born in Bradford in 2007 that’s following more than 13,000 families, including around 20,000 teenagers as they grow up. One of the biggest focuses for us is how they use social media and how it links to their mental health, so we’re asking them to donate their digital media to us so we can examine it in confidence. We’re hoping it could allow us to explore conspiracies and influences.
The challenge for the next generation of resident doctors and clinicians is: How do we encourage health literacy in young people about what’s right and what’s wrong without being paternalistic? We also need to get better at engaging with people as health advocates to counter some of the online narratives. The NHS website can’t compete with how engaging content on TikTok is.
The pediatrician who worries about the confusing public narrative on vaccines
Jessica Weisz
Pediatrician Washington, DC
I’m an outpatient pediatrician, so I do a lot of preventative care, checkups, and sick visits, and treating coughs and colds—those sorts of things. I’ve had specific training in how to support families in clinical decision-making related to vaccines, and every family wants what’s best for their child, and so supporting them is part of my job.
I don’t see specific articulation of conspiracy theories, but I do think there’s more questions about vaccines in conversations I’ve not typically had to have before. I’ve found that parents and caregivers do ask general questions about the risks and benefits of vaccines. We just try to reiterate that vaccines have been studied, that they are intentionally scheduled to protect an immature immune system when it’s the most vulnerable, and that we want everyone to be safe, healthy, and strong. That’s how we can provide protection.
“I think what’s confusing is that distress is being sowed in headlines when most patients, families, and caregivers are motivated and want to be vaccinated.”
I feel that the narrative in the public space is unfairly confusing to families when over 90% of families still want their kids to be vaccinated. The families who are not as interested in that, or have questions—it typically takes multiple conversations to support that family in their decision-making. It’s very rarely one conversation.
I think what’s confusing is that distress is being sowed in headlines when most patients, families, and caregivers are motivated and want to be vaccinated. For example, some of the headlines around recent changes the CDC are making make it sound like they’re making a huge clinical change, when it’s actually not a huge change from what people are typically doing. In my standard clinical practice, we don’t give the combined MMRV vaccine to children under four years old, and that’s been standard practice in all of the places I’ve worked on the Eastern Seaboard. [Editor’s note: In early October, the CDC updated its recommendation that young children receive the varicella vaccine separately from the combined vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella. Many practitioners, including Weisz, already offer the shots separately.]
If you look at public surveys, pediatricians are still the most trusted [among health-care providers], and I do live in a jurisdiction with pretty strong policy about school-based vaccination. I think that people are getting information from multiple sources, but at the end of the day, in terms of both the national rates and also what I see in clinical practice, we really are seeing most families wanting vaccines.
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.
DeepSeek may have found a new way to improve AI’s ability to remember
The news: An AI model released by Chinese AI company DeepSeek uses new techniques that could significantly improve AI’s ability to “remember.”
How it works: The optical character recognition model works by extracting text from an image and turning it into machine-readable words. This is the same technology that powers scanner apps, translation of text in photos, and many accessibility tools.
Why it matters: Researchers say the model’s main innovation lies in how it processes information—specifically, how it stores and retrieves data. Improving how AI models “remember” could reduce how much computing power they need to run, thus mitigating AI’s large (and growing) carbon footprint. Read the full story.
—Caiwei Chen
The AI Hype Index: Data centers’ neighbors are pivoting to power blackouts
Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Take a look at this month’s edition of the index here.
Roundtables: seeking climate solutions in turbulent times
Yesterday we held a subscriber-only conversation exploring how companies are pursuing climate solutions amid political shifts in the US.
Our climate reporters James Temple and Casey Crownhart sat down with our science editor Mary Beth Griggs to dig into the most promising climate technologies right now. Watch the session back here!
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Supershoes are reshaping distance running
“Supershoes” —which combine a lightweight, energy-returning foam with a carbon-fiber plate for stiffness—have been behind every broken world record in distances from 5,000 meters to the marathon since 2020.
To some, this is a sign of progress—for both the field as a whole and for athletes’ bodies. Still, some argue that they’ve changed the sport too quickly.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Hurricane Melissa may be the Atlantic Ocean’s strongest on record There’s little doubt in scientists’ minds that human-caused climate change is to blame. (New Scientist $)+ While Jamaica is largely without power, no deaths have been confirmed. (BBC) + The hurricane is currently sweeping across Cuba. (NYT $) + Here’s what we know about hurricanes and climate change. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Texas is suing Tylenol over the Trump administration’s autism claims Even though the scientific evidence is unfounded. (NY Mag $) + The lawsuit claims the firm violated Texas law by claiming the drug was safe. (WP $)
3 Two US Senators want to ban AI companions for minors They want AI companies to implement age-verification processes, too. (NBC News) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Trump’s “golden dome” plan is seriously flawed It’s unlikely to offer anything like the protection he claims it will. (WP $) + Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies. (MIT Technology Review)
4 The Trump administration is backing new nuclear plants To—surprise surprise—power the AI boom. (NYT $) + The grid is straining to support the excessive demands for power. (Reuters)+ Can nuclear power really fuel the rise of AI? (MIT Technology Review)
5 Uber’s next fleet of autonomous cars will contain Nvidia’s new chips Which could eventually make it cheaper to hail a robotaxi. (Bloomberg $) + Nvidia is also working with a company called Lucid to bring autonomous cars to consumers. (Ars Technica)
6 Weight loss drugs are becoming more commonplace across the world Semaglutide patents are due to expire in Brazil, China and India next year. (Economist $)+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)
7 More billionaires hail from America than any other nation The majority of them have made their fortunes working in technology. (WSJ $) + China is closing in on America’s global science lead. (Bloomberg $)
8 Australian police are developing an AI tool to decode Gen Z slang It’s in a bid to combat the rising networks of young men targeting vulnerable girls online. (The Guardian)
9 This robot housekeeper is controlled remotely by a human Nothing weird about that at all… (WSJ $) + The humans behind the robots. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Cameo is suing OpenAI It’s unhappy about Sora’s new Cameo feature. (Reuters)
Quote of the day
“I don’t believe we’re in an AI bubble.”
—Jensen Haung, Nvidia’s CEO, conveniently dismisses the growing concerns around the AI hype train, Bloomberg reports.
One more thing
How to befriend a crow
Crows have become minor TikTok celebrities thanks to CrowTok, a small but extremely active niche on the social video app that has exploded in popularity over the past two years. CrowTok isn’t just about birds, though. It also often explores the relationships that corvids—a family of birds including crows, magpies, and ravens—develop with human beings.
They’re not the only intelligent birds around, but in general, corvids are smart in a way that resonates deeply with humans. But how easy is it to befriend them? And what can it teach us about attention, and patience, in a world that often seems to have little of either? Read the full story.
—Abby Ohlheiser
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Congratulations to Flava Flav, who’s been appointed Team USA’s official hype man for the 2026 Winter Olympics! + Why are Spirographs so hypnotic? Answers on a postcard. + I love this story—and beautiful photos—celebrating 50 years of the World Gay Rodeo. + Axolotls really are remarkable little creatures.
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.
“We will never build a sex robot,” says Mustafa Suleyman
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, is trying to walk a fine line. On the one hand, he thinks that the industry is taking AI in a dangerous direction by building chatbots that present as human: He worries that people will be tricked into seeing life instead of lifelike behavior.
On the other hand, Suleyman runs a product shop that must compete with those peers. Last week, Microsoft announced a string of updates to its Copilot chatbot designed to make Copilot more expressive, engaging, and helpful.
Will Douglas Heaven, our senior AI editor, talked to Suleyman about the tension at play when it comes to designing our interactions with chatbots and his ultimate vision for what this new technology should be.Read the full story.
An AI adoption riddle
—James O’Donnell, senior AI reporter
A few weeks ago, I set out on what I thought would be a straightforward reporting journey.
After years of momentum for AI, hype had been slightly punctured. First there was the underwhelming release of GPT-5 in August. Then a report released two weeks later found that 95% of generative AI pilots were failing, which caused a brief stock market panic. I wanted to know: Which companies are spooked enough to scale back their AI spending?
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users exhibit severe mental health symptoms That’s according to estimates from OpenAI, which says it has tweaked GPT-5 to respond more effectively to users in distress. (Wired $) + OpenAI won’t lock access to force users to take a break, though. (Gizmodo) + Why AI should be able to “hang up” on you. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Elon Musk has launched his answer to Wikipedia Grokipedia’s right-leaning entries reflect the way the billionaire sees the world. (WP $) + Several pages perpetuate historical inaccuracies and conservative views. (Wired $) + The AI-generated encyclopedia briefly crashed shortly after it launched. (Engadget)
3 Surgeons have removed a pig kidney from a patient It was the longest-functioning genetically engineered pig kidney so far. (Wired $) + “Spare” living human bodies might provide us with organs for transplantation. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Amazon is planning to cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs Partly in response to staff’s reluctance to return to the office five days a week. (Reuters) + The company is planning yet another round of layoffs in January. (NYT $)
5 Older people can’t get enough of screens Their digital habits mirror the high usage typically observed among teenagers. (Economist $)
6 A British cyclist has been given a 3D-printed face Dave Richards received severe third-degree burns to his head after being struck by a drunk driver. (The Guardian)
7 The twitter.com domain is being shut down Make sure you re-enroll your security and passkeys before the big switch-off. (Fast Company $) + It means the abandoned accounts could be sold on. (The Verge) + But 2FA apps should be fine—in theory. (The Register)
8 When is a moon not a moon? Believe it or not, we don’t have an official definition. (The Atlantic $) + Astronomers have spotted a “quasi-moon” hovering near Earth. (BBC) + The moon is just the beginning for this waterless concrete. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Threads’ ghost posts will disappear after 24 hours If anyone saw them in the first place, that is. (TechCrunch)
10 In the metaverse, anyone can be a K-pop superstar Virtual idols are gaining huge popularity, before crossing over into real-world fame. (Rest of World) + Meta’s former metaverse head has been moved into its AI team. (FT $)
Quote of the day
“The impulse to control knowledge is as old as knowledge itself. Controlling what gets written is a way to gain or keep power.”
—Ryan McGrady, senior research fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reflects on Elon Musk’s desire to create his own online encyclopedia to the New York Times.
One more thing
Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AI
Amsterdam thought it was on the right track. City officials in the welfare department believed they could build technology that would prevent fraud while protecting citizens’ rights. They followed these emerging best practices and invested a vast amount of time and money in a project that eventually processed live welfare applications. But in their pilot, they found that the system they’d developed was still not fair and effective. Why?
Lighthouse Reports, MIT Technology Review, and the Dutch newspaper Trouw have gained unprecedented access to the system to try to find out. Read about what we discovered.
—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Happy 70th birthday to Bill Gates, who is not revered enough for his chair-jumping skills. + Bring back Guitar Hero—the iconic game that convinced us all we were capable of knocking out Heart’s Barracuda (note: the majority of us were not.) + Even the swankiest parts of London aren’t immune to rumours of ghostly hauntings. + Justice for medieval frogs and their unfair reputation!
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.
I tried OpenAI’s new Atlas browser but I still don’t know what it’s for
—Mat Honan
OpenAI rolled out a new web browser last week called Atlas. It comes with ChatGPT built in, along with an agent, so that you can browse, get answers, and have automated tasks performed on your behalf all at the same time.
I’ve spent the past several days tinkering with Atlas. I’ve used it to do all my normal web browsing, and also tried to take advantage of the ChatGPT functions—plus I threw some weird agentic tasks its way to see how it did with those.
My impression is that Atlas is… fine? But my big takeaway is that it’s pretty pointless for anyone not employed by OpenAI. In fact, Atlas seems to be little more than cynicism masquerading as software. Read the full story.
This review first appeared in The Debrief, Mat Honan’s weekly subscriber-only newsletter.
Seeking climate solutions in turbulent times
Despite recent political shifts in the US, companies are continuing to pursue exciting new climate solutions. Tomorrow we’re holding an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable event digging into the most promising technologies of the moment drawing from our recently released 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch list.
This conversation will give subscribers insight into where tangible climate progress is happening today, and how recent political changes are reshaping the path toward a more sustainable future. Join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday October 28—register here!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Donald Trump says a TikTok deal could be reached this week Perhaps on Thursday, when he’s due to meet Xi Jinping. (CNBC) + US treasury secretary Scott Bessent appeared to jump the gun when he said the deal had already been done. (The Guardian)
2 Covid vaccines helped to prolong the life of cancer patients The findings raise hopes a universal vaccine could help patients with different cancers. (WP $) + Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)
3 How developing nations benefit from“AI decolonization” Rules forcing Silicon Valley’s giants to process data locally has helped to spread the AI boom’s wealth. (WSJ $) + Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia wants to be known as the “AI exporter.” (NYT $) + Inside India’s scramble for AI independence. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Those rising electricity costs aren’t just down to AI Costly electrical equipment and disaster prep are bigger factors pushing up prices. (WP $) + Amazon considered concealing its data centers’ water usage. (The Guardian) + AI is changing the grid. Could it help more than it harms? (MIT Technology Review)
5 California State wants to become America’s largest “AI-empowered” University It’s teaming up with Amazon, OpenAI and Nvidia to prepare its students for increasingly AI-driven careers. (NYT $) + How do technologies change our abilities to learn skills? (The Atlantic $) + Why the ultra-wealthy are sending their kids to High Point University. (WSJ $) + The job market is tough right now, but we’ve weathered this kind of storm before. (Insider $)
6 This new startup sells AI bot interactions to manipulate social media Even though it violates every major platforms’ policies. (404 Media)
7 Even real estate isn’t safe from AI slop House hunters are being forced to wade through AI-enhanced listings. (Wired $)
8 Why we’re so obsessed with sleepmaxxing Yes, sleep is good for you. But does the tech that tracks it really do the job it claims to? (The Atlantic $) + I tried to hack my insomnia with technology. Here’s what worked. (MIT Technology Review)
9 It’s probably not worth buying an Ultra-HD TV So feel free to ignore all that persuasive marketing jargon. (The Guardian)
10 Sneaky employees are using AI to fake their expense receipts So expense firms are in turn deploying AI to try and detect the fakes. (FT $)
Quote of the day
“I’m skeptical of all of the hype around AI right now. This is not my first bubble.”
—Jay Goldberg, a senior analyst at Seaport Global Securities, is no stranger to the hysteria that surrounds overhyped technologies, he tells Bloomberg.
One more thing
Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport
Clear Secure is the most visible biometric identity company in the United States. Best known for its line-jumping service in airports, it’s also popping up at sports arenas and stadiums all over the country. You can also use its identity verification platform to rent tools at Home Depot, put your profile in front of recruiters on LinkedIn, and, as of this month, verify your identity as a rider on Uber.
And soon enough, if Clear has its way, it may also be in your favorite retailer, bank, and even doctor’s office—or anywhere else that you currently have to pull out a wallet (or wait in line).
While the company has been building toward this sweeping vision for years, it now seems its time has finally come. But as biometrics go mainstream, what—and who—bears the cost? Read the full story.
—Eileen Guo
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Ancient manuscripts are jam packed with weird and wonderful beasts. + Horror writers tell us the spooky stories that send a shiver down their respective spines. + Here’s why living on a red dwarf isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds. + Kiki the sheep may not be able to walk, but she isn’t letting it get in the way of her getting around (thanks Amy!)
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.
What’s next for carbon removal?
After years of growth that spawned hundreds of startups, the nascent carbon removal sector appears to be facing a reckoning.
Running Tide, a promising aquaculture company, shut down its operations last summer, and a handful of other companies have shuttered, downsized, or pivoted in recent months as well. Venture investments have flagged. And the collective industry hasn’t made a whole lot more progress toward Running Tide’s ambitious plans to sequester a billion tons of carbon dioxide by this year.
The hype phase is over and the sector is sliding into the turbulent business trough that follows, experts warn.
And the open question is: If the carbon removal sector is heading into a painful if inevitable clearing-out cycle, where will it go from there? Read the full story.
—James Temple
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, which looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.
An AI app to measure pain is here
This week I’ve also been wondering how science and technology can help answer that question—especially when it comes to pain.
In the latest issue of MIT Technology Review’s print magazine, Deena Mousa describes how an AI-powered smartphone app is being used to assess how much pain a person is in.
The app, and other tools like it, could help doctors and caregivers. They could be especially useful in the care of people who aren’t able to tell others how they are feeling.
But they are far from perfect. And they open up all kinds of thorny questions about how we experience, communicate, and even treat pain. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Meta’s lawyers advised workers to remove parts of its teen mental health research Its counsel told researchers to block or update their work to reduce legal liability. (Bloomberg $) + Meta recently laid off more than 100 staff tasked with monitoring risks to user privacy. (NYT $)
2 Donald Trump has pardoned the convicted Binance founder ChangpengZhao pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws in 2023. (WSJ $) + The move is likely to enable Binance to resume operating in the US. (CNN) + Trump has vowed to be more crypto-friendly than the Biden administration. (Axios)
3 Anthropic and Google Cloud have signed a major chips deal The agreement is worth tens of billions of dollars. (FT $)
4 Microsoft doesn’t want you to talk dirty to its AI It’ll leave that kind of thing to OpenAI, thank you very much. (CNBC) + Copilot now has its own version of Clippy—just don’t try to get erotic with it. (The Verge) + It’s pretty easy to get DeepSeek to talk dirty, however. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Big Tech is footing the bill for Trump’s White House ballroom Stand up Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. (TechCrunch) + Crypto twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are also among the donors. (CNN)
6 US investigators have busted a series of high-tech gambling schemes Involving specially-designed contact lenses and x-ray tables. (NYT $) + The case follows insider bets on basketball and poker games rigged by the mafia. (BBC) + Automatic card shufflers can be compromised, too. (Wired $)
7 Deepfake harassment tools are easily accessible on social media And simple web searches. (404 Media) + Bans on deepfakes take us only so far—here’s what we really need. (MIT Technology Review)
8 How algorithms can drive up prices online Even benign algorithms can sometimes yield bad outcomes for buyers. (Quanta Magazine) + When AIs bargain, a less advanced agent could cost you. (MIT Technology Review)
9 How to give an LLM brain rot Train it on short “superficial” posts from X, for a start. (Ars Technica) + AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Meet the tech workers using AI as little as possible In a bid to keep their skills sharp. (WP $) + This professor thinks there are other ways to teach people how to learn. (The Atlantic $)
Quote of the day
“He was convicted. He’s not innocent.”
—Republican Senator Thom Tillis criticises Donald Trump’s decision to pardon convicted cryptocurrency mogul Changpeng Zhao, Politico reports.
One more thing
We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change.
When you’re starving, hunger is like a demon. It awakens the most ancient and primitive parts of the brain, then commandeers other neural machinery to do its bidding until it gets what it wants.
Although scientists have had some success in stimulating hunger in mice, we still don’t really understand how the impulse to eat works. Now, some experts are following known parts of the neural hunger circuits into uncharted parts of the brain to try and find out.
Their work could shed new light on the factors that have caused the number of overweight adults worldwide to skyrocket in recent years. And it could also help solve the mysteries around how and why a new class of weight-loss drugs seems to work so well. Read the full story.
—Adam Piore
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
This startup is about to conduct the biggest real-world test of aluminum as a zero-carbon fuel
Found Energy, a startup in Boston, aims to harness the energy in scraps of aluminum metal to power industrial processes without fossil fuels. Since 2022, the company has worked to develop ways to rapidly release energy from aluminum on a small scale.
Now it’s just switched on a much larger version of its aluminum-powered engine, which it claims is the largest aluminum-water reactor ever built.
Early next year, it will be installed to supply heat and hydrogen to a tool manufacturing facility in the southeastern US, using the aluminum waste produced by the plant itself as fuel.
If everything works as planned, this technology, which uses a catalyst to unlock the energy stored within aluminum metal, could transform a growing share of aluminum scrap into a zero-carbon fuel.Read the full story.
—James Dinneen
What a massive thermal battery means for energy storage
Rondo Energy just turned on what it says is the world’s largest thermal battery, an energy storage system that can take in electricity and provide a consistent source of heat.
The concept behind a thermal battery is overwhelmingly simple: Use electricity to heat up some cheap, sturdy material (like bricks) and keep it hot until you want to use that heat later, either directly in an industrial process or to produce electricity.
Thermal batteries could be a major tool in cutting emissions: 20% of total energy demand today is used to provide heat for industrial processes, and most of that is generated by burning fossil fuels. But the company is using its battery for enhanced oil recovery—a process that critics argue keep polluting infrastructure running longer. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 ChatGPT’s suicide discussion rules were loosened twice before a teen took his own life The parents of Adam Raine claim the changes OpenAI made equate to a weakening in its suicide protection for users. (WSJ $) + It did so to increase use of the chatbot, they allege in an amended lawsuit. (FT $) + The family is accusing OpenAI of intentional misconduct rather than reckless indifference. (Rolling Stone $)
2 Google claims its new quantum algorithm outperforms a supercomputer It could accelerate advances in drug discovery and new building materials. (Ars Technica) + Its Willow chip is at the heart of the advance. (NYT $) + But real-world use of quantum computing is still likely to be years away. (The Guardian)
3 Reddit is suing AI search engine Perplexity For allegedly illegally scraping its data to train the model powering Perplexity’s engine. (FT $) + Reddit’s also seeking a permanent injunction on companies selling its data. (Engadget) + What comes next for AI copyright lawsuits? (MIT Technology Review)
4 China has a five-year plan to become technologically self-reliant And semiconductors and AI will play key roles. (Bloomberg $) + China is winning the trade war with America. (Economist $)
5 DeepSeek is taking off in Africa Its decision to make its AI cheaper and less power-intensive is paying off. (Bloomberg $) + How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Elon Musk is building a robot army He envisions his Optimus robot becoming an “incredible surgeon.” (Wired $) + Will we ever trust robots? (MIT Technology Review)
7 Apple has pulled a pair of controversial dating apps from the App Store Tea and TeaOnHer fell short of its privacy and content moderation rules. (TechCrunch)
8 Tesla’s profits are massively down Even though it sold more cars than during its previous quarter. (NYT $) + The company has been forced to recall tens of thousands of Cybertrucks. (Reuters) + What happens when your EV becomes obsolete? (The Atlantic $)
9 An unexpected victim of the AWS outage? Smart beds Some unlucky owners’ beds blared alarms and became unbearably warm. (WP $) + If the internet stays the way it is, more bed outages could be on their way. (The Atlantic $)
10 The appeal of incredibly basic software Apple’s TextEdit does exactly what it says on the tin. (New Yorker $)
Quote of the day
“I’m very excited that nerds are having our moment.”
—Madhavi Sewak, a Google DeepMind researcher, says she’s glad that AI experts are being recognized, the Wall Street Journal reports.
One more thing
Inside the hunt for new physics at the world’s largest particle collider
In 2012, using data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, researchers discovered a particle called the Higgs boson. In the process, they answered a nagging question: Where do fundamental particles, such as the ones that make up all the protons and neutrons in our bodies, get their mass?
When the particle was finally found, scientists celebrated with champagne. A Nobel for two of the physicists who predicted the Higgs boson soon followed.
More than a decade later, there is a sense of unease. That’s because there are still so many unanswered questions about the fundamental constituents of the universe.
So researchers are trying something new. They are repurposing detectors to search for unusual-looking particles, squeezing what they can out of the data with machine learning, and planning for entirely new kinds of colliders. Read the full story.
—Dan Garisto
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
Introducing: the body issue
We’re thrilled to share the latest edition of MIT Technology Review magazine, digging into the future of the human body, and how it could change in the years ahead thanks to scientific and technological tinkering.
The below stories are just a taste of what you can expect from this fascinating issue. To read the full thing, subscribe now if you haven’t already.
+ A new field of science claims to be able to predict aesthetic traits, intelligence, and even moral
character in embryos. But is this the next step in human evolution or something more dangerous? Read the full story.
+ How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we could ever reverse it. Read the full story.
+ Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology follows, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings of animal bodies directly from stem cells. But should he?
+ The more we move, the more our muscle cells begin to make a memory of that exercise. Bonnie Tsui’s piece digs into how our bodies learn to remember.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How Antarctica’s history of isolation is ending—thanks to Starlink
“This is one of the least visited places on planet Earth and I got to open the door,” Matty Jordan, a construction specialist at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica, wrote in the caption to the video he posted to Instagram and TikTok in October 2023.
In the video, he guides viewers through the hut, pointing out where the men of Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 expedition lived and worked.
The video has racked up millions of views from all over the world. It’s also kind of a miracle: until very recently, those who lived and worked on Antarctic bases had no hope of communicating so readily with the outside world. That’s starting to change, thanks to Starlink, the satellite constellation developed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to service the world with high-speed broadband internet.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI has launched its own web browser Atlas has an Ask ChatGPT sidebar and an agent mode to complete certain tasks. (TechCrunch) + It runs on Chromium, the open-source engine that powers Google’s Chrome. (Axios) + OpenAI believes the future of web browsing will involve chatting to its interface. (Ars Technica) + AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)
2 China is demanding US chip firms share their sales data It’s conducting a probe into American suppliers, and it wants answers. (Bloomberg $)
3 AI pioneers are among those calling for a ban on superintelligent systems Including Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. (The Guardian) + Prominent Chinese scientists have also signed the statement. (FT $) + Read our interview with Hinton on why he’s now scared of AI. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Anthropic promises its AI is not woke Despite what the Trump administration’s “AI Czar” says. (404 Media) + Its CEO insists the company shares the same goals as the Trump administration. (CNBC) + Why it’s impossible to build an unbiased AI language model. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Climate scientists expect we’ll see more solar geoengineering attempts But it’s a risky intervention with potentially huge repercussions. (New Scientist $) + The hard lessons of Harvard’s failed geoengineering experiment. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Why Silicon Valley is so fixated on China It marvels at the country’s ability to move fast and break things—but should it?(NYT $) + How Trump is helping China extend its massive lead in clean energy. (MIT Technology Review)
7 YouTube has launched a likeness detector to foil AI doppelgängers But that doesn’t guarantee that the fake videos will be removed. (Ars Technica)
8 Bots are threatening Reddit’s status as an oasis of human chat Can it keep fighting off the proliferation of AI slop? (WP $) + It’s not just Reddit either—employers are worried about ‘workslop’ too. (FT $) + AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage. (MIT Technology Review)
9 This AI-powered pet toy is surprisingly cute Moflin is a guinea pig-like creature that learns to become more expressive. (TechCrunch) + AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)
10 You don’t need to know a lot about AI to get a job in AI Make of that what you will. (Fast Company $)
Quote of the day
“It’s wild that Google wrote the Transformers paper (that birthed GPTs) AND open sourced Chromium, both of which will (eventually) lead to the downfall of their search monopoly. History lesson in there somewhere.”
—Investor Nikunj Kothari ponders the future of Google’s empire in the wake of the announcement of OpenAI’s new web browser in a post on X.
One more thing
The quest to protect farmworkers from extreme heat
Even as temperatures rise each summer, the people working outdoors to pick fruits, vegetables, and flowers have to keep laboring.
The consequences can be severe, leading to illnesses such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke and even acute kidney injury.
Now, researchers are developing an innovative sensor that tracks multiple vital signs with a goal of anticipating when a worker is at risk of developing heat illness and issuing an alert. If widely adopted and consistently used, it could represent a way to make workers safer on farms even without significant heat protections. Read the full story.
—Kalena Thomhave
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Netflix is making a film based on the hit board game Catan, for some reason. + Why it’s time to embrace the beauty of slow running. + The Satellite Crayon Project takes colors from the natural world and turns them into vibrant drawing implements. + Mamma Mia has never sounded better.
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.
The astonishing embryo models of Jacob Hanna
Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology has followed for a billion years, give or take, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings of animal bodies directly from stem cells.
Join these cells together in the right way, and they will spontaneously attempt to organize into an embryo—a feat that’s opening up the earliest phases of development to scientific scrutiny and may lead to a new source of tissue for transplant medicine.
Hanna is the vanguard of a wider movement that’s fusing advanced methods in genetics, stem-cell biology, and still-primitive artificial wombs to create bodies where they’ve never grown before—outside the uterus. But exactly how far Hanna has taken his models of the human embryo is an open question.Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
Why AI should be able to “hang up” on you
Chatbots today are everything machines. But the one thing that almost no chatbot will ever do is stop talking to you.
Why should a tech company build a feature that reduces the time people spend using its product? The answer is simple: AI’s ability to generate endless streams of humanlike, authoritative, and helpful text can facilitate delusional spirals, worsen mental-health crises, and otherwise harm vulnerable people.
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first every Monday, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The massive AWS outage was caused by a DNS issue Essentially, its system was unable to work out which server to connect to. (Wired $) + That’s how vulnerable services are when they rely on a single location. (The Register) + Snapchat, Pinterest, Venmo and Apple TV were among the affected apps. (WP $)
2 Spyware maker NSO has been barred from targeting WhatsApp users Unsurprisingly, the company has complained this would force it out of business. (Ars Technica) + The federal judge also reduced the fine it’s been ordered to pay Meta. (TechCrunch)
3 Anthropic wants to get into life sciences As AI companies hunt for profits, they’re increasingly targeting the scientific sector. (FT $) + How scientists are trying to use AI to unlock the human mind. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Amazon plans to automate up to 75% of its operations That’s more than half a million human jobs being replaced by robots. (NYT $) + Visiting one of its fulfillment centers is deeply unsettling. (WSJ $) + To be more useful, robots need to become lazier. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The “chatters” hired to impersonate Only Fans creators are burning out Hundreds of thousands of chatters in the Philippines are struggling with their demanding working conditions. (Nikkei Asia)
6 Why the toxic manosphere is so compelling to young men Its biggest influencers are adept at trapping boys in their ecosystems. (The Guardian)
7 Japanese convenience stores are hiring robots But those robots are remotely controlled by people. (Rest of World) + They’re also in the country’s hotels. (Insider $) + The humans behind the robots. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Silicon Valley startups are embracing a 72-hour work week No thank you! (WP $)
9 Google’s New York office has a bed bug problem There’s never been a better time to work from home. (Wired $)
10 The internet is increasingly filled with slop Is there anything we can do about it? (The Atlantic $) + How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“I had no idea that the loss of one web cloud service would chip away at my small business and give me a Monday morning from hell.”
—Will Mauldin, who owns a woodworking company in Maryland, describes the after-effects of the AWS web outage to the Wall Street Journal.
One more thing
How generative AI could help make construction sites safer
More than 1,000 construction workers die on the job each year in the US, making it the most dangerous industry for fatal slips, trips, and falls.
A new AI tool called Safety AI could help to change that. It analyzes the progress made on a construction site each day, and flags conditions that violate Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules, with what its creator Philip Lorenzo claims is 95% accuracy.
Lorenzo says Safety AI is the first one of multiple emerging AI construction safety tools to use generative AI to flag safety violations. But as the 95% success rate suggests, Safety AI is not a flawless and all-knowing intelligence. Read the full story.
—Andrew Rosenblum
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Aww, these giant otter cubs are very sweet. + Scientists have uncovered some ancient South American amber that could help us learn more about what the world was like 112 million years ago. + Grimes is back—with a new song told from AI’s perspective. + How to display your household books in unusual ways
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.
This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle
The news: Science Corporation—a competitor to Neuralink founded by the former president of Elon Musk’s brain-interface venture—has leapfrogged its rival after acquiring a vision implant in advanced testing for a fire-sale price. The implant produces a form of “artificial vision” that lets some patients read text and do crosswords, according to a report published in TheNew England Journal of Medicine today.
How it works: The implant is a microelectronic chip placed under the retina. Using signals from a camera mounted on a pair of glasses, the chip emits bursts of electricity in order to bypass photoreceptor cells damaged by macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
How will flowers respond to climate change?
Flowers play a key role in most landscapes, from urban to rural areas. Yet flowers have much more to tell in their bright blooms: The very shape they take is formed by local and global climate conditions.
The form of a flower is a visual display of its climate, if you know what to look for. In a dry year, its petals’ pigmentation may change. In a warm year, the flower might grow bigger. The flower’s ultraviolet-absorbing pigment increases with higher ozone levels.
Now, a new artistic project sets out to answer the question: As the climate changes in the future, how might flowers change? Read the full story.
—Annelie Berner
This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Redwood Materials and its new AI microgrids
Over the past few years, Redwood Materials has become one of the top US battery recyclers, joining forces with the likes of Volkswagen, BMW, and Toyota to process old electric-vehicle batteries and recover materials that can be used to make new ones.
Now it’s moving into reuse as well. Redwood Energy, a new branch of the company, incorporates used EV batteries into microgrids to power energy-hungry AI data centers. Read the full story.
—Peter Hall
Redwood Materials is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 AWS is recovering from a major outage It’s racing to get hundreds of apps and services back online. (The Verge) + Snapchat, Roblox and banking services are among those affected. (The Guardian)
2 OpenAI made—then retracted—a claim it had made a major math breakthrough After math experts and rival AI firms ridiculed its poorly-worded declaration. (TechCrunch) + What’s next for AI and math. (MIT Technology Review)
3 The grave costs of Trump’s war on climate science It’s affecting the accuracy of forecasting systems globally, not just in the US. (FT $) + Trump himself led an effort to derail plans to tax shipping pollution. (Politico $) + How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states. (MIT Technology Review)
4 China claims the US is behind a cyberattack on its national time center It says it has years’ worth of irrefutable evidence of data stealing. (Reuters) + US experts allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in mobile phones belonging to National Time Service Center workers. (Bloomberg $)
5 Is AI-generated art real art? It’s a question gallery and museum curators across the world are debating. (NYT $) + Artisan craftmakers are happy to resist the pull of AI. (FT $) + This tool claims to trace how much of an AI image has been drawn from existing material. (The Guardian) + From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Chipmaker Nexperia has accused its ousted CEO of spreading falsehoods Zhang Xuezheng reportedly claimed it was operating independently in China. (Bloomberg $)
7 This whistleblower raised concerns about the safety of US data under DOGE And says the hostile reception to his complaint led to him leaving his dream job. (WP $) + DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Aid agencies have been criticized for using AI “poverty porn” But the NGOs say its use protects the identities of real people in social media campaigns. (The Guardian)
9EVs lose their value much faster than gas-powered cars Which isn’t exactly an incentive for prospective first-time buyers. (Rest of World)
10 What happens to our brains when we dream We’re learning more about the many liminal states they can slip through. (Quanta Magazine)
Quote of the day
“Hoisted by their own GPTards.”
—Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun pokes fun at OpenAI after the company walked back its claim it had made a major math breakthrough in a post on X.
One more thing
One option for electric vehicle fires? Let them burn.
Although there isn’t solid data on the frequency of EV battery fires, it’s no secret that these fires are happening.
Despite that, manufacturers offer no standardized steps on how to fight them or avoid them in the first place. What’s more, with EVs, it’s never entirely clear whether the fire is truly out.
Patrick Durham, the owner of one of a growing number of private companies helping first responders learn how to deal with lithium-ion battery safety, has a solution. He believes that the best way to manage EV fires right now is to let them burn. But such an approach not only goes against firefighters’ instincts—it’d require a significant cultural shift. Read the full story.
—Maya L. Kapoor
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase
In this era of AI slop, the idea that generative AI tools like Midjourney and Runway could be used to make art can seem absurd.
But amid all the muck, there are people using AI tools with real consideration and intent. Some of them are finding notable success as AI artists: They are gaining huge online followings, selling their work at auction, and even having it exhibited in galleries and museums. Read the full story.
—Grace Huckins
This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.
Take our quiz: How much do you know about antimicrobial resistance?
This week we had some terrifying news from the World Health Organization: Antibiotics are failing us. A growing number of bacterial infections aren’t responding to these medicines—including common ones that affect the blood, gut, and urinary tract. Get infected with one of these bugs, and there’s a fair chance antibiotics won’t help.
You’ve probably heard about antimicrobial resistance before, but how much do you know about it? Here’s our attempt to put the “fun” in “fundamental threat to modern medicine.” Test your knowledge here!
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here.
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Envision Energy and its “smart” wind turbines
Envision Energy, one of China’s biggest wind turbine makers, has expanded into batteries, green hydrogen, and industrial parks designed to run heavy industry on clean power.
With flagship projects in Inner Mongolia and new ventures planned abroad, the company is testing whether renewables can decarbonize sectors that electricity alone can’t reach. Read the full story.
Envision Energy is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 ICE is beefing up its surveillance capabilities It’s recently bought iris-scanning technology, spyware and location tracking software. (WP $) + Viral ICE videos are shaping how Americans feel about the agency. (Vox) + Protestors in Chicago are fighting back after mass arrests in the city. (New Yorker $)
2 OpenAI has stopped people from generating videos of MLK Jr After some people used Sora to create “disrespectful depictions” of the civil rights activist. (TechCrunch) + It’s not the first time AI’s depiction of public figures has been criticized. (The Information $)
3 A teenager is suing the owners of “nudifying” app ClothOff A classmate used an image of the New Jersey student to generate fake nudes. (WSJ $) + Meet the 15-year-old deepfake victim pushing Congress into action. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Amazon’s Ring camera arm is signing deals with law enforcement It’s working with Flock Safety and Axon to share footage with criminal investigations. (CNBC) + A division of ICE has used Flock’s AI-powered surveillance network. (404 Media) + How Amazon Ring uses domestic violence to market doorbell cameras. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as diesel cars A new report has found that pollution levels are well above official estimates. (The Guardian) + What to expect if you’re expecting a plug-in hybrid. (MIT Technology Review)
6 South Korea is prohibiting its citizens from travelling to Cambodia It says hundreds of its nationals have been kidnapped and forced into scam complexes. (FT $) + Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)
7 What it’s like to be trans online in 2025 The internet once helped trans people to connect—now it’s being weaponized against them. (The Verge)
8 Generative AI will make you the star of ads Companies have to make returns on all that AI investment somehow. (NY Mag $)
9 San Francisco’s AI companies are pushing up housing prices Rents are rising in a city already renowned for a staggeringly high cost of living. (NYT $)
10 Samsung is making a tri-folding phone But attendees at the event it’s being shown off at won’t be allowed to touch it. (Bloomberg $)
Quote of the day
“Grandma will be thrown off the Internet because Junior illegally downloaded a few songs on a visit.”
—US broadband provider Cox Communications details a potential scenario in a legal case filed by major record labels, which have accused Cox of failing to disconnect people who are illegally downloading music, Ars Technica reports.
One more thing
An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary
Until now, AI-generated videos of people have tended to have some stiffness, glitchiness, or other unnatural elements that make them pretty easy to differentiate from reality.
For the past several years, AI video startup Synthesia has produced these kinds of AI-generated avatars. But back in April 2024, it launched a new generation, its first to take advantage of the latest advancements in generative AI, and they are more realistic and expressive than anything we’ve seen before.
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ As support winds down for Windows 10 this week, did you know its blue Windows icon desktop image was taken from a real photograph? Take a look behind the scenes. + Rest in power Ace Frehley, Kiss cofounder and undisputed guitar hero. + A week spent eating along France’s 385-mile food trail? Yes please. + As we get into the Halloween spirit, dare you tour America’s spookiest cities?
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.
The race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess
An emerging field of science is seeking to use cell analysis to predict what kind of a person an embryo might eventually become.
Some parents turn to these tests to avoid passing on devastating genetic disorders that run in their families. A much smaller group, driven by dreams of Ivy League diplomas or attractive, well-behaved offspring, are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to optimize for intelligence, appearance, and personality.
But customers of the companies emerging to provide it to the public may not be getting what they’re paying for.Read the full story.
—Julia Black
This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.
The problem with Big Tech’s favorite carbon removal tech
Sucking carbon pollution out of the atmosphere is becoming a big business—companies are paying top dollar for technologies that can cancel out their own emissions.
Tech giants like Microsoft are betting big on one technology: bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). But there are a few potential problems with BECCS, as my colleague James Temple laid out in a new story. And some of the concerns echo similar problems with other climate technologies we cover, like carbon offsets and alternative jet fuels. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Fervo Energy and its advanced geothermal power plants
Some places on Earth hit the geological jackpot for generating electricity. In those spots, three conditions naturally align: high temperatures, plentiful water, and rock that’s permeable enough for fluids to circulate through.
Enhanced geothermal systems aim to replicate those conditions in far more places—producing a steady supply of renewable energy wherever they’re deployed. Fervo Energy uses fracking techniques to create geothermal reservoirs capable of delivering enough electricity to power massive data centers and hundreds of thousands of homes. Read the full story.
—Celina Zhao
Fervo Energy is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Meta removed a Facebook group that shared ICE agent sightings It’s the latest tech company to acquiesce to US government pressure. (NYT $) + Meta says the group violates its policies against “coordinated harm.” (NBC News) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Loss-making AI startups are still soaring in value If it looks like a bubble, and sounds like a bubble… (FT $) + AI-backed energy firms have also ballooned in value. (WSJ $) + Scaling isn’t always the answer, y’know. (Wired $)
3 Facial recognition is failing people with facial differences Yet it’s being embedded in everything from phone unlocking systems to public services. (Wired $)
4 Tech billionaires are backing a startup that treats tumors with sound waves It’s being touted as a less-invasive alternative to chemotherapy. (Bloomberg $)
5 Scam texts are a billion-dollar criminal enterprise And we’re being inundated with more of them than ever before. (WSJ $) + The people using humor to troll their spam texts. (MIT Technology Review)
6 South Korea has rolled back an AI textbook program for schools Turns out it was riddled with inaccuracies and added to teachers’ workloads. (Rest of World) + The country is considering allowing Google and Apple to make hi-res maps. (TechCrunch)
7 YouTube is setting its sights on sports Which makes sense, given that it’s conquered pretty much all the other TV genres. (Hollywood Reporter $)
8 Job hunting in the age of AI is bleak Even the best candidates are being overlooked. (The Atlantic $) + The job market is a mess too. (Slate $)
9 A new channel broadcasts a livestream direct from the ISS If you’ve ever wanted to be an astronaut, watching this is the next best thing. (The Guardian)
10 The end of support for Windows 10 is an e-waste disaster Up to 400 million machines could be heading to the scrap heap. (404 Media) + The US government has cut funding for a battery-metals recycler. (Bloomberg $) + AI will add to the e-waste problem. Here’s what we can do about it. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“We are not the elected moral police of the world.”
—OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reacts to the outcry sparked by his company’s decision to relax its rules to let adults hold erotic conversations with ChatGPT, CNBC reports.
One more thing
Inside India’s scramble for AI independence
Despite its status as a global tech hub, India lags far behind the likes of the US and China when it comes to homegrown AI.
That gap has opened largely because India has chronically underinvested in R&D, institutions, and invention. Meanwhile, since no one native language is spoken by the majority of the population, training language models is far more complicated than it is elsewhere.
So when the open-source foundation model DeepSeek-R1 suddenly outperformed many global peers, it struck a nerve. This launch by a Chinese startup prompted Indian policymakers to confront just how far behind the country was in AI infrastructure—and how urgently it needed to respond. Read the full story.
—Shadma Shaikh
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic
Microsoft, JP MorganChase, and a tech company consortium that includes Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe have all recently struck multimillion-dollar deals to pay paper mill owners to capture at least hundreds of thousands of tons of this greenhouse gas by installing carbon scrubbing equipment in their facilities.
The captured carbon dioxide will then be piped down into saline aquifers more than a mile underground, where it should be sequestered permanently.
Big Tech is suddenly betting big on this form of carbon removal, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS. But experts have raised a number of concerns.Read the full story.
—James Temple
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Kairos Power and its next-generation nuclear reactors
Like many new nuclear startups, Kairos promises a path to reliable, 24/7 decarbonized power. Unlike most, it already has prototypes under construction and permits for several reactors.
The company uses molten salt to cool its reactions and transfer heat, rather than the high-pressure water that’s used in existing fission reactors. It hopes its technology will enable commercial reactors that are cost-competitive with natural gas plants and boast safer operation than conventional reactors, even in the event of complete power loss. Read the full story.
—Mark Harris
Kairos Power is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos
Millions of embryos created through IVF sit frozen in time, stored in tanks around the world. The number is only growing thanks to advances in technology, the rising popularity of IVF, and improvements in its success rates.
At a basic level, an embryo is simply a tiny ball of a hundred or so cells. But unlike other types of body tissue, it holds the potential for life. Many argue that this endows embryos with a special moral status, one that requires special protections.
The problem is that no one can really agree on what that status is. While these embryos persist in suspended animation, patients, clinicians, embryologists, and legislators must grapple with the essential question of what we should do with them. What do these embryos mean to us? Who should be responsible for them?
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 ChatGPT will start talking dirty to verified adults The chatbot is getting a new erotica function as part of OpenAI’s bid to “safely relax” its restrictions. (The Verge) + The company has created its own wellness council to inform its decisions. (Ars Technica) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
2 A secret surveillance empire tracked thousands of people across the world The European-led First Wap has operated covertly for more than two decades. (Mother Jones) + The group ran at least 10 scam compounds across the country. (Wired $) + Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)
3 YouTube ran Israel-funded ads claiming there was food in famine-struck Gaza And allowed them to remain online even after complaints from multiple government authorities. (WP $) + Companies have denied they’re involved in rebuilding Gaza. (Wired $)
4 Instagram wants to become a more teen-friendly space It’s bringing in new age-gating measures inspired by the PG-13 movie rating. (NBC News) + The policy will also extend to its chatbots. (NYT $)
5 A massive Cambodia-based pig butchering scheme has been foiled It’s the biggest forfeiture action the US Department of Justice has ever pursued. (CNBC)
6 Waymo’s driverless taxis are coming to London From next year, it says pedestrians will be able to hail its robotaxis. (WSJ $)
7 Black patients were failed by a race-based medical calculation It delayed their access to life-saving kidney transplants. (The Markup) + A woman in the US is the third person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney. (MIT Technology Review)
8 AI flood forecasting is helping farmers across the world Nonprofits are using it to deliver early aid. (Rest of World)
9 A man with paralysis can feel objects through another person’s hand Thanks to a new brain implant. (New Scientist $) + Meet the other companies developing brain-computer interfaces. (MIT Technology Review)
10 Tech internships are alive and well Despite all the AI angst. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“You made ChatGPT “pretty restrictive”? Really. Is that why it has been recommending kids harm and kill themselves?”
—Josh Hawley, US Senator for Missouri, reacts to the news OpenAI is planning to loosen its restrictions in a post on X.
One more thing
Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs
People looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction by authors like Isaac Asimov or thought experiments like the Turing test. But an equally important, if surprising and less appreciated, forerunner is American psychologist B.F. Skinner’s research with pigeons in the middle of the 20th century.
Skinner believed that association—learning, through trial and error, to link an action with a punishment or reward—was the building block of every behavior, not just in pigeons but in all living organisms, including human beings.
His “behaviorist” theories fell out of favor with psychologists and animal researchers in the 1960s but were taken up by computer scientists who eventually provided the foundation for many of the artificial-intelligence tools from leading firms like Google and OpenAI. Read the full story.
—Ben Crair
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ I love the sound of Grateful Fishing TV—starring two fishermen who just love hanging out and frying some fish. Truly wholesome stuff (thanks to Chino Moreno via Perfectly Imperfect for the recommendation!) + Rest in power D’Angelo, your timeless tunes will live on. + If you’re into stress-watches, this list is full of anxiety-inducing classics. + One of the world’s longest dinosaur superhighways has been uncovered in a sleepy part of England.
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.
How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we can reverse it
Wrinkles and gray hairs aside, it can be difficult to know how well—or poorly—someone’s body is truly aging. A person who develops age-related diseases earlier in life, or has other biological changes associated with aging, might be considered “biologically older” than a similar-age person who doesn’t have those changes. Some 80-year-olds will be weak and frail, while others are fit and active.
Over the past decade, scientists have been uncovering new methods of looking at the hidden ways our bodies are aging. And what they’ve found is changing our understanding of aging itself. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
Can we repair the internet?
From addictive algorithms to exploitative apps, data mining to misinformation, the internet today can be a hazardous place. New books by three influential figures—the intellect behind “net neutrality,” a former Meta executive, and the web’s own inventor—propose radical approaches to fixing it. But are these luminaries the right people for the job? Read the full story.
—Nathan Smith
Both these stories are from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Cyclic Materials and its rare earth recycling tech
Rare earth magnets are essential for clean energy, but only a tiny fraction of the metals inside them are ever recycled. Cyclic Materials aims to change that by opening one of the largest rare earth magnet recycling operations outside of China next year.
By collecting a wide range of devices and recycling multiple metals, the company seeks to overcome the economic challenges that have long held back such efforts. Read the full story.
—Maddie Stone
Cyclic Materials is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 California’s AI safety bill has been signed into law It holds AI companies legally accountable if their chatbots fail to protect users. (TechCrunch) + It also requires chatbots to remind young users that they’re not human. (The Verge) + Gavin Newsom also green-lit measures for social media warning labels. (The Hill)
2 Satellites are leaking unencrypted data Including civilian text messages, plus military and law enforcement communications. (Wired $) + It’s getting mighty crowded up there too. (Space)
3 Defense startups are reviving manufacturing in quiet US towns The weapons of the future are being built in Delaware, Michigan and Ohio. (NYT $) + Phase two of military AI has arrived. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Europe is worried about becoming an AI “colony” The bloc is too dependent on US tech, experts fear. (FT $) + The US is locked in a bind with China. (Rest of World)
5 Vast chunks of human knowledge are missing from the web And AI is poised to make the problem even worse. (Aeon) + How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)
6 How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution Vast battery units are helping to shore up grids and extend the use of clean power. (FT $) + This startup wants to use the Earth as a massive battery. (MIT Technology Review)
7 A new chemical detection technique reveals what’s making wildlife ill It’s a small step toward a healthier future for all animals—including humans. (Knowable Magazine) + We’re inhaling, eating, and drinking toxic chemicals. Now we need to figure out how they’re affecting us. (MIT Technology Review)
8 The world is growing more food crops than ever before But hunger still hasn’t been eradicated. (Vox) + Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Google is starting to hide sponsored search results Only after you’ve seen them first. (The Verge) + Is Google playing catchup on search with OpenAI? (MIT Technology Review)
10 Indonesia’s film industry is embracing AI To the detriment of artists and storyboarders. (Rest of World)
Quote of the day
“It is attempting to solve a problem that wasn’t a problem before AI showed up, or before big tech showed up.”
—Greg Loudon, a certified beer judge and brewery sales manager, tells 404 Media why he’s so unimpressed by a prominent competition using AI to judge the quality of beer.
One more thing
The lucky break behind the first CRISPR treatment
The world’s first commercial gene-editing treatment is set to start changing the lives of people with sickle-cell disease. It’s called Casgevy, and it was approved in November 2022 in the UK.
The treatment, which will be sold in the US by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, employs CRISPR, which can be easily programmed by scientists to cut DNA at precise locations they choose.
But where do you aim CRISPR, and how did the researchers know what DNA to change? That’s the lesser-known story of the sickle-cell breakthrough. Read more about it.
—Antonio Regalado
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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.
How do our bodies remember?
“Like riding a bike” is shorthand for the remarkable way that our bodies remember how to move. Most of the time when we talk about muscle memory, we’re not talking about the muscles themselves but about the memory of a coordinated movement pattern that lives in the motor neurons, which control our muscles.
Yet in recent years, scientists have discovered that our muscles themselves have a memory for movement and exercise. And the more we move, as with riding a bike or other kinds of exercise, the more those cells begin to make a memory of that exercise. Read the full story.
—Bonnie Tsui
This piece is part of MIT Technology Review Explains: our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.
This story is also from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Traton and its electric trucks
Every day, trucks carry many millions of tons of cargo down roads and highways around the world. Nearly all run on diesel and make up one of the largest commercial sources of carbon emissions.
Traton, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, is producing zero-emission trucks that could help clean up this sector, while also investing in a Europe-wide advanced charging network so other manufacturers can more easily follow suit. Read the full story.
—Amy Nordrum
Traton is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
This test could reveal the health of your immune system
We know surprisingly little about our immune health. The vast array of cells, proteins, and biomolecules that works to defend us from disease is mind-bogglingly complicated. Immunologists are still getting to grips with how it all works.
Now, a new test is being developed to measure immune health, one that even gives you a score. But that’s a difficult thing to do, for several reasons. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 China is cracking down on imports of Nvidia’s AI chips Customs officers are combing shipments looking for the company’s China-specific chips. (FT $) + US officials are investigating a firm that’s suspected of helping China sidestep export restrictions. (NYT $)
2 Tesla’s ‘full self-driving’ feature is under investigation After multiple reports of vehicles using it ran red lights. (WP $) + The company is slashing its prices to compete with Chinese giant BYD. (Rest of World) + Elon Musk will still receive billions, even if he fails to achieve his ambitions goals. (Reuters)
3 A data hoarder has created a searchable database of Epstein files Making it simple to find mentions of specific people and locations. (404 Media)
4 OpenAI says GPT-5 is its least-biased model yet Even when proceeding with “challenging, emotionally charged prompts.” (Axios)
5 The developers behind ICE-tracking apps aren’t giving up They’re fighting Apple’s decision to remove their creations from its app store. (Wired $) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)
6 The world’s biodiversity crisis is worsening More than half of all bird species are in decline. (The Guardian) + The short, strange history of gene de-extinction. (MIT Technology Review)
7 YouTube is extending an olive branch to banned creators It’s overturned a lifetime ban policy to give the people behind previously-banned channels a second chance. (CNBC) + But users kicked off for copyright infringement or extremism aren’t eligible. (Bloomberg $)
8 This startup wants to bring self-flying planes to our skies Starting with military cargo flights. (WSJ $)
9 Your plumber might be using ChatGPT They’re increasingly using the chatbot to troubleshoot on the ground. (CNN)
10 Do robots really need hands? Maybe not, but that’s not standing in the way of researchers trying to recreate them. (Fast Company $) + Will we ever trust robots? (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“Social media is a complete dumpster.”
—Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, describes the proliferation of AI slop videos infiltrating digital platforms to the New York Times.
One more thing
Who gets to decide who receives experimental medical treatments?
There has been a trend toward lowering the bar for new medicines, and it is becoming easier for people to access treatments that might not help them—and could even harm them. Anecdotes appear to be overpowering evidence in decisions on drug approval. As a result, we’re ending up with some drugs that don’t work.
We urgently need to question how these decisions are made. Who should have access to experimental therapies? And who should get to decide? Such questions are especially pressing considering how quickly biotechnology is advancing. We’re not just improving on existing classes of treatments—we’re creating entirely new ones. Read the full story.
—Jessica Hamzelou
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ I love this crowd-sourced compendium of every known Wilhelm scream in all sorts of media. + Happy birthday to pocket rocket Bruno Mars, who turned 40 this week. + Here’s how to visit an interstellar interloper. + Bumi the penguin is having the absolute time of their life with this bubble machine
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.
How healthy am I? My immunome knows the score.
Made up of 1.8 trillion cells and trillions more proteins, metabolites, mRNA, and other biomolecules, every person’s immunome is different, and it is constantly changing.
It’s shaped by everything we have ever been exposed to physically and emotionally, and powerfully influences everything from our vulnerability to viruses and cancer to how well we age to whether we tolerate certain foods better than others.
Yet as critical as the immunome is to each of us, it has remained largely beyond the reach of modern medicine. Now, thanks to a slew of new technologies, understanding this vital and mysterious system is within our grasp, paving the way for powerful new tools and tests to help us better assess, diagnose and treat diseases. Read the full story.
—David Ewing Duncan
The story is a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Aventine, a non-profit research foundation that creates and supports content about how technology and science are changing the way we live.
3 takeaways about climate tech right now
On Monday, we published our 2025 edition of Climate Tech Companies to Watch. Curating this list gives our team a chance to take a step back and consider the broader picture. What industries are making progress or lagging behind? Which countries or regions are seeing quick changes? Who’s likely to succeed?
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Cemvision and its low-emissions cement
Cement is one of the most used materials on the planet, and the industry emits billions of tons of greenhouse gasses annually. Swedish startup Cemvision wants to use waste materials and alternative fuels to help reduce climate pollution from cement production. Read the full story.
—Casey Crownhart
Cemvision is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI wasn’t expecting its Sora copyright backlash CEO Sam Altman says the company will reverse course and “let rightsholders decide how to proceed.” (The Verge) + It appears to be struggling to work out which requests to approve right now. (404 Media) + Sam Altman says video IP is a lot trickier than for images. (Insider $)+ What comes next for AI copyright lawsuits? (MIT Technology Review)
2 Apple has removed another ICE app from its store This one archives video evidence of abuses, rather than tracking officers’ locations. (404 Media) + Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review) 3 How private firms are helping economists work out what’s going on In the absence of economic data from the US government, experts are getting creative. (WP $) + How to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Technology Review)
4 China is cracking down on its rare earth exports It’s keen to protect its leverage over the critical minerals. (FT $) + This rare earth metal shows us the future of our planet’s resources. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Microsoft wants to become a chatbot powerhouse in its own right Which means lessening its dependence on OpenAI. (WSJ $)
6 High schoolers are starting romantic relationships with AI models It’s a whole new issue for schools and parents to grapple with. (NPR) + It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Those Prime Day savings are often too good to be true Buyer beware. (WP $)
8The future of the AI boom hinges on a small Dutch city Chipmaker ASML is planning a massive expansion—but is the surrounding area ready to support it? (Bloomberg $) + Welcome to robot city. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Ferrari’s first electric car is on the horizon It’s expected to go on sale next year. (Reuters) + It sports four motors and more than 1,000 horsepower. (Ars Technica)
10 Inside the enduring appeal of The Sims Keeping a house full of angry little materialists alive is still lots of fun. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“The ICE raid is just the cherry on top. How is anybody going to trust us going forward?”
—Betony Jones, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute think tank, tells IEEE Spectrum how an ICE raid on a Hyundai EV factory in Georgia has shaken the industry.
One more thing
The flawed logic of rushing out extreme climate solutions
Early in 2022, entrepreneur Luke Iseman says, he released a pair of sulfur dioxide–filled weather balloons from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, in the hope that they’d burst miles above Earth.
It was a trivial act in itself, effectively a tiny, DIY act of solar geoengineering, the controversial proposal that the world could counteract climate change by releasing particles that reflect more sunlight back into space.
Entrepreneurs like Iseman invoke the stark dangers of climate change to explain why they do what they do—even if they don’t know how effective their interventions are. But experts say that urgency doesn’t create a social license to ignore the underlying dangers or leapfrog the scientific process. Read the full story.
—James Temple
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ What language did residents of the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan speak? We’re finally starting to find out. + If you’re unsure whether an animal is safe to pet, this handy guide is a good starting point. + The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new ancient Egypt exhibition sounds brilliant. + This story digging into the psychology experiment behind Star Wars‘ special effects is completely bonkers.
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.
The Trump administration may cut funding for two major direct-air capture plants
The US Department of Energy appears poised to terminate funding for a pair of large carbon-sucking factories that were originally set to receive more than $1 billion in government grants, according to a department-issued list of projects obtained by MIT Technology Review and circulating among federal agencies.
One of the projects is the South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub, a facility that Occidental Petroleum’s 1PointFive subsidiary planned to develop in Kleberg County, Texas. The other is Project Cypress in Louisiana, a collaboration between Battelle, Climeworks, and Heirloom. Read the full story.
—James Temple
AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too
Kids have always played with and talked to stuffed animals. But now their toys can talk back, thanks to a wave of companies that are fitting children’s playthings with chatbots and voice assistants.
It’s a trend that has particularly taken off in China: A recent report by the Shenzhen Toy Industry Association and JD.com predicts that the sector will surpass ¥100 billion ($14 billion) by 2030, growing faster than almost any other branch of consumer AI. But Chinese AI toy companies have their sights set beyond the nation’s borders. Read the full story.
—Caiwei Chen
2025 climate tech companies to watch: Pairwise and its climate-adapted crops
Climate change will make it increasingly difficult to grow crops across many parts of the world. Startup Pairwise is using CRISPR gene editing to develop plants that can better withstand adverse conditions.
The company uses cutting-edge gene editing to produce crops that can withstand increasingly harsh climate conditions, helping to feed a growing population even as the world warms. Last year, it delivered its first food to the US market: a less-bitter–tasting mustard green. It’s now working to produce crops with climate-resilient traits, through partnerships with two of the world’s largest plant biotech companies. Read the full story.
—James Temple
Pairwise is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How to measure the returns on R&D spending
Given the draconian cuts to US federal funding for science, it’s worth asking some hard-nosed money questions: How much should we be spending on R&D? How much value do we get out of such investments, anyway?
To answer that, in several recent papers, economists have approached this issue in clever new ways. And, though they ask slightly different questions, their conclusions share a bottom line: R&D is, in fact, one of the better long-term investments that the government can make.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 How OpenAI and Nvidia are fueling the AI bubble Experts fear their circular deals could be artificially inflating the market. (Bloomberg $) + OpenAI will pay for AMD’s chips using, err, AMD’s own stock. (TechCrunch) + The Bank of England is concerned about AI inflating tech stocks. (FT $) + What comes next, that’s the big question. (NBC News)
2 Around 15% of the world’s working population is using AI And countries in Europe are among the most enthusiastic adopters. (FT $) + The EU is keen to get even more of its citizens using it, too. (WSJ $) + Meanwhile, America’s public opinion towards AI is souring. (WP $)
3 Three quantum mechanics scientists have won the Nobel Prize for Physics Two of whom were instrumental in building Google’s working quantum machines. (Bloomberg $) + Their work shone a light on behaviors of the subatomic realm. (NYT $) + Quantum particles behave in notoriously strange ways. (New Scientist $)
4 The CDC has finally signed off on covid vaccine recommendations Despite the delay, access looks largely similar to last years’. (Ars Technica) + The Supreme Court isn’t sold on medical expertise these days. (Vox)
5 What makes TikTok so ‘sticky’ Even its hardcore users can be persuaded to keep scrolling for hours. (WP $)
6 ICE bought fake cell towers to spy on nearby phones It’s used cell-site simulators in the past to track down alleged criminals. (TechCrunch) + Meet the volunteers tracking ICE officers in LA. (New Yorker $)
7 Watermark removers for Sora 2 videos are already readily available No permission? No problem. (404 Media) + What about copyright for AI-generated art? (The Information $) + And what comes next for AI copyright lawsuits? (MIT Technology Review)
8 How diamonds can help to cool down chips They’re remarkably good at transferring heat. (NYT $)
9 Amazon Pharmacy is launching electronic prescription kiosks For drugs including antibiotics, asthma inhalers and treatments for high blood pressure. (Reuters)
10 Should you limit your smartphone use to two hours a day? Japan thinks so. (The Guardian) + How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“OpenAI is building the future of AI on infrastructure it doesn’t own, power it doesn’t control, and capital it doesn’t have.”
—Andrey Sidorenko, head of research at data firm Mostly AI, critiques what he calls the consolidation of the AI ecosystem in a post on LinkedIn.
One more thing
How AI can help make cities work better
In recent decades, cities have become increasingly adept at amassing all sorts of data. But that data can have limited impact when government officials are unable to communicate, let alone analyze or put to use, all the information they have access to.
This dynamic has always bothered Sarah Williams, a professor of urban planning and technology at MIT. Shortly after joining MIT in 2012, Williams created the Civic Data Design Lab to bridge that divide. Over the years, she and her colleagues have made urban planning data more vivid and accessible through human stories and striking graphics. Read the full story.
—Ben Schneider
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Life lessons from the one and only Ozzy Osbourne—what’s not to like? + Did you know that most countries have their own camouflage? Check the patterns out here. + These hamsters getting an MRI scan is the cutest thing you’ll see today. + Pumpkin chili sounds like a fantastic way to warm up.
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.
This company is planning a lithium empire from the shores of the Great Salt Lake
On a bright afternoon in August, the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake looks like something out of a science fiction film set in a scorching alien world.
This otherworldly scene is the test site for a company called Lilac Solutions, which is developing a technology it says will shake up the United States’ efforts to pry control over the global supply of lithium, the so-called “white gold” needed for electric vehicles and batteries, away from China.
The startup is in a race to commercialize a new, less environmentally-damaging way to extract lithium from rocks. If everything pans out, it could significantly increase domestic supply at a crucial moment for the nation’s lithium extraction industry. Read the full story.
—Alexander C. Kaufman
The three big unanswered questions about Sora
Last week OpenAI released Sora, a TikTok-style app that presents an endless feed of exclusively AI-generated videos, each up to 10 seconds long. The app allows you to create a “cameo” of yourself—a hyperrealistic avatar that mimics your appearance and voice—and insert other peoples’ cameos into your own videos (depending on what permissions they set).
In the days since, it soared to the top spot on Apple’s US App Store. But its explosive growth raises a bunch of questions: can its popularity last? Can OpenAI afford it? And how soon until we start seeing lawsuits over its use of copyrighted content? Here’s what we’ve learned so far.
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter about the latest in AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
—James O’Donnell
2025 climate tech companies to watch: HiNa Battery Technology and its effort to commercialize salt cells
Over the next few decades the world will need a lot more batteries to power electric cars and keep grids stable. Today most battery cells are made with lithium, so the mineral is expected to be in hyper demand. But a new technology has come on the scene, potentially disrupting the global battery industry.
For decades, research of sodium-ion cell technology was abandoned due to the huge commercial success of lithium-ion cells. Now, HiNa Battery Technology is working to bring sodium back to the limelight—and to the mass market. Read the full story.
—You Xiaoying
HiNa Battery Technology is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI has signed a major chip deal It will collaborate with AMD in a challenge to Nvidia’s dominance. (WSJ $) + The multi-billion dollar deal will play out over five years. (FT $) + Just two weeks ago, OpenAI agreed a deal with Nvidia. (CNN) + The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Google lost a US Supreme Court bid The justices denied Google’s bid to pause changes to its app store. (Bloomberg $) + It’s part of the lawsuit Epic Games brought against the tech giant. (Reuters) + The dispute remains unsolved, so it may be handed back to the justices. (NYT $)
3 You can now use some apps directly within ChatGPT It’s all part of OpenAI’s ambitions to make it a one-stop-shop for all your needs. (The Verge) + Sam Altman wants it to become your primary digital portal. (The Information $)
4 Deloitte used AI to generate a report for the Australian government Unfortunately, it was littered with hallucinated mistakes. (Ars Technica)
5 The Nobel prize for medicine has been awarded to three immunity researchers The trio discovered an immune cell that helps stop the immune system attacking itself. (New Scientist $)
6 Russians are using AI to create video memorials of their war dead A burgeoning industry has sprung up, and practitioners will generate clips for $30. (WP $) + Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming Chinese business. (MIT Technology Review)
7 The dream of greener air travel is starting to die Hydrogen-powered planes are years away. So what now? (FT $) + How new technologies could clean up air travel. (MIT Technology Review)
8 How job hunters are trying to trick AI résumé-checkers Inserting sneaky hidden prompts is becoming commonplace. (NYT $)
9 The creator of the Friend AI pendant doesn’t care if you hate it The backlash to its provocative ads is all part of the plan, apparently. (The Atlantic $)
10 Taylor Swift’s fans really don’t like AI They’ve accused the singer’s new videos, which appear to be AI-generated, of looking cheap and sloppy. (NY Mag $) + AI text is out, moving pictures are in. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“When AI videos are just as good as normal videos, I wonder what that will do to YouTube and how it will impact the millions of creators currently making content for a living… scary times.”
—YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, reflects on AI videos infiltrating the internet, TechCrunch reports.
One more thing
The case against humans in space Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are bitter rivals in the commercial space race, but they agree on one thing: Settling space is an existential imperative. Space is the place. The final frontier. It is our human destiny to transcend our home world and expand our civilization to extraterrestrial vistas.
This belief has been mainstream for decades, but its rise has been positively meteoric in this new gilded age of astropreneurs.
But as visions of giant orbital stations and Martian cities dance in our heads, a case against human space colonization has found its footing in a number of recent books, from doubts about the practical feasibility of off-Earth communities, to realism about the harsh environment of space and the enormous tax it would exact on the human body. Read the full story.
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.
Introducing: 10 climate tech companies to watch
Every year, the MIT Technology Review newsroom produces a list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. It’s an exercise that we hope brings positive attention to companies working to decarbonize major sectors of the economy, whether by spinning up new, cleaner sources of energy or reinventing how we produce foods and distribute goods.
Though the political and funding landscape has shifted dramatically in the US since last year, nothing has altered the urgency of the climate dangers the world now faces—we need to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. This project highlights the firms making progress toward that end.
Our best weapon against climate change is ingenuity
—Bill Gates is a technologist, business leader, and philanthropist.
It’s a foregone conclusion that the world will not meet the goals for limiting emissions and global warming laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Many people want to blame politicians and corporations for this failure, but there’s an even more fundamental reason: We don’t have all the technological tools we need to do it, and many of the ones we do have are too expensive.
But I don’t think this is a reason to be pessimistic. I see it as cause for optimism, because humans are very good at inventing things. In fact, we’ve already created many tools that are reducing emissions. And I am confident that more positive changes are coming. Read the full story.
Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline
People over Papers, a crowd-sourcing project that maps sightings of immigration agents, was taken offline yesterday by Padlet, the collaborative bulletin board platform on which it was built.
It’s just the latest ICE-tracking initiative to be pulled by tech platforms in the past few days, including the ICEBlock app that was removed from app stores last week and the Stop ICE Raids Alert Network. Read the full story.
—Eileen Guo
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 ICE wants to build a social media surveillance squad Contractors will sift through social content searching for information to aid arrests and deportations. (Wired $) + A US citizen with stage four cancer has been deported. (The Guardian)
2 xAI is building massive data centers in Memphis Which isn’t great news for disgruntled locals. (WSJ $) + Data centers are big business in Europe right now. (Bloomberg $) + The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Ukraine’s front lines are fighting deadly infections Bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics are infiltrating the country. (Knowable Magazine) + Why tiny viruses could be our best bet against antimicrobial resistance. (MIT Technology Review)
4 A Silicon Valley school asked its students to draft an AI policy Mountain View High School thinks involving kids is the best way forward. (WP $) + Elsewhere, a school in Texas is letting AI guide its entire curriculum. (CBS News) + AI’s giants want to take over the classroom. (MIT Technology Review)
5 These countries hope to benefit from the US visa crackdown Skilled engineers from overseas are looking beyond America for new opportunities. (FT $) + India hopes its skilled workers living abroad will return home. (BBC)
6 How an empty Chinese city became a self-driving testbed Ordos has everything that self-driving cars need—except humans. (Rest of World) + Why China’s self-driving industry is pushing into Europe. (Reuters)
7 How to talk to cows A wave of high-tech AI-powered collars is the closest we’ve got. (NYT $) + Scientists are trying to get cows pregnant with synthetic embryos. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Technology is full of fascinating records Strongest robotic arm, anyone? (IEEE Spectrum)
9 Posting a simple Instagram photo is no longer enough The app keeps pushing us to ‘contentify’ everything. (The Verge)
10 Japanese beer brand Asahi has resumed production After a huge cyber attack forced its breweries offline. (BBC) + But we don’t know when its plants will return to full capacity. (Reuters)
Quote of the day
“You’ll never have a human trafficked AI girl.”
—Steve Jones, who runs an AI porn site, explains how he sees the ethics of his endeavor to the Guardian.
One more thing
The race to fix space-weather forecasting before next big solar storm hits
As the number of satellites in space grows, and as we rely on them for increasing numbers of vital tasks on Earth, the need to better predict stormy space weather is becoming more and more urgent.
Scientists have long known that solar activity can change the density of the upper atmosphere. But it’s incredibly difficult to precisely predict the sorts of density changes that a given amount of solar activity would produce.
Now, experts are working on a model of the upper atmosphere to help scientists to improve their models of how solar activity affects the environment in low Earth orbit. If they succeed, they’ll be able to keep satellites safe even amid turbulent space weather, reducing the risk of potentially catastrophic orbital collisions. Read the full story.
—Tereza Pultarova
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ I love this website showcasing madcap music genres (thanks Rachel!) + It’s not just you—world records really are getting harder to beat. + If you’ve ever wanted to play Snake in a url bar, now’s your chance (warning, it’s hard!) + Fall is here, and the photos are already breathtaking ($)
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.
Microsoft says AI can create “zero day” threats in biology
A team at Microsoft says it used artificial intelligence to discover a “zero day” vulnerability in the biosecurity systems used to prevent the misuse of DNA.
These screening systems are designed to stop people from purchasing genetic sequences that could be used to create deadly toxins or pathogens. But now researchers say they have figured out how to bypass the protections in a way previously unknown to defenders. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
If you’re interested in learning more about AI and biology, check out:
+ AI-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria. Read the full story.
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1Apple removed an app for reporting ICE officer sightings The US Attorney General requested it take down ICEBlock—and Apple complied. (Insider $) + Apple says the removal was down to the safety risk it posed. (Bloomberg $) + The company had a similar explanation for removing a Hong Kong map app back in 2019. (The Verge)
2 OpenAI’s parental controls are easily circumvented Its alerts about teenagers’ concerning conversations also took hours to deliver. (WP $) + The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)
3 VCs have sunk a record amount into AI startups this year To the tune of $192.7 billion so far. (Bloomberg $) + The AI bubble is looking increasingly precarious, though. (FT $) + How to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Technology Review)
4 The US federal vaccination schedule is still waiting for an update Officials are yet to sign off on recommendations for this year’s updated Covid shots. (Ars Technica) + Many people have been left unable to get vaccinated. (NPR)
5 The US Department of Energy has canceled yet more clean energy projects In mostly blue states. (TechCrunch) + More than 300 funding awards have been axed. (CNBC) + How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states. (MIT Technology Review)
6 TikTok recommends pornography to children’s accounts Despite activating its “restricted mode” to prevent sexualized content. (BBC)
7 China has launched a new skilled worker visa program In the wake of the US H-1B visa clampdown. (Wired $) + The initiative hasn’t gone down well with locals. (BBC)
8 Flights were grounded in Germany after several drone sightings NATO members are worried about suspected Russian incursions in their skies. (WSJ $) + It’s the latest in a string of airspace sightings. (FT $)
9 How YouTube is shaking up Hollywood Its powerful creators are starting to worry the entertainment establishment—and Netflix. (FT $)
10 Anti-robocall tools are getting better Call screening features are a useful first line of defense. (NYT $)
Quote of the day
“Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move.”
—Joshua Aaron, the developer of ICEBlock, the app that crowdsources sightings of ICE officials, hits back at Apple’s decision to remove it from the App Store, 404 Media reports.
One more thing
How AI can help supercharge creativity
Existing generative tools can automate a striking range of creative tasks and offer near-instant gratification—but at what cost? Some artists and researchers fear that such technology could turn us into passive consumers of yet more AI slop.
And so they are looking for ways to inject human creativity back into the process: working on what’s known as co-creativity or more-than-human creativity. The aim is to develop AI tools that augment our creativity rather than strip it from us. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Congratulations to Fizz, the very handsome UK cat of the year! + What it took to transform actor Jeremy Allan White into the one and only Boss in his new film, Deliver Me from Nowhere. + Divers have salvaged more than 1,000 gold and silver coins from a 1715 shipwreck off the east coast of Florida. + The internet is obsessed with crabs. But why?
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.
EV tax credits are dead in the US. Now what?
Federal EV tax credits in the US officially came to an end yesterday.
Those credits, expanded and extended in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, gave drivers up to $7,500 toward the purchase of a new electric vehicle. They’ve been a major force in cutting the up-front costs of EVs, pushing more people toward purchasing them and giving automakers confidence that demand would be strong.
The tax credits’ demise comes at a time when battery-electric vehicles still make up a small percentage of new vehicle sales in the country. So what’s next for the US EV market?
—Casey Crownhart
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.
If you’re interested in reading more about EVs and clean energy, take a look at:
+ The US could really use an affordable electric truck. Ford recently announced plans for a $30,000 electric pickup, which could be the shot in the arm that the slowing US EV market needs. Read the full story.
+ China is an EV-building powerhouse. These three charts explain its energy dominance. Read the full story.
+ Supporting new technologies like EVs can be expensive, but deciding when to wean the public off incentives can be a difficult balancing act. Read the full story.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI has become the world’s most valuable startup Move aside, SpaceX. (Bloomberg $) + OpenAI is now valued at an eye-watering $500 billion. (FT $) + The valuation came after workers sold around $6.6 billion in shares. (Reuters)
2 Music labels are close to striking AI licensing deals Universal and Warner are trying their best to avoid the mis-steps of the internet era. (FT $) + AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Facebook’s political ads are full of spam and scams And deepfake technology is making them more convincing than ever. (NYT $) + Meta will start using conversations with its chatbots to personalize ads. (WSJ $)
4 China is forging ahead with integrating AI tools into children’s lives But educators worry they’ll harm youngsters’ learning and social skills. (Rest of World) + Chinese universities want students to use more AI, not less. (MIT Technology Review)
5 The batteries of the future could be created by AI Researchers including Microsoft are experimenting with materials suggested by models. (IEEE Spectrum) + This startup wants to use the Earth as a massive battery. (MIT Technology Review)
6 A historian claims to have used AI to identify an anonymous Nazi Digital tools helped Jürgen Matthäus to pinpoint the person photographed beside a mass grave. (The Guardian)
7 The Pentagon is interested in AI-powered machine guns that shoot drones Steven Simoni’s Allen Control Systems is part of Silicon Valley’s new military pivot. (Reuters) + We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril’s vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)
8 One of Saturn’s moons may have once hosted life Enceladus has all the necessary keystones to support life, and future missions could uncover it. (Scientific American $) + Meanwhile, Blue Origin has won a NASA rover contract. (Wired $) + The case against humans in space. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Chatbots exercise all sorts of tricks to keep you talking They don’t want the conversation to end, a new study has found. (Wired $)
10 What it’s like to become a viral meme Drew Scanlon, aka “Blinking Guy,” is leveraging his fame for a good cause. (SF Gate)
Quote of the day
“I cannot overstate how disgusting I find this kind of ‘AI’ dog shit in the first place, never mind under these circumstances.”
—Writer Luke O’Neil tells 404 Media his feelings about an AI-generated “biography” of journalist Kaleb Horton, who recently died.
One more thing
A day in the life of a Chinese robotaxi driver
When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: “I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would expect the car to brake by itself,” says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver.
Liu is one of the hundreds of safety operators employed by Baidu, “driving” five days a week in Shougang Park. But despite having only worked for the company for 19 months, he already has to think about his next career move, as his job will likely be eliminated within a few years. Read the full story.
—Zeyi Yang
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Congratulations are in order for 32 Chunk, winner of this year’s highly prestigious Fat Bear Week competition + Here’s how 10 women artists got their days off to the best start possible. + This Instagram account documenting the worldly travels of a cassette player is fab. + Brb, I’m off to listen to Arctic Outpost Radio, spinning records from the very top of the world.
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.
OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias.
Caste bias is rampant in OpenAI’s products, including ChatGPT, according to an MIT Technology Review investigation. Though CEO Sam Altman boasted about India being its second-largest market during the launch of GPT-5 in August, we found that both this new model, which now powers ChatGPT, as well as Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video generator, exhibit caste bias. This risks entrenching discriminatory views in ways that are currently going unaddressed.
Mitigating caste bias in AI models is more pressing than ever. In contemporary India, many caste-oppressed Dalit people have escaped poverty and have become doctors, civil service officers, and scholars; some have even risen to become the president of India. But AI models continue to reproduce socioeconomic and occupational stereotypes that render Dalits as dirty, poor, and performing only menial jobs. Read the full story.
—Nilesh Christopher
MIT Technology Review Narrated: how do AI models generate videos?
It’s been a big year for video generation. The downside is that creators are competing with AI slop, and social media feeds are filling up with faked news footage. Video generation also uses up a huge amount of energy, many times more than text or image generation.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Taiwan has rejected America’s chip demand It’s pushed back on a US request to move 50% of chip production to the States. (Bloomberg $) + Taiwan said it never agreed to the commitment. (CNN) + Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Chatbots may not be eliminating jobs after all A new labor market study has found little evidence they’re putting humans out of work. (FT $) + People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)
3 OpenAI has released a new Sora video app It’s the latest in a long line of attempts to make AI a social experience. (Axios) + Copyright holders will have to request the removal of their property. (WSJ $)
4 Scientists have made embryos from human skin cells for the first time It could allow people experiencing infertility and same-sex couples to have children. (BBC) + How robots are changing the face of fertility science. (WP $)
5 Elon Musk claims to be building a Wikipedia rival Which I’m sure will be entirely accurate and impartial. (Gizmodo) + How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)
6 America’s chips resurgence has been thrown into chaos After funding was yanked from the multi-billion dollar initiative designed to revive the industry. (Politico)
7 ICE wants to buy a phone location-tracking tool Even though it doesn’t have a warrant to do so. (404 Media)
8 The trouble with scaling up EV manufacturing Solid-state batteries are the holy grail—but is full commercialization feasible? (Knowable Magazine) + Why bigger EVs aren’t always better. (MIT Technology Review)
9 DoorDash’s food delivery robot is coming to Arizona’s roads Others before it have failed. Can Dot succeed? (TechCrunch)
10 What it’s like to give ChatGPT therapy It’s very good at telling you what it thinks you want to hear. (New Yorker $) + Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“Please treat adults like adults.”
—An X user reacts angrily to OpenAI’s moves to restrict the topics ChatGPT will discuss, Ars Technica reports.
One more thing
Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past
After falling steadily for decades, the prevalence of global hunger is now on the rise—nowhere more so than in sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to conflicts, economic fallout from the covid-19 pandemic, and extreme weather events.
Africa’s indigenous crops are often more nutritious and better suited to the hot and dry conditions that are becoming more prevalent, yet many have been neglected by science, which means they tend to be more vulnerable to diseases and pests and yield well below their theoretical potential.
Now the question is whether researchers, governments, and farmers can work together in a way that gets these crops onto plates and provides Africans from all walks of life with the energy and nutrition that they need to thrive, whatever climate change throws their way. Read the full story.
—Jonathan W. Rosen
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ The mighty Stonehenge is still keeping us guessing after all these years (4,600 of them). + Björk’s VR experience looks typically bonkers. + We may finally have an explanation for the will-o’-the-wisp phenomenon. + How to build your very own Commodore 64 Cartridge.
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.
Scientists can see Earth’s permafrost thawing from space
Something is rotten in the city of Nunapitchuk. In recent years, sewage has leached into the earth. The ground can feel squishy, sodden.
This small town in northern Alaska is experiencing a sometimes overlooked consequence of climate change: thawing permafrost. And Nunapitchuk is far from the only Arctic town to find itself in such a predicament.
Now scientists think they may be able to use satellite data to delve deep beneath the ground’s surface and get a better understanding of how the permafrost thaws, and which areas might be most severely affected. Read the full story.
—Sarah Scoles
The US may be heading toward a drone-filled future
—James O’Donnell
Last week, I published a story about the police-tech giant Flock Safety selling its drones to the private sector to track shoplifters. Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now leads Flock’s drone efforts, described the ideal scenario: A security team at a Home Depot, say, launches a drone from the roof that follows shoplifting suspects to their car. The drone tracks their car through the streets, transmitting its live video feed directly to the police.
It’s a vision that, unsurprisingly, alarms civil liberties advocates. But the fate of drones in the US pretty much comes down to one rule. It’s a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that stipulates where and how drones can be flown—and it is about to change. Read the full story.
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
Trump’s impact on the next generation of innovators
Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes dozens of young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. This year Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, and our senior investigative reporter Eileen Guo checked back in with recent honorees to see how they’re faring amid sweeping changes to science and technology policy within the US.
Join us tomorrow at 1.30pm ET for an exclusive Roundtables conversation with Amy and Eileen to learn about the complex realities of what life has been like for those aiming to build their labs and companies in today’s political climate. Register here!
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1California’s governor has signed America’s first AI law It’ll require AI developers to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols. (Politico) + The landmark bill has received a mixed reception from the AI industry. (TechCrunch)
2The Trump administration is pressuring Taiwan It’s pushing officials to move 50% of chip production to the US—or else. (Ars Technica) + The US argues it’s the best way to counter invasion threats from China. (Bloomberg $) + Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)
3US ChatGPT users can now buy stuff without leaving the chatbot It’s laying the groundwork for AI agent-based shopping. (WSJ $) + Etsy is among the first retailers to sign up for the service. (CNBC) + It’s a direct challenge to Google’s business model. (Fortune $) + Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)
4 YouTube has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump It’s handing over $24.5 million after his account was suspended in the wake of the US Capitol riot in 2021. (WSJ$) + It’s the third giant tech platform to bend to the President’s will. (The Verge)
5 Meta is expanding use of its facial recognition tools In a bid to combat account impersonation in Europe, the UK, and South Korea. (Engadget)
6 The US Energy Department has banned the term “climate change” See also: “green” and “decarbonization.” (Politico) + Even “emissions” isn’t safe. (TechCrunch) + How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the States. (MIT Technology Review)
7 AI data centers are sending the cost of electricity skyrocketing And it’s regular citizens who are left paying the price. (Bloomberg $) + Sam Altman wants a staggering amount of energy. (The Information $) + The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Elon Musk’s senior staff are leaving in their droves They’re burnt out and tired of their leader’s erratic strategies. (FT $)
9 Do black holes actually exist? The evidence says yes, but proving it is a different matter. (New Scientist $)
10 California police tried to ticket a driverless car But who’s to blame for its illegal U-turn if there’s no driver? (The Guardian) + It turns out officers don’t currently have any way to issue tickets to robots. (Insider $)
Quote of the day
“There are certainly people in [the] tech world who would like to see no regulation of anything in any respect whatsoever, but that’s not tenable.”
—US Senator Scott Wiener, who proposed the original AI Safety Bill last year, explains why he believes the revised version that’s been passed into law is a reasonable approach to the New York Times.
One more thing
How mobile money supercharged Kenya’s sports betting addiction
Mobile money has mostly been hugely beneficial for Kenyans. But it has also turbo-charged the country’s sports betting sector.
Since the middle of the last decade, experts and public figures across the African continent have been sounding the alarm over the rising popularity of sports betting. The practice has produced tales of riches, but it has also broken families, consumed college tuitions, and even driven some to suicide.
Nowhere, though, is the craze as acute as it is in Kenya, the country often dubbed Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” for its status as a regional tech powerhouse. But while Kenya’s mobile money revolution has played a well-documented role in encouraging savings and democratizing access to finance, today, it’s easier than ever for those in fragile economic circumstances to squander everything. Read the full story.
—Jonathan W. Rosen
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
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