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.

There’s a lot of hype around perimenopause. Don’t buy it.

Perimenopause used to be considered taboo, but not anymore. Thanks at least in part to TV doctors and social media influencers, conversations about the sometimes years-long period before menopause are now more open than ever. But the conversation is increasingly shaped by misinformation.

Despite what some marketers will claim, there is no test for perimenopause. That doesn’t mean women should have to put up with symptoms, but treatment suggestions often lack scientific evidence. And not all the symptoms women experience in midlife can be blamed on hormones.

Read the full story on the hype and misinformation surrounding perimenopause.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This article is from The Spark, our weekly climate tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 China’s AI gap with the US may have just narrowed
A Chinese startup has released the world’s largest open AI model. (Reuters $)
+ It competes with some Anthropic and OpenAI models. (Gizmodo)
+ The model’s launch sent AI and semiconductor stocks sliding. (Bloomberg $)
+ Chinese Nvidia alternatives are also gaining traction. (SCMP)
+ Xi Jinping pitched China as an AI partner to the developing world. (CNBC)
+ The country is betting big on open-source. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Trump Media is selling instant access to “market-moving’ social posts
It’s developed a new way to monetize the president’s posts. (Quartz)
+ And Trump could profit directly from selling access to his statements. (BBC)
+ Kalshi says it caught Trump’s teleprompter operator insider trading. (Verge)
 
3 Astronomers have found an atmosphere on a nearby Earth-like planet 
It’s the first potentially habitable world known to host an atmosphere. (NYT $)
+ Making it a top contender in the search for aliens. (404 Media)
+ But you need to know how to spot one. (MIT Technology Review)
 
4 A brain implant has restored feeling in a paralysed hand 
The recipient can now feed himself and drink from a cup. (Guardian)  
+ Movement continued when the stimulation was turned off. (New Scientist $)
+ China has approved a world-first brain chip. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 The EU has told Google to share search data and open up AI on Android
It will be forced to share data with competing search providers. (Ars Technica)
+ And open Android phones to rivals’ AI bots. (WP $)
 
6 Period trackers are hiding privacy problems
New research uncovers how they’re sharing users’ health data. (BBC)
 
7 The Tesla driver in a fatal Texas crash overrode FSD, investigators say
He bypassed the tech by pressing the gas pedal to 100%. (Verge)

8 A new stealth drone spins so fast that it disappears
Though its creators admit it can still be easily heard. (New Scientist $)

9 A space-station study suggests why astronauts’ bodies waste away
Microgravity disrupts mitochondria, reducing protein production. (Nature)

10 “Adversarial clothing” that confuses facial recognition is all the rage
Privacy could be the next big trend. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Xi’s message is clear: China is not going to follow anyone on both AI technology and ​standards. Instead, China is going ⁠to lead the world in both aspects.” 

—George Chen, chair in digital practice at The Asia Group consultancy, gives Reuters his take on Xi Jinping’s speech at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai.

One More Thing

How poop could feed the planet

A new industrial facility in suburban Seattle is giving off a whiff of futuristic technology. It can safely treat fecal waste from people and livestock while recycling nutrients that are crucial for agriculture but in increasingly short supply across the nation’s farmlands. 

It’s among a range of systems reframing feces, urine, and their ingredients as invaluable natural resources to reuse instead of waste products to burn or bury. Several companies are now showing how to safely scale up the transformation with energy-efficient technologies.

Find out how human waste is being transfomed into agricultural solutions.

—Bryn Nelson

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.)

+ Soccer icons have received the Ghanaian movie poster treatment.
+ A captivating cosmic construction project is July’s Picture of the Month from the James Webb Space Telescope.
+ Sir David Attenborough recently turned 100. Here’s everything he’s ever worked on, all in one place.
+ “Desire paths” are the trails made by people walking contrary to defined routes. This video explains what they mean about psychology and design.

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 GPT-Red: an LLM super-hacker OpenAI built to make its models safer

OpenAI has built an LLM super-hacker called GPT-Red that it uses as a sparring partner to help its other models boost their defenses against cyberattacks. 

It automates a type of safety evaluation for software systems known as red-teaming, which is typically done by a team of human testers. The aim is to find as many different ways to break or hijack a system as possible.

OpenAI gave MIT Technology Review an exclusive peek into the system. Find out how it could keep the company ahead of human attackers.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Why heat pumps are still so hot in the US

—Casey Crownhart

It feels as if it should be illegal to even think about heating appliances during the height of summer, but we need to talk about heat pumps. 

The appliances use electricity for heating, they’re incredibly efficient, and they’re on the rise. In the US, their sales have doubled over the past 15 years, according to a new report. They’re also winning the heating race against fossil fuels, outpacing natural-gas furnaces by 32% during the first quarter of 2026. 

These stats are especially striking at this moment, because a key tax credit for heat pumps just ended. So why are heat pumps still so hot? Read the full story for the answer.

This article is from The Spark, our weekly climate tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 Elon Musk discreetly bought a $1 billion gas turbine firm to power Grok
He acquired fossil fuel company APR Energy in May. (Electrek)
+ The most likely application will be powering AI data centers. (Engadget)
+ The deal was revealed through an FTC filing. (Gizmodo)
+ What will power AI’s growth? (MIT Technology Review)
 
2 A hack shows the Suno AI music generator scraped YouTube, Deezer
It scraped decades’ worth of music to train its models. (404 Media)
+ The hacked is a unique look into the black boxes powering GenAI. (CNET)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 Thinking Machines has launched an open-weight AI model
Inkling offers a US alternative to China’s open-source models. (Reuters $)
+ It’s the first AI model built by Thinking Machines. (WSJ $)
+ The startup was founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. (Axios)
 
4 Europe is narrowing its ambitions for tech independence
Manufacturing and research show promise, but funding is a problem. (NYT $)
+ Earnings are strong, but an AI gap persists. (Reuters $)
+ India is also scrambling for AI independence. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 Earth is absorbing energy at a rate that’s alarming climate scientists
The planet is taking in more heat than models predicted. (Economist $)
+ The legal case for climate justice is growing. (MIT Technology Review)
 
6 The AI backlash has tech executives fearing for their lives
Violent threats against AI firms are spilling into the real world. (WSJ $)
+ An anti-AI movement is growing globally. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 A Moroccan intelligence insider exposed widespread Pegasus use
Including to target journalists, activists, and foreign politicians. (Guardian)

8 AI is powering citizen-led disaster relief from afar for Venezuela
It’s helping to locate missing people and coordinate relief. (Rest of World)
 
9 Thermodynamic computers could turn noise into useful calculations
They may offer a cooler, more efficient way to process information. (Quanta)

10 An engineer has explained every ’90s computer in Jurassic Park
Fans have debated the technology in the film for decades. (Ars Technica)

Quote of the day

“We hit pause because the communities powering AI should share in its success. Maybe that’s a novel concept in Washington.” 

—New York Gov. Kathy Hochul responds on X to President Donald Trump’s criticism of her state’s new data center moratorium.

One More Thing

Will we ever trust robots?

Robotics firm Prosper is developing a humanoid called Alfie to perform tasks in homes, hospitals, and hotels. The company’s founder, Shariq Hashme, has identified trustworthiness as the top design priority—and first hurdle to clear before humanoids can live up to their hype.

Hashme believes one essential tactic to get people to put their trust in Alfie is to build a detailed character from the ground up—something humanlike but not too human. But the robot’s reliance on remote human operators raises broader questions about privacy, labour, and whether society will truly accept humanoids in our private spaces.

Read the full story on the humanoid trust dilemma.

—James O’Donnell

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.)

+ Meet the man behind the world’s most beautiful books.
+ 3D printing has revived Roman Britain’s most popular board game.
+ “Lucha Libro” is an imaginative idea to boost literacy: staging live wrestling matches in US libraries.
+ Over 100 years after the death of legendary explorer Ernest Shackleton, the wreck of his final ship has been photographed for the first time.

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.

PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light

The machine that could change the world will be housed in a room that looks like a data center crossed with an ice cream factory. 

Inside, some 100 stainless-steel cabinets each hold hundreds of chips. On those chips, thousands of light particles will fly through a maze of optical switches and beam splitters. Each photon must be accounted for, because precisely measuring where it ends up will help answer questions that current computers might take millions of years to solve.

This computer, as described, does not exist. It’s the brainchild of a company called PsiQuantum, founded in 2016 by four physicists from UK universities. In a crowded field of deep-pocketed competitors with similarly fantastical visions, the company aims to be the first to build a useful quantum machine.

Read the full story on the company’s quest.

—James O’Donnell

MIT Technology Review Narrated: inside the world’s deepest and longest subsea road tunnel

—Niall Firth

I’m currently around 1,000 feet beneath the North Sea, in a dark, dank cave. It smells weird. And I’m increasingly aware of the pressure from millions of tons of seawater just above my head.

I’m under the iconic fjords of Norway to visit what will soon become the world’s longest and deepest subsea road tunnel—an exceptional engineering feat that will carry drivers deep beneath the North Sea.

I’m here to understand how you make a 16.6-mile highway that sits 1,280 feet below the sea at its deepest point. And also—at a time when it can feel hard to get anything done—to reassure myself that ambitious engineering is still possible. That we can still make things. 

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 Meta allegedly used AI to target workers with health issues for layoffs
Their lawsuit says Meta relied on AI to create a termination list. (Guardian)
+ And pinpointed staff who took maternity or disability leave. (Reuters $)
+ One was allegedly informed the day before her water broke. (Ars Technica)
+ The layoffs aimed to offset Meta’s AI spending. (Gizmodo)
+ AI agents are not your “coworkers.” (MIT Technology Review)

2 OpenAI’s first consumer device will be a mobile smart speaker
The screenless device will serve as an “AI companion.” (Bloomberg $)
+ It’ll let you talk with ChatGPT. (Verge)
+ And use a camera and sensor to understand your environment. (Reuters $)
+ It’s set to launch next year. (Engadget)
 
3 The US military sent explosive drone boats into combat for the first time
They attacked an Iranian midget submarine and naval port. (Ars Technica)
+ Underwater drones may shape a war in Taiwan. (MIT Technology Review)
 
4 DeepMind’s CEO has called for a US-led body to test frontier AI models
Demis Hassabis wants the watchdog to vet national security threats. (FT $)
+ If dangers mount, it would coordinate an industry-wide slowdown. (Axios)
 
5 Data centers are set to add billions in power costs in 13 states
A power auction is slated to produce $6.3 billion in new charges. (NYT $)
+ Australia plans to govern the use of water and power for AI. (WSJ $)

6 xAI’s unpermitted power pollution hits Black communities hardest
Elon Musk’s xAI has been installing gas turbines without permits. (Reuters $)
+ We need to focus on Big Tech’s energy footprint. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 Stripe and Advent have offered to buy PayPal for more than $53 billion
The payments giant and private equity firm have made a joint bid. (Reuters $)
+ Apple and Google Pay have eroded PayPal’s market share. (Bloomberg $)

8 DeepSeek plans to file for IPO as soon as this year
The Chinese AI pioneer is likely to list in Shanghai. (WSJ $)
+ Here’s why DeepSeek’s latest model matters. (MIT Technology Review)

9 A hard, lightweight “bio-metal” has been discovered in sea worm jaws
It could have applications in engineering. (New Scientist $)

10 A new $3,000 fitness suit electrocutes you to boost your gains
Celebrities love it—but not everyone’s a fan. (404 Media) 

Quote of the day

“By economic and engineering measures, generative AI might be the worst technology ever deployed.” 

—Alex Reisner, a staff writer at The Atlantic, explains why GenAI’s scaling problem is an engineering disaster.

One More Thing

Hackers made death threats against this security researcher. Big mistake.

In April 2024, an anonymous hacker began posting death threats on Telegram and Discord channels aimed at a cybersecurity researcher named Allison Nixon. It wasn’t long before others piled on. Someone shared AI-generated nudes of her.

They targeted Nixon because she had become a formidable threat. As chief research officer at the cyber investigations firm Unit 221B, named after Sherlock Holmes’s apartment, she had built a career tracking cybercriminals and helping get them arrested. 

For years, Nixon had lurked quietly in online chat channels or used pseudonyms to engage with perpetrators and bring them to justice. Now, she resolved to unmask the people behind the death threats—and take them down for crimes they admitted to committing. 

Find out why they learned to regret their choice of target.

—Kim Zetter

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.)

+ A musician has discovered the true masters of metal breakdowns: birds.
+ Photographer Fontanesi’s surreal photo splits transform everyday images into spectacular hybrid scenes.
+ Over 30 actors, filmmakers, and friends recount how Steven Spielberg infiltrated Hollywood in this terrific article.
+ Who would win the World Cup if less important things than soccer decided it, like life expectancy and happiness? A new game tests your knowledge.

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 Anthropic’s latest AI discovery does—and doesn’t—show

—James O’Donnell

When Anthropic announced last week that it had found a new window into its models’ “internal thoughts” as they reason through answers, there was one colleague I had to talk to: senior editor Will Douglas Heaven.

Aside from having a PhD in computer science, Will has spent a lot of time digging into what we can say about how AI models work. I spoke with him about what we should take from Anthropic’s new (and typically quirky) research. Here’s what he had to say.

This article is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

How will AI understand the real world?

Today’s AI systems can generate text, images, and code with impressive skill, but they still struggle with the complexities of the physical world. To bridge this gap, many researchers believe you need something called a world model.

At a LinkedIn Live event today, MIT Technology Review will investigate how this technology could transform robotics and help unlock a new generation of intelligent machines. Join Will Douglas Heaven, our senior editor for AI, and Sam Sinha, founding AI researcher and head of world models at 1X Technologies, for the discussion. 

Register here to attend the free session at 9:30 PDT, 12:30 PM EDT, and 5:30 PM BST. 

The must-reads

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

1 New York has become the first state to enact a data center moratorium
Its governor banned large data-center construction for up to a year. (WSJ $)
+ A bill passed by state lawmakers could go even further. (Verge)
+ Everyone hates data centers. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Smartphone shipments have hit a 13-year low due to the memory crunch
They fell 11% in the second quarter of 2026. (Reuters $)
+ The memory chip ‌shortage has increased prices. (Gizmodo)
+ And threatens the promise of Moore’s Law. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Sugar molecules have been found in interstellar space for the first time
It hints that life on Earth may have been seeded from space. (Nature) 
+ And boosts the odds of living organisms existing elsewhere. (New Scientist $)
+ Researchers used radio telescopes and data to spot the molecules. (NYT $)

4 Nvidia has halved its Asia buyer list to stop AI chips reaching China
It introduced a “white list” of companies that passed tougher checks. (FT $)
+ It moved amid tighter chip controls from the ‌Trump ⁠administration. (Reuters $)

5 Russian state hackers are targeting routers to spy and steal, the US warns
The government has warned users to secure their devices. (Ars Technica)
+ Now is a good time for doing crime. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Trump moved his crypto gains into stocks while urging people to buy more
His crypto projects earned him a fortune—but steep losses for retail buyers. (Reuters $)
+ He’s called for Congress to pass a new crypto bill to honor Lindsey Graham. (CNBC)

7 A new cell therapy has saved four children with terminal brain cancer
They were treated with an experimental immunotherapy. (New Scientist $)
+ Access for older children will also be limited. (Bloomberg $)

8 The LAPD has halted use of Flock surveillance cameras due to privacy issues
Flock’s automated license plate readers have caused concerns. (LA Times $)
+ It’s also been criticized for sharing data with state and federal officials. (Engadget) 

9 The US has approved launching a space mirror that reflects sunlight onto Earth
As part of a controversial plan to power solar panels round the clock. (Wired $)
+ But geoengineering faces many practical challenges. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Anthropic says Claude’s values vary depending on your language
It’s most cautious in English and most deferential in Arabic. (Gizmodo) 

Quote of the day

“The age when humans are the highest life form on earth will end. For better ​or for worse, it will happen and it can’t be stopped.” 

—SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son predicts that AI will overtake human intelligence by 2040 in a speech at his company’s annual corporate conference in Tokyo, Reuters reports.

One More Thing

Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos

Millions of embryos created through IVF sit frozen in time, stored in cryopreservation tanks around the world. Many are left in a peculiar limbo, with no clear path forward.

UK residents can discard them, make them available to other prospective parents, or donate them for research. People in the US can also opt for “adoption,” “placing” their embryos with families they get to choose. In Germany, people aren’t typically allowed to freeze embryos at all. And in Italy, unused embryos must remain frozen, ostensibly forever. 

While these embryos remain in suspended animation, patients, clinicians, embryologists, and legislators must grapple with the essential question of what to do with them. What do these embryos mean to us? Who should be responsible for them? 

Dive into the ethical and legal challenges surrounding frozen IVF embryos.

—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.)

+ This website turns live LA Metro data into music.
+ British grammar is enlivening the American World Cup.
+ Comedy icon Mel Brooks recently turned 100. Here’s a look back at his legendary career.
+ Take a trip through modern music with this cinematic set from Thomas Bangalter, one-half of French house music duo Daft Punk.

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.

Sperm donors need limits, says a European fertility group

Ties van der Meer doesn’t know how many siblings he has. The 47-year-old was conceived at a private fertility clinic using sperm from an anonymous donor. He eventually tracked down one sibling, but he may have others he’ll never find. 

Other donor-conceived people have found they have tens or even hundreds of them. “It does make you feel a bit mass-produced,” said one who discovered they had 25 half-siblings.

In response, a European fertility organization says we need international limits on the number of children a single donor can contribute to. 

Find out what their proposal could achieve—and where it may fall short. 

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

How will AI understand the real world?

LLMs have transformed what AI can do with language, but helping machines understand and operate within physical spaces presents a different challenge. In response, researchers are developing a new form of artificial intelligence: world models.

At a LinkedIn Live event tomorrow, MIT Technology Review will explore how this technology could shape the future of robotics and open one of AI’s next major frontiers. Join Will Douglas Heaven, our senior editor for AI, and Sam Sinha, founding AI researcher and head of world models at 1X Technologies, for the conversation on Tuesday, July 14. 

Register here to attend the free session at 9:30 PDT, 12:30 PM EDT, and 5:30 PM BST. 

The must-reads

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

1 Apple has sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing trade secrets
OpenAI purportedly stole IP to develop its own consumer hardware. (CNBC)
+ The suit claims OpenAI poached Apple staff to access the information. (BBC)
+ And requested trade secrets in job interviews with Apple workers. (Guardian)
+ Apple also sued two former employees, Chang Liu and Tang Tan. (Reuters $)

2 A Nobel-winning chemist is leaving the US to lead an AI lab in China
Omar Yaghi will head an institute using AI to discover new materials. (LA Times $)
+ He won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating “molecular sponges.” (NYT $)
+ His departure comes as China tries to woo US scientists. (Nature)
+ The White House has slashed science spending. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 The EU is moving closer to banning children from social media
It’s proposed barring under-13s unless supervised by an adult. (NYT $)
+ And limiting access for older children. (Bloomberg $)
+ The EU has also told Meta to disable autoplay and infinite scroll. (Politico $)
 
4 Meta scrapped an AI image feature on Instagram after a backlash
It allowed users to generate images based on public accounts. (TechCrunch)
+ And automatically opted in any Instagram user with a public account. (NYT $)
+ AI memories are privacy’s next frontier. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 Phoebe Gates’ shopping app claimed credit for sales it didn’t drive
Phia claimed unearned affiliate sales through fake clicks. (Bloomberg $)
+ Cofounder Gates is the daughter of Microsoft cofounder Bill. (Engadget)
 
6 Leaked police drone footage exposes the new reality of surveillance
Hours of San Francisco Police video were accidentally released. (Wired $)
+ Surveillance from drones is on the rise in the US. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 Over two-thirds of Americans back a Sanders-style AI ownership plan
A poll found strong support for public ownership of AI stock. (Gizmodo)
+ Tech firms have their own takes on the idea. (MIT Technology Review)

8 AI may soon make campaign text messages more potent—and irritating
AI platforms are training bots to sound like political candidates. (NPR)

9 An orbiting disco ball gave Einstein’s theory its most precise test yet  
It measured Earth’s twisting of space-time more precisely. (Rest of World)

10 Australia’s biggest radio hit may be the product of GenAI
Musicians are questioning how the song was made. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny.” 

—A text message sent by former Apple engineer Chang Liu to a colleague, which a new lawsuit alleges was part of a scheme to steal hardware IP for OpenAI.

One More Thing

How uncrewed narco subs could transform the Colombian drug trade

On a bright April morning in 2025, a surveillance plane operated by the Colombian military spotted a 40-foot-long “narco sub” idling in the Caribbean Sea. The stealthy vessel, used by drug cartels to move cocaine north, could sail with its hull almost entirely underwater.

After seizing the boat, the coast guard noticed something unusual: there was no one on board. This was Colombia’s first confirmed uncrewed narco sub, operable by remote control, but also capable of a degree of autonomous travel.

Uncrewed subs could move more cocaine over longer distances, and they won’t put human smugglers at risk of capture. Find out how they may transform the drug trade.

— Eduardo Echeverri López

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.)

+ Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” has been reinvented as a yacht rock track.
+ Two super-puff planets lighter than cotton candy have been spotted floating through space.
+ An inventor has given Tic Tac fans (like Donald Trump) a solution to the box’s annoying rattling in their pockets.
+ Imbibe a dose of adrenaline with this first-person footage of a rider on heart-pounding Red Bull Genova Cerro Abajo.

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.

Anthropic found a hidden space where Claude puzzles over concepts

The AI firm Anthropic has got the clearest glimpse yet at what’s really going on inside large language models as they answer questions or carry out tasks. What they found ranges from the mundane to the unnerving. 

Researchers at the company built a tool called the Jacobian lens (or J-lens) and used it to uncover a hidden area, which they named the J-space, inside its flagship LLM, Claude.

The J-space contains words related to the response a model is working on but may not ultimately produce. If Claude were a person (which it is not), you might say these hidden words reveal what’s on its mind before it actually speaks. 

Read the full story on what they found.

—Will Douglas Heaven

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI has unveiled its long-awaited “super app” 
ChatGPT Work blends its chatbot, coding tool, and new models. (Reuters $)
+ It’s designed to do your work for you and with you. (Ars Technica)
+ And arrived the same day as OpenAI’s GPT 5.6 models. (NYT $)
+ It’s also developing a fully automated researcher. (MIT Technology Review)

2  Humanoids have performed teleoperated surgery on living animals
In the world-first, they removed gallbladders from pigs. (Ars Technica)
+ The human work behind humanoids is hidden. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 SK Hynix has landed the largest US listing by a foreign company
The South Korean chip giant raised $26.5 billion. (CNN)
+ Demand for AI data centres has led its profits to skyrocket. (Guardian)
+ But its jumbo share sale may be a sign of overheated times. (FT $)
+ South Korea’s hottest bachelors are chip workers. (MIT Technology Review)
 
4 Tencent is leading a deal to unwind Meta’s $2 billion Manus acquisition
It’s in talks to become the Chinese AI startup’s largest shareholder. (FT $)
+ Tencent will reportedly buy Manus for no less ​than $2 billion. (Reuters $)
+ Beijing had ordered Meta to unwind the acquisition. (Bloomberg $)
 
5 Resuscitated human retinas responded to light 10 hours after death
It’s a big step towards eye transplants that restore vision. (New Scientist $)
+ As is a new device that revives dead eyeballs. (MIT Technology Review)
 
6 Meta has started charging for AI access
A new version of Muse Spark has a paid tier for developers. (Quartz) 
+ Meta also plans to start producing an AI chip in September. (Reuters $)
 
7 OpenAI and Google have sold AI models to blacklisted China groups
Via Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. (FT $)

8 A daughter tested an AI “death bot” of her father
The technology provided both comfort and unease. (New Yorker $)

9 An astronomer says the hunt for alien life needs more statistics
He wants to replace speculation with mathematical frameworks. (Quanta)

10 Pokémon Go players turned Times Square into a giant battlefield
More than 1,500 fans finally fulfilled the game’s 2016 launch promise. (Wired $)
+ Pokémon Go is also training world models. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“When we’re talking about AI, we love the hype, we get excited about it. The damn thing never actually lands in practice.”

—Vijay Janapa Reddi, an engineering professor at Harvard University, tells Wired why he’s skeptical about grand plans for AI.

One More Thing

Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs

In 1943, psychologist B.F. Skinner led a secret government project to make bombs more precise. His idea: teach pigeons to guide missiles by pecking at targets on a screen inside a warhead. To train them, Skinner rewarded the birds with food when they made the right decisions, using trial and error to shape their behavior.

Unsurprisingly, the military never deployed Skinner’s kamikaze pigeons. Yet his experiments convinced him that pigeons were “an extremely reliable instrument” for studying learning.  

Decades later, those same principles would help power reinforcement learning, the technology behind some of today’s most advanced AI systems.

Discover how pigeons inspired one of AI’s most powerful techniques.

—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.)

+ Here’s a splendid selection of this year’s NSW architecture award winners.
+ Photographers have captured the Strawberry Moon’s golden glow in stunning detail.
+ Idiocracy is the film that best exemplifies the “American experience,” according to a new poll. Look back at the prescient comedy with this Screen Junkies trailer.
+ Get ready for the weekend with this psychedelic house journey from Jamie xx b2b Caribou.

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 Engineering issue

We can’t fix everything, but we can be ambitious. We can take on the challenge of making the world better through human ingenuity. That’s what the new Engineering issue of MIT Technology Review is all about. 

Sometimes the challenges we face are giant, like tunneling beneath the seafloor. Some exist at the nanoscale, as with a new ASML machine powering the future of chipmaking. Others represent problems at a planetary scale and in truly unknown territory, like replicating a volcano’s mechanism to cool the Earth on purpose.

These incredible engineering stories show we can come together to get to work and, when the smoke clears, find we’ve made real progress. Subscribe now to read all of them—and more—in the full print issue.

Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI are backing an effort to stop respiratory infections

The common cold comes for us all—often more than once a year. And there is no way to prevent it. The best you can do is take vitamin C and stay away from people with the sniffles.

Now, the payment company Stripe is funding a new $500-million nonprofit aiming to prevent both the common cold and the flu. Its eventual goal is to get rid of respiratory viruses altogether.

Anthropic, OpenAI, and Bill Gates have also backed the venture, which will investigate whether modern technologies can counter the common cold and the flu. Dive into the nonprofit’s plans.

—Antonio Regalado

MIT Technology Review Narrated: inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever

As asteroid 2024 YR4 hurtled toward Earth, astronomers determined that this massive rock posed a higher risk of impact than any object of its size in recorded history. Then, just as quickly as history was made, experts declared that the danger had passed. 

This is the inside story of the network of global scientists who found, followed, planned for, and finally dismissed the most dangerous asteroid ever discovered —all under the tightest of timelines and with the highest of stakes.

—Robin George Andrews

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 China has taken the US’s crown for the world’s fastest supercomputer 
Shenzhen’s LineShine overtook California’s El Capitan. (Axios)
+ China had not had a machine at the top of the list since 2017. (NYT $)
+ But the supercomputer race isn’t geared for AI work. (Reuters $)

2 Mythos reportedly found flaws in classified US government systems
A US official said Anthropic’s model identified certain vulnerabilities. (AP News)
+ The model has now been suspended over US security concerns. (BBC)
+ The NSA has lost access to Anthropic’s tools in fallout. (Engadget)
+ The feud raises new questions about AI safety. (MIT Technology Review) 

3 A US pilot reported seeing Iranian drones swarm in “jellyfish” formation
Which would represent an alarming advance in Iranian drone capabilities. (CNN)
+ The US is heading toward a drone-filled future. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Mark Zuckerberg directed Meta to create a prediction markets app
It will be similar to Polymarket and Kalshi. (NYT $)
+ But won’t let users wager real money. (The Verge) 
+ Another new app, Meta Photos, will create media with AI. (Reuters $)

5 SpaceX’s “Starfall” just launched a secretive test flight
The orbital delivery spacecraft blasted off for the first time yesterday. (Axios)
+ It could also support space manufacturing. (New Scientist $)

6 Alibaba has sued the US for being linked to the Chinese military
It wants to be removed from a Pentagon blacklist. (Reuters $)

7 Nvidia’s banned AI chips have doubled in price on China’s black market
The DGX B300 now costs more than $1.1 million. (Financial Times $)

8 Tesla claims a driver “manually overrode self-driving” in a deadly crash
It said the accelerator was pressed “all the way to 100%.” (The Verge $)

9 The US science retreat has created an opportunity for Europe
But questions about funding and innovation remain. (Nature)
+ Trump has dealt many blows to US science. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Meta’s new smart glasses ditch Ray-Bans for Kylie Jenner 
Meta logos and Jenner designs have replaced the Ray-Ban branding. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“It’s blasphemy against AI if ‌you say it’s a bubble.”

—SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son tells shareholders that the AI boom is still in its early stages, Reuters reports.

One More Thing

Video games are dividing South Korea

They say StarCraft was the game that changed everything. When the science fiction strategy game arrived in South Korea in 1998, it wasn’t just a hit—it was an awakening.

Out of 11 million copies sold worldwide, 4.5 million were in the country. The game was so popular that it triggered another boom: “PC bangs,” pay-as-you-go gaming cafés.

StarCraft and PC bangs spoke to a generation of young South Koreans boxed in by economic anxiety and rising academic pressures. But they also sparked arguments about game addiction. They’ve led to feuds between government departments—and a national debate over policy.

Read the full story.

—Max S. Kim

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.)

+ This archive lovingly documents the beautiful design of over 1,700 obsolete objects.
+ Classic TV theme tunes like Hey Arnold! Have been revived in a musician’s marvellous samples.
+ Marvel at the mind-boggling geometry of nature and see how bees perfectly construct honeycombs.
+ Hear the ominous, deeply atmospheric tones of a custom string instrument built inside a plastic drainage pipe.

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.

A startup claims it broke through a bottleneck that’s holding back LLMs

AI startup Subquadratic came out of stealth last month with a huge claim: it had solved a mathematical bottleneck that had held back large language models for almost a decade.

The purported breakthrough comes from slashing the number of computations transformers need to carry out to generate answers. The result is a faster and cheaper LLM that uses far less energy than any other model on the market.

Many experts remained skeptical—but Subquadratic has started to share the receipts. They suggest that their approach might be worth paying attention to.

Here’s how the system works—and why some researchers still aren’t convinced.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Brain-computer interface trials are taking off

—Jessica Hamzelou

This week, I covered the story of Casey Harrell—a man with ALS who is “the first power user” of a brain implant. The device has enabled him to maintain an income, reconnect with friends and family, and read to his daughter. He told me that it’s “nothing short of revolutionary.” 

Over the past couple of years, the number of BCI trial volunteers has soared. This year, China became the first country to approve a BCI for medical use. Advances in technology are allowing engineers to provide more features than ever. BCI research is properly taking off.

Find out how the technology is edging from the lab towards the market.

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must-reads

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

1 Amazon workers who backed data center limits may face termination
The engineers say they’re under investigation by the company. (NYT $)
+ And could face discipline, including potential termination. (The Verge)
+They had testified at meetings about pausing data centers. (CNBC)
+ They’ve filed a joint complaint to Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights. (Wired $)

2 A new fossil discovery has rewritten 150 years of evolutionary theory
It suggests early land vertebrates skipped the tadpole stage. (New Scientist $)
+ And raises questions about how vertebrates adapted to land. (404 Media)
+ Sponges may have been the first animals. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 Bernie Sanders plans to give the public direct ownership of AI firms
He’s unveiled new legislation to create an AI sovereign wealth fund. (AP News)
+ It would be funded through a one-time tax on AI companies’ stock. (Quartz)
+ And make annual payments directly to Americans. (Washington Post $) 
 
4 Investors in China secretly acquired stakes in SpaceX before its IPO
One had ties to Chinese military contractors. (ProPublica)
+ The US fears China has got one of ASML’s top machines. (Reuters $)
 
5 Researchers have figured out Russia’s nuclear-powered missile
They call it “a terrible idea”—but not an impossible one. (NPR)
+ NASA is building a nuclear reactor-powered spacecraft. (MIT Technology Review)
 
6 Longevity medicine faces a do-or-die moment in a landmark trial
It will test whether cellular aging can be safely reversed in humans. (Axios)
+ The next step is “chemical reprogramming.” (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 Studies suggest AI may already be deskilling professionals
Over-reliance appears to weaken doctors’ and engineers’ abilities. (Nature)
 
8 Tech workers who maxed out their AI use are now trying to minimize it
Spiralling costs mean “tokenminning” has replaced “tokenmaxxing.” (NYT $)
 
9 Scientists say the human genome’s structure may confound AI models
Which would constrain AI-based models of biology and disease. (Quanta)

10 A new robotic self-driving toilet brings the bathroom to you
The Xiaoban also cleans up and empties itself all on its own. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“They hated me. They were doing everything they could to knock me down. And look at them now.” 

—Donald Trump mocks Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos in a conversation with Elon Musk that’s recounted in a new book, Wired reports. 

One More Thing

Technology can help us feed the world, if we look beyond profit

The pandemic exposed the weak spots in our interconnected food system. They’re the result of decades’ worth of technological advances, from globe-spanning shipping to refrigeration networks. But technology is not inherently opposed to sustainable and resilient food systems.

Powerful technologies like genetic modification can create stronger local agriculture and a healthier food system—but they normally aren’t. The challenge is ensuring they serve food security and human well-being, rather than simply maximizing profits.

Dive into our food system’s problems and the solutions that technology can provide.

—Fabio Parasecoli

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.)

+ This intriguing video tracks the covert reality of Japan’s shinobi.
+ Dive into this admirably obsessive archive covering over 100 different ways to tie your shoes.
+ One of the world’s largest digital collections of plants and fungi is now available for free to everyone.
+ A grand orchestra has beautifully covered Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” at Abbey Road Studios.

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 search for dark matter has been blown wide open

For decades, physicists have hunted for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for dark matter. But their search has run into a new problem: neutrinos. 

These tiny particles from the sun and other stars can create a “neutrino fog” that drowns out any signal of dark matter. Hitting the neutrino fog does not, however, mean an end to the search. Researchers just have to shift the focus of their hunt.

They’re now casting a much wider net. New proposals include quantum sensors, liquid-helium detectors, and even searches in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Find out how the search for dark matter has entered entirely new territory.

—Dan Garisto

This story is from the next edition of our magazine, which is all about engineering. Subscribe now to get a copy when it lands!

Entrepreneurs in Nairobi are making the case for going solar

Shops with diesel-powered grain mills are common in Nairobi. Milcah Wanjiru’s is different: it runs on either solar energy or the grid.

About a quarter of Kenya’s population still lacks centralized electricity, and off-grid solar is being promoted as a route to universal access by 2030. In Wanjiru’s case, it cuts operating costs and can improve profits once the upfront investment is recovered.

Read the full story on the rise of solar milling systems across Kenya and beyond.

—Geoffrey Kamadi

Geoengineering still faces major practical challenges

—Casey Crownhart

Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a sort of emergency brake. Something along the lines of “Pull in case of climate emergency to scatter light-reflecting particles to bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere and cool the planet.”

But it might be less like a simple brake the more like a complicated, entirely unsolved puzzle. My colleague James Temple dug into these engineering challenges in his latest feature story. My biggest takeaway? This all looks a lot harder than I thought.

Read the full piece to find out why.

This article is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 The Pentagon says it used Grok in strikes on Iran
Its AI chief said it helped fire over 2,000 munitions. (Le Monde)
+ He spoke in defense of xAI in a data center pollution lawsuit. (NYT $)
+ Officials claim the company is essential to national security. (AP News)
+ Conversational AI has entered the war room. (MIT Technology Review)  
 
2 Apple will raise prices due to the memory chip shortage
Tim Cook said price increases are “unavoidable.” (WSJ $)
+ AI’s demand for data centers has led to dwindling supplies. (Reuters $)
+ iPhone prices could rise by $200 or more. (WSJ $)
 
3 Strikes beyond battlefields are pumping demand for counter-drone tech
The market for airport and infrastructure defenses is booming. (Reuters $)
+ Worried by China, Taiwan is teaching its citizens to fly drones. (Guardian)
+ Europe has a drone-filled vision for future war. (MIT Technology Review)
 
4 Anthropic and DeepMind’s CEOs have called for a US-led AI coalition
They want the alliance to shape AI rules and standards. (CNBC)
+ Anthropic’s CEO told G7 leaders to “resist the temptation to splinter.” (FT $)
 
5 American developers are turning to cheaper Chinese AI
They say DeepSeek is good enough for a fraction of the cost. (Rest of World)
+ What’s next for Chinese open-source AI? (MIT Technology Review)
 
6 Two-thirds of Americans think AI is advancing too quickly
Pew Research found increasing use but negative views. (The Verge)
+ AI is sprinting, and we’re struggling to keep up. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 Elon Musk’s next move may be a megamerger of SpaceX and Tesla
Shareholders might object, but there’s little they could do. (NYT $)

8 White House aims for Anthropic to block jailbreaks may be impossible
Security experts say it simply isn’t technically feasible. (Wired $)
 
9 Ancient DNA is rewriting the history of plague
Genomic data suggests it emerged thousands of years earlier. (Economist $)

10 AI image generator Midjourney is shifting to full-body ultrasound scans
It also plans to build a spa in San Francisco. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“We had a great meeting with AI.” 

—President Trump says negotiations with Anthropic over restoring access to the company’s latest AI models are going well, the Wall Street Journal reports.

One More Thing

Why can’t tech fix its gender problem?

Women remain grossly underrepresented in the technology industry. At the core of the problem is money: tech has generated enormous personal fortunes, and most of that wealth has gone to men.

White and Asian men manage 93% of venture dollars. In 2021, only 2% of venture capital funding went to startups founded solely by women.

The lack of investor and founder diversity doesn’t only determine who gets rich. It also shapes the kinds of problems technology companies set out to solve.

Discover why tech’s gender problem has proved so hard to fix—and why a new generation of activists believes change is finally possible.

—Margaret O’Mara

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.)

+ Meet one of the world’s most wonderfully weird animals: the aardwolf.
+ Escape into this dreamy, minimalist photo collection about the Pacific surf.
+ Admire the casual football skills of this Venetian gondolier executing a stylish backheel while on the job.
+ Explore an interactive prehistoric globe simulation and browse an endless timeline at The Dinosaur Database.

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.

Hacking the atmosphere: geoengineering gets a reality check

Solar geoengineering, the controversial idea that we could deliberately intervene in the climate system to counteract global warming, is moving beyond computer simulations and into the practical engineering challenges required to make it real.

Researchers are now working on aircraft, materials, and other systems for solar geoengineering. But as they delve into these details, they’re finding that even early deployment would require significant new infrastructure, time, and investment.

Find out what happens when solar geoengineering encounters the realities of trying to cool the planet.

—James Temple

MIT Technology Review Narrated: inside interoception, the hidden sense of how you feel inside

Scientists have a word for how we sense ourselves from the inside: interoception. Today, thanks to a 2021 Nobel Prize and new tools that can map internal signaling across the body, research into interoception is taking off.

As researchers decode how signals move between body and brain, a clearer picture is starting to take shape—with implications for how we treat conditions from obesity to anxiety.

—Katherine W. Isaacs

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 SpaceX is now valued higher than Amazon 
Its market value hit $2.659 trillion yesterday. (Axios)
+ A post-IPO stock surge also briefly pushed it above Microsoft’s. (Quartz)
+ It’s now the world’s fifth most valuable company. (Guardian)
+ SpaceX is acquiring AI coding startup Cursor for $60 billion. (CNBC)

2 G7 leaders want access to top US AI models
They’re pushing to escape restrictions on the likes of Fable 5. (Reuters $)
+ The Mythos shutdown has sparked a global scramble for sovereign AI. (Fortune)
+ The world is looking to ditch US AI models. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Trump’s AI export strategy has run into Trump’s export controls
His administration risks undermining its own AI plans. (Axios)
+ It now effectively has a licensing regime for frontier AI. (Fortune)
+ Here’s how a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 Huawei’s big comeback has exposed the limits of US chip controls
It’s overcome restrictions on advanced chipmaking gear. (Financial Times $)
+ The AI boom has ignited Asia’s chip companies. (NYT $)

5 AI fears are pushing Silicon Valley toward gene-editing startups
They want smarter babies to counter superintelligent AI. (Mother Jones)
+ The pursuit of perfect babies is an ethical mess. (MIT Technology Review)

6 A brain implant has enabled a speechless ALS patient to work full-time
The system translates his brain activity into speech. (The Register)
+ He’s become the first “power user” of a BCI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A leak has revealed details of Peter Thiel’s secret society
Its program ranges from cult-building to prepping for World War III. (Wired $)

8 ChatGPT’s market share has slipped below 50% for the first time
Thanks to the rise of Gemini and Claude. (TechCrunch)

9 A quantum state that lasts forever may finally be within our grasp
Experiments suggest that quantum “eternity” is possible. (New Scientist $)

10 Commodore has made a digital detox phone that isn’t dumb
The Callback combines gadget nostalgia with modern needs. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“The Entity List is like whack-a-mole and you’ve got to ‌keep whacking ⁠the moles.” 

—Philip Luck, who studies global supply chains at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells Reuters that a lack of new blacklistings is likely leading American innovations to adversaries who could use them against the US.

One More Thing

This is the reason Demis Hassabis started DeepMind

Watching DeepMind’s AI master the ancient board game Go, Demis Hassabis realized that his company was ready to take on one of the most important and complicated puzzles in biology: predicting the structure of proteins. 

The result was AlphaFold2, an AI that could predict the shape of proteins down to the nearest atom. “It’s the most complex thing we’ve ever done,” Hassabis told MIT Technology Review.

Taking on scientific problems is the culmination of what Hassabis set out to achieve, and it’s what he wants to be known for.  “This is the reason I started DeepMind,” he says. “In fact, it’s why I’ve worked my whole career in AI.”

Discover how he plans to transform science with AI. 

—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.)

+ This mesmerising footage of wind rolling through grass looks like CGI.
+ The glorious early days of internet discovery have been revived by the return of StumbleUpon.
+ A German subway entrance has been delightfully designed as an old tram car crashing into the pavement.
+ The Last Museum lets you search across 5.8 million museum artworks spanning from 3000 BC to the present day.

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 man with ALS is the first “power user” of a brain implant that lets him speak

Casey Harrell has had a set of electrodes embedded in his brain for almost three years. Harrell, who has ALS and is paralyzed, first used his brain-computer interface (BCI) to “speak” in 2023. Since then, he’s clocked thousands of hours of use. 

Harrell can now use the device largely independently. His team has added new features to it, and he also uses it to surf the web and perform his job. “Living with a disease like ALS, you are supposed to have diminished dreams. I do not,” Harrell told MIT Technology Review. 

The team behind the device call Harrell “the first power user of a speech BCI.” They now plan to add further enhancements to the device.

Dive into the groundbreaking impact of Casey Harrell’s BCI.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Why do South Koreans love AI so much?

While a public backlash against AI brews across the US, South Koreans are optimistic. Only 16% say they are more concerned than excited about AI—the lowest of the 25 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center—while 50% of Americans were more worried than excited. 

South Koreans share a deep conviction that embracing technology is integral to modernizing the country and cementing its place in the global order. Their fascination with AI is just the latest incarnation of that ethos—and it’s making them anxious to stay ahead.

Read the full story on South Korea’s AI fervour.

—Michelle Kim

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

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

1 The US says it restricted Anthropic AI over foreign intelligence risks
Commerce chief Lutnick said he acted over national security fears. (Reuters $)
+ Following the ban, Anthropic disabled access to its new models. (BBC)
+ Both sides are increasingly desperate for a resolution. (WSJ $)

2 DeepSeek just became China’s most valuable startup
It raised $7 billion, the largest-ever first-round funding for an AI startup. (The Information $)
+ The deal values DeepSeek at over $50 billion. (WSJ $)
+ Its unusual structure preserves founder control. (Reuters $)
+ DeepSeek’s new flagship model has caused a stir. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 Alibaba has unveiled AI models for robots amid a shift from chatbots
It’s joined a global race to move AI into the physical world. (SCMP)
+ AI is learning to understand its surroundings. (MIT Technology Review)
 
4 Fox is buying streaming giant Roku for $22 billion
The deal creates the third-largest player in US TV by viewing share. (BBC)
+ Fox is making a big bet on free streaming. (Washington Post $)

5 EA has launched a new way to advertise “directly into gameplay”
EA Advertising allows brands to become part of the game itself. (CNBC)
+ Xbox’s new chief strategy officer is also eyeing in-game ads. (PC Gamer)
+ GenAI could reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Technology Review)

6 It’s trivially easy to use Reddit to manipulate AI search
A tiny snippet of text can trick ChatGPT and Google’s AI search. (404 Media)
+ AI search is being manipulated to generate dangerous biases. (BBC)
 
7 Sperm have been made magnetic to allow IVF inside the body
The technique enables remote guidance towards an egg. (New Scientist $)
+ Automation and AI are transforming IVF. (MIT Technology Review)
 
8 The world’s leading deepfake expert no longer trusts his own eyes
He’s struggling to prove what’s real before the internet decides. (NYT $)
 
9 Meta’s CTO admits its AI reorganisation was “atrocious”
He’s promised staff better communication—and snacks. (Wired $)
 
10 Silicon Valley billionaires are pretending to kill each other for fun
In a new game show from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“There was a speeding ticket, and they gave Fable the death penalty.” 

—Alex Stamos, the former chief security officer of Facebook, tells the Washington Post that banning foreign access to Anthropic’s leading model is a disproportionate punishment.

One More Thing

Inside effective altruism, where the far future counts a lot more than the present

Since its birth in the late 2000s, effective altruism has aimed to answer a deceptively simple question: “How can those with means have the greatest impact?”

Directing money to evidence-based approaches is EA’s best-known technique. But as it’s expanded from an academic philosophy into a community and a movement, its ideas of the “best” way to change the world have evolved as well. 

Find out how effective altruism became one of the most influential—and contested—forces in philanthropy.

—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.)

+ The humble table has been reimagined as an unconventional public artifact.
+ Take a visual tour of the weird, centuries-old history of architecture’s most gruesome gargoyles.
+ A colorful parakeet unseen for an entire century was triumphantly rediscovered in an unexplored Indonesian forest.
+ This shimmering Southern Lights timelapse filmed by an astronaut on the SpaceX Dragon is stunning.

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.

These new solid-state ACs promise a cool future. Scientists aren’t so sure.

After three years of record-­breaking heat and another scorcher underway, air-conditioning isn’t going anywhere. That’s good for our health, but bad for the planet: it already accounts for 7% of global electricity use and 3% of greenhouse-gas emissions. 

Feeling the heat, scientists and startups are hoping to amp up solid-­state cooling. These systems move heat through conductive materials, which could cool spaces and surfaces with fewer messy side effects. The catch is whether it can match the efficiency of traditional AC.

Find out how the unconventional coolers aim to dial down AC emissions.

—Sara Kiley Watson

This story is from the next edition of our magazine, which is all about engineering. Subscribe now to get a copy when it lands! 

Job titles of the future: nature’s drug designer

In 2018, after nearly two decades working in Big Pharma, chemist Tim Cernak was ready to put his skills to a new use. 

As a lifelong nature lover, he had become concerned that animals are often treated with human pharmaceuticals that can be harmful or even lethal. He decided to address this with a new approach: “conservation chemistry.” 

Using AI tools and robots, he’s now rapidly designing and testing drugs for animals. Here’s what it takes to treat nature’s patients.

—Anna Gibbs

The must-reads

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

1 Anthropic has shut down access to its top models after a US directive
The US barred foreigners from using Fable 5 and Mythos 5 on Friday. (NYT $)
+ Anthropic disabled access globally as it can’t filter users in real time.(BBC)
+ Talks with Amazon’s CEO apparently prompted the ban. (WSJ $)
+ Cybersecurity experts have called for the ban to end. (Axios)
+ But the White House’s war against Anthropic has previously backfired. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The UK is banning social media for under-16s
Details are scant, but the measure is due to take effect in early 2027. (The Guardian)
+ The ban covers Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X. (BBC)
+ Many countries are curbing children’s social media access. (Reuters $)

3 New space data suggests black holes formed before galaxies
It could resolve cosmology’s chicken-and-egg dilemma. (New Scientist $)
+ Odd tricks have formed a massive black hole. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Skepticism around AI layoffs is increasing
There are growing doubts that AI is really the culprit. (TechCrunch)
+ We need a reality check on AI jobs hysteria. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A coalition of states has opened an investigation into OpenAI
Over matters including user data, child safety and advertising. (NYT $)

6 Tesla has been accused of misleading regulators over “full self-driving”
By exaggerating its safety statistics. (Reuters $)

7 NASA’s “quiet supersonic” plane has hit critical new milestones
The X-59 reached 924 mph and 55,000 feet. (Scientific American) 
+ Which are essential for flying over populated areas. (Engadget)
+ It’s designed to take the boom out of supersonic travel. (BBC)

8 Deepfakes are getting harder to spot—and weirder—in the midterms
Thanks to improvements in free AI tools. (WSJ $)

9 AI is revealing the secret lives of animals
By tracing their movements, landmarks, and social practices. (Nature) 

10 Where did Earth get its oceans? Maybe it made them itself.
Scientists now suspect that Earth’s waters are homegrown. (Quanta) 

Quote of the day

“This action has taken the best models away from defenders, created market uncertainty, and risked America’s AI leadership without any real risk to justify it.” 

—Cybersecurity leaders urge the Trump administration to reverse restrictions on Anthropic’s most advanced AI models in an open letter.

One More Thing

How scientists want to make you young again

A little over 15 years ago, scientists at Kyoto University 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.

Now, after more than a decade of developing this cellular reprogramming, biotech companies and research labs have tantalising hints that the process could be the gateway to an unprecedented new technology for human age reversal. 

Read the full story on their efforts to “reprogram” aging bodies back to youth.
 

—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.)

+ Evolutionary biologists may have figured out why the T-Rex had such tiny arms.
+ This beautifully sustainable bento box design is engineered to eliminate single-use takeout waste.
+ Search across 5.8 million museum artworks spanning from 3000 BC to today at The Last Museum.
+ Here’s a sharp cosmic snapshot of Thor’s Helmet, an interstellar gas bubble sitting 15,000 light-years away.

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 “reprogramming” is the buzziest approach to reversing aging right now

Earlier this week, Life Biosciences, a biotech company focused on reversing age-related diseases, announced that it had dosed its first volunteer. A person with glaucoma has had an experimental treatment injected straight into their eyeball.

The idea is to treat the disease by regenerating healthy nerves in the eye—but the company already hopes to go further. If the treatment can reverse glaucoma, similar treatments could reverse other diseases of aging. Maybe, just maybe, they could reverse aging altogether.

The approach relies on “reprogramming” cells to a younger state. It’s one of many strategies being explored by biotech companies looking to slow and reverse aging. But of all of them, it seems to be the one that is truly taking off.

Read the full story on the pursuit of reprogramming for rejuvenation.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

Inside Interoception: The hidden sense of how you feel inside

Scientists have a word for how we sense ourselves from the inside: interoception. Today, thanks to a 2021 Nobel Prize and new tools that can map internal signaling across the body, research into interoception is taking off.

As researchers decode how signals move between body and brain, a clearer picture is starting to take shape—with implications for how we understand and treat conditions from obesity to chronic pain to anxiety.

Find out how it’s leading to a “new continent of awareness.”

—Katherine W. Isaacs

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 more from 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 SpaceX has officially delivered the largest IPO in history
It’s raised a record $75 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation. (Axios)
+ Making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire (on paper). (Reuters $)
+ The IPO will now put his “extreme ownership” to the test. (Wired $)
+ While China attempts to build a Starlink rival. (Rest of World)
+ And other challenges to SpaceX emerge. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Jeff Bezos wants to build an “artificial general engineer”
Through his new industrial AI startup, Prometheus. (NYT $)
+ Which just raised $12 billion, valuing it at $41 billion. (TechCrunch)
+ Meanwhile, OpenAI is building a fully automated researcher. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Chinese regulators are dramatically intensifying tech enforcement
A spell of relative restraint has ended. (SCMP)
+ Regulators have admonished e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com. (FT $)
+ And blocked Meta’s acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus. (BBC)

4 Google says Chinese cybercriminals used Gemini to scam Americans
It’s suing the network over the alleged AI-powered scams.(NYT $)
+ “Supercharged scams” are one of our 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Ukraine’s defense AI chief predicts a “new paradigm” of warfare
He expects AI systems to unify into a single battlefield network. (Reuters $)
+ AI chatbots could be used for targeting decisions. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Anthropic has rankled users with its safety-first Fable model
Stringent safety rules and refusals to help have sparked a backlash. (NBC)
+ Anthropic has backtracked on some policies. (Wired $)

7 Pokémon Go data trained AI that could assist military drones
It could help them locate themselves in war zones. (Guardian)
+ Pokémon Go data is also training delivery robots. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Orbital data centers are harder than Silicon Valley thinks
Shedding heat in space requires ingenious new designs. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ We need a few things to put data centers in space. (MIT Technology Review)

9 A toy universe shows time could be a quantum illusion
It could emerge from quantum interactions, rather than just existing by default. (New Scientist $)

10 Chatbots keep telling stories about a lighthouse keeper called Ella
And now we may finally know why. (404 Media)

Quote of the day

“People are paying a trillion dollars for Elon.” 

—Ross Gerber, the CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, which owns SpaceX stock, tells the New York Times why he believes the company’s IPO is overvalued.

One More Thing

How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play

I was immediately attracted to open-world games, in which you’re free to explore a vast simulated world and choose what challenges to accept. To make them feel alive, these games are inhabited by crowds of “nonplayer characters” (NPCs). But the illusion starts to weaken when you spend enough time with them.

It may not always be like that. Just as it’s upending other industries, generative AI is opening the door to entirely new kinds of in-game interactions that are open-ended, creative, and unexpected. The game may not always have to end.

Discover how generative AI could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersive.

—Niall Firth

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.)

+ My feet have fallen for the Crocs x Super Mario collection.
+ Denmark’s 2026 Mullet Championship is the hottest hairdo contest of the year.
+ Hungry at half-time? Here are seven mouth-watering international recipes inspired by the World Cup.
+ Feast your eyes on a helicopter bound for Mars and a flowery Milky Way frame in Nature’s top images from last month.

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.

Inside soccer’s data renaissance

Imagine tuning in to the opening kickoff of a World Cup match and seeing a player intentionally kick the ball out of bounds. You may question the logic of surrendering possession seconds into a game. If you were Jesse Davis, though, you’d know that this play could be a prime setup to score.

Davis is a professor of computer science at KU Leuven in Belgium and head of its Sports Analytics Lab, which has been at the vanguard of a data awakening in soccer.

Using AI and data analytics, his team has uncovered hidden tactical patterns and challenged long-held assumptions about how the game should be played. Many of the insights hitting soccer pitches today trace back to the lab’s work.

Read the full story on how computer scientists are changing the world’s most popular sport.

—Andrew Zaleski

This story is from the next edition of our magazine. Subscribe now to get a copy when it lands! 

Why China is betting on big nuclear reactors

In China, large reactors are coming together at a stunning pace. The country has nearly doubled its nuclear fleet since 2016, reaching nearly 60 gigawatts of total power capacity. Construction started on six new reactors in 2025, and two more have begun in 2026.

It’s incredibly difficult to build the massive projects that dominate the nuclear industry today. Up-front investment can run well into the billions, and designs are complex. Yet China is moving ahead rapidly. By 2030, the country is on course to overtake both the US and the EU in installed nuclear capacity.

Find out why bigger might be better when it comes to nuclear power.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign upto receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 Autonomous drones may have killed soldiers for the first time
A drone-maker said Russian troops were killed in a test. (New Scientist $)
+ The US has used a sea drone to rescue a helicopter’s crew. (NYT $)
+ Europe has a drone-filled vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Solar power has finally surpassed coal in US electricity generation
It’s the leading source of new power. (Guardian)
+ Meanwhile, Trump is increasing coal investments. (BBC)
+ The US is in a power struggle over coal. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Russia’s FSB has taken control of the country’s internet
The KGB successor now determines access. (Financial Times $)
+ Rage over the restrictions is boiling over. (NYT $)

4 OpenAI says China is fomenting dissent over AI on ChatGPT
It claims to have foundinfluence operations on the bot. (Reuters $)
+ The propaganda also targeted data centers and tariffs. (Politico $)

5 SpaceX’s listing price is expected to be revealed today
It could lead to the biggest IPO ever. (NPR)
+ And turn 4,400 employees into millionaires. (NYT $)

6 EPA scientists say they’re pushed to downplay risks of household products
They’re under pressure to alter reviews of chemicals in products. (CNN)

7 Anthropic has walked back a policy that “sabotaged” research
It would have limited Claude’s ability to develop competing AI models. (Wired $)

8 Congress wants in on the data center backlash
Members are jumping on the fervor with new policy plans. (Axios)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)

9 Your search results are getting sloptimized
Companies are gaming the chatbot internet. (Atlantic $)

10 Scientists have discovered that humans prefer to walk anticlockwise
It’s a discovery that could improve crowd and evacuation management. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We’re the extracted and exploited colony of what is going to be one of the most highly valued entities in the world. People are going to die because of this pollution.” 

—Justin Pearson, who represents portions of Memphis in the Tennessee House of Representatives, tells Wired why his constituents are angry about the SpaceX IPO.

One More Thing

Space is all yours—for a hefty price

Space tourism is now officially a thing. But does it represent a future in which the average person could book a celestial flight and bask in the splendor of Earth from above? Or is this just another way for the ultrawealthy to flash their cash while simultaneously ignoring and exacerbating our existential problems down on the ground? 

For now, such flights remain ridiculously far beyond the financial reach of most people. They also pose risks to both the passengers and the planet. But proponents of private spaceflight argue that it provides great opportunities for science and a sense of transcendence.

Dive into the space tourism debate.

—Margaret O’Mara

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.)

+ A rare antelope species was rediscovered in a remote Kenyan forest.
+ This ingenious camping trailer pops up into a fully heated off-road bathroom.
+ Iconic internet memes are now safely preserved in the British Film Institute’s moving image archive.
+ NASA’s experimental aircraft has successfully broken the sound barrier in a big win for supersonic flight.

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 “steroid olympics” were a circus—and a window into our culture

—Amit Katwala

A couple of weeks ago, at a $50 million arena built in a casino parking lot in Las Vegas, I witnessed a libertarian thought experiment come to life. The inaugural Enhanced Games were the first sporting competition where participants were encouraged to take performance-enhancing drugs.

For supporters of the event, the Enhanced Games offered a glimpse of a future in which medical advances push the human race to new heights—and they never have to get old. As I watched the games unfold, two questions bounced around my head: were they right? And what does that mean for the rest of us?

Read the full story to understand the answers.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: a reality check on the AI jobs hysteria

Despite the growing hysteria over AI’s threat to white-collar jobs, there’s still scant evidence that the technology has had a large-scale impact on the labor market.

Analysis of US labor data shows that unemployment in occupations most exposed to AI is actually lower than in less-exposed jobs. There are also no signs that large numbers of workers are shifting from AI-threatened professions into supposedly safer manual-labor jobs.

It’s true that things aren’t great in the job market. But the reason isn’t simply the rise of AI.

—David Rotman

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 Anthropic has released a “safe” version of Mythos
It promises it has enough guardrails and user limitations to be safe. (BBC)
+ It has a price tag twice as high as the previous flagship system. (NYT $)
+ Anthropic previously claimed Mythos was too dangerous to release. (CNBC)
+ But critics suspect that was a marketing play. (Guardian)
+ Selective access has become a key strategy for AI labs. (Axios)

2 Seattle has banned new data centers for a year
It’s the largest US city to have passed such a moratorium.(Guardian)
+ Its biggest tech firm, Amazon, has tried to stop the ban. (The Verge)
+ The movement to stop data centers is growing. (NYT $)

3 Democratic senators are pushing for a military AI restriction law
They want a human commander to have the final say. (Gizmodo)
+ But humans in the loop in an AI war is an illusion. (MIT Technology Review)

4 SpaceX plans to launch space data center tests by late 2027
Orbital compute is central to the company’s growth pitch. (Reuters $)
+ It’s also shared new designs for its space data centers. (BI)
+ We’d need these four things to put them in orbit. (MIT Technology Review)

5 China has been accused of escalating AI espionage
A report claims Beijing is hacking tech firms to catch up with the US. (CNBC)
+ There are no winners in a US-China AI arms race. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The Trump family has made about $2.3 billion from crypto
While investors lost about the same amount. (Gizmodo)
+ The Trumps risked next-to-nothing on their crypto ventures. (Reuters $)

7 Apple isn’t launching Siri AI in the European Union
It’s blaming EU interoperability requirements. (The Verge)
+Brussels says Apple didn’t try to find a compliance solution. (Reuters $) 

8 China’s new drone rules have spooked its thriving industry 
Drone firms face new commercial barriers. (Financial Times $)
+ China’s drone sector leads the world. (NYT $)

9 A judge has cancelled a trial after finding both legal teams used AI
The case descended into GenAI tools arguing against each other. (404 Media)
+ Courts have been flooded with AI-generated lawsuits. (MIT Technology Review)

10 The dinosaur-killing asteroid created a thriving new ecosystem
Microscopic life flourished in the extended heat. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“AI technologies today are designed by and for WEIRD societies—Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic.” 

—Aditya Vashistha, an assistant professor at Cornell University, tells Rest of World why AI systems don’t serve global needs.

One More Thing

Why the definition of design might need a change

The word “design” once carried a far wider set of meanings than it does today. They ranged from the literal and material (like tracing) through the tactical (to contrive and achieve a goal) to the organizational and institutional—the “designation” of people and objects.

Over centuries, as designing became increasingly separated from making, that broader understanding faded. But now there is a growing case for reclaiming the word’s original sense: not just the search for a more beautiful shape, but the shaping of a more beautiful and sustainable world. 

Find out why we should retool the word “design.”

—Nicholas de Monchaux

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.)

+ This history of humanity’s search for alien life is fascinating.
+ Watch a damaged painting slowly return to life in this art restoration video.
+ Admire young stars across every stage of cosmic formation in this stunning space picture of the month.
+ Daredevil divers have captured the first-ever underwater footage of an adult great white in the Mediterranean Sea.

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.

David Sinclair plans to test whole-body rejuvenation drugs in the XPrize competition

The outspoken longevity scientist David Sinclair has predicted that, one day, you’ll go to the doctor and get a prescription that will make you 10 years younger. MIT Technology Review has learned of his latest step toward this: human tests of a “reprogramming” drug.

Sinclair, a biologist at Harvard Medical School, plans to launch the tests in a $101 million competition organized by the XPrize Foundation. The winners will “restore” a person to an earlier apparent age, as measured by improvements in immune, cognitive, and muscle function.

The grand prize goes to any team able to show a 10-year (or greater) relative improvement after one year of treatment. 

Sinclair says he plans to give an oral drug mixture to volunteers, in a bid to seek “evidence for age restoration in humans.” Find out how he hopes to reverse ageing through chemical reprogramming.

—Antonio Regalado

Five things you need to know about AI

—Will Douglas Heaven

At SXSW London last week, I gave a talk called “Five things you need to know about AI,” in which I shared what I think are the biggest themes in AI right now.

I pulled a few things from our first AI10 list, an annual guide to the top trends in this buzzy world, but I also veered off on several tangents. In my half-hour slot, I tried to cover the key talking points that I think help to make sense of what’s going on in tech—and thus the economy—today.  

Five key thoughts emerged: AI is everywhere all at once, it’s getting scary, a backlash is growing, it’s becoming a big deal for science—and I didn’t even need to show up at the talk. Read the full story for all the details.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI has confidentially filed for a US IPO
The listing could come as early as September. (Reuters $)
+ OpenAI is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion. (Financial Times $)
+ The IPO will test investor appetite for AI companies. (WSJ $)
+ The move follows IPO filings from Anthropic and SpaceX. (CNN)

2 The US claims BYD, Baidu, Alibaba, and others are aiding China’s military
The Pentagon added them to a list of military-linked companies. (WSJ $)
+ The designations limit their operations in the US. (BBC)
+ The new additions also include humanoid firm Unitree. (TechCrunch)
+ The Pentagon is adapting to China’s tech rise. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Apple’s long-awaited AI overhaul of Siri is finally here
“Siri AI” promises to be a more conversational assistant. (NYT $)
+ It includes a standalone app and screen-reading features. (Reuters $)
+ And arrives after two years of repeated delays. (Axios)

4 The White House and Congress are working to limit state AI laws
A new deal would curb state rules for federal legislation. (Axios)
+ AI regulation has divided US politicians. (MIT Technology Review)

5  Meta is launching a “workforce academy” for building data centers
The five-week program is free of charge and guarantees a job. (WSJ $)
+ It arrives shortly after Meta laid off 8,000 employees. (NPR)

6 Taiwan is mulling curbs on AI chip exports to China
The new controls would further align with US restrictions. (Bloomberg $)
+ Future AI chips could be built on glass. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Meta has quietly removed face-recognition code from its smart glasses app
The code identified by investigators has disappeared. (Wired $)

8 Humanoid robots are edging towards the battlefield
American and Chinese militaries are pursuing the tech. (BBC)

9 The world’s first wind-powered underwater data center has launched
It uses less power and water than land-based equivalents. (Guardian)

10 You could get some benefits of sleep without having to nod off
If new brain stimulation works as well on humans as on mice, that is. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“You’re on the train, but you know that there’s no destination.”

—Clara Shih, a former top AI executive at Salesforce and Meta, tells the New York Times that AI training can’t keep up with the field’s advances.

One More Thing

Inside the race to make human sex cells in the lab

An embryo forms when sperm meets egg. But what if we could start with other cells—if a blood sample or skin biopsy could be transformed into “artificial” sperm and eggs? What if those were all you needed to make a baby?

That’s the promise of a radical approach to reproduction. Scientists have already created artificial eggs and sperm from mouse cells and used them to create mouse pups. Artificial human sex cells are next.

The advances could herald the end of infertility, but they raise major scientific and ethical challenges. 

Read the full story on the new recipes for sperm and eggs.

—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.)

+ These chefs turn Pop-Tarts into the desserts that inspired them.
+ A choir has beautifully transformed System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”
+ Scientists finally traced crabs’ sideways walk in this fascinating study of evolution.
+ This nostalgic essay on the family computer is a touching throwback to early internet life.

Top image credit: Stephanie Arnett/MIT Technology Review | Getty Images

Please send Pop-Tarts to hi@technologyreview.com. 

You can follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for reading!

—Thomas

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 this year’s World Cup ball may not fly as far

Much is new about this month’s FIFA World Cup tournament. It hosts more teams than ever before. It’s the first to occur in three different host countries. 

And, like every World Cup for over half a century, it will employ a football with a brand-new design.

Through wind-tunnel experiments, researchers found that long-distance kicks with Adidas’s new Trionda ball might not travel as far as they did in the past. The payoff is a more predictable flight path, something players have not always enjoyed from World Cup balls.

Find out how a few grooves and seams can change the way the game is played.

—Jenna Ahart

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI plans to turn ChatGPT into a ‘super app’ before its IPO
The revamp would combine coding tools and AI agents. (Financial Times $)
+ The super app ambitions first emerged last year. (Fast Company)
+ OpenAI is also building a fully automated researcher. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Trump wants the US government to take a stake in AI companies
He will meet AI leaders to discuss the plan. (BBC)
+ Which would create “a partnership with the American public.” (Reuters $)
+ He wants a slice of the AI boom. (Axios)

3 Google has agreed to pay SpaceX $30 billion for AI computing power
The $920 million-a-month contract runs through June 2029. (NYT $)
+ Google will use about 110,000 Nvidia GPUs owned by SpaceX. (CNBC)
+ It comes days after Anthropic struck a SpaceX data center deal. (WSJ $)

4 AI is set to make everyday life more expensive
Its insatiable thirst for resources is likely to push up inflation. (WP $)
+ We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Europe is accelerating its withdrawal from US Big Tech
New analysis reveals dozens of moves to alternative providers. (Wired $) + Last week, the EU launched a “made in Europe” drive. (Reuters $)

6 ICE plans to give local police a new facial recognition app
It would allow them to verify a person’s immigration status. (404 Media)
+ Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil Americans with AI? (MIT Technology Review)

7 Silicon Valley’s lure is fading for India’s tech talent
Due to Trump’s immigration policies and AI-driven layoffs. (Rest of World) 

8 ‘Recursive self-improvement’ has sparked fears of AI escaping control
Nobody is sure about the consequences of RSI. (The Economist $)
+ Here are five ways that AI is learning to improve itself. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Gene-edited embryos are getting closer, but a key safety gap remains
Current techniques still fail to edit every cell. (New Scientist $)
+ “Base-edited baby” is one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2026. (MIT Technology Review)

10 NASA astronauts will wear high-tech Prada underwear on their moon trips
Ventilation tubes are knitted into the garments. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“Chat is dead.” 

—A senior OpenAI employee tells the Financial Times why the company is shifting focus from chatbots to AI agents.

One More Thing

How AI is helping historians better understand our past

The digitization of historical records is making it possible to study the past in new ways. Historians are now using machine learning—particularly deep neural networks—to analyze everything from centuries-old astronomy textbooks to ancient Greek inscriptions.

The technology is helping researchers uncover new patterns in the historical record. But it also introduces risks, including the possibility that machine learning will slip bias or outright falsifications into our understanding of the past.

Read the full story on how AI is transforming the study of history.

—Moira Donovan

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.)

+ Take a tour of extinct everyday objects to travel back to pre-smartphone life.
+ This a cappella cover of “I Want To Know What Love Is” nails the power-ballad drama.
+ Korea’s ingenious “one-a-day” banana packs are designed so each one ripens sequentially.
+ Casino dialogue has been synced over Looney Tunes footage in this unexpectedly perfect mashup.

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 Meta hack shows there’s more to AI security than Mythos

On Monday, reports emerged that attackers had used Meta’s AI customer support agent to steal Instagram accounts. Their approach was simple: they asked the agent to link the accounts to email addresses they controlled, and it complied.

Since Anthropic announced that its Mythos model was too good at hacking for a general release, cybersecurity concerns have focused on the risk of superpowered AI systems overwhelming computer infrastructure. But the Instagram hack shows that far simpler exploits can still cause damage.

As companies offload more work to AI, these comparatively unsophisticated attacks are becoming harder to ignore. Read the full story to understand why.

—Grace Huckins

Are AI chatbots making us lose control of our brains?

Gloria Mark, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, fears that digital technologies are weakening our cognitive abilities.

Her research suggests attention spans have fallen sharply over time, leading to higher stress and lower performance. She now believes AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude may accelerate this shift. “You’re deferring your cognitive work to AI,” she said. “And it’s not good for us.”

Mark argues this could weaken critical thinking and emotional intelligence. Luckily, she thinks we can course-correct by changing our relationship with these technologies.

Find out how AI could reshape attention and thinking.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must-reads

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

1 Anthropic has called for a global slowdown in AI development
It flagged the risk of models “self-improving.” (WSJ $)
+ And wants a coordinated plan to stop them. (Reuters $)
+ Skeptics note that the timing is awfully convenient. (The Register)

2 In a first, scientists have precisely edited human embryo genes
They relied on a newer gene-editing technique. (NYT $)
+ Genetically-modified babies could be on their way. (Guardian)
+ Companies have big plans for the technology. (MIT Technology Review)

3 US officials have discussed taking financial stakes in the AI firms
They’ve held talks about the government acquiring shares. (Reuters $)
+ Sam Altman pitched the idea to the White House last year. (WSJ $)

4 Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic
Cloudflare said 57.4% of traffic now comes from bots. (NBC News)
+ Its CEO expected the milestone at the end of 2027. (CNET)

5 The White House plans to bring AI doctors into American medicine
It wants chatbots to diagnose illness and prescribe medicine. (WSJ $)
+ But we don’t even know if healthcare AI actually helps patients. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Meta quietly added facial recognition code for smart glasses to its app
The exploratory feature would identify people via biometric data. (Wired $)
+ Smart glasses are also entering warfare. (MIT Technology Review)

7 South Korea’s labour minister wants tech firms to share AI profits
Kim Young wants staff and suppliers to get a share. (Reuters $)
+ He helped avert a huge strike over AI profit-sharing at Samsung. (NYT $)

8 Canada’s highly-anticipated AI strategy has launched
It promises over $2 billion in funding and aims to create 250,000 jobs. (BBC)
+ AI could strengthen democracy. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Investment in agricultural tech is booming
That’s good news at a time when we’re facing unprecedented levels of food market volatility. (The Economist $)

10 Bumblebees can use tools to solve problems, new research shows
Not just busy—they’re clever too! (Guardian) 

Quote of the day

“Welp, that happened faster than I predicted.” 

—Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, one of the largest internet hosting services, reacts on X to reports that bots have overtaken humans in driving web traffic.

One More Thing

Inside the machine that saved Moore’s Law

In a Connecticut clean room, the Dutch company ASML is developing the world’s most advanced machine for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a crucial process for manufacturing microchips.

The system has become vital to Moore’s Law—the observation that the number of transistors on a chip roughly doubles every two years as components shrink, driving gains in performance and efficiency. “Without this machine, it’s gone,” says Wayne Lam, a director of research at CCS Insight. “You can’t really make any leading-edge processors without EUV.”

Discover how ASML’s EUV technology saved Moore’s Law.

—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.)

+ Tech bosses love Tolkien. Here’s what the writer might think of them.
+ Rare footage captures an underwater volcano erupting beneath the Pacific Ocean.
+ Watch a tiny rescued cub grow into adulthood in this heartwarming tiger compilation.
+ This medieval version of “Take On Me” is like stepping into a tavern of synth-pop bards.

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 courts are coping with a flood of AI-generated lawsuits

Most days in her chambers, Judge Maritza Braswell, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado, sifts through stacks of documents written by people without a lawyer. The number of these filings has more than doubled compared to before 2023. She puts that jump down to AI. 

But while AI appears to be expanding access to justice, it doesn’t seem to be improving people’s chances of winning. Judges are starting to question what rights and duties chatbots should have as they stand in for lawyers. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are grappling with who should pay the price when chatbots produce bad legal advice.

Read the full story on how AI is reshaping access to the law.

—Michelle Kim

How virtual power plants could provide energy for data centers

Would you take a payment to ramp down your electricity use? Would it change anything if you were doing so to help power a local data center? A new project backed by Google will put those questions to the test.

The company has signed a deal to fund a virtual power plant in the largest power grid in the US. The system will group together devices like electric vehicles and smart thermostats, paying customers to adjust their usage when the grid is stretched.

The project could free up capacity for Google’s data centers—but there’s a catch: people might not play along. Find out what the future holds for these virtual power plants.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things climate. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 The EU has proposed new legislation to end its Big Tech dependence
The laws aim to boost domestic ​cloud, AI and semiconductors. (CNBC)
+ US firms would be blocked from critical public tenders. (Reuters $)
+ It also wants to make sure non-EU actors cannot disrupt tech services with a “kill switch.” (The Guardian)
+ But the proposal needs to be negotiated with EU member states. (Politico $)

2 Intelligence agencies warn Chinese spies are recruiting on LinkedIn
The Five Eyes alliance said Beijing is using job platforms for espionage. (BBC)
+ The spies are allegedly recruiting government and military staff. (Politico $)
+ The Chinese embassy in the UK condemned the accusations. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone. (MIT Technology Review)

3 AI CEOs have called for a law protecting against biological weapons
They warn that synthetic DNA could be used for bioweapons. (Wired $)
+ Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Demis Hassabis joined the call. (WSJ $)
+ No one’s sure if synthetic mirror life will kill us all. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Firms are using Reddit to manipulate ChatGPT and Google AI search
They’re spamming subreddits to get posts scraped by chatbots. (404 Media)
+ What we’ve been getting wrong about AI’s truth crisis. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Meta keeps delaying the launch of its new AI model
The new Muse Spark ‌AI model API still has no release date. (WSJ $)
+ Which is hampering Meta’s plans to monetize its AI investments. (Reuters $)

6 For the first time, a US city has voted to permanently ban data centers
Monterey Park, California, voted in favor of the move. (LA Times)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)

7 China is betting on household chore training to advance robotics
Data harvested in homes and factories provides a scaling edge. (Rest of World)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Sam Altman will urge US lawmakers not to require AI model approvals
He’s advocating against proposals for new AI rules. (Reuters $)
+ His move comes after President Trump signed a new AI order. (Wired $)

9 Quantinuum raised $1.68 billion in an IPO as quantum computing rises 
Investors flocked to one of the fast-growing sector’s leaders. (Reuters $)

10 Someone finally wants to hire philosophers: Silicon Valley
Big tech hopes they will help build better machines. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“Historically, these companies have been very willing to play Russian roulette—and they’re playing another round.”

—Connor Leahy, an AI researcher, former hacker and US director of ControlAI, tells the Financial Times why he’s concerned about Anthropic’s relentless race to the top.

One More Thing

What an octopus’s mind can teach us about AI’s ultimate mystery

Emily Bender, a linguist at the University of Washington, has developed a thought experiment she calls the octopus test. It involves an octopus learning to copy patterns in human writing and produce squiggles in response. But does the animal actually understand the language or are we merely projecting meaning onto it?

Bender’s octopus is a stand-in for AI systems like ChatGPT. The intelligence we see in these machines is also projected on them by us. The same applies to consciousness: we may claim to see it, but it remains unclear whether it is really there.

Read the full story on the debate over machines with minds.

—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.)

+ Discover where iconic sound effects actually came from in this fabulous audio history.
+ Need a serotonin boost? Then tune into this live puppy cam from Denali National Park.
+ Linux lovers can try 570 extinct operating systems at a new virtual museum.
+ Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” becomes something entirely different in this lightning-fast bass guitar performance.

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.

5 key points in Trump’s new AI order

Less than two weeks after scrapping an executive order on AI, President Donald Trump signed a new one on Tuesday. Promising to promote innovation and security, the policy represents a turning point in the White House’s AI governance—but is likely to attract criticism from both opponents and supporters of stricter regulation. Here are five key points from the order:

1. It’s created a voluntary review system: tech companies will be asked to share frontier models with the government for review 30 days before they plan to release them.
2. There’s no mandatory licensing: the government will not require permits before software can be deployed.
3. It establishes a dedicated AI cybersecurity clearinghouse: the new hub will coordinate security checks with the private sector.
4. It’s a watered-down version of the order Trump shelved last month: the earlier version requested models 90 days before their release.
5. But it’s still a move towards stronger AI oversight: the policy marks a clear departure from the White House’s previous hands-off approach.

Plus: here’s why a previous Trump administration’s AI policy was a distraction and how AI is already making online crimes easier. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: inside Anduril and Meta’s quest to make smart glasses for warfare

The defense-tech company Anduril has shared new details about the augmented-reality headset for the military it’s prototyping with Meta, including a vision for ordering drone strikes via eye-tracking and voice commands.

Quay Barnett, who leads the effort at Anduril following a career in the Army’s Special Operations Command, aims to optimize “the human as a weapons system.” His vision is cyborg-inspired: drones and soldiers will see together, share information seamlessly, and make decisions as one.

—James O’Donnell

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 President Trump has signed an AI order that expands model oversight
The long-awaited executive order aims to mitigate security threats. (NYT $)
+It asks companies to submit models voluntarily for tests before release. (NPR)
+ It’s a slimmed-down version of the order Trump shelved in May. (WSJ $)
+ And marks a strategic shift in his AI strategy. (Reuters $)
+ A war over AI regulation is coming to the US. (MIT Technology Review)

2 SpaceX plans to raise $75 billion in IPO at $135 per share
The company intends to sell 555.6 million shares. (Reuters $)+ The fixed price breaks from the traditional IPO process. (Bloomberg $)
+ Morningstar says the valuation should be nearly 50% lower. (BI)

3 Meta has scaled back plans to track workers’ clicks and keystrokes to train AI
All staff can pause it for 30 minutes, with some fully exempt.(The Information $)
+ The changes follow a fierce backlash to the tracking plans. (Reuters $)
+ AI is supercharging surveillance. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Microsoft wants to ‘make users addicted’ to its new AI assistant
According tointernal documents for the “Scout” tool. (404 Media)
+ Microsoft launched the assistant on Tuesday. (TechCrunch) 

5 Mathematicians fear that AI threatens their field
A new declaration raises concerns about AI’s trustworthiness. (Ars Technica)
+ It arrives a week after OpenAI said it solved a famous math problem. (WSJ $)
+ A startup wants to change how mathematicians do math. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Scientists have found a way to supercharge computer worms with AI
The worm could target any known flaw in the world’s computers. (NYT $)
+ AI supercharging scams. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Google must let UK publishers opt out of AI search features
Online publishers can choose not to appear in the AI Overviews. (BBC)
+ Google is now testing features for sites to exit AI search. (Reuters $)

8 America’s data center build-out is falling way behind schedule
60% of those planned for completion in 2027 aren’t yet under construction. (WSJ $)
+ Nobody wants a data center in their backyard. (MIT Technology Review)

9 EVs are getting cheaper worldwide—except in the US
The US is short on supportive policies and affordable Chinese EVs. (Rest of World)

10 The European Parliament is ditching Google for… Qwant
The French search engine is the new default on in-house computers. (Politico)
+ The switch comes amid a broader push to wean the EU off US tech. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“SpaceX’s valuation could be richer than a plate of dauphinoise potatoes.”

—Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, tells CNBC that SpaceX’s IPO price looks overloaded with expectations.

One More Thing

Marseille’s battle against the surveillance state

Heading toward Marseille’s central train station, Eda Nano points out what looks like a streetlamp on the Rue des Abeilles. But this sleek piece of urban furniture is not a lamp. It’s a video camera, with a 360-degree view of the narrow street.

Nano, a 39-year-old developer, wants to make Marseille residents more aware that they’re being watched. She’s part of a growing group of activists resisting the rise of policing cameras in their hometown.

Find out how the rebellious port city of Marseille is fighting the surveillance state.

—Fleur Macdonald

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.)

+ These aerial photos of solar farms transform renewable energy into abstract art.
+ Open a window over Earth’s water with this hypnotic 4K atmospheric film made from satellite imagery.
+ Spend three relaxing hours with David Attenborough narrating this collection of extraordinary wildlife moments.
+ Radiohead sounds beautiful on traditional Japanese instruments in this koto performance of “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”.

Correction: This story originally contained a misspelling of the name of the company Qwant. We apologize for the error.