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.