The Download: using AI to discover “zero day” vulnerabilities, and Apple’s ICE app removal

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

Microsoft says AI can create “zero day” threats in biology

A team at Microsoft says it used artificial intelligence to discover a “zero day” vulnerability in the biosecurity systems used to prevent the misuse of DNA.

These screening systems are designed to stop people from purchasing genetic sequences that could be used to create deadly toxins or pathogens. But now researchers say they have figured out how to bypass the protections in a way previously unknown to defenders. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

If you’re interested in learning more about AI and biology, check out:

+ AI-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria. Read the full story.

+ OpenAI is making a foray into longevity science with an AI built to help manufacture stem cells.

+ AI is dreaming up drugs that no one has ever seen. Now we’ve got to see if they work.

The must-reads

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

1 Apple removed an app for reporting ICE officer sightings
The US Attorney General requested it take down ICEBlock—and Apple complied. (Insider $)
+ Apple says the removal was down to the safety risk it posed. (Bloomberg $)
+ The company had a similar explanation for removing a Hong Kong map app back in 2019. (The Verge)

2 OpenAI’s parental controls are easily circumvented 
Its alerts about teenagers’ concerning conversations also took hours to deliver. (WP $)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

3 VCs have sunk a record amount into AI startups this year 
To the tune of $192.7 billion so far. (Bloomberg $)
+ The AI bubble is looking increasingly precarious, though. (FT $)
+ How to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The US federal vaccination schedule is still waiting for an update
Officials are yet to sign off on recommendations for this year’s updated Covid shots. (Ars Technica)
+ Many people have been left unable to get vaccinated. (NPR)

5 The US Department of Energy has canceled yet more clean energy projects
In mostly blue states. (TechCrunch)
+ More than 300 funding awards have been axed. (CNBC)
+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states. (MIT Technology Review)

6 TikTok recommends pornography to children’s accounts
Despite activating its “restricted mode” to prevent sexualized content. (BBC)

7 China has launched a new skilled worker visa program
In the wake of the US H-1B visa clampdown. (Wired $)
+ The initiative hasn’t gone down well with locals. (BBC)

8 Flights were grounded in Germany after several drone sightings
NATO members are worried about suspected Russian incursions in their skies. (WSJ $)
+ It’s the latest in a string of airspace sightings. (FT $)

9 How YouTube is shaking up Hollywood
Its powerful creators are starting to worry the entertainment establishment—and Netflix. (FT $)

10 Anti-robocall tools are getting better
Call screening features are a useful first line of defense. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move.”

—Joshua Aaron, the developer of ICEBlock, the app that crowdsources sightings of ICE officials, hits back at Apple’s decision to remove it from the App Store, 404 Media reports.

One more thing

How AI can help supercharge creativity

Existing generative tools can automate a striking range of creative tasks and offer near-instant gratification—but at what cost? Some artists and researchers fear that such technology could turn us into passive consumers of yet more AI slop.

And so they are looking for ways to inject human creativity back into the process: working on what’s known as co-­creativity or more-than-human creativity. The aim is to develop AI tools that augment our creativity rather than strip it from us. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Congratulations to Fizz, the very handsome UK cat of the year!
+ What it took to transform actor Jeremy Allan White into the one and only Boss in his new film, Deliver Me from Nowhere.
+ Divers have salvaged more than 1,000 gold and silver coins from a 1715 shipwreck off the east coast of Florida.
+ The internet is obsessed with crabs. But why?

The Download: RIP EV tax credits, and OpenAI’s new valuation

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

EV tax credits are dead in the US. Now what?

Federal EV tax credits in the US officially came to an end yesterday.

Those credits, expanded and extended in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, gave drivers up to $7,500 toward the purchase of a new electric vehicle. They’ve been a major force in cutting the up-front costs of EVs, pushing more people toward purchasing them and giving automakers confidence that demand would be strong.

The tax credits’ demise comes at a time when battery-electric vehicles still make up a small percentage of new vehicle sales in the country. So what’s next for the US EV market?

—Casey Crownhart

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

If you’re interested in reading more about EVs and clean energy, take a look at:

+ The US could really use an affordable electric truck. Ford recently announced plans for a $30,000 electric pickup, which could be the shot in the arm that the slowing US EV market needs. Read the full story.

+ What role should oil and gas companies play in climate tech, really?

+ China is an EV-building powerhouse. These three charts explain its energy dominance. Read the full story.

+ Supporting new technologies like EVs can be expensive, but deciding when to wean the public off incentives can be a difficult balancing act. Read the full story.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI has become the world’s most valuable startup
Move aside, SpaceX. (Bloomberg $)
+ OpenAI is now valued at an eye-watering $500 billion. (FT $)
+ The valuation came after workers sold around $6.6 billion in shares. (Reuters)

2 Music labels are close to striking AI licensing deals
Universal and Warner are trying their best to avoid the mis-steps of the internet era. (FT $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Facebook’s political ads are full of spam and scams
And deepfake technology is making them more convincing than ever. (NYT $)
+ Meta will start using conversations with its chatbots to personalize ads. (WSJ $)

4 China is forging ahead with integrating AI tools into children’s lives
But educators worry they’ll harm youngsters’ learning and social skills. (Rest of World)
+ Chinese universities want students to use more AI, not less. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The batteries of the future could be created by AI 
Researchers including Microsoft are experimenting with materials suggested by models. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ This startup wants to use the Earth as a massive battery. (MIT Technology Review)

6 A historian claims to have used AI to identify an anonymous Nazi
Digital tools helped Jürgen Matthäus to pinpoint the person photographed beside a mass grave. (The Guardian)

7 The Pentagon is interested in AI-powered machine guns that shoot drones
Steven Simoni’s Allen Control Systems is part of Silicon Valley’s new military pivot. (Reuters)
+ We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril’s vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)

8 One of Saturn’s moons may have once hosted life
Enceladus has all the necessary keystones to support life, and future missions could uncover it. (Scientific American $)
+ Meanwhile, Blue Origin has won a NASA rover contract. (Wired $)
+ The case against humans in space. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Chatbots exercise all sorts of tricks to keep you talking
They don’t want the conversation to end, a new study has found. (Wired $)

10 What it’s like to become a viral meme
Drew Scanlon, aka “Blinking Guy,” is leveraging his fame for a good cause. (SF Gate)

Quote of the day

“I cannot overstate how disgusting I find this kind of ‘AI’ dog shit in the first place, never mind under these circumstances.”

—Writer Luke O’Neil tells 404 Media his feelings about an AI-generated “biography” of journalist Kaleb Horton, who recently died.

One more thing

A day in the life of a Chinese robotaxi driver

When Liu Yang started his current job, he found it hard to go back to driving his own car: “I instinctively went for the passenger seat. Or when I was driving, I would expect the car to brake by itself,” says the 33-year-old Beijing native, who joined the Chinese tech giant Baidu in January 2021 as a robotaxi driver.

Liu is one of the hundreds of safety operators employed by Baidu, “driving” five days a week in Shougang Park. But despite having only worked for the company for 19 months, he already has to think about his next career move, as his job will likely be eliminated within a few years. Read the full story.

—Zeyi Yang

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ Congratulations are in order for 32 Chunk, winner of this year’s highly prestigious Fat Bear Week competition
+ Here’s how 10 women artists got their days off to the best start possible.
+ This Instagram account documenting the worldly travels of a cassette player is fab.
+ Brb, I’m off to listen to Arctic Outpost Radio, spinning records from the very top of the world.

The Download: OpenAI’s caste bias problem, and how AI videos are made

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

OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias.

Caste bias is rampant in OpenAI’s products, including ChatGPT, according to an MIT Technology Review investigation. Though CEO Sam Altman boasted about India being its second-largest market during the launch of GPT-5 in August, we found that both this new model, which now powers ChatGPT, as well as Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video generator, exhibit caste bias. This risks entrenching discriminatory views in ways that are currently going unaddressed. 

Mitigating caste bias in AI models is more pressing than ever. In contemporary India, many caste-oppressed Dalit people have escaped poverty and have become doctors, civil service officers, and scholars; some have even risen to become the president of India. But AI models continue to reproduce socioeconomic and occupational stereotypes that render Dalits as dirty, poor, and performing only menial jobs. Read the full story.

—Nilesh Christopher

MIT Technology Review Narrated: how do AI models generate videos?

It’s been a big year for video generation. The downside is that creators are competing with AI slop, and social media feeds are filling up with faked news footage. Video generation also uses up a huge amount of energy, many times more than text or image generation.

With AI-generated videos everywhere, let’s take a moment to talk about the tech that makes them work.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.

The must-reads

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

1 Taiwan has rejected America’s chip demand
It’s pushed back on a US request to move 50% of chip production to the States. (Bloomberg $)
+ Taiwan said it never agreed to the commitment. (CNN)
+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Chatbots may not be eliminating jobs after all
A new labor market study has found little evidence they’re putting humans out of work. (FT $)
+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)

3 OpenAI has released a new Sora video app
It’s the latest in a long line of attempts to make AI a social experience. (Axios)
+ Copyright holders will have to request the removal of their property. (WSJ $)

4 Scientists have made embryos from human skin cells for the first time
It could allow people experiencing infertility and same-sex couples to have children. (BBC)
+ How robots are changing the face of fertility science. (WP $)

5 Elon Musk claims to be building a Wikipedia rival
Which I’m sure will be entirely accurate and impartial. (Gizmodo)
+ How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)

6 America’s chips resurgence has been thrown into chaos
After funding was yanked from the multi-billion dollar initiative designed to revive the industry. (Politico)

7 ICE wants to buy a phone location-tracking tool
Even though it doesn’t have a warrant to do so. (404 Media)

8 The trouble with scaling up EV manufacturing
Solid-state batteries are the holy grail—but is full commercialization feasible? (Knowable Magazine)
+ Why bigger EVs aren’t always better. (MIT Technology Review)

9 DoorDash’s food delivery robot is coming to Arizona’s roads
Others before it have failed. Can Dot succeed? (TechCrunch)

10 What it’s like to give ChatGPT therapy
It’s very good at telling you what it thinks you want to hear. (New Yorker $)
+ Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Please treat adults like adults.”

—An X user reacts angrily to OpenAI’s moves to restrict the topics ChatGPT will discuss, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past

After falling steadily for decades, the prevalence of global hunger is now on the rise—nowhere more so than in sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to conflicts, economic fallout from the covid-19 pandemic, and extreme weather events.

Africa’s indigenous crops are often more nutritious and better suited to the hot and dry conditions that are becoming more prevalent, yet many have been neglected by science, which means they tend to be more vulnerable to diseases and pests and yield well below their theoretical potential.

Now the question is whether researchers, governments, and farmers can work together in a way that gets these crops onto plates and provides Africans from all walks of life with the energy and nutrition that they need to thrive, whatever climate change throws their way. Read the full story.

—Jonathan W. Rosen

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ The mighty Stonehenge is still keeping us guessing after all these years (4,600 of them).
+ Björk’s VR experience looks typically bonkers.
+ We may finally have an explanation for the will-o’-the-wisp phenomenon.
+ How to build your very own Commodore 64 Cartridge.

The Download: our thawing permafrost, and a drone-filled future

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

Scientists can see Earth’s permafrost thawing from space

Something is rotten in the city of Nunapitchuk. In recent years, sewage has leached into the earth. The ground can feel squishy, sodden.

This small town in northern Alaska is experiencing a sometimes overlooked consequence of climate change: thawing permafrost. And Nunapitchuk is far from the only Arctic town to find itself in such a predicament. 

Now scientists think they may be able to use satellite data to delve deep beneath the ground’s surface and get a better understanding of how the permafrost thaws, and which areas might be most severely affected. Read the full story.

—Sarah Scoles

The US may be heading toward a drone-filled future

—James O’Donnell

Last week, I published a story about the police-tech giant Flock Safety selling its drones to the private sector to track shoplifters. Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now leads Flock’s drone efforts, described the ideal scenario: A security team at a Home Depot, say, launches a drone from the roof that follows shoplifting suspects to their car. The drone tracks their car through the streets, transmitting its live video feed directly to the police.

It’s a vision that, unsurprisingly, alarms civil liberties advocates. But the fate of drones in the US pretty much comes down to one rule. It’s a Federal Aviation Administration regulation that stipulates where and how drones can be flown—and it is about to change. Read the full story.

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.

Trump’s impact on the next generation of innovators

Every year, MIT Technology Review recognizes dozens of young researchers on our Innovators Under 35 list. This year Amy Nordrum, our executive editor, and our senior investigative reporter Eileen Guo checked back in with recent honorees to see how they’re faring amid sweeping changes to science and technology policy within the US.

Join us tomorrow at 1.30pm ET for an exclusive Roundtables conversation with Amy and Eileen to learn about the complex realities of what life has been like for those aiming to build their labs and companies in today’s political climate. Register here!

The must-reads

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

1 California’s governor has signed America’s first AI law 
It’ll require AI developers to publicly disclose their safety and security protocols. (Politico)
+ The landmark bill has received a mixed reception from the AI industry. (TechCrunch)

2 The Trump administration is pressuring Taiwan
It’s pushing officials to move 50% of chip production to the US—or else. (Ars Technica)
+ The US argues it’s the best way to counter invasion threats from China. (Bloomberg $)
+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)

3 US ChatGPT users can now buy stuff without leaving the chatbot
It’s laying the groundwork for AI agent-based shopping. (WSJ $)
+ Etsy is among the first retailers to sign up for the service. (CNBC)
+ It’s a direct challenge to Google’s business model. (Fortune $)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)

4 YouTube has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump 
It’s handing over $24.5 million after his account was suspended in the wake of the US Capitol riot in 2021. (WSJ $)
+ It’s the third giant tech platform to bend to the President’s will. (The Verge)

5 Meta is expanding use of its facial recognition tools
In a bid to combat account impersonation in Europe, the UK, and South Korea. (Engadget)

6 The US Energy Department has banned the term “climate change”
See also: “green” and “decarbonization.” (Politico)
+ Even “emissions” isn’t safe. (TechCrunch)
+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the States. (MIT Technology Review)

7 AI data centers are sending the cost of electricity skyrocketing
And it’s regular citizens who are left paying the price. (Bloomberg $)
+ Sam Altman wants a staggering amount of energy. (The Information $)
+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Elon Musk’s senior staff are leaving in their droves
They’re burnt out and tired of their leader’s erratic strategies. (FT $)

9 Do black holes actually exist?
The evidence says yes, but proving it is a different matter. (New Scientist $)

10 California police tried to ticket a driverless car 
But who’s to blame for its illegal U-turn if there’s no driver? (The Guardian)
+ It turns out officers don’t currently have any way to issue tickets to robots. (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“There are certainly people in [the] tech world who would like to see no regulation of anything in any respect whatsoever, but that’s not tenable.”

—US Senator Scott Wiener, who proposed the original AI Safety Bill last year, explains why he believes the revised version that’s been passed into law is a reasonable approach to the New York Times.

One more thing

How mobile money supercharged Kenya’s sports betting addiction

Mobile money has mostly been hugely beneficial for Kenyans. But it has also turbo-charged the country’s sports betting sector.

Since the middle of the last decade, experts and public figures across the African continent have been sounding the alarm over the rising popularity of sports betting. The practice has produced tales of riches, but it has also broken families, consumed college tuitions, and even driven some to suicide.

Nowhere, though, is the craze as acute as it is in Kenya, the country often dubbed Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” for its status as a regional tech powerhouse. But while Kenya’s mobile money revolution has played a well-documented role in encouraging savings and democratizing access to finance, today, it’s easier than ever for those in fragile economic circumstances to squander everything. Read the full story.

—Jonathan W. Rosen

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ It took one man 16 years to type the numbers from one to a million—using words and just one finger.
+ Furnishing your home with books you have no interest in reading is certainly a choice.
+ What it’s like to play SimCity 2000 as a responsible adult.
+ It’s almost pumpkin season!

The Download: AI to detect child abuse images, and what to expect from our 2025 Climate Tech Companies to Watch list

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.

US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI

Generative AI has enabled the production of child sexual abuse images to skyrocket. Now the leading investigator of child exploitation in the US is experimenting with using AI to distinguish AI-generated images from material depicting real victims, according to a new government filing.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Crimes Center, which investigates child exploitation across international borders, has awarded a $150,000 contract to San Francisco–based Hive AI for its software, which can identify whether a piece of content was AI-generated. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

Coming soon: our 2025 list of Climate Tech Companies to Watch

The need to cut emissions and adapt to our warming world is growing more urgent. This year, we’ve seen temperatures reach record highs, as they have nearly every year for the last decade. Climate-fueled natural disasters are affecting communities around the world, costing billions of dollars. 

That’s why, for the past two years, MIT Technology Review has curated a list of companies with the potential to make a meaningful difference in addressing climate change (you can revisit the 2024 list here). We’re excited to share that we’ll publish our third edition of Climate Tech Companies to Watch on October 6. Here’s what you can expect from this year’s list.

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

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

1 ChatGPT’s parental controls are now live
The model can now alert parents and law enforcement when users under 18-years old discuss self harm or suicide. (Wired $)
+ The feature launches as chatbot makers face increasing pressure to improve safety. (Bloomberg $)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Companies’ AI spending is spiralling out of control
And it’s unclear whether they’ll ever get returns on their investments. (WSJ $)
+ Some VCs are convinced AI is the best way to make a quick buck. (TechCrunch)
+ Investors are wondering what to invest in beyond AI. (Reuters)

3 Even oil executives are worried by Trump’s attacks on offshore wind
Cracking down on renewables now is bad news for traditional energy down the line. (NYT $)
+ The scale of the Trump administration’s intervention is wild. (The Guardian)
+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states. (MIT Technology Review)

4 How America is winning the war on city fires
Making homes fire-resistant isn’t glamorous—but it’s essential. (Vox)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Top AI firms are going all-in on world models
They’re powered by videos and robotics data, not just language. (FT $)
+ Experts are convinced they’re vital to creating the next wave of AI. (WSJ $)

6 China is rushing to electrify freight trucks
Not content with dominating the electric car market, it’s eyeing bigger vehicles. (Rest of World)
+ Sales of battery-powered cars are projected to plummet in the US. (NYT $)

7 What we lose when we rely on AI translation
Nuance and cultural context are among the first casualties. (WP $)
+ How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)

8 The tricky ethics of gene-editing the natural world
Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. (Aeon)
+ The short, strange history of gene de-extinction. (MIT Technology Review)

9 This robotics firm uses AI to clean the underside of giant ships
Neptune Robotics has the lofty goal of becoming Uber for hull-cleaning. (Bloomberg $)

10 Talent agents are desperate to sign this AI actress
We are living in the end times. (Deadline $)
+ Why the Twin Peaks subreddit briefly became an AI slop dumping ground. (404 Media)
+ An AI-powered hologram of Marvel Comics’ creator Stan Lee isn’t very popular. (Ars Technica)

Quote of the day

“There’s so much pressure to be the company that went from zero to $100 million in X days.”

—An anonymous VC tells Fortune about the intense pressure on startups in the age of AI hype.

One more thing

How DeepSeek became a fortune teller for China’s youth

As DeepSeek has emerged as a homegrown challenger to OpenAI, young people across China have started using AI to revive fortune-telling practices that have deep roots in Chinese culture.

People are sharing AI-generated readings, experimenting with fortune-telling prompt engineering, and revisiting ancient spiritual texts—all with the help of DeepSeek.

The surge in AI fortune-telling comes during a time of pervasive anxiety and pessimism in Chinese society. And as spiritual practices remain hidden underground thanks to the country’s regime, computers and phone screens are helping younger people to gain a sense of control over their lives. Read the full story.

—Caiwen Chen

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ This site lets you find out what was happening in the news on the day you were born. 
+ This blistering track by South Korean band Silica Gel confirms rock is alive and well.
+  Spend a few minutes exploring Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.
+ Play around with this map that allows you to explore movie settings around the world.

The Download: shoplifter-chasing drones, and Trump’s TikTok deal

Shoplifters in the US could soon be chased down by drones

The news: Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company has announced. Potential customers include businesses trying to curb shoplifting. 

How it works: If the security team at a store sees shoplifters leave, they can activate a camera-equipped drone. “The drone follows the people. The people get in a car. You click a button and you track the vehicle with the drone, and the drone just follows the car,” says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock’s drone program. The video feed of that drone might go to the company’s security team, but it could also be automatically transmitted directly to police departments. 

The response: Flock’s expansion into private-sector security is “a logical step, but in the wrong direction,” says Rebecca Williams, senior strategist for the ACLU’s privacy and data governance unit. Read the full story. 

—James O’Donnell 

Read more of our stories about the latest in drone tech:

+ Why you’re about to see a lot more drones over America’s skies.

+ Meet Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. His work could help to determine the future of Ukraine, and wars far beyond it.

+ We examined four big trends that show what’s next for drone technology.

+ The defense tech startup Epirus has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military. Read our story about how it could change the future of war.

The must-reads

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

1 TikTok US is being valued at $14 billion by Trump’s deal
That’s shockingly low for a fast-growing social media company. (FT $) 
+ The deal is basically just Trump giving TikTok to his friends. (Vox $)
+ Here’s what the sale means for you. (WP $)

2 Microsoft has stopped letting Israel use its technology for surveillance
The system was used to collect millions of Palestinian civilians’ phone calls every day. (The Guardian)

3 There are more robots working in China than the rest of the world combined
It’s a trend that’ll further cement its status as the world’s leading manufacturer. (NYT $)
+ China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The inside story of what happened when DOGE came to town
If anything, this is even more grim and chaotic than you might imagine. (Wired $)

5 Instagram’s teen safety features are flawed
Researchers tested 47 of these features, and found that only 8 were fully effective. (Reuters $)
+ There’s growing concern among lawmakers about the risks of kids forming bonds with chatbots. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Brazil’s judicial system is adopting AI with gusto
The trouble is that rather than reducing the amount of work for judges and lawyers, AI seems to be increasing it. (Rest of World)
+ Meet the early-adopter judges using AI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Amazon is refunding $1.5 billion to Prime subscribers
The deal with the FTC lets it avoid a trial over claims it tricked consumers into signing up. (WP $)

8 These women are in love with AI 
Like it or not, these sorts of romances are becoming more common. (Slate $)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 Scientists are improving how we measure nothing
Researchers are developing a vacuum-measurement tool that could unlock exciting new possibilities for science. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ This quantum radar could image buried objects. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Why does everything online feel so icky? 
Most of us will go to extreme lengths to avoid awkwardness IRL. On social media, it’s another matter entirely… (Vox $)
+ China’s government has had enough of everyone being negative on its internet. (BBC)

Quote of the day

“AI machines—in quite a literal sense—appear to be saving the US economy right now. In the absence of tech-related spending, the US would be close to, or in, recession this year.”

—George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank, warns that the AI boom is unsustainable in a note to clients, Fortune reports.

One more thing

COURTESY OF OPENAI

The two people shaping the future of OpenAI’s research

—Will Douglas Heaven

For the past couple of years, OpenAI has felt like a one-man brand. With his showbiz style and fundraising glitz, CEO Sam Altman overshadows all other big names on the firm’s roster.

But Altman is not the one building the technology on which its reputation rests. That responsibility falls to OpenAI’s twin heads of research—chief research officer Mark Chen and chief scientist Jakub Pachocki. Between them, they share the role of making sure OpenAI stays one step ahead of powerhouse rivals like Google.

I recently sat down with Chen and Pachocki for an exclusive conversation which covered everything from how they manage the inherent tension between research and product, to what they really mean when they talk about AGI, and what happened to OpenAI’s superalignment team. Read the full story.

We can still have nice things

+ Wherever you are, this website helps you discover the most interesting bars nearby. 
+ Take a tour of Norway’s lighthouses.
+ Inside London’s flourishing underground rave scene.
+ Meaningful changes rarely occur instantly. Here’s how they do happen.

The Download: growing threats to vulnerable languages, and fact-checking Trump’s medical claims

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

How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral

Wikipedia is the most ambitious multilingual project after the Bible: There are editions in over 340 languages, and a further 400 even more obscure ones are being developed. But many of these smaller editions are being swamped with AI-translated content. Volunteers working on four African languages, for instance, estimated to MIT Technology Review that between 40% and 60% of articles in their Wikipedia editions were uncorrected machine translations.

This is beginning to cause a wicked problem. AI systems learn new languages by scraping huge quantities of text from the internet. Wikipedia is sometimes the largest source of online linguistic data for languages with few speakers—so any errors on those pages can poison the wells that AI is expected to draw from. Volunteers are being forced to go to extreme lengths to fix the issue, even deleting certain languages from Wikipedia entirely. Read the full story. 

—Jacob Judah 

This story is part of our Big Story series: MIT Technology Review’s most important, ambitious reporting. These stories take a deep look at the technologies that are coming next and what they will mean for us and the world we live in. Check out the rest of the series here.

Trump is pushing leucovorin as a new treatment for autism. What is it? 

On Monday, President Trump claimed that childhood vaccines and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, are to blame for the increasing prevalence of autism. He advised pregnant women against taking the medicine. 

The administration also announced that the FDA would work to make a medication called leucovorin available as a treatment for children with autism. The president’s assertions left many dismayed. “The data cited do not support the claim that Tylenol causes autism and leucovorin is a cure, and only stoke fear and falsely suggest hope when there is no simple answer,” said the Coalition for Autism Researchers, a group of more than 250 scientists, in a statement. So what does the evidence say? Read our story to find out. 

—Cassandra Willyard 

This is part of our MIT Technology Review Explains series, where our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.

Fusion power plants don’t exist yet, but they’re making money anyway

This week, Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced it has another customer for its first commercial fusion power plant, in Virginia. Eni, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, signed a billion-dollar deal to buy electricity from the facility.

One small detail? That reactor doesn’t exist yet. This is a weird moment in fusion. Investors are pouring billions into the field to build power plants, and companies are even signing huge agreements to purchase power from those still-nonexistent plants. 

But all this comes before companies have actually completed a working reactor that can produce electricity. It takes money to develop a new technology, but all this funding could lead to some twisted expectations. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart 

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter all about the latest in climate change and clean tech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The AI Hype Index: Cracking the chatbot code

Millions of us use chatbots every day, even though we don’t really know how they work or how using them affects us. In a bid to address this, the FTC recently launched an inquiry into how chatbots affect children and teenagers. Elsewhere, OpenAI has started to shed more light on what people are actually using ChatGPT for, and why it thinks its LLMs are so prone to making stuff up.

There’s still plenty we don’t know—but that isn’t stopping governments from forging ahead with AI projects. In the US, RFK Jr. is pushing his staffers to use ChatGPT, while Albania is using a chatbot for public contract procurement. Check out the latest edition of our AI Hype Index to help you sort AI reality from hyped-up fiction. 

The must-reads

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

1 Huntington’s disease has been treated successfully for the first time
Gene therapy managed to slow progress of the disease in patients by 75%. (The Economist $) 
+ Here’s how the gene editing tool CRISPR is changing lives. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Google says 90% of tech workers are using AI
But most of them also say they don’t trust AI models’ outputs. (CNN)
+ Why does AI hallucinate? (MIT Technology Review)

3 A MAGA TikTok takeover is coming
Just as free speech protections in the US start to look worryingly fragile. (The Atlantic $)

4 Chinese tech workers are returning from the US
There’s a whole bunch of complex factors both driving them to leave, and luring them back. (Rest of World)
+ But it’s hard to say what the impact of the new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas will be on India’s tech sector. (WP $)
+ Europe is hoping to nab more tech talent too. (The Verge)

5 If AI can diagnose us, what are doctors for?
They need to prepare for the fact chatbot use is becoming more and more widespread among patients. (New Yorker $)
+ This medical startup uses LLMs to run appointments and make diagnoses. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Drones have been spotted at four more airports in Denmark
It looks like a coordinated attack, but officials still haven’t worked out who is behind it. (FT $)

7 TSMC has unveiled AI-designed chips that use less energy
The AI software found better solutions than TSMC’s own human engineers—and did so much faster. (South China Morning Post)
+ These four charts sum up the state of AI and energy. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How to find love on dating apps 
It’s not easy, but it is possible. (The Guardian)

9 AI models can’t cope with Persian social etiquette
It involves a lot of saying ‘no’ when you mean ‘yes’, which simply doesn’t wash with computers. (Ars Technica)

10 VR headsets are better than ever, but no one seems to care
The tech industry keeps overestimating how willing people are to strap computers to their faces. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“We are living through the most destructive arms race in human history.”

—Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells world leaders gathered at the UN that they need to intervene to stop the escalating development of drone technology and AI, The Guardian reports.

One more thing

STUART BRADFORD

The great AI consciousness conundrum

AI consciousness isn’t just a tricky intellectual puzzle; it’s a morally weighty problem. Fail to identify a conscious AI, and you might unintentionally subjugate a being whose interests ought to matter. Mistake an unconscious AI for a conscious one, and you risk compromising human safety and happiness for the sake of an unthinking, unfeeling hunk of silicon and code.

Over the past few decades, a small research community has doggedly attacked the question of what consciousness is and how it works. The effort has yielded real progress. And now, with the rapid advance of AI technology, these insights could offer our only guide to the untested, morally fraught waters of artificial consciousness. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

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.)

+ It’s Fat Bear Week! Who gets your vote this year?
+ Learn about Lord Woodbine, the forgotten sixth Beatle. 
+ There are some truly wild and wacky recipes in this Medieval Cookery collection. Venison porridge, anyone? 
+ Pessimism about technology is as old as technology itself, as this archive shows.

The Download: accidental AI relationships, and the future of contraception

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.

It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot

The news: The first large-scale computational analysis of the Reddit community r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, which is dedicated to discussing AI relationships, found that many people formed those relationships unintentionally while using AI for other purposes. In fact, only 6.5% of them said they’d deliberately sought out an AI companion. 

Why it matters: The study found that AI companionship provides vital support for some but exacerbates underlying problems for others. This means it’s hard to take a one-size-fits-all approach to user safety. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

Join us at 1.30pm ET today to learn about the future of birth control 

Conversations around birth control usually focus on women, but Kevin Eisenfrats, one of the MIT Technology Review 2025 Innovators Under 35, is working to change that. His company, Contraline, is working toward testing new birth control options for men. Join us for an exclusive subscribers-only Roundtable interview to hear Kevin in conversation with our executive editor Amy Nordrum at 1.30 ET today. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: What’s next for AI and math

The last year has seen rapid progress in the ability of large language models to tackle math at high school level and beyond. Is AI closing in on human mathematicians? 

This story is the latest to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to listen to all our new episodes as they’re released.

The must-reads

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

1 Secret Service agents dismantled a giant operation to cripple cell networks
They say it’s likely it was intended to be used for scams. (Wired $)

2 Welcome to the new era of fragmented US vaccine policies
The federal government is abdicating responsibility for public health. Who will fill the void? (New Yorker $)
+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

3 European defense leaders are discussing building a ‘drone wall’ 
They’re scrambling to catch up as Russian incursions into their territory increase. (ABC)

4 How will we know if we’ve reached artificial general intelligence?
That’s the multi-billion dollar question—but there’s no clear answer. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Experts don’t even agree on what AI is to begin with, never mind AGI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Robot umpires are coming to baseball’s major leagues next year 
Humans will still be in charge of calling balls and strikes, but tech will help to judge appealed decisions. (AP)

6 AI’s energy needs are being overstated
And that could lock us into unnecessary, costly fossil fuel projects. (The Verge)
+ Four reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy usage. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Extreme drought is set to become a lot more commonplace
Governments need to do a lot more to prepare. (Gizmodo) 

8 AI is coming for subtitle writers’ jobs 
But their work is harder to replace than you might think. (The Guardian)
+ ‘Workslop’ is slowing everything down. (Harvard Business Review)
+ And, to add to the problem, AI systems may never be secure. (The Economist $)

9 How epigenetics could help save wildlife from extinction
It could allow scientists to detect accelerated aging before an animal population starts to visibly collapse. (Knowable)
+ Aging clocks aim to predict how long you’ll live. (MIT Technology Review)

10 TikTok is getting introduced to the concept of the rapture 
Which is due today, according to some. If so, it’s been great knowing you. Good luck! (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Everybody has a backup.”

—Stella Li, executive vice president at BYD, tells CNBC the company has contingency plans in case Beijing orders it to stop using Nvidia chips.

One more thing

GETTY IMAGES

This app is helping workers reclaim millions in lost wages

Reclamo, a new web app, helps immigrant workers who have experienced wage theft. It guides them through assembling case details, and ultimately produces finished legal claims that can be filed instantly. A process that would otherwise take multiple meetings with an attorney can now be done within an hour.

A significant amount of wage theft targets immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in part because of communication barriers and their perceived lack of power or legal recourse. But the app is already making a difference—helping workers to reclaim $1 million in lost wages since it started beta testing in October 2022. Read the full story.

—Patrick Sisson

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.)

+ It’s Fat Bear Week! Who gets your vote this year?
+ Learn about Lord Woodbine, the forgotten sixth Beatle. 
+ There are some truly wild and wacky recipes in this Medieval Cookery collection. Venison porridge, anyone? 
+ Pessimism about technology is as old as technology itself, as this archive shows.

The Download: AI’s retracted papers problem

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

AI models are using material from retracted scientific papers

The news: Some AI chatbots rely on flawed research from retracted scientific papers to answer questions, according to recent studies. In one such study, researchers asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT questions based on information from 21 retracted papers on medical imaging. The chatbot’s answers referenced retracted papers in five cases but advised caution in only three. 

The bigger picture: The findings raise serious questions about how reliable AI tools are at evaluating scientific research, or answering people’s health queries. They could also complicate efforts to invest in AI tools for scientists. And it’s not an easy problem to fix. Read the full story.

—Ananya

Join us at 1pm ET today to meet our Innovator of the Year

Every year, MIT Technology Review awards Innovator of the Year to someone whose work we admire. This year we selected Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method.

Her work could transform medical care by allowing physicians to sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose genetic conditions in less than eight hours.

Register here to join an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation with Goenka, Leilani Battle, assistant professor at the University of Washington, and our editor in chief Mat Honan at 1pm ET today. 

The must-reads

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

1 There’s scant evidence tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism
The biggest cause of autism is genetic—that’s why it often runs in families. (Scientific American $)
+ Anti-vaxxers are furious the White House didn’t link autism to vaccines. (Ars Technica)
+ The company that sells Tylenol is being forced to defend the medicine’s safety. (Axios)

2 Nvidia is investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI
OpenAI is already a major customer, but this will bind the two even more closely together. (Reuters $)
+ America’s top companies keep talking about AI—but they can’t explain its upsides. (FT $)

3 Denmark’s biggest airport was shut down by drones
Its prime minister refused to rule out Russian involvement. (FT $)
+ Poland and Estonia have been speaking up at the UN about Russian incursions into their airspace. (The Guardian)

4 Google is facing another antitrust trial in the US
This one will focus on remedies to its dominance of the advertising tech market. (Ars Technica)
+ The FTC is also taking Amazon to court over accusations the company tricks people into paying for Prime. (NPR)
+ The Supreme Court has ruled to allow Trump’s firing of a Democrat FTC commissioner. (NYT $)

5 Here’s the potential impact of Trump’s H-1B crackdown on tech
It’s likely to push a lot of skilled workers elsewhere. (Rest of World)

6 How TikTok’s deal to stay in the US will work
Oracle will manage its algorithm for US users and oversee security operations. (ABC)
+ It’s a giant prize for Trump’s friend Larry Ellison, Oracle’s cofounder. (NYT $)
+ Trump and his allies are now likely to exert a lot of political influence over TikTok. (WP $)

7 Record labels are escalating their lawsuit against an AI music startup
They claim it knowingly pirated songs from YouTube to train its generative AI models. (The Verge $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review) 

8 There’s a big fight in the US over who pays for weight loss drugs
Although they’ll save insurers money long-term, they cost a lot upfront. (WP $)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How a lone vigilante ended up blowing up 5G towers
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. (Wired $)

10 The moon is rusting 
And it’s our fault. Awkward! (Nature)

Quote of the day

“At the heart of this is people trying to look for simple answers to complex problems.”

—James Cusack, chief executive of an autism charity called Autistica, tells Nature what he thinks is driving Trump and others to incorrectly link the condition with Tylenol use during pregnancy. 

One more thing

SARAH ROGERS / MITTR | PHOTOS GETTY

Maybe you will be able to live past 122

How long can humans live? This is a good time to ask the question. The longevity scene is having a moment, and a few key areas of research suggest that we might be able to push human life spans further, and potentially reverse at least some signs of aging.

Researchers can’t even agree on what the exact mechanisms of aging are and which they should be targeting. Debates continue to rage over how long it’s possible for humans to live—and whether there is a limit at all.

But it looks likely that something will be developed in the coming decades that will help us live longer, in better health. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ This website lets you send a letter to your future self. 
+ Here’s what Brian Eno has to say about art.
+ This photographer takes stunning pictures of Greenland. 
+ The Hungarian dish Rakott krumpli isn’t going to win any health plaudits, but it looks very comforting all the same.

The Download: the LLM will see you now, and a new fusion power deal

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 medical startup uses LLMs to run appointments and make diagnoses

Patients at a small number of clinics in Southern California run by the medical startup Akido Labs are spending relatively little time, or even no time at all, with their doctors. Instead, they see a medical assistant, who can lend a sympathetic ear but has limited clinical training.

The job of formulating diagnoses and concocting a treatment plan is done by an LLM-based system called ScopeAI that transcribes and analyzes the dialogue between patient and assistant. A doctor then approves, or corrects, the AI system’s recommendations.

According to Akido’s CEO, this approach allows doctors to see four to five times as many patients as they could previously. But experts aren’t convinced that displacing so much of the cognitive work of medicine onto AI is the right way to remedy the doctor shortage. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

An oil and gas giant signed a $1 billion deal with Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Eni, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, just agreed to buy $1 billion in electricity from a power plant being built by Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The deal is the latest to illustrate just how much investment Commonwealth and other fusion companies are courting as they attempt to take fusion power from the lab to the power grid.

The agreement will see Eni purchase electricity from Commonwealth’s first commercial fusion power plant, in Virginia. The facility is still in the planning stages but is scheduled to come online in the early 2030s. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

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

1 Trump officials are expected to link Tylenol to autism
They’re also likely to tout a lesser-known drug called leucovorin as a potential treatment. (WP $)
+ They’ll warn women in the early stages of pregnancy that they should only take Tylenol to treat high fevers. (Politico)
+ But a huge study found no connection last year. (Axios)

2 Trump wants to charge skilled foreign workers $100,000 for H-1B visas
The decision is highly likely to harm US growth, especially in its tech sector. (The Guardian)
+ The visa has been a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of tech workers. (BBC)
+ Indian outsourcing companies are struggling to pivot. (Bloomberg $)
+ Tech firms are sending memos to their workers on the visa. (Insider $)

3 The European Commission wants to ax cookie consent banners
A 2009 law triggered an influx in pesky pop-ups that the EU now wants to get rid of. (Politico)

4 The Murdochs and Michael Dell are among TikTok’s potential buyers
The media mogul family and Dell founder are interested in shares, Trump says. (CNN)

5 Inside China’s plan to put its data centers to work
A mega-cluster of centers is springing up in the city of Wuhu. (FT $)
+ China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Seattle’s tech scene is in trouble
When its biggest firms slash their workforces, where does that leave everyone else? (WSJ $)

7 Innocent people are being scammed into scamming
Chinese gangs are imprisoning trafficking victims in compounds on the Myanmar-Thai border. (Reuters)
+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Europe’s reusable rocket dream isn’t entirely dead
But progress has been a lot slower than it should be. (Ars Technica)
+ Elon Musk’s utter dominance of space tech is hard to overestimate. (Wired $)
+ Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How ChatGPT fares as a financial stock picker
Be prepared to roll the dice. (Fast Company $)

10 Silicon Valley is ditching dating apps
And turning to elite matchmakers instead. (The Information $)

Quote of the day

“I didn’t sleep all night. I kept thinking: What if I get stuck outside the US?”

—Akaash Hazarika, a Salesforce engineer, tells Insider he was forced to cut his vacation to Toronto short and rush back to America after the Trump administration announced changes to the H-1B skilled foreign worker visa.

One more thing

The quest to figure out farming on Mars

Once upon a time, water flowed across the surface of Mars. Waves lapped against shorelines, strong winds gusted and howled, and driving rain fell from thick, cloudy skies. It wasn’t really so different from our own planet 4 billion years ago, except for one crucial detail—its size. Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, and that’s where things went wrong.

The Martian core cooled quickly, soon leaving the planet without a magnetic field. This, in turn, left it vulnerable to the solar wind, which swept away much of its atmosphere. Without a critical shield from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, Mars could not retain its heat. Some of the oceans evaporated, and the subsurface absorbed the rest, with only a bit of water left behind and frozen at its poles. If ever a blade of grass grew on Mars, those days are over.

But could they begin again? And what would it take to grow plants to feed future astronauts on Mars? Read the full story.

—David W. Brown

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+  These abandoned blogs are a relic of the bygone internet (bring them back!)
+ How to strengthen your bond with your reluctant cat
+ How Metal Gear Solid inspired the video to one of the greatest hits of the late 90s.
+ If I had to explain British culture to someone, I’d just send them this video.