The Download: brain-computer interfaces, and teaching an AI model to give therapy

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.

Brain-computer interfaces face a critical test

Brain computer interfaces (BCIs) are electrodes put in paralyzed people’s brains so they can use imagined movements to send commands from their neurons through a wire, or via radio, to a computer. In this way, they can control a computer cursor or, in few cases, produce speech.  

Recently, this field has taken some strides toward real practical applications. About 25 clinical trials of BCI implants are currently underway. And this year MIT Technology Review readers have selected these brain-computer interfaces as their addition to our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

How do you teach an AI model to give therapy?

—James O’Donnell

On March 27, the results of the first clinical trial for a generative AI therapy bot were published, and they showed that people in the trial who had depression or anxiety or were at risk for eating disorders benefited from chatting with a bot.

I was surprised by those results. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical that an AI model trained to provide therapy is the solution for millions of people experiencing a mental health crisis. But their findings suggest that the right selection of training data is vital. 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.

The must-reads

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

1 Tech companies are warning their immigrant workers not to leave the US
Employees on high-skilled visas could be denied entry back into the States. (WP $)
+ Officials are considering collecting citizenship applicants’ social media data. (Associated Press)

2 OpenAI has closed one of the largest private funding rounds in history
It plans to put the $40 billion cash injection towards building AGI. (The Guardian)
+ The deal values OpenAI at a whopping $300 billion. (CNBC)
+ The company also teased its first open-weight model in years. (Insider $)

3 SpaceX has launched a mission that’s never been attempted before
It’s taking private customers on an orbit between Earth’s North and South poles. (CNN)
+ Crypto billionaire Chun Wang is footing the bill for the mission. (Reuters)
+ Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Some DOGE workers are returning to their old jobs
They’re quietly heading back to their roles at X and SpaceX. (The Information $)+ Top staff were placed on leave after denying DOGE access to their systems. (Wired $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Amazon is going all-in on AI agents
Its new AI model Nova Act is designed to complete tasks such as online shopping. (The Verge)
+ Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake. (MIT Technology Review)

6 DeepMind is making it harder for its researchers to publish studies 
It’s reluctant to share innovations that rivals could capitalize on. (FT $)

7 Meet the protestors staking out Tesla dealerships
Professors and attorneys have taken to the streets to fight back. (New Yorker $)
+ Far-right extremists are turning up to defend the company. (Wired $)

8 TikTok’s hottest topic? Tariffs 
Content creators are eager to explain what tariffs are to confused audiences. (WSJ $)
+ Donald Trump is threatening to instigate a new range of tariffs this week. (NY Mag $)
+ How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Not everyone can look as cool as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang
His image has been co-opted to promote knockoff leather jackets. (404 Media)

10 Microsoft has killed off its Blue Screen of Death
Goodnight, sweet prince. (Vice)

Quote of the day

“I think that it is one of the most beautiful spaces on the internet for someone to figure out who they are.”

—Amanda Brennan, an internet librarian who worked at Tumblr for seven years, is not surprised by the influx of younger users flocking to her former workplace, Insider reports.

The big story

The quest to protect farmworkers from extreme heat

October 2024

On July 21, 2024, temperatures soared in many parts of the world, breaking the record for the hottest day ever recorded on the planet.

The following day—July 22—the record was broken again.

But even as the heat index rises each summer, the people working outdoors to pick fruits, vegetables, and flowers have to keep laboring.

The consequences can be severe, leading to illnesses such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke and even acute kidney injury.

Now, researchers are developing an innovative sensor that tracks multiple vital signs with a goal of anticipating when a worker is at risk of developing heat illness and issuing an alert. If widely adopted and consistently used, it could represent a way to make workers safer on farms even without significant heat protections. Read the full story.

—Kalena Thomhave

We can still have nice things

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

+ Mescal! Dickinson! Quinn! Keoghan! I’m very excited for the forthcoming Beatles biopics, even if we have to wait three years.
+ How to cook a delicious-looking basque cheesecake.
+ TikTokers have taken to rubbing banana peel on their faces: but does it actually do anything?
+ Spring has barely sprung, but fashion is already looking towards fall.

The Download: generative AI therapy, and the future of 23andMe’s genetic data

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

The first trial of generative AI therapy shows it might help with depression

The first clinical trial of a generative AI therapy bot suggests it was as effective as human therapy for people with depression, anxiety, or risk for developing eating disorders. Even so, it doesn’t give a go-ahead to the dozens of companies hyping such technologies while operating in a regulatory gray area. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

How a bankruptcy judge can stop a genetic privacy disaster

—Keith Porcaro

The fate of 15 million people’s genetic data rests in the hands of a bankruptcy judge now that 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy. But there’s still a small chance of writing a better ending for users—and it’s a simple fix. 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 Meet the online activists fighting back against ICE raids
Their networks are warning migrants about ICE officer hotspots in major cities. (WP $)
+ Noncitizens are growing increasingly anxious. (NPR)

2 US health experts were ordered to bury a measles forecast
The assessment warned the risk of catching the virus was high in areas with lower vaccination rates. (ProPublica)
+ The former US covid chief has called the outbreak wholly preventable. (Politico)
+ How measuring vaccine hesitancy could help health professionals tackle it. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Donald Trump is confident a TikTok deal is forthcoming
Ahead of the impending deadline on Saturday. (Reuters)

4 China’s efforts to clean up air pollution are accelerating global warming
Its dirty air had been inadvertently cooling the planet. (New Scientist $)
+ Who’s to blame for climate change? It’s surprisingly complicated. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Brands are spending small amounts on X to appease Elon Musk
They’re doing what they can to avoid triggering a public fallout with the billionaire. (FT $)
+ Musk’s X has a new owner—it’s, err, Musk’s xAI. (CNBC)

6 Campaigners are calling to pause a mental health inpatient monitoring system
The Oxevision system remotely tracks patients’ breathing and heart rates. (The Guardian)
+ This AI-powered “black box” could make surgery safer. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The US and China are locked in a race to produce the first useful humanoid robot
The first to succeed will dominate the future of many labor-intensive industries. (WSJ $)
+ Beijing is treating humanoid robots as a major future industry. (WP $)

8 Data center operators are inking solar power deals
It’s a proven, clean technology that is relatively low-cost. (TechCrunch)
+ The cost of AI services is dropping. (The Information $)
+ Why the US is still trying to make mirror-magnified solar energy work. (MIT Technology Review)

9 H&M plans to create digital replicas of its models
Which means the retailer could outsource entire photoshoots to AI. (NYT $)
+ The metaverse fashion stylists are here. (MIT Technology Review)

10 What it’s like to drive a Tesla Cybertruck in Washington DC
Expect a whole lot of abuse. (The Atlantic $)
+ Protestors are gathering at Tesla showrooms across America. (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“Viruses don’t need a passport.”

—Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, warns CNN that the US measles outbreak could spread widely to other countries.

The big story

Marseille’s battle against the surveillance state

June 2022

Across the world, video cameras have become an accepted feature of urban life. Many cities in China now have dense networks of them, and London and New Delhi aren’t far behind. Now France is playing catch-up.

Concerns have been raised throughout the country. But the surveillance rollout has met special resistance in Marseille, France’s second-biggest city.

It’s unsurprising, perhaps, that activists are fighting back against the cameras, highlighting the surveillance system’s overreach and underperformance. But are they succeeding? Read the full story.

—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 or skeet ’em at me.)

+ The online pocket computer museum is exceptionally charming.
+ There’s an entirely new cat color emerging, and scientists have finally worked out why.
+ Experiencing Bluesky ‘skeets’ posted in real time is a seriously trippy business.
+ Never underestimate the power of a good deed.

The Download: peering inside an LLM, and the rise of Signal

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 can now track the bizarre inner workings of a large language model

The news: The AI firm Anthropic has developed a way to peer inside a large language model and watch what it does as it comes up with a response, revealing key new insights into how the technology works. The takeaway: LLMs are even stranger than we thought.

Why it matters: It’s no secret that large language models work in mysterious ways. Shedding some light on how they work would expose their weaknesses, revealing why they make stuff up and can be tricked into going off the rails. It would help resolve deep disputes about exactly what these models can and can’t do. And it would show how trustworthy (or not) they really are. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

What is Signal? The messaging app, explained.

With the recent news that the Atlantic’s editor in chief was accidentally added to a group Signal chat for American leaders planning a bombing in Yemen, many people are wondering: What is Signal? Is it secure? If government officials aren’t supposed to use it for military planning, does that mean I shouldn’t use it either?

The answer is: Yes, you should use Signal, but government officials having top-secret conversations shouldn’t use Signal. Read the full story to find out why.

—Jack Cushman

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

“Spare” living human bodies might provide us with organs for transplantation

—Jessica Hamzelou

This week, MIT Technology Review published a piece on bodyoids—living bodies that cannot think or feel pain. In the piece, a trio of scientists argue that advances in biotechnology will soon allow us to create “spare” human bodies that could be used for research, or to provide organs for donation.

If you find your skin crawling at this point, you’re not the only one. It’s a creepy idea, straight from the more horrible corners of science fiction. But bodyoids could be used for good. And if they are truly unaware and unable to think, the use of bodyoids wouldn’t cross “most people’s ethical lines,” the authors argue. 

I’m not so sure. Read the full story.

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.

The must-reads

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

1 A judge has ordered Trump’s officials to preserve their secret Signal chat 
While officials are required by law to keep chats detailing government business, Signal’s messages can be set to auto-disappear. (USA Today)
+ The conversation detailed an imminent attack against Houthi rebels in Yemen. (The Hill)
+ A government accountability group has sued the agencies involved. (Reuters)
+ The officials involved in the chat appear to have public Venmo accounts. (Wired $)

2 The White House is prepared to cut up to 50% of agency staff
But the final cuts could end up exceeding even that. (WP $)
+ The sweeping cuts could threaten vital US statistics, too. (FT $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

 3 OpenAI is struggling to keep up with demand for ChatGPT’s image generation
The fervor around its Studio Ghibli pictures has sent its GPUs into overdrive. (The Verge)
+ Ghibli’s founder is no fan of AI art. (404 Media)
+ Four ways to protect your art from AI. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Facebook is pivoting back towards friends and family
Less news, fewer posts from people you don’t know. (NYT $)
+ A new tab shows purely updates from friends, with no other recommendations. (Insider $)

5 Africa is set to build its first AI factory
A specialized powerhouse for AI computing, to be precise. (Rest of World)
+ What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player. (MIT Technology Review)

6 A TikTok network spread Spanish-language immigration misinformation
Including clips of the doctored voices of well-known journalists. (NBC News)

7 Your TV is desperate for your data
Streamers are scrambling around for new ways to make money off the information they gather on you. (Vox)

8 This startup extracts rare earth oxides from industrial magnets
It’s a less intrusive way of accessing minerals vital to EV and wind turbine production. (FT $)
+ The race to produce rare earth elements. (MIT Technology Review)

9 NASA hopes to launch its next Starliner flight as soon as later this year
After its latest mission stretched from a projected eight days to nine months. (Reuters)
+ Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)

10 The Sims has been the world’s favorite life simulation game for 25 years
But a new Korean game is both more realistic and multicultural. (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“It’s like, can you tell the difference between a person and a person-shaped sock puppet that is holding up a sign saying, ‘I am a sock puppet’?”

—Laura Edelson, a computer science professor at Northeastern University, is skeptical about brands’ abilities to ensure their ads are being shown to real humans and not bots, she tells the Wall Street Journal.

The big story

The race to fix space-weather forecasting before next big solar storm hits

April 2024

As the number of satellites in space grows, and as we rely on them for increasing numbers of vital tasks on Earth, the need to better predict stormy space weather is becoming more and more urgent.

Scientists have long known that solar activity can change the density of the upper atmosphere. But it’s incredibly difficult to precisely predict the sorts of density changes that a given amount of solar activity would produce.

Now, experts are working on a model of the upper atmosphere to help scientists to improve their models of how solar activity affects the environment in low Earth orbit. If they succeed, they’ll be able to keep satellites safe even amid turbulent space weather, reducing the risk of potentially catastrophic orbital collisions. Read the full story.

—Tereza Pultarova

We can still have nice things

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

+ This is very cool—a nearly-infinite virtual museum entirely generated from Wikipedia.
+ How to let go of that grudge you’ve been harboring (you know the one)
+ If your social media feeds have been plagued by hot men making bad art, you’re not alone.
+ It’s Friday, so enjoy this 1992 recording of a very fresh-faced Pearl Jam.

The Download: how people fall for pig butchering schemes, and saving glaciers

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 a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there

Gavesh’s journey had started, seemingly innocently, with a job ad on Facebook promising work he desperately needed.

Instead, he found himself trafficked into a business commonly known as “pig butchering”—a form of fraud in which scammers form romantic or other close relationships with targets online and extract money from them. The Chinese crime syndicates behind the scams have netted billions of dollars, and they have used violence and coercion to force their workers, many of them people trafficked like Gavesh, to carry out the frauds from large compounds, several of which operate openly in the quasi-lawless borderlands of Myanmar.

We spoke to Gavesh and five other workers from inside the scam industry, as well as anti-trafficking experts and technology specialists. Their testimony reveals how global companies, including American social media and dating apps and international cryptocurrency and messaging platforms, have given the fraud business the means to become industrialized. 

By the same token, it is Big Tech that may hold the key to breaking up the scam syndicates—if only these companies can be persuaded or compelled to act. Read the full story.

—Peter Guest & Emily Fishbein

How to save a glacier

There’s a lot we don’t understand about how glaciers move and how soon some of the most significant ones could collapse into the sea. That could be a problem, since melting glaciers could lead to multiple feet of sea-level rise this century, potentially displacing millions of people who live and work along the coasts.

A new group is aiming not only to further our understanding of glaciers but also to look into options to save them if things move toward a worst-case scenario, as my colleague James Temple outlined in his latest story. One idea: refreezing glaciers in place.

The whole thing can sound like science fiction. But once you consider how huge the stakes are, I think it gets easier to understand why some scientists say we should at least be exploring these radical interventions. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

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

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How tracking animal movement may save the planet

Researchers have long dreamed of creating an Internet of Animals. And they’re getting closer to monitoring 100,000 creatures—and revealing hidden facets of our shared world.

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 Donald Trump has announced 25% tariffs on imported cars and parts
The measures are likely to make new cars significantly more expensive for Americans. (NYT $)
+ Moving car manufacturing operations to the US won’t be easy. (WP $)
+ It’s not just big businesses that will suffer, either. (The Atlantic $)
+ How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review)

2 China is developing an AI system to increase its online censorship 
A leaked dataset demonstrates how LLMs could rapidly filter undesirable material. (TechCrunch)

3 Trump may reduce tariffs on China to encourage a TikTok deal
The Chinese-owned company has until April 5 to find a new US owner. (Insider $)
+ The national security concerns surrounding it haven’t gone away, though. (NYT $)

4 OpenAI’s new image generator can ape Studio Ghibli’s distinctive style
Which raises the question of whether the model was trained on Ghibli’s images. (TechCrunch)
+ The tool’s popularity means its rollout to non-paying users has been delayed. (The Verge)
+ The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 DOGE planned to dismantle USAID from the beginning
New court filings reveal the department’s ambitions to infiltrate the system. (Wired $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Wildfires are getting worse in the southwest of the US
While federal fire spending is concentrated mainly in the west, the risk is rising in South Carolina and Texas too. (WP $)
+ North and South Carolina were recovering from Hurricane Helene when the fires struck. (The Guardian)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A quantum computer has generated—and verified—truly random numbers
Which is good news for cryptographers. (Bloomberg $)
+ Cybersecurity analysts are increasingly worried about the so-called Q-Day. (Wired $)
+ Amazon’s first quantum computing chip makes its debut. (MIT Technology Review)

8 What’s next for weight-loss drugs
Competition is heating up, but will patients be the ones to benefit? (New Scientist $)
+ Drugs like Ozempic now make up 5% of prescriptions in the US. (MIT Technology Review)

9 At least we’ve still got memes
Poking fun at the Trump administration’s decisions is a form of online resistance. (New Yorker $)

10 Can you truly be friends with a chatbot?
People are starting to find out. (Vox)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“I can’t imagine any professional I know committing this egregious a lapse in judgement.”

—A government technology leader tells Fast Company why top Trump officials’ decision to use unclassified messaging app Signal to discuss war plans is so surprising.

The big story

Why one developer won’t quit fighting to connect the US’s grids

September 2024

Michael Skelly hasn’t learned to take no for an answer. For much of the last 15 years, the energy entrepreneur has worked to develop long-haul transmission lines to carry wind power across the Great Plains, Midwest, and Southwest. But so far, he has little to show for the effort.

Skelly has long argued that building such lines and linking together the nation’s grids would accelerate the shift from coal- and natural-gas-fueled power plants to the renewables needed to cut the pollution driving climate change. But his previous business shut down in 2019, after halting two of its projects and selling off interests in three more.

Skelly contends he was early, not wrong, and that the market and policymakers are increasingly coming around to his perspective. After all, the US Department of Energy just blessed his latest company’s proposed line with hundreds of millions in grants. Read the full story.

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

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

+ Severance’s Adam Scott sure has interesting taste in music. 
+ While we’re not 100% sure if Millie is definitely the world’s oldest cat, one thing we know for sure is that she lives a life of luxury.
+ Hiking trails are covered in beautiful wildflowers right now; just make sure you tread carefully.
+ This is a really charming look at how girls live in America right now.

The Download: China’s empty data centers, and OpenAI’s new practical image generator

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.

China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused.

Just months ago, China’s boom in data center construction was at its height, fueled by both government and private investors. Renting out GPUs to companies that need them for training AI models was once seen as a sure bet. 

But with the rise of DeepSeek and a sudden change in the economics around AI, the industry is faltering. Prices for GPUs are falling and many newly built facilities are now sitting empty. Read the full story to find out why.

—Caiwei Chen

OpenAI’s new image generator aims to be practical enough for designers and advertisers

What’s new? OpenAI has released a new image generator that’s designed less for typical surrealist AI art and more for highly controllable and practical creation of visuals—a sign that OpenAI thinks its tools are ready for use in fields like advertising and graphic design. 

Why it matters: While most AI models have been great at creating fantastical images or realistic deepfakes, they’ve been terrible at identifying certain objects correctly and putting them in their proper place. OpenAI’s new model makes progress on technical issues that have plagued AI image generators for years. 

But in entering this domain, OpenAI has two paths, both difficult. Read the full story.

The AI Hype Index: DeepSeek mania, Israel’s spying tool, and cheating at chess

Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Take a look at the full index here.

The must-reads

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

1 The Trump administration has barred 80 companies from buying US tech
The list of primarily Chinese firms is forbidden from buying American chips. (NYT $)
+ The list included a server maker that buys chips from Nvidia. (WSJ $)+ China disputed claims the firms were seeking knowledge for military purposes. (AP News)

2 A DOGE staffer provided tech support to a cybercrime ring
And bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent. (Reuters)
+ Elon Musk could use DOGE’s cuts to steer contracts towards his own firms. (The Guardian)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The US government has hired a vaccine skeptic to conduct a major vaccine study
The long-discredited David Geier will oversee analysis of whether jabs cause autism. (WP $)
+ The White House appears to be targeting mRNA vaccines. (FT $)
+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Microsoft has unveiled two deep reasoning Copilot AI agents
The two agents, called Researcher and Analyst, are designed to do just that. (The Verge)
+ How ChatGPT search paves the way for AI agents. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Inside the rise of Chinese hacking
The cyber threat posed by the country is increasingly sophisticated—and aggressive. (Economist $)

6 Google has instructed workers to remove DEI terms from their work
The company has offered up alternative language to use in its place.(The Information $)

7 Synthesia is offering shares to reward human actors for its AI avatars
The compensation scheme is the first of its kind. (FT $)
+ Synthesia’s hyperrealistic deepfakes will soon have full bodies. (MIT Technology Review)

8 China’s RedNote is working to keep its influx of TikTok “refugees”
To do so, it’ll need to expand its user base outside the Chinese diaspora. (Rest of World)

9 This operating system is designed to keep running during civilization’s collapse
Collapse OS is designed to give us access to lost knowledge in case of disaster. (Wired $)

10 No one really knows how long people live
Longevity research is bogged down in bad record-keeping. (NY Mag $)
+ The quest to legitimize longevity medicine. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“There are so many great reasons to be on Signal. Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations.”

—Moxie Marlinspike, founder of secure messaging platform Signal, pokes fun at the fallout surrounding US officials accidentally adding a journalist to a private military group chat in a post on X.

The big story

Longevity enthusiasts want to create their own independent state. They’re eyeing Rhode Island.

May 2023

—Jessica Hamzelou

I recently traveled to Montenegro for a gathering of longevity enthusiasts. All the attendees were super friendly, and the sense of optimism was palpable. They’re all confident we’ll be able to find a way to slow or reverse aging—and they have a bold plan to speed up progress.

Around 780 of these people have created a “pop-up city” that hopes to circumvent the traditional process of clinical trials. They want to create an independent state where like-minded innovators can work together in an all-new jurisdiction that gives them free rein to self-experiment with unproven drugs. Welcome to Zuzalu. Read the full story.

We can still have nice things

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

+ Good news—it turns out that fungi are actually pretty good at saving imperiled plants.
+ Ever wondered what ancient Egyptian mummy remains smell like? These intrepid scientists found out.
+ Kudos to this terrible artist, who is a surprise smash hit.
+ Check out this handy guide to walking the path of everyday enlightenment.

The Download: the dangers of AI agents, and ChatGPT’s effects on our wellbeing

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 handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake

—Margaret Mitchell, Avijit Ghosh, Sasha Luccioni, Giada Pistilli all work for Hugging Face, an open source AI company.

AI agents have set the tech industry abuzz. Unlike chatbots, these groundbreaking new systems can navigate multiple applications to execute complex tasks, like scheduling meetings or shopping online, in response to simple user commands. As agents become more capable, a crucial question emerges: How much control are we willing to surrender, and at what cost?

The promise is compelling. Who doesn’t want assistance with cumbersome work or tasks there’s no time for? But this vision for AI agents brings significant risks that might be overlooked in the rush toward greater autonomy. In fact, our research suggests that agent development could be on the cusp of a very serious misstep. Read the full story.

OpenAI has released its first research into how using ChatGPT affects people’s emotional wellbeing

OpenAI says over 400 million people use ChatGPT every week. But how does interacting with it affect us? Does it make us more or less lonely?

These are some of the questions OpenAI set out to investigate, in partnership with the MIT Media Lab, in a pair of new studies. They found that while only a small subset of users engage emotionally with ChatGPT, there are some intriguing differences between how men and women respond to using the chatbot. They also found that participants who trusted and “bonded” with ChatGPT more were likelier than others to be lonely, and to rely on it more.

Chatbots powered by large language models are still a nascent technology, and difficult to study. That’s why this kind of research is an important first step toward greater insight into ChatGPT’s impact on us, which could help AI platforms enable safer and healthier interactions. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

The must-reads

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

1 Genetic testing firm 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy protection
Following months of uncertainty over its future. (CNN)
+ Tens of millions of people’s genetic data could soon belong to a new owner. (WSJ $)
+ How to… delete your 23andMe data. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Europe wants to lessen its reliance of US cloud giants
But that’s easier said than done. (Wired $)

3 Anduril is considering opening a drone factory in the UK
Europe is poised to invest heavily in defense—and Anduril wants in. (Bloomberg $)
+ The company recently signed a major drone contract with the UK government. (Insider $)
+ We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril’s vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Bird flu has been detected in a sheep in the UK
It’s the first known instance of the virus infecting a sheep. (FT $)
+ But the UK is yet to report any transmission to humans. (Reuters)
+ How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A tiny town in the Alps has emerged as an ALS hotspot
Suggesting that its causes may be more environmental than genetic. (The Atlantic $)
+ Motor neuron diseases took their voices. AI is bringing them back. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has completed its mission
And captured some pretty incredible footage along the way. (NYT $)
+ Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)

7 How the US could save billions of dollars in wasted energy
Ultra tough, multi-pane windows could be the answer. (WSJ $)

8 We need new ways to measure pain
Researchers are searching for objective biological indicators to get rid of the guesswork. (WP $)
+ Brain waves can tell us how much pain someone is in. (MIT Technology Review)

9 What falling in love with an AI could look like
It’s unclear whether loving machines could be training grounds for future relationships, or the future of relationships themselves. (New Yorker $)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Could you walk in a straight line for hundreds of miles?
YouTube’s favorite new challenge isn’t so much arduous as it is inconvenient. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Blockbuster has collapsed. It’s time for Netflix to rise.” 

—Kian Sadeghi pitches the company they founded, DNA testing firm Nucleus Genomics, as a replacement for 23andMe in a post on X.

 The big story

This town’s mining battle reveals the contentious path to a cleaner future

January 2024

In June last year, Talon, an exploratory mining company, submitted a proposal to Minnesota state regulators to begin digging up as much as 725,000 metric tons of raw ore per year, mainly to unlock the rich and lucrative reserves of high-grade nickel in the bedrock.

Talon is striving to distance itself from the mining industry’s dirty past, portraying its plan as a clean, friendly model of modern mineral extraction. It proclaims the site will help to power a greener future for the US by producing the nickel needed to manufacture batteries for electric cars and trucks, but with low emissions and light environmental impacts.

But as the company has quickly discovered, a lot of locals aren’t eager for major mining operations near their towns. Read the full story.

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

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

+ Who are fandoms for, and who gets to escape into them?
+ A long-lost Klimt painting of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona has gone on display in the Netherlands.
+ Feeling down? These feel-good movies will pick you right up.
+ Why Gen Z are dedicated followers of Old Money fashion.

The Download: saving the “doomsday glacier,” and Europe’s hopes for its rockets

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 a new quest to save the “doomsday glacier”

The Thwaites glacier is a fortress larger than Florida, a wall of ice that reaches nearly 4,000 feet above the bedrock of West Antarctica, guarding the low-lying ice sheet behind it.

But a strong, warm ocean current is weakening its foundations and accelerating its slide into the sea. Scientists fear the waters could topple the walls in the coming decades, kick-starting a runaway process that would crack up the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, marking the start of a global climate disaster. As a result, they are eager to understand just how likely such a collapse is, when it could happen, and if we have the power to stop it. 

Scientists at MIT and Dartmouth College founded Arête Glacier Initiative last year in the hope of providing clearer answers to these questions. The nonprofit research organization will officially unveil itself, launch its website, and post requests for research proposals today, timed to coincide with the UN’s inaugural World Day for Glaciers, MIT Technology Review can report exclusively. Read the full story.

—James Temple

Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets

Europe is on the cusp of a new dawn in commercial space technology. As global political tensions intensify and relationships with the US become increasingly strained, several European companies are now planning to conduct their own launches in an attempt to reduce the continent’s reliance on American rockets.

In the coming days, Isar Aerospace, a company based in Munich, will try to launch its Spectrum rocket from a site in the frozen reaches of Andøya island in Norway. A spaceport has been built there to support small commercial rockets, and Spectrum is the first to make an attempt.

Regardless of whether it succeeds or fails, the launch attempt heralds an important moment as Europe tries to kick-start its own private rocket industry. It and other launches scheduled for later this year could give Europe multiple ways to reach space without having to rely on US rockets. Read the full story.

—Jonathan O’Callaghan

Autopsies can reveal intimate health details. Should they be kept private?

—Jessica Hamzelou

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been following news of the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa. It was heartbreaking to hear how Arakawa appeared to have died from a rare infection days before her husband, who had advanced Alzheimer’s disease and may have struggled to understand what had happened.

But as I watched the medical examiner reveal details of the couple’s health, I couldn’t help feeling a little uncomfortable. Media reports claim that the couple liked their privacy and had been out of the spotlight for decades. But here I was, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, being told what pills Arakawa had in her medicine cabinet, and that Hackman had undergone multiple surgeries.

Should autopsy reports be kept private? A person’s cause of death is public information. But what about other intimate health details that might be revealed in a postmortem examination? Read the full story.

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here.

The must-reads

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

1 Elon Musk will be briefed on the US’s top-secret plans for war with China
Despite Tesla’s reliance on China, and SpaceX’s role as a US defense contractor. (WSJ $)
+ Other private companies could only dream of having access to sensitive military data. (NYT $)

2 Take a look inside the library of pirated books that Meta trains its AI on 
It considered paying for the books, but decided to use LibGen instead. (The Atlantic $)
+ “Copyright traps” could tell writers if an AI has scraped their work. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A judge has blocked DOGE from accessing social security systems
She accused DOGE of failing to explain why it needed to see the private data of millions of Americans. (TechCrunch)
+ Federal workers grilled a Trump appointee during an all-hands meeting. (Wired $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The Trump administration is poised to shut down an anti-censorship fund
The project, which helps internet users living under oppressive regimes, is under threat. (WP $)
+ Tens of millions will lose access to secure and trusted VPNs. (Bloomberg $)
+ Activists are reckoning with a US retreat from promoting digital rights. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Tesla is recalling tens of thousands of Cybertrucks
After it used the wrong glue to attach its steel panels. (Fast Company $)
+It’s the largest Cybertruck recall to date. (BBC)

6 This crypto billionaire has his sights set on the stars
Jed McCaleb is the sole backer of an ambitious space station project. (Bloomberg $)
+ Is DOGE going to come for NASA? (New Yorker $)

7 The irresistible allure of Spotify
Maybe algorithms aren’t all bad, after all. (Vox)
+ By delivering what people seem to want, has Spotify killed the joy of music discovery? (MIT Technology Review)

8 Dating apps and AI? It’s complicated
While some are buzzing at the prospect of romantic AI agents, others aren’t so sure. (Insider $)

9 Crypto bars are becoming a thing
And Washington is the first casualty. (The Verge)

10 The ways we use emojis is evolving
Are you up to date? (FT $)

Quote of the day

“It’s an assault, and a particularly cruel one to use my work to train the monster that threatens the ruination of original literature.”

—Author AJ West, whose books were included in the library of pirated material Meta used to train its AI model, calls for the company to compensate writers in a post on Bluesky.

The big story

Are we alone in the universe?

November 2023

The quest to determine if anyone or anything is out there has gained a greater scientific footing over the past 50 years. Back then, astronomers had yet to spot a single planet outside our solar system. Now we know the galaxy is teeming with a diversity of worlds.

We’re now getting closer than ever before to learning how common living worlds like ours actually are. New tools, including artificial intelligence, could help scientists look past their preconceived notions of what constitutes life.

Future instruments will sniff the atmospheres of distant planets and scan samples from our local solar system to see if they contain telltale chemicals in the right proportions for organisms to prosper. But determining whether these planets actually contain organisms is no easy task. Read the full story.

—Adam Mann

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.)

+ Get your weekend off to a good start with these beautiful nebulas.
+ Justice for Mariah: a judge has ruled that she didn’t steal All I Want For Christmas Is You from other writers.
+ We’re no longer extremely online any more apparently—so what are we?
+ The fascinating tale of White Mana, one of America’s oldest burger joints.

The Download: the future of energy, and chatting about chatbots

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.

4 technologies that could power the future of energy

Where can you find lasers, electric guitars, and racks full of novel batteries, all in the same giant room? This week, the answer was the 2025 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit just outside Washington, DC.

Energy innovation can take many forms, and the variety in energy research was on display at the summit. ARPA-E, part of the US Department of Energy, provides funding for high-risk, high-reward research projects. The summit gathers projects the agency has funded, along with investors, policymakers, and journalists.

Hundreds of projects were exhibited in a massive hall during the conference, featuring demonstrations and research results. Here are four of the most interesting innovations MIT Technology Review spotted on site. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

If you’re interested in hearing more about what Casey learnt from the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, check out the latest edition of The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Join us today to chat about chatbots

Chatbots are changing how we connect to each other and ourselves. But are these changes for the better, and how should they be monitored and regulated?

To learn more, join me for a live Roundtable session today at 12pm ET. I’ll be chatting with MIT Technology Review editor Rachel Courtland and senior reporter Eileen Guo, and we’ll be unpacking the landscape around chatbots. Register to ensure you don’t miss out!

The must-reads

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

1 A French scientist was denied US entry over anti-Donald Trump messages 
US authorities claimed the exchanges criticising the Trump administration’s research policy qualified as terrorism. (Le Monde)
+ France’s research minister is a high-profile critic of Trump policy. (The Guardian)
+ Customs and Border Protection is cracking down at airports across the US. (The Verge)

2 RFK Jr wants to let bird flu spread through poultry farms
Experts warn that this approach isn’t just dangerous—it won’t work. (Scientific American $)
+ A bird flu outbreak has been confirmed in Scotland. (BBC)
+ How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Clearview AI tried to buy millions of mugshots for its databases
But negotiations between the facial recognition company and an intelligence firm broke down. (404 Media)

4 Top US graduates are desperate to work for Chinese AI startups
DeepSeek’s success has sparked major interest in firms outside America. (Bloomberg $)
+ Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Reddit has become a lifeline for US federal workers
Unpaid moderators are working around the clock to help answer urgent questions. (NYT $)
+ The only two democrats on the board of the FTC have been fired. (Vox)
+ Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The European Commission is targeting Apple and Google
It’s proceeding with regulatory action, despite the risk of retaliation from Trump. (FT $)
+ It has accused Alphabet of favoring its own services in search results. (The Information $)
+ Meta’s AI chatbot is finally launching in Europe after all. (The Verge)

7 AI agents could spell bad news for shopping apps
DoorDash and Uber could suffer if humans outsource their ordering to bots. (The Information $)
+ Dunzo was a major delivery success story in India. So what happened? (Rest of World)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)

8 This startup is making concrete using CO2
It combines the gas with a byproduct from coal power plants to make lower carbon concrete. (Fast Company $)
+ How electricity could help tackle a surprising climate villain. (MIT Technology Review)

9 This robot dog has a functional digital nervous system
And will be taught to walk by a real human dog trainer, not an algorithm. (Reuters)

10 Dark matter could be getting weaker
If it’s true, it holds major implications for our understanding of the universe. (Quanta Magazine)
+ Are we alone in the universe? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The corrupting influence of billionaires in law enforcement is an issue that affects all of us.”

—Alvaro Bedoya, a former commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, speaks out after being fired by Donald Trump, the Verge reports.

The big story

The arrhythmia of our current age

October 2025

Arrhythmia means the heart beats, but not in proper time—a critical rhythm of life suddenly going rogue and unpredictable. It’s frightening to experience, but what if it’s also a good metaphor for our current times? That a pulse once seemingly so steady is now less sure. 

Perhaps this wobbliness might be extrapolated into a broader sense of life in the 2020s. 

Maybe you feel it, too—that the world seems to have skipped more than a beat or two as demagogues rant and democracy shudders, hurricanes rage, and glaciers dissolve. We can’t stop watching tiny screens where influencers pitch products we don’t need alongside news about senseless wars that destroy, murder, and maim tens-of-thousands. 

All the resulting anxiety has been hard on our hearts—literally and metaphorically. Read the full story.

—David Ewing Duncan

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.)

+ Now that David Lynch is no longer with us, who is the flagbearer for transcendental meditation?+ Who doesn’t love a little mindless comedy—especially when Leslie Nielsen is involved.
+ China’s pets are seriously pampered ($)
+ The world’s oldest known cerapodan dinosaur, which were massive herbivores, has been discovered in Morocco.

The Download: US aid disruptions, and imagining the 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.

HIV could infect 1,400 infants every day because of US aid disruptions

Around 1,400 infants are being infected by HIV every day as a result of the new US administration’s cuts to funding to AIDS organizations, new modeling suggests.

In an executive order issued January 20, President Donald Trump paused new foreign aid funding to global health programs. Four days later, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stop-work order on existing foreign aid assistance. Surveys suggest that these changes forced more than a third of global organizations that provide essential HIV services to close within days of the announcements. 

Hundreds of thousands of people are losing access to HIV treatments as a result. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

MIT Technology Review Narrated: What the future holds for those born today

Happy birthday, baby.

You have been born into an era of intelligent machines. They have watched over you almost since your conception. They let your parents listen in on your tiny heartbeat, track your gestation on an app, and post your sonogram on social media. Well before you were born, you were known to the algorithm.

How will you and the next generation of machines grow up together? We asked more than a dozen experts to imagine your joint future.

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 A judge has ordered DOGE to cease dismantling USAID 
It’s been told to reinstate employees’ email access and let them return to their offices. (WP $)
+ The judge believes its efforts probably violated the US Constitution.(Reuters)
+ The department has also targeted workers that prevent tech overspending. (The Intercept)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Can Oracle save TikTok? 
A security proposal from the cloud giant could reportedly allow it to keep operating in the US. (Bloomberg $)
+ The deal would leave the app’s algorithm in the hands of its Chinese parent company. (Politico)

3 NASA’s astronauts have touched down on Earth
They safely landed off the coast of Florida yesterday evening. (FT $)
+ A pod of dolphins dropped by to witness the spectacle. (The Guardian)

4 AI is turning cyber crime into a digital arms race
Europol warns that more criminals than ever are exploiting AI tools for nefarious means. (FT $)
+ Five ways criminals are using AI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 An Italian newspaper has published an edition produced entirely by AI
The technology was responsible for “the irony” too, apparently. (The Guardian)

6 Tesla’s taxi service has been greenlit in California
But the road ahead is still full of obstacles. (Wired $)
+ Chinese EVs are snapping at Tesla’s heels across the world. (Rest of World)
+ It certainly seems as though Asia will birth the next EV superpower. (Economist $)
+ Robotaxis are one of our 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Online platforms are fueling ‘facial dysmorphia’
Hours of staring at their own faces made these women anxious and depressed. (NY Mag $)
+ The fight for “Instagram face.” (MIT Technology Review)

8 Inside the hunt for water on Mars
We know that the red planet was once host to it, but we don’t know why. (Knowable Magazine)

9 This robotic spider is shedding light on how real spiders hunt  
Namely using a form of echolocation. (Ars Technica)

10 We could be dramatically underestimating the Earth’s population
New data analysis suggests it could be much higher than previously thought. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“In no uncertain terms is this an audit. It’s a heist, stealing a vast amount of government data.”

—An anonymous auditor offers a scathing review of DOGE’s attempts at auditing US government departments to Wired.

The big story

The humble oyster could hold the key to restoring coastal waters. Developers hate it.

October 2023

Carol Friend has taken on a difficult job. She is one of the 10 people in Delaware currently trying to make it as a cultivated oyster farmer.

Her Salty Witch Oyster Company holds a lease to grow the mollusks as part of the state’s new program for aquaculture, launched in 2017. It has sputtered despite its obvious promise.

Five years after the first farmed oysters went into the Inland Bays, the aquaculture industry remains in a larval stage. Oysters themselves are almost mythical in their ability to clean and filter water. But human willpower, investment, and flexibility are all required to allow the oysters to simply do their thing—particularly when developers start to object. Read the full story.

—Anna Kramer

We can still have nice things

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

+ If you’re stuck for something to do this weekend, why not host a reading hang?
+ Do baby owls really sleep on their stomachs? Like most things in life, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
+ Keep your eyes peeled the next time you’re in the British countryside, you might just spot a black leopard.
+ I couldn’t agree more—why When Harry Met Sally is a perfect film.

The Download: speaking to robots, and growing pharmaceutical mushrooms

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.

When you might start speaking to robots

Last week, Google made a somewhat surprising announcement. It launched a version of its AI model, Gemini, that can do things not just in the digital realm of chatbots and internet search but out here in the physical world, via robots. 

Gemini Robotics fuses the power of large language models with spatial reasoning, allowing you to tell a robotic arm to do something like “put the grapes in the clear glass bowl.” These verbal commands get filtered by the LLM, which identifies intentions from what you’re saying and then breaks them down into commands that the robot can carry out.

You might be wondering if this means your home or workplace might one day be filled with robots you can bark orders at. Read our story to find out.

—James O’Donnell

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

And to read more about how AI is making robots smarter, check out: 

+ Fast-learning robots were one of the entries in MIT Technology Review’s list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2025. Read why they made the cut, and the companies you should be keeping an eye on. 

+ What’s next for robots in 2025. With tests of humanoid bots and new developments in military applications, the next year will intrigue even the skeptics. Read the full story.

+ “Robot utility models” sidestep the need to tweak the data used to train robots every time they try to do something in unfamiliar settings. Read the full story.

+ Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment? Researchers are using generative AI and other techniques to teach robots new skills—including tasks they could perform in homes. Read the full story.

Job titles of the future: Pharmaceutical-grade mushroom grower

Studies have indicated that psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin and MDMA, have swift-acting and enduring antidepressant effects. Though the US Food and Drug Administration denied the first application for medical treatments involving psychedelics (an MDMA-based therapy) last August, these drugs appear to be on the road to mainstream medicine.

Research into psilocybin has been slowed in part by the complexity of the trials, but the data already shows promise for the psychedelic compound within so-called magic mushrooms. Eventually, the FDA will decide whether to approve it to treat depression. If and when it does—a move that would open up a vast legal medical market—who will grow the mushrooms?

Scott Marshall already is. The head of mycology at the drug manufacturer Optimi Health in British Columbia, Canada, he is one of a very small number of licensed psilocybin mushroom cultivators in North America. Read the full story.

—Mattha Busby

This story is from the latest edition of our print magazine, which is all about relationships. Subscribe now to receive future editions once they land—subscriptions are currently 25% off the usual price!

The must-reads

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

1 BYD’s new EV can charge in just five minutes
Which could help attract customers previously put off by long charging times. (Bloomberg $)
+ The company also announced plans to build a charging network in China. (The Guardian)
+ The world’s first consumer sodium-ion battery power bank has been announced. (The Verge)
+ BYD is one of MIT Technology Review’s Climate Tech Companies to Watch. (MIT Technology Review)

2 NASA’s stranded astronauts have begun their return to Earth
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have spent nine long months in space. (CNN)
+ The pair kept busy by exercising for two hours a day. (BBC)

3 How Elon Musk’s ties to China could warp American polic
Tesla’s value is heavily dependent on him maintaining a cordial relationship with the CCP. (Vox)
+ Musk’s companies are extremely valuable targets. (The Hill)
+ If relations sour with China, Musk may look to expand more aggressively in India. (Rest of World)

4 Microsoft is developing an AI model that simulates our brains’ reasoning 
The goal is for it to learn from real-world experience, instead of just data. (FT $)
+ AI reasoning models can cheat to win chess games. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Alphabet has agreed to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz
At $32 billion, it’s the biggest acquisition the company has ever made. (FT $)

6 Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon
And if you opt out, Alexa won’t work anymore. (Ars Technica)
+ But Amazon denies that ending on-device processing will harm user privacy. (The Register)

7 US funding cuts could undo decades of progress fighting HIV
Experts are rushing to get drugs to vulnerable communities while they still can.(The Guardian)
+ Eight countries are likely to run out of treatments soon. (Reuters)
+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Donald Trump is convinced that Joe Biden used an autopen
The President alleges that aides used the gadget to duplicate Biden’s signature. (WP $)
+ However, Trump has not provided any evidence to back up his allegations. (BBC)

9 Big Tech is competing with your need to sleep
There’s only so many hours in the day to consume content, after all. (Insider $)
+ I tried to hack my insomnia with technology. Here’s what worked. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Thank goodness for Facebook Marketplace
It feels like the last bastion of fully human interaction on social media. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us.”

—Astronaut Suni Williams, who has spent nine months living on the International Space Station, says she’s looking forward to returning to her family once she touches back down on Earth, Reuters reports.

The big story

Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work.

October 2024

There’s a trendy new cure-all in town: exosomes. They’re being touted as a miraculous treatment for hair loss, aging skin, acne, eczema, pain conditions, long covid, and even neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. That’s, of course, if you can afford the price tag—which can stretch to thousands of dollars.

But there’s a big problem with these big promises: We don’t fully understand how exosomes work—or what they even really are. Read our 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 destructive little otter is a menace, but still very cute.
+ Here’s how to make the perfect tomato soup: complete with a surprise twist.
+ London’s fanciest bars are going all out to outfit themself with hi-fi listening systems.
+ A word of warning—these books are dangerous.