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.

The Download: the CDC’s vaccine chaos

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

A pivotal meeting on vaccine guidance is underway—and former CDC leaders are alarmed

This week has been an eventful one for America’s public health agency. Two former leaders of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained why they suddenly departed in a Senate hearing. They also described how CDC employees are being instructed to turn their backs on scientific evidence.

They painted a picture of a health agency in turmoil—and at risk of harming the people it is meant to serve. And, just hours afterwards, a panel of CDC advisers voted to stop recommending the MMRV vaccine for children under four. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

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

If you’re interested in reading more about US vaccine policy, check out:

+ Read our profile of Jim O’Neill, the deputy health secretary and current acting CDC director.

+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. Read the full story.

+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. No vaccine is perfect, but these medicines are still saving millions of lives. Read the full story. 

+ The FDA plans to limit access to covid vaccines. Here’s why that’s not all bad.

Meet Sneha Goenka: our 2025 Innovator of the Year

Every year, MIT Technology Review selects one individual whose work we admire to recognize as Innovator of the Year. For 2025, we chose Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method. 

Thanks to her work, physicians can now sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose a genetic condition in less than eight hours—an achievement that could transform medical care.

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 next Tuesday September 23.

The must-reads

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

1 The CDC voted against giving some children a combined vaccine 
If accepted, the agency will stop recommending the MMRV vaccine for children under 4. (CNN)
+ Its vote on hepatitis B vaccines for newborns is expected today too. (The Atlantic $)
+ RFK JR’s allies are closing ranks around him. (Politico)

2 Russia is using Charlie Kirk’s murder to sow division in the US
It’s using the momentum to push pro-Kremlin narratives and divide Americans. (WP $)
+ The complicated phenomenon of political violence. (Vox)
+ We don’t know what being ‘terminally online’ means any more. (Wired $)

3 Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel
The partnership allows Intel to develop custom CPUs to work with Nvidia’s chips. (WSJ $)
+ It’s a much-needed financial shot in the arm for Intel. (WP $)
+ It’s also great news for Intel’s Asian suppliers. (Bloomberg $)

4 Medical AI tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities
Experts fear that LLM-powered tools could lead to worse health outcomes. (FT $)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn’t let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review)

5 AI browsers have hit the mainstream
Where’s the off switch? (Wired $)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China has entered the global brain interface race
Its ambitious government-backed startups are primed to challenge Neuralink. (Bloomberg $)
+ This patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets a boost from generative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 What makes humans unique in the age of AI?
Defining the distinctions between us and machines isn’t as easy as it used to be. (New Yorker $)
+ How AI can help supercharge creativity. (MIT Technology Review)

8 This ship helps to reconnect Africa’s internet
AI needs high speed internet, which needs undersea cables. (Rest of World)
+ What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Hundreds of people queued in Beijing to buy Apple’s new iPhone
Desire for Apple products in the country appears to be alive and well. (Reuters)

10 San Francisco’s idea of a great night out? A robot cage fight
It’s certainly one way to have a good time. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“Get off the iPad!”

—An irate air traffic controller tells the pilots of a Spirit Airlines flight to pay attention to avoid potentially colliding with Donald Trump’s Air Force One aircraft, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

As a philosopher who studies AI and data, Shannon Vallor’s Twitter feed is always filled with the latest tech news. Increasingly, she’s realized that the constant stream of information is no longer inspiring joy, but a sense of resignation.

Joy is missing from our lives, and from our technology. Its absence is feeding a growing unease being voiced by many who work in tech or study it. Fixing it depends on understanding how and why the priorities in our tech ecosystem have changed. 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.)

+ Would you go about your daily business with a soft toy on your shoulder? This intrepid reporter gave it a go.
+ How dying dinosaurs shaped the landscapes around us.
+ I can’t believe I missed Pythagorean Theorem day earlier this week.
+ Inside the rise in popularity of the no-water yard.

The Download: AI-designed viruses, and bad news for the hydrogen industry

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-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria

Artificial intelligence can draw cat pictures and write emails. Now the same technology can compose a working genome.

A research team in California says it used AI to propose new genetic codes for viruses—and managed to get several of them to replicate and kill bacteria.

The work, described in a preprint paper, has the potential to create new treatments and accelerate research into artificially engineered cells. But experts believe it is also an “impressive first step” toward AI-designed life forms. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

Clean hydrogen is facing a big reality check

Hydrogen is sometimes held up as a master key for the energy transition. It can be made using several low-emissions methods and could play a role in cleaning up industries ranging from agriculture to aviation to shipping.

This moment is a complicated one for the green fuel, though, as a new report from the International Energy Agency lays out. A number of major projects face cancellations and delays. The US in particular is seeing a slowdown after changes to key tax credits and cuts in support for renewable energy.

Still, there are bright spots for the industry, including in China, and new markets could soon become crucial for growth. Here are three things to know about the state of hydrogen in 2025.

—Casey Crownhart

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

The must-reads

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

1 Meta’s new smart glasses have a tiny screen
Welcome back, Google Glass. (NYT $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg says the devices are our best bet at unlocking “superintelligence.” (FT $)
+ He’s also refusing to let his metaverse dream die. (WP $)
+ What’s next for smart glasses. (MIT Technology Review)

2 DeepSeek writes flawed code for groups China disfavors
Researchers found that it produced code with major security weaknesses when told it was for the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong. (WP $)

3 The CDC is a mess
Its advice can no longer be trusted. Here’s where to turn instead. (The Atlantic $)
+ Its ousted director claims RFK Jr pressured her to approve vaccine changes. (Wired $)
+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Google’s gen-AI image model Nano Banana is a global smash hit
Particularly in India. (TechCrunch)
+ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang really loves it, too. (Wired $)

5 OpenAI has found a way to reduce its models’ scheming
But they weren’t able to eradicate it completely. (ZDNET)
+ AI systems are getting better at tricking us. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Inside Texas’ efforts to keep vector-borne diseases at bay
The Arbovirus-Entomology Laboratory analyzes mosquitos, but resources are drying up. (Vox)
+ Brazil is fighting dengue with bacteria-infected mosquitos. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Financial AI advisors are coming
But companies are still cautious about rolling them out at scale. (WSJ $)
+ Warning: ChatGPT’s advice may not necessarily be financially sound. (NYT $)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)

8 China’s flying car market is raring to take off
Hovering taxis above the city of Guangzhou could soon become commonplace. (FT $)
+ Eek—a pair of flying cars collided during an airshow earlier this week. (CNN)
+ These aircraft could change how we fly. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Samsung’s US fridges will soon display ads
Wow, that’s not depressing at all. (The Verge)

10 Online dating is getting even worse
And AI is to blame. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“How do educators have any real choice here about intentional use of AI when it is just being injected into educational environments without warning, without testing and without consultation?”

—Eamon Costello, an associate professor at Dublin City University, tells the Washington Post why he’s against Google adding a ‘homework help’ button to its Chrome browser.

One more thing

Your boss is watching

Working today—whether in an office, a warehouse, or your car—can mean constant electronic surveillance with little transparency, and potentially with livelihood-­ending consequences if your productivity flags.

But what matters even more than the effects of this ubiquitous monitoring on privacy may be how all that data is shifting the relationships between workers and managers, companies and their workforce. It’s a huge power shift that may require new policies and protections. Read the full story.

—Rebecca Ackermann

We can still have nice things

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

+ Find yourself feeling sleepy every afternoon? Here’s how to fight the post-lunch slump.
+ Life lessons from a London graffiti artist.
+ If you’re in need of a laugh, a good comedy is a great place to start.
+ Yellowstone’s famous hot springs are under attack—from tourists’ hats.

The Download: measuring returns on R&D, and AI’s creative potential

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 to measure the returns on R&D spending

Given the draconian cuts to US federal funding for science, it’s worth asking some hard-nosed money questions: How much should we be spending on R&D? How much value do we get out of such investments, anyway? 

To answer that, in several recent papers, economists have approached this issue in clever new ways.  And, though they ask slightly different questions, their conclusions share a bottom line: R&D is, in fact, one of the better long-term investments that the government can make. Read the full story.

—David Rotman

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

If you’re interested in reading more about America’s economic situation, check out:

+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound—and they could stunt its ability to make tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Read the full story.

+ The surprising barrier that keeps us from building the housing we need. Read the full story.

+ How to fine-tune AI for prosperity.

+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How AI can help supercharge creativity

Forget one-click creativity. Artists and musicians are finding new ways to make art using AI, by injecting friction, challenge, and serendipity into the process.

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

The must-reads

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

1 TikTok’s buyers may include Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz 
They would control around 80% of the business, with Chinese shareholders holding the rest. (WSJ $)
+ We still have plenty of unanswered questions about the deal. (Bloomberg $)
+ It was brokered in Madrid. (The Guardian)

2 OpenAI is working on a version of ChatGPT for teenagers
And it’ll use age-prediction tech to bar them from the standard version. (Axios)
+ The move comes as the US Senate is hearing evidence about chatbot harms. (404 Media)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

3 China has banned tech firms from buying Nvidia’s chips
In an effort to boost its own companies. (FT $)
+ Alibaba and ByteDance have been instructed to terminate orders. (Bloomberg $)

4 Anthropic refuses to let US law enforcement use its models
Much to the White House’s chagrin. (Semafor)

5 Tesla’s doors may trap passengers inside its cars
Vehicle safety regulators are investigating after people reported being forced to break windows to retrieve children. (NYT $)  

6 How AI companies train their models to do white-collar jobs  
After hitting a wall, they’re throwing money at the problem. (The Information $)
+ New training ‘environments’ are a hot AI topic right now.  (TechCrunch)
+ How AI is shaking up corporate hierarchies. (WSJ $)

7 Inside Damascus’ bid to become a tech hub
The city’s tech industry has been embraced by its new government. (Rest of World)

8 A supply shipment to the ISS has been delayed
NASA is blaming engine trouble. (Ars Technica)
+ The great commercial takeover of low Earth orbit. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Our darkest nights are getting lighter
Artificial light is ruining our chances of seeing starry skies. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Bright LEDs could spell the end of dark skies. (MIT Technology Review)

10 You can now book a safari through Uber
Expedition into Nairobi National Park, anyone? (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“What began as a homework helper gradually turned itself into a confidant and then a suicide coach.”

—Matthew Raine, whose 16-year old son Adam died by suicide after repeatedly sharing his intentions with ChatGPT, gives evidence to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating chatbot dangers, the Washington Post reports.

One more thing

AI is coming for music, too

While large language models that generate text have exploded in the last three years, a different type of AI, based on what are called diffusion models, is having an unprecedented impact on creative domains.

By transforming random noise into coherent patterns, diffusion models can generate new images, videos, or speech, guided by text prompts or other input data. The best ones can create outputs indistinguishable from the work of people

Now these models are marching into a creative field that is arguably more vulnerable to disruption than any other: music. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

We can still have nice things

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

+ Food, in all shapes and forms, is bigger than ever. So why aren’t we watching cooking shows any more?
+ Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love turns 40 this year, but still sounds as fresh as ever.
+ Here’s how to maximize your chances of booking a bargain flight.
+ Robert Redford, you were one of a kind.

The Download: regulators are coming for AI companions, and meet our Innovator of 2025

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 looming crackdown on AI companionship

As long as there has been AI, there have been people sounding alarms about what it might do to us: rogue superintelligence, mass unemployment, or environmental ruin. But another threat entirely—that of kids forming unhealthy bonds with AI—is pulling AI safety out of the academic fringe and into regulators’ crosshairs.

This has been bubbling for a while. Two high-profile lawsuits filed in the last year, against Character.AI and OpenAI, allege that their models contributed to the suicides of two teenagers. A study published in July, found that 72% of teenagers have used AI for companionship. And stories about “AI psychosis” have highlighted how endless conversations with chatbots can lead people down delusional spirals.

It’s hard to overstate the impact of these stories. To the public, they are proof that AI is not merely imperfect, but harmful. If you doubted that this outrage would be taken seriously by regulators and companies, three things happened this week that might change your mind.

—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.

If you’re interested in reading more about AI companionship, why not check out:

+ AI companions are the final stage of digital addiction—and lawmakers are taking aim. Read the full story.

+ Chatbots are rapidly changing how we connect to each other—and ourselves. We’re never going back. Read the full story.

+ Why GPT-4o’s sudden shutdown last month left people grieving. Read the full story.

+ An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company doesn’t want to “censor” it.

+ OpenAI has released its first research into how using ChatGPT affects people’s emotional well-being. But there’s still a lot we don’t know.

Meet the designer of the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method

Every year, MIT Technology Review selects one individual whose work we admire to recognize as Innovator of the Year. For 2025, we chose Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method. Thanks to her work, physicians can now sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose a genetic condition in less than eight hours—an achievement that could transform medical care.

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 on Tuesday September 23.

The must-reads

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

1 Childhood vaccination rates are falling across the US
Much of the country no longer has the means to stop the spread of deadly disease. (NBC News)
+ Take a look at the factors driving vaccine hesitancy. (WP $)
+ RFK Jr is appointing more vaccine skeptics to the CDC advisory panel. (Ars Technica)
+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The US and China have reached a TikTok deal 
Beijing says the spin-off version sold to US investors will still use ByteDance’s algorithm. (FT $)
+ But further details are still pretty scarce. (WP $)
+ The deal may have been fueled by China’s desire for Trump to visit the country. (WSJ $)

3 OpenAI is releasing a version of GPT-5 optimized for agentic coding
It’s a direct rival to Anthropic’s Claude Code and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. (TechCrunch)
+ OpenAI says it’s been trained on real-world engineering tasks. (VentureBeat)
+ The second wave of AI coding is here. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The FTC is investigating Ticketmaster’s bot-fighting measures 
It’s probing whether the platform is doing enough to prevent illegal automated reselling. (Bloomberg $)

5 Google has created a new privacy-preserving LLM
VaultGemma uses a technique called differential privacy to reduce the amount of data AI holds onto. (Ars Technica)

6 Space tech firms are fighting it out for NATO contracts
Militaries are willing to branch out and strike deals with commercial vendors. (FT $)
+ Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Facebook users are receiving their Cambridge Analytica payouts
Don’t spend it all at once! (The Verge)

8 The future of supercomputing could hinge on moon mining missions
Companies are rushing to buy the moon’s resources before mining has even begun. (WP $)

9 What it’s like living with an AI toy
Featuring unsettling conversations galore. (The Guardian)

10 Anthropic’s staff are obsessed with an albino alligator
As luck would have it, he just happens to be called Claude. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“It’s going to mean more infections, more hospitalizations, more disability and more death.”

—Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, explains the probable outcomes of America’s current vaccine policy jumble, the BBC reports.

One more thing

Robots are bringing new life to extinct species

In the last few years, paleontologists have developed a new trick for turning back time and studying prehistoric animals: building experimental robotic models of them.

In the absence of a living specimen, scientists say, an ambling, flying, swimming, or slithering automaton is the next best thing for studying the behavior of extinct organisms. Here are four examples of robots that are shedding light on creatures of yore.

—Shi En Kim

We can still have nice things

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

+ New York City is full of natural life, if you know where to look.
+ This photo of Jim Morrison enjoying a beer for breakfast is the epitome of rock ‘n’ roll.
+ How to age like a champion athlete.
+ Would you dare drive the world’s most narrow car?