The Download: Microsoft’s online reality check, and the worrying rise in measles cases

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

Microsoft has a new plan to prove what’s real and what’s AI online

AI-enabled deception now permeates our online lives. There are the high-profile cases you may easily spot. Other times, it slips quietly into social media feeds and racks up views.

It is into this mess that Microsoft has put forward a blueprint, shared with MIT Technology Review, for how to prove what’s real online.

An AI safety research team at the company recently evaluated how methods for documenting digital manipulation are faring against today’s most worrying AI developments, like interactive deepfakes and widely accessible hyperrealistic models. It then recommended technical standards that can be adopted by AI companies and social media platforms. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

Community service: a short story

In the not-too-distant future, civilians are enlisted to kill perceived threats to human life. In this short fiction story from the latest edition of our print magazine, writer Micaiah Johnson imagines the emotional toll that could take on ordinary people. Read the full story and if you haven’t already, subscribe now to get the next edition of the magazine.

Measles cases are rising. Other vaccine-preventable infections could be next.

There’s a measles outbreak happening close to where I live. Since the start of this year, 34 cases have been confirmed in Enfield, a northern borough of London.

It’s another worrying development for an incredibly contagious and potentially fatal disease. Since October last year, 962 cases of measles have been confirmed in South Carolina. Large outbreaks (with more than 50 confirmed cases) are underway in four US states. Smaller outbreaks are being reported in another 12 states.

The vast majority of these cases have been children who were not fully vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy is thought to be a significant reason children are missing out on important vaccines. And if we’re seeing more measles cases now, we might expect to soon see more cases of other vaccine-preventable infections, including some that can cause liver cancer or meningitis. 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.

The must-reads

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

1 The US Environmental Protection Agency is being sued
Health and environmental non-profits have accused it of abandoning its mission to protect the public. (The Guardian)

2 Amazon’s cloud unit has suffered two outages linked to its AI tools
In one instance, its Kiro AI coding tool decided to delete and recreate part of a system. (FT $)
+ Amazon keeps a close eye on how its workers use AI daily. (The Information $)+ Security-conscious tech firms are restricting workers’ use of OpenClaw. (Wired $)

3 AI is making it easier to steal tech trade secrets
It’s also making those secrets more lucrative. (WSJ $)
+ Two former Googlers have been charged with illegally taking trade secrets. (Bloomberg $)

4 What a fake viral ICE tip-off line tells us about America
One call came from a teacher reporting the parents of a kindergarten student. (WP $)
+ The agency’s software could speed up deportations. (Economist $)
+ How an ICE detention actually unfolds. (New Yorker $)
+ An internet personality is dividing those resisting on the streets of Minneapolis. (The Verge)

5 The number of malicious apps submitted to Google’s app store is falling
Which Google attributes to its improved AI defences. (TechCrunch)
+ Beware the rise of the vibe coded music app. (The Verge)

6 “Digital blackface” is on the rise
Generative AI tools steeped in racial stereotypes are being co-opted by users who are not Black themselves.(The Guardian)
+ OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Grok exposed a porn performer’s legal name and birthdate
Without even being explicitly asked for the information. (404 Media)

8 India is embracing deepfakes of dead loved ones
But we don’t know how these kinds of clips could affect the long-term grieving process. (Rest of World)
+ China has a flourishing market for deepfakes that clone the dead. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Longevity-linked products are big business
We might spend up to $8 trillion annually on them by 2030. But do they work? (The Atlantic $)
+ Meet the Vitalists: the hardcore longevity enthusiasts who believe death is “wrong.” (MIT Technology Review)

10 An AI film won’t be shown in cinemas after all
Following a major public backlash after AMC Theatres announced its intention to screen a short AI movie called Thanksgiving Day. (Hollywood Reporter)
+ Screen time is the villain in the trailer for the latest Toy Story installation. (Insider $)
+ How do AI models generate videos? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Nobody but Big Oil profits from Trump trashing climate science and making cars and trucks guzzle and pollute more.”

—David Pettit, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, explains why the Center is suing the US Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to repeal a crucial climate ruling, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

What happened to the microfinance organization Kiva?

Since it was founded in 2005, the San Francisco-based nonprofit Kiva has helped everyday people make microloans to borrowers around the world. It connects lenders in richer communities to fund all sorts of entrepreneurs, from bakers in Mexico to farmers in Albania. Its overarching aim is helping poor people help themselves.

But back in August 2021, Kiva lenders started to notice that information that felt essential in deciding who to lend to was suddenly harder to find. Now, lenders are worried that the organization now seems more focused on how to make money than how to create change. Read the full story.

—Mara Kardas-Nelson

We can still have nice things

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

+ Is there a greater remix than this? I’m not convinced.
+ These photos of Scotland showcase just how beautiful it—and its wildlife—is.
+ It’s time to roll the dice and see where you end up—this random website generator is fun.
+ I’m a bit scared of the “smiling fossil” that’s just been discovered on Holy Island.

The Download: autonomous narco submarines, and virtue signaling 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.

How uncrewed narco subs could transform the Colombian drug trade

For decades, handmade narco subs have been some of the cocaine trade’s most elusive and productive workhorses, ferrying multi-ton loads of illicit drugs from Colombian estuaries toward markets in North America and, increasingly, the rest of the world. Now off-the-shelf technology—Starlink terminals, plug-and-play nautical autopilots, high-resolution video cameras—may be advancing that cat-and-mouse game into a new phase.

Uncrewed subs could move more cocaine over longer distances, and they wouldn’t put human smugglers at risk of capture. And law enforcement around the world is just beginning to grapple with what this means for the future. Read the full story.

—Eduardo Echeverri López

This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

 Google DeepMind wants to know if chatbots are just virtue signaling

The news: Google DeepMind is calling for the moral behavior of large language models—such as what they do when called on to act as companions, therapists, medical advisors, and so on—to be scrutinized with the same kind of rigor as their ability to code or do math.

Why it matters: As LLMs improve, people are asking them to play more and more sensitive roles in their lives. Agents are starting to take actions on people’s behalf. LLMs may be able to influence human decision-making. And yet nobody knows how trustworthy this technology really is at such tasks. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

The building legal case for global climate justice

The United States and the European Union grew into economic superpowers by committing climate atrocities. They have burned a wildly disproportionate share of the world’s oil and gas, planting carbon time bombs that will detonate first in the poorest, hottest parts of the globe.

Morally, there’s an ironclad case that the countries or companies responsible for this mess should provide compensation. Legally, though, the case has been far harder to make. But now those tides might be turning. Read the full story.

—James Temple

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 The US is building an online portal to access content banned elsewhere 
The freedom.gov site is Washington’s broadbrush solution to global censorship. (Reuters)
+ The Trump administration is on a mission to train a cadre of elite coders. (FT $)

2 Mark Zuckerberg overruled wellbeing experts to keep beauty filters on Instagram
Because removing them may have impinged on “free expression,” apparently. (FT $)+ The CEO claims that increasing engagement is not Instagram’s goal. (CNBC)
+ Instead, the company’s true calling is to give its users “something useful”. (WSJ $)
+ A new investigation found Meta is failing to protect children from predators. (WP $)

3 Silicon Valley is working on a shadow power grid for US data centers
AI firms are planning to build their own private power plants across the US. (WP $)
+ They’re pushing the narrative that generative AI will save the Earth. (Wired $)
+ We need better metrics to measure data center sustainability with. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Russian forces are struggling with Starlink and Telegram crackdowns
New restrictions have left troops without a means to communicate. (Bloomberg $)

5 Bill Gates won’t speak at India’s AI summit after all
Given the growing controversy surrounding his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. (BBC)
+ The event has been accused of being disorganized and poorly managed. (Reuters)
+ AI leaders didn’t appreciate this awkward photoshoot. (Bloomberg $)

6 AI software sales are slowing down
Last year’s boom appears to be waning, vendors have warned. (WSJ $)
+ What even is the AI bubble? (MIT Technology Review)

7 eBay has acquired its clothes resale rival Depop
It’s a naked play to corner younger Gen Z shoppers. (NYT $)

8 There’s a lot more going on inside cells than we originally thought
It’s seriously crowded inside there. (Quanta Magazine)

9 What it means to create a chart-topping app
Does anyone care any more? (The Verge)

10 Do we really need eight hours of sleep?
Research suggests some people really are fine operating on as little as four hours of snooze time. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“Too often, those victims have been left to fight alone…That is not justice. It is failure.”

—Keir Starmer, the UK’s prime minister, outlines plans to force technology firms to remove deepfake nudes and revenge porn within 48 hours or risk being blocked in the UK, the Guardian reports.

One more thing

End of life decisions are difficult and distressing. Could AI help?

End-of-life decisions can be extremely upsetting for surrogates—the people who have to make those calls on behalf of another person. Friends or family members may disagree over what’s best for their loved one, which can lead to distressing situations.

David Wendler, a bioethicist at the US National Institutes of Health, and his colleagues have been working on an idea for something that could make things easier: an artificial intelligence-based tool that can help surrogates predict what the patients themselves would want in any given situation.

Wendler hopes to start building their tool as soon as they secure funding for it, potentially in the coming months. But rolling it out won’t be simple. Critics wonder how such a tool can ethically be trained on a person’s data, and whether life-or-death decisions should ever be entrusted to AI. 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.)

+ Oakland Library keeps a remarkable public log of all the weird and wonderful artefacts their librarians find tucked away in the pages of their books.
+ Orchids are beautiful, but temperamental. Here’s how to keep them alive.
+ I love that New York’s Transit Museum is holding a Pizza Rat Debunked event.
+ These British indie bands aren’t really lauded at home—but in China, they’re treated like royalty.

The Download: a blockchain enigma, and the algorithms governing our lives

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.

Welcome to the dark side of crypto’s permissionless dream

Jean-Paul Thorbjornsen, an Australian man in his mid-30s, with a rural Catholic upbringing, is a founder of THORChain, a blockchain through which users can swap one cryptocurrency for another and earn fees from making those swaps.

THORChain is permissionless, so anyone can use it without getting prior approval from a centralized authority. As a decentralized network, the blockchain is built and run by operators located across the globe. During its early days, Thorbjornsen himself hid behind the pseudonym “leena” and used an AI-generated female image as his avatar. But around March 2024, he revealed his true identity as the mind behind the blockchain. More or less.

If there is a central question around THORChain, it is this: Exactly who is responsible for its operations? It matters because in January last year, its users lost more than $200 million worth of their cryptocurrency in US dollars after THORChain transactions and accounts were frozen by a singular admin override, which users believed was not supposed to be possible given the decentralized structure.

Thorbjornsen insists THORChain is helping realize bitcoin’s original purpose of enabling anyone to transact freely outside the reach of purportedly corrupt governments. Yet the network’s problems suggest that an alternative financial system might not be much better. Read the full story.

—Jessica Klein

The robots who predict the future

To be human is, fundamentally, to be a forecaster. Occasionally a pretty good one. Trying to see the future, whether through the lens of past experience or the logic of cause and effect, has helped us hunt, avoid being hunted, plant crops, forge social bonds, and in general survive in a world that does not prioritize our survival.

Today, we are awash in a sea of predictions so vast and unrelenting that most of us barely even register them. People’s desire for reliable forecasting is understandable. Still, nobody signed up for an omnipresent, algorithmic oracle mediating every aspect of their life. A trio of new books tries to make sense of our future-­focused world—how we got here, and what this change means. Each has its own prescriptions for navigating this new reality, but they all agree on one thing: Predictions are ultimately about power and control. Read the full story.

—Bryan Gardiner

These stories are both from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Stratospheric internet could finally start taking off this year

Today, an estimated 2.2 billion people still have either limited or no access to the internet, largely because they live in remote places. But that number could drop this year, thanks to tests of stratospheric airships, uncrewed aircraft, and other high-altitude platforms for internet delivery.

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 Mark Zuckerberg is due to give evidence in a major social media addiction trial
He’ll face questioning over whether Meta does enough to protect young users. (CNN)

2 Perplexity has abandoned ads inside its chatbot responses
Because advertising can erode trust in AI, it reasons. (FT $)
+ It’s a pretty big U-turn considering its previous stance. (The Verge)

3 The US is being battered by a range of wild weather
From critical wildfire risks in some states, to winter storms in others. (WP $)

4 Microsoft plans to spend $50 billion bringing AI to the Global South by 2030
India is one of the fastest growing markets for the technology. (Reuters)
+ One native startup has announced a new AI model for 22 Indian languages. (Bloomberg $)
+ Inside India’s scramble for AI independence. (MIT Technology Review)

5 AI-powered private schools are failing students
Models are being used to generate faulty lesson plans. (404 Media)

6 Land owners are selling out to data center builders
Land previously earmarked for housing is being sold off to the highest bidder. (WSJ $)

7 Tesla has agreed to stop using the term “autopilot” in California
The DMV had previously also questioned its use of “Full Self-Driving.” (SF Chronicle $)

8 A new weight-loss drug may work a little too well
Participants in a trial are dropping out at a much higher rate than normal. (NYT $)
+ Intermittent fasting may not help us to shed the pounds after all. (New Scientist $)
+ What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Is anyone still using Grindr?
Bots and AI have rendered it virtually unusable for some people. (Vox)

10 How to hack your dreams
Neuroscientists are figuring out new ways to influence what we dream about. (New Scientist $)
+ I taught myself to lucid dream. You can too. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“I voted for this administration and didn’t really think about [AI] until it started to affect me.”

—Lisa Garrett, a grandmother living in the city of Independence, Missouri, reflects on the Trump administration’s decision to embrace AI, the Financial Times reports.

One more thing

Hydrogen trains could revolutionize how Americans get around

Like a mirage speeding across the dusty desert outside Pueblo, Colorado, the first hydrogen-fuel-cell passenger train in the United States is getting warmed up on its test track. It will soon be shipped to Southern California, where it is slated to carry riders on San Bernardino County’s Arrow commuter rail service before the end of the year.

The best way to decarbonize railroads is the subject of growing debate among regulators, industry, and activists. The debate is partly technological, revolving around whether hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, or overhead electric wires offer the best performance for different railroad situations. But it’s also political: a question of the extent to which decarbonization can, or should, usher in a broader transformation of rail transportation.

In the insular world of railroading, this hydrogen-powered train is a Rorschach test. To some, it represents the future of rail transportation. To others, it looks like a big, shiny distraction. Read the full story.

—Benjamin Schneider

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.)

+ How to quickly declutter your home by being brutally honest with yourself.
+ The filming locations for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are pretty breathtaking.
+ Why a unicyclist decided to start juggling flaming torches in the middle of a Colorado pedestrian crossing is anyone guess, but good luck to him.
+ How pepper took over the world (deservedly)

The Download: the rise of luxury car theft, and fighting antimicrobial resistance

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 curious case of the disappearing Lamborghinis

Across the world, unsuspecting people are unwittingly becoming caught up in a new and growing type of organized criminal enterprise: vehicle transport fraud and theft.

Crooks use email phishing, fraudulent paperwork, and other tactics to impersonate legitimate transport companies and get hired to deliver a luxury vehicle. They divert the shipment away from its intended destination before using a mix of technology, computer skills, and old-school techniques to erase traces of the vehicle’s original ownership and registration. In some cases, the car has been resold or is out of the country by the time the rightful owner even realizes it’s missing.

The nationwide epidemic of vehicle transport fraud and theft has remained under the radar, even as it’s rocked the industry over the past two years. MIT Technology Review identified more than a dozen cases involving high-end vehicles, obtained court records, and spoke to law enforcement, brokers, drivers, and victims in multiple states to reveal how transport fraud is wreaking havoc across the country. Read the full story.

—Craig Silverman

The scientist using AI to hunt for antibiotics just about everywhere

Antimicrobial resistance is a major problem. Infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and viruses that have evolved ways to evade treatments are now associated with more than 4 million deaths per year, and a recent analysis predicts that number could surge past 8 million by 2050.

Bioengineer and computational biologist César de la Fuente has a plan. His team at the University of Pennsylvania is training AI tools to search genomes far and deep for peptides with antibiotic properties. His vision is to assemble those peptides—molecules made of up to 50 amino acids linked together—into various configurations, including some never seen in nature. The results, he hopes, could defend the body against microbes that withstand traditional treatments—and his quest has unearthed promising candidates in unexpected places. Read the full story.

—Stephen Ornes

These stories are both from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. 

The must-reads

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

1 The Pentagon is close to cutting all business ties with Anthropic
The move would force anyone who wants to deal with the US military to cease working with Anthropic too. (Axios)
+ Claude was used in the US raid to capture the former Venezuelan President. (WSJ $)
+ Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military. (MIT Technology Review)

2 RFK Jr is setting his sights on baby formula
But advocacy groups are concerned about how grounded in science the administration’s overhaul suggestions will be. (WSJ $)

3 Germany is edging closer to banning social media for under-16s
In an effort to create safer digital spaces for young web users. (Bloomberg $)
+ The country’s centre-left is in agreement with their conservative coalition partners. (Reuters)

4 Creative hackers are fighting back against ICE
The maker community is resisting through laser-cutting and 3D-printing. (Wired $)
+ ICE has signed hundreds of deals with local law enforcement. (NBC News)

5 Consultancies have built thousands of AI agents
Now it’s time to see if they can actually deliver. (Insider $)
+ Don’t let hype about AI agents get ahead of reality. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Restaurant workers are sick of being recorded
Meta’s smart glasses make the video-recording process more surreptitious than ever. (NYT $)

7 The Arctic’s rivers are turning bright orange
But it’s climate change, not mining, that’s to blame. (FT $)
+ What’s going to happen now the EPA can no longer fight climate change? (Undark)
+ Scientists can see Earth’s permafrost thawing from space. (MIT Technology Review)

8 NASA let AI drive its Mars Perseverance rover
It traversed 456 meters across two days without human intervention. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ That’s…not very fast at all. (Semafor)
+ Slow-moving food delivery robots are under attack in the US. (Economist $)

9 This machine is able to translate photos into smells
Select your images very carefully, is my advice.(Fast Company $)

10 One of YouTube’s biggest creators is now a successful director 
Mark Fischbach funded, made and released his film in theaters entirely independently. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“My advice to them would be to get with the program.”

—Jeremy Newmark, leader of a British council near the town of Potters Bar, has some choice words for the locals disputing plans to build a massive AI data center nearby, Wired reports.

One more thing

The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures

Climate change is subjecting vulnerable people to temperatures that push their limits. In 2023, about 47,000 heat-related deaths are believed to have occurred in Europe. Researchers estimate that climate change could add an extra 2.3 million European heat deaths this century. That’s heightened the stakes for solving the mystery of just what happens to bodies in extreme conditions.

While we broadly know how people thermoregulate, the science of keeping warm or cool is mottled with blind spots. Researchers around the world are revising rules about when extremes veer from uncomfortable to deadly. Their findings change how we should think about the limits of hot and cold—and how to survive in a new world. Read the full story.

—Max G.Levy

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.)

+ I guarantee you’ve never seen a diner that looks quite like the Niemeyer Sphere.
+ How New Yorkers keep partying in sub-zero temperatures.
+ The interiors of Love Story, the new show chronicling the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, are a ‘90s dream.
+ Ever wondered why some people see certain colors a certain way? Wonder no more.

The Download: unraveling a death threat mystery, and AI voice recreation for musicians

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.

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

In April 2024, a mysterious someone using the online handles “Waifu” and “Judische” began posting death threats on Telegram and Discord channels aimed at a cybersecurity researcher named Allison Nixon.

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

Though she’d done this work for more than a decade, Nixon couldn’t understand why the person behind the accounts was suddenly threatening her. And although she had taken an interest in the Waifu persona in years past for crimes he boasted about committing, he hadn’t been on her radar for a while when the threats began, because she was tracking other targets.

Now Nixon resolved to unmask Waifu/Judische and others responsible for the death threats—and take them down for crimes they admitted to committing. Read the full story.

—Kim Zetter

This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. 

ALS stole this musician’s voice. AI let him sing again.

There are tears in the audience as Patrick Darling’s song begins to play. It’s a heartfelt song written for his great-grandfather, whom he never got the chance to meet. But this performance is emotional for another reason: It’s Darling’s first time on stage with his bandmates since he lost the ability to sing two years ago.

The 32-year-old musician was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was 29 years old. Like other types of motor neuron disease, it affects nerves that supply the body’s muscles. People with ALS eventually lose the ability to control their muscles, including those that allow them to move, speak, and breathe.

Darling’s last stage performance was over two years ago. By that point, he had already lost the ability to stand and play his instruments and was struggling to sing or speak. But recently, he was able to re-create his lost voice using an AI tool trained on snippets of old audio recordings. Another AI tool has enabled him to use this “voice clone” to compose new songs. Darling is able to make music again. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

The must-reads

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

1 The creator of OpenClaw is joining OpenAI
Sam Altman was sufficiently impressed by Peter Steinberger’s ideas to get agents to interact with each other. (The Verge)
+ The move demonstrates how seriously OpenAI is taking agents. (FT $)
+ Moltbook was peak AI theater. (MIT Technology Review)

2 How North Korea is illegally funding its nuclear program
A defector explains precisely how he duped remote IT workers into funneling money into its missiles.(WSJ $)
+ Nukes are a hot topic across Europe right now. (The Atlantic $)

3 Radio host David Greene is convinced Google stole his voice
He’s suing the company over similarities between his own distinctive vocalizations and the AI voice used in its NotebookLM app. (WP $)
+ People are using Google study software to make AI podcasts. (MIT Technology Review)

4 US automakers are worried by the prospect of a Chinese invasion
They fear Trump may greenlight Chinese carmakers to build plants in the US. (FT $)
+ China figured out how to sell EVs. Now it has to deal with their aging batteries. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Google downplays safety warnings on its AI-generated medical advice
It only displays extended warnings when a user clicks to ‘Show more.’ (The Guardian)
+ Here’s another reason why you should keep a close eye on AI Overviews. (Wired $)
+ AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors. (MIT Technology Review)

6 How to make Lidar affordable for all cars
A compact device could prove the key. (IEEE Spectrum)

7 Robot fight nights are all the rage in San Francisco
Step aside, Super Bowl! (Rest of World)
+ Humanoid robots will take to the stage for Chinese New Year celebrations. (Reuters)

8 Influencers and TikTokers are feeding their babies butter
But there’s no scientific evidence to back up some of their claims. (NY Mag $)

9 This couple can’t speak the same language
Microsoft Translator has helped them to sustain a marriage. (NYT $)
+ AI romance scams are on the rise. (Vox)

10 AI promises to make better, more immersive video games
But those are lofty goals that may never be achieved. (The Verge)
+ Google DeepMind is using Gemini to train agents inside Goat Simulator 3. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Right now this is a baby version. But I think it’s incredibly concerning for the future.”

—Scott Shambaugh, a software engineer who recently became the subject of a scathing blog post written by an AI bot accusing him of hypocrisy and prejudice, tells the Wall Street Journal why this could be the tip of the iceberg.

One more thing

Why do so many people think the Fruit of the Loom logo had a cornucopia?

Quick question: Does the Fruit of the Loom logo feature a cornucopia?

Many of us have been wearing the company’s T-shirts for decades, and yet the question of whether there is a woven brown horn of plenty on the logo is surprisingly contentious.

According to a 2022 poll, 55% of Americans believe the logo does include a cornucopia, 25% are unsure, and only 21% are confident that it doesn’t, even though this last group is correct.

There’s a name for what’s happening here: the “Mandela effect,” or collective false memory, so called because a number of people misremember that Nelson Mandela died in prison. Yet while many find it easy to let their unconfirmable beliefs go, some spend years seeking answers—and vindication. Read the full story.

—Amelia Tait

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.)

+ When dating apps and book lovers collide, who knows what could happen.
+ It turns out humans have a secret third set of teeth, which is completely wild.
+ We may never know the exact shape of the universe. But why is that?
+ If your salad is missing a certain something, some crispy lentils may be just the ticket.

The Download: an exclusive chat with Jim O’Neill, and the surprising truth about heists

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 deputy health secretary: Vaccine guidelines are still subject to change

Over the past year, Jim O’Neill has become one of the most powerful people in public health. As the US deputy health secretary, he holds two roles at the top of the country’s federal health and science agencies. He oversees a department with a budget of over a trillion dollars. And he signed the decision memorandum on the US’s deeply controversial new vaccine schedule.

He’s also a longevity enthusiast. In an exclusive interview with MIT Technology Review earlier this month, O’Neill described his plans to increase human healthspan through longevity-focused research supported by ARPA-H, a federal agency dedicated to biomedical breakthroughs. Fellow longevity enthusiasts said they hope he will bring attention and funding to their cause.

At the same time, O’Neill defended reducing the number of broadly recommended childhood vaccines, a move that has been widely criticized by experts in medicine and public health. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

The myth of the high-tech heist

Making a movie is a lot like pulling off a heist. That’s what Steven Soderbergh—director of the Ocean’s franchise, among other heist-y classics—said a few years ago. You come up with a creative angle, put together a team of specialists, figure out how to beat the technological challenges, rehearse, move with Swiss-watch precision, and—if you do it right—redistribute some wealth.

But conversely, pulling off a heist isn’t much like the movies. Surveillance cameras, computer-controlled alarms, knockout gas, and lasers hardly ever feature in big-ticket crime. In reality, technical countermeasures are rarely a problem, and high-tech gadgets are rarely a solution. Read the full story.

—Adam Rogers

This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

 RFK Jr. follows a carnivore diet. That doesn’t mean you should.

Americans have a new set of diet guidelines. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken an old-fashioned food pyramid, turned it upside down, and plonked a steak and a stick of butter in prime positions.

Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again mates have long been extolling the virtues of meat and whole-fat dairy, so it wasn’t too surprising to see those foods recommended alongside vegetables and whole grains (despite the well-established fact that too much saturated fat can be extremely bad for you).

Some influencers have taken the meat trend to extremes, following a “carnivore diet.” A recent review of research into nutrition misinformation on social media found that a lot of shared diet information is nonsense. But what’s new is that some of this misinformation comes from the people who now lead America’s federal health agencies. 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.

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 revoked a landmark climate ruling
In its absence, it can erase the limits that restrict planet-warming emissions. (WP $)
+ Environmentalists and Democrats have vowed to fight the reversal. (Politico)
+ They’re seriously worried about how it will affect public health. (The Hill)

2 An unexplained wave of bot traffic is sweeping the web
Sites across the world are witnessing automated traffic that appears to originate from China. (Wired $)

3 Amazon’s Ring has axed its partnership with Flock
Law enforcement will no longer be able to request Ring doorbell footage from its users. (The Verge)
+ Ring’s recent TV ad for a dog-finding feature riled viewers. (WSJ $)
+ How Amazon Ring uses domestic violence to market doorbell cameras. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Americans are taking the hit for almost all of Trump’s tariffs
Consumers and companies in the US, not overseas, are shouldering 90% of levies. (Reuters)
+ Trump has long insisted that his tariffs costs will be borne by foreign exporters. (FT $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Meta and Snap say Australia’s social media ban hasn’t affected business
They’re still making plenty of money amid the country’s decision to ban under-16s from the platforms. (Bloomberg $)
+ Does preventing teens from going online actually do any good? (Economist $)

6 AI workers are selling their shares before their firms go public
Cashing out early used to be a major Silicon Valley taboo. (WSJ $)

7 Elon Musk posted about race almost every day last month
His fixation on a white racial majority appears to be intensifying. (The Guardian)
+ Race is a recurring theme in the Epstein emails, too. (The Atlantic $)

8 The man behind a viral warning about AI used AI to write it
But he stands behind its content.. (NY Mag $)
+ How AI-generated text is poisoning the internet. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Influencers are embracing Chinese traditions ahead of the New Year
On the internet, no one knows you’re actually from Wisconsin. (NYT $)

10 Australia’s farmers are using AI to count sheep
No word on whether it’s helping them sleep easier, though. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“Ignoring warning signs will not stop the storm. It puts more Americans directly in its path.”

—Former US secretary of state John Kerry takes aim at the US government’s decision to repeal the key rule that allows it to regulate climate-heating pollution, the Guardian reports.

One more thing

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is ready to transform our understanding of the cosmos

High atop Chile’s 2,700-meter Cerro Pachón, the air is clear and dry, leaving few clouds to block the beautiful view of the stars. It’s here that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon use a car-size 3,200-megapixel digital camera—the largest ever built—to produce a new map of the entire night sky every three days.

Findings from the observatory will help tease apart fundamental mysteries like the nature of dark matter and dark energy, two phenomena that have not been directly observed but affect how objects are bound together—and pushed apart.

A quarter-­century in the making, the observatory is poised to expand our understanding of just about every corner of the universe. 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.)

+ Why 2026 is shaping up to be the year of the pop comeback.
+ Almost everything we thought we knew about Central America’s Maya has turned out to be completely wrong.
+ The Bigfoot hunters have spoken!
+ This fun game puts you in the shoes of a distracted man trying to participate in a date while playing on a GameBoy.

The Download: AI-enhanced cybercrime, and secure AI assistants

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 is already making online crimes easier. It could get much worse.

Just as software engineers are using artificial intelligence to help write code and check for bugs, hackers are using these tools to reduce the time and effort required to orchestrate an attack, lowering the barriers for less experienced attackers to try something out.

Some in Silicon Valley warn that AI is on the brink of being able to carry out fully automated attacks. But most security researchers instead argue that we should be paying closer attention to the much more immediate risks posed by AI, which is already speeding up and increasing the volume of scams.

Criminals are increasingly exploiting the latest deepfake technologies to impersonate people and swindle victims out of vast sums of money. And we need to be ready for what comes next. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is all about crime. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

Is a secure AI assistant possible?

AI agents are a risky business. Even when stuck inside the chatbox window, LLMs will make mistakes and behave badly. Once they have tools that they can use to interact with the outside world, such as web browsers and email addresses, the consequences of those mistakes become far more serious.

Viral AI agent project OpenClaw, which has made headlines across the world in recent weeks, harnesses existing LLMs to let users create their own bespoke assistants. For some users, this means handing over reams of personal data, from years of emails to the contents of their hard drive. That has security experts thoroughly freaked out.

In response to these concerns, its creator warned that nontechnical people should not use the software. But there’s a clear appetite for what OpenClaw is offering, and any AI companies hoping to get in on the personal assistant business will need to figure out how to build a system that will keep users’ data safe and secure. To do so, they’ll need to borrow approaches from the cutting edge of agent security research. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

What’s next for Chinese open-source AI

The past year has marked a turning point for Chinese AI. Since DeepSeek released its R1 reasoning model in January 2025, Chinese companies have repeatedly delivered AI models that match the performance of leading Western models at a fraction of the cost.

These models differ in a crucial way from most US models like ChatGPT or Claude, which you pay to access and can’t inspect. The Chinese companies publish their models’ weights—numerical values that get set when a model is trained—so anyone can download, run, study, and modify them. 

If open-source AI models keep getting better, they will not just offer the cheapest options for people who want access to frontier AI capabilities; they will change where innovation happens and who sets the standards. Here’s what may come next.

—Caiwei Chen

This is part of our What’s Next series, which looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.

Why EVs are gaining ground in Africa

EVs are getting cheaper and more common all over the world. But the technology still faces major challenges in some markets, including many countries in Africa.

Some regions across the continent still have limited grid and charging infrastructure, and those that do have widespread electricity access sometimes face reliability issues—a problem for EV owners, who require a stable electricity source to charge up and get around. But there are some signs of progress. 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.

The must-reads

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

1 Instagram’s head has denied that social media is “clinically addictive”  
Adam Mosseri disputed allegations the platform prioritized profits over protecting its younger users’ mental health. (NYT $)
+ Meta researchers’ correspondence seems to suggest otherwise. (The Guardian)

2 The Pentagon is pushing AI companies to drop tools’ restrictions
In a bid to make AI models available on classified networks. (Reuters)
+ The Pentagon has gutted the team that tests AI and weapons systems. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The FTC has warned Apple News not to stifle conservative content
It has accused the company’s news arm of promoting what it calls “leftist outlets.” (FT $)

4 Anthropic has pledged to minimize the impact of its data centers
By covering electricity price increases and the cost of grid infrastructure upgrades. (NBC News)
+ We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Online harassers are posting Grok-generated nude images on OnlyFans 
Kylie Brewer, a feminism-focused content creator, says the latest online campaign against her feels like an escalation. (404 Media)
+ Inside the marketplace powering bespoke AI deepfakes of real women. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Venture capitalists are hedging their AI bets
They’re breaking a cardinal rule by investing in both OpenAI and rival Anthropic. (Bloomberg $)
+ OpenAI has set itself some seriously lofty revenue goals. (NYT $)
+ AI giants are notoriously inconsistent when reporting deprecation expenses. (WSJ $)

7 We’re learning more about the links between weight loss drugs and addiction
Some patients report lowered urges for drugs and alcohol. But can it last? (New Yorker $)
+ What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Meta has patented an AI that keeps the accounts of dead users active
But it claims to have “no plans to move forward” with it. (Insider $)
+ Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming Chinese business. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Slime mold is cleverer than you may think
A certain type appears able to learn, remember and make decisions. (Knowable Magazine)
+ And that’s not all—this startup thinks it can help us design better cities, too. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Meditation can actually alter your brain activity
According to a new study conducted on Buddhist monks. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“I still try to believe that the good that I’m doing is greater than the horrors that are a part of this. But there’s a limit to what we can put up with. And I’ve hit my limit.”

—An anonymous Microsoft worker explains why they’re growing increasingly frustrated with their employer’s links to ICE, the Verge reports. 

One more thing

Motor neuron diseases took their voices. AI is bringing them back.

Jules Rodriguez lost his voice in October 2024. His speech had been deteriorating since a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2020, but a tracheostomy to help him breathe dealt the final blow. 

Rodriguez and his wife, Maria Fernandez, who live in Miami, thought they would never hear his voice again. Then they re-created it using AI. After feeding old recordings of Rodriguez’s voice into a tool trained on voices from film, television, radio, and podcasts, the couple were able to generate a voice clone—a way for Jules to communicate in his “old voice.”

Rodriguez is one of over a thousand people with speech difficulties who have cloned their voices using free software from ElevenLabs. The AI voice clones aren’t perfect. But they represent a vast improvement on previous communication technologies and are already improving the lives of people with motor neuron diseases. 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.)

+ We all know how the age of the dinosaurs ended. But how did it begin?
+ There’s only one Miss Piggy—and her fashion looks through the ages are iconic.
+ Australia’s hospital for injured and orphaned flying foxes is unbearably cute.
+ 81-year old Juan López is a fitness inspiration to us all.

The Download: inside the QuitGPT movement, and EVs in Africa

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 “QuitGPT” campaign is urging people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions

In September, Alfred Stephen, a freelance software developer in Singapore, purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription, which costs $20 a month and offers more access to advanced models, to speed up his work. But he grew frustrated with the chatbot’s coding abilities and its gushing, meandering replies. Then he came across a post on Reddit about a campaign called QuitGPT.

QuitGPT is one of the latest salvos in a growing movement by activists and disaffected users to cancel their subscriptions. In just the past few weeks, users have flooded Reddit with stories about quitting the chatbot. And while it’s unclear how many users have joined the boycott, there’s no denying QuitGPT is getting attention. Read the full story.

—Michelle Kim

EVs could be cheaper to own than gas cars in Africa by 2040

Electric vehicles could be economically competitive in Africa sooner than expected. Just 1% of new cars sold across the continent in 2025 were electric, but a new analysis finds that with solar off-grid charging, EVs could be cheaper to own than gas vehicles by 2040.

There are major barriers to higher EV uptake in many countries in Africa, including a sometimes unreliable grid, limited charging infrastructure, and a lack of access to affordable financing. But as batteries and the vehicles they power continue to get cheaper, the economic case for EVs is building. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How next-generation nuclear reactors break out of the 20th-century blueprint

The popularity of commercial nuclear reactors has surged in recent years as worries about climate change and energy independence drowned out concerns about meltdowns and radioactive waste.

The problem is, building nuclear power plants is expensive and slow. 

A new generation of nuclear power technology could reinvent what a reactor looks like—and how it works. Advocates hope that new tech can refresh the industry and help replace fossil fuels without emitting greenhouse gases.

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 Social media giants have agreed to be rated on teen safety 
Meta, TikTok and Snap will undergo independent assessments over how effectively they protect the mental health of teen users. (WP $)
+ Discord, YouTube, Pinterest, Roblox and Twitch have also agreed to be graded. (LA Times $)

2 The FDA has refused to review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine
It’s the latest in a long line of anti-vaccination moves the agency is making. (Ars Technica)
+ Experts worry it’ll have a knock-on effect on investment in future vaccines. (The Guardian)
+ Moderna says it was blindsided by the decision. (CNN)

3 EV battery factories are pivoting to manufacturing energy cells 
Energy storage systems are in, electric vehicles are out. (FT $)

4 Why OpenAI killed off ChatGPT’s 4o model
The qualities that make it attractive for some users make it incredibly risky for others. (WSJ $)
+ Bereft users have set up their own Reddit community to mourn. (Futurism)
+ Why GPT-4o’s sudden shutdown left people grieving. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Drug cartels have started laundering money through crypto
And law enforcement is struggling to stop them. (Bloomberg $)

6 Morocco wants to build an AI for Africa
The country’s Minister of Digital Transition has a plan. (Rest of World)
+ What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Christian influencers are bowing out of the news cycle
They’re choosing to ignore world events to protect their own inner peace. (The Atlantic $)

8 An RFK Jr-approved diet is pretty joyless
Don’t expect any dessert, for one. (Insider $)
+ The US government’s health site uses Grok to dispense nutrition advice. (Wired $)

9 Don’t toss out your used vape
Hackers can give it a second life as a musical synthesizer. (Wired $)

10 An ice skating duo danced to AI music at the Winter Olympics
Centuries of bangers to choose from, and this is what they opted for. (TechCrunch)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“These companies are terrified that no one’s going to notice them.” 

—Tom Goodwin, co-founder of business consulting firm All We Have Is Now, tells the Guardian why AI startups are going to increasingly desperate measures to grab would-be customers’ attention.

One more thing

How AI is changing gymnastics judging

The 2023 World Championships last October marked the first time an AI judging system was used on every apparatus in a gymnastics competition. There are obvious upsides to using this kind of technology: AI could help take the guesswork out of the judging technicalities. It could even help to eliminate biases, making the sport both more fair and more transparent.

At the same time, others fear AI judging will take away something that makes gymnastics special. Gymnastics is a subjective sport, like diving or dressage, and technology could eliminate the judges’ role in crafting a narrative.

For better or worse, AI has officially infiltrated the world of gymnastics. The question now is whether it really makes it fairer. Read the full story.

—Jessica Taylor Price

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.)

+ Today marks the birthday of the late, great Leslie Nielsen—one of the best to ever do it.
+ Congratulations are in order for Hannah Cox, who has just completed 100 marathons in 100 days across India in her dad’s memory.
+ Feeling down? A trip to Finland could be just what you need.
+ We love Padre Guilherme, the Catholic priest dropping incredible Gregorian chant beats.

The Download: Making AI Work, and why the Moltbook hype is similar to Pokémon

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 first look at Making AI Work, MIT Technology Review’s new AI newsletter

Are you interested in learning more about the ways in which AI is actually being used? We’ve launched a new weekly newsletter series exploring just that: digging into how generative AI is being used and deployed across sectors and what professionals need to know to apply it in their everyday work.

Each edition of Making AI Work begins with a case study, examining a specific use case of AI in a given industry. Then we’ll take a deeper look at the AI tool being used, with more context about how other companies or sectors are employing that same tool or system. Finally, we’ll end with action-oriented tips to help you apply the tool.

The first edition takes a look at how AI is changing health care, digging into the future of medical note-taking by learning about the Microsoft Copilot tool used by doctors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Sign up here to receive the seven editions straight to your inbox, and if you’d like to read more about AI’s impact on health care in the meantime, check out some of our past reporting:

+  This medical startup uses LLMs to run appointments and make diagnoses.

+ How AI is changing how we quantify pain by helping health-care providers better assess their patients’ discomfort. Read the full story.

+ End-of-life decisions are difficult and distressing. Could AI help?

+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. But we shouldn’t let it make all the decisions unchecked. Read the full story.

Why the Moltbook frenzy was like Pokémon

Lots of influential people in tech recently described Moltbook, an online hangout populated by AI agents interacting with one another, as a glimpse into the future. It appeared to show AI systems doing useful things for the humans that created them—sure, it was flooded with crypto scams, and many of the posts were actually written by people, but something about it pointed to a future of helpful AI, right?

The whole experiment reminded our senior editor for AI, Will Douglas Heaven, of something far less interesting: Pokémon. Read the full story to find out why.

—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.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI has begun testing ads in ChatGPT 
But the ads won’t influence the responses it provides, apparently. (The Verge)
+ Users who pay at least $20 a month for the chatbot will be exempt. (Gizmodo)
+ So will users believed to be under 18. (Axios)

2 The White House has a plan to stop data centers from raising electricity prices
It’s going to ask AI companies to voluntarily commit to keeping costs down. (Politico)
+ The US federal government is adopting AI left, right and center. (WP $)
+ We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Elon Musk wants to colonize the moon
For now at least, his grand ambitions to live on Mars are taking a backseat. (CNN)
+ His full rationale for this U-turn isn’t exactly clear. (Ars Technica)
+ Musk also wants to become the first to launch a working data center in space. (FT $)
+ The case against humans in space. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Cheap AI tools are helping criminals to ramp up their scams
They’re using LLMs to massively scale up their attacks. (Bloomberg $)
+ Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Iceland could be heading towards becoming one giant glacier
If human-driven warming disrupts a vital ocean current, that is. (WP $)
+ Inside a new quest to save the “doomsday glacier.” (MIT Technology Review)

6 Amazon is planning to launch an AI content marketplace
It’s reported to have spoken to media publishers to gauge their interest. (The Information $)

7 Doctors can’t agree on how to diagnose Alzheimer’s
They worry that some patients are being misdiagnosed. (WSJ $)

8 The first wave of AI enthusiasts are burning out
A new study has found that AI tools are linked to employees working more, not less. (TechCrunch)

9 We’re finally moving towards better ways to measure body fat
BMI is a flawed metric. Physicians are finally using better measures. (New Scientist $)
+ These are the best ways to measure your body fat. (MIT Technology Review)

10 It’s getting harder to become a social media megastar
Maybe that’s a good thing? (Insider $)
+ The likes of Mr Beast are still raking in serious cash, though. (The Information $)

Quote of the day

“This case is as easy as ABC—addicting, brains, children.”

—Lawyer Mark Lanier lays out his case during the opening statements of a new tech addiction trial in which a woman has accused Meta of deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive, the New York Times reports.

One more thing

China wants to restore the sea with high-tech marine ranches

A short ferry ride from the port city of Yantai, on the northeast coast of China, sits Genghai No. 1, a 12,000-metric-ton ring of oil-rig-style steel platforms, advertised as a hotel and entertainment complex.

Genghai is in fact an unusual tourist destination, one that breeds 200,000 “high-quality marine fish” each year. The vast majority are released into the ocean as part of a process known as marine ranching.

The Chinese government sees this work as an urgent and necessary response to the bleak reality that fisheries are collapsing both in China and worldwide. But just how much of a difference can it make? Read the full story.

—Matthew Ponsford

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.)

+ Wow, Joel and Ethan Coen’s dark comedic classic Fargo is 30 years old.
+ A new exhibition in New York is rightfully paying tribute to one of the greatest technological inventions: the Walkman ($)
+ This gigantic sleeping dachshund sculpture in South Korea is completely bonkers.
+ A beautiful heart-shaped pendant linked to King Henry VIII has been secured by the British Museum.

The Download: helping cancer survivors to give birth, and cleaning up Bangladesh’s garment 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.

An experimental surgery is helping cancer survivors give birth

An experimental surgical procedure that’s helping people have babies after they’ve had  treatment for bowel or rectal cancer.

Radiation and chemo can have pretty damaging side effects that mess up the uterus and ovaries. Surgeons are pioneering a potential solution: simply stitch those organs out of the way during cancer treatment. Once the treatment has finished, they can put the uterus—along with the ovaries and fallopian tubes—back into place.

It seems to work! Last week, a team in Switzerland shared news that a baby boy had been born after his mother had the procedure. Baby Lucien was the fifth baby to be born after the surgery and the first in Europe, and since then at least three others have been born. 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. 

Bangladesh’s garment-making industry is getting greener

Pollution from textile production—dyes, chemicals, and heavy metals—is common in the waters of the Buriganga River as it runs through Dhaka, Bangladesh. It’s among many harms posed by a garment sector that was once synonymous with tragedy: In 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza factory building collapsed, killing 1,134 people and injuring some 2,500 others. 

But things are starting to change. In recent years the country has become a leader in “frugal” factories that use a combination of resource-efficient technologies to cut waste, conserve water, and build resilience against climate impacts and global supply disruptions. 

The hundreds of factories along the Buriganga’s banks and elsewhere in Bangladesh are starting to stitch together a new story, woven from greener threads. Read the full story.

—Zakir Hossain Chowdhury

This story is from the most recent print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which shines a light on the exciting innovations happening right now. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

The must-reads

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

1 ICE used a private jet to deport Palestinian men to Tel Aviv 
The luxury aircraft belongs to Donald Trump’s business partner Gil Dezer. (The Guardian)
+ Trump is mentioned thousands of times in the latest Epstein files. (NY Mag $)

2 How Jeffrey Epstein kept investing in Silicon Valley
He continued to plough millions of dollars into tech ventures despite spending 13 months in jail. (NYT $)
+ The range of Epstein’s social network was staggering. (FT $)
+ Why was a picture of the Mona Lisa redacted in the Epstein files? (404 Media)

3 The risks posed by taking statins are lower than we realised
The drugs don’t cause most of the side effects they’re blamed for. (STAT)
+ Statins are a common scapegoat on social media. (Bloomberg $)

4 Russia is weaponizing the bitter winter weather
It’s focused on attacking Ukraine’s power grid. (New Yorker $)
+ How the grid can ride out winter storms. (MIT Technology Review)

5 China has a major spy-cam porn problem
Hotel guests are being livestreamed having sex to an online audience without their knowledge. (BBC)

6 Geopolitical gamblers are betting on the likelihood of war
And prediction markets are happily taking their money. (Rest of World)

7 Oyster farmers aren’t signing up to programs to ease water pollution
The once-promising projects appear to be fizzling out. (Undark)
+ The humble sea creature could hold the key to restoring coastal waters. Developers hate it. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Your next payrise could be approved by AI
Maybe your human bosses aren’t the ones you need to impress any more. (WP $)

9 The FDA has approved a brain stimulation device for treating depression
It’s paving the way for a non-invasive, drug-free treatment for Americans. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Here’s how personalized brain stimulation could treat depression. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Cinema-goers have had enough of AI
Movies focused on rogue AI are flopping at the box office. (Wired $)
+ Meanwhile, Republicans are taking aim at “woke” Netflix. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“I’m all for removing illegals, but snatching dudes off lawn mowers in Cali and leaving the truck and equipment just sitting there? Definitely not working smarter.” 

—A web user in a forum for current and former ICE and border protection officers complains about the agency’s current direction, Wired reports.

One more thing

Is this the electric grid of the future?

Lincoln Electric System, a publicly owned utility in Nebraska, is used to weathering severe blizzards. But what will happen soon—not only at Lincoln Electric but for all electric utilities—is a challenge of a different order.

Utilities must keep the lights on in the face of more extreme and more frequent storms and fires, growing risks of cyberattacks and physical disruptions, and a wildly uncertain policy and regulatory landscape. They must keep prices low amid inflationary costs. And they must adapt to an epochal change in how the grid works, as the industry attempts to transition from power generated with fossil fuels to power generated from renewable sources like solar and wind.

The electric grid is bracing for a near future characterized by disruption. And, in many ways, Lincoln Electric is an ideal lens through which to examine what’s coming. Read the full story.

—Andrew Blum

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.)

+ Glamour puss alert—NYC’s bodega cats are gracing the hallowed pages of Vogue.
+ Ancient Europe was host to mysterious hidden tunnels. But why?
+ If you’re enjoying the new season of Industry, you’ll love this interview with the one and only Ken Leung.
+ The giant elephant shrew is the true star of Philly Zoo.