The Download: how the military is using AI, and AI’s climate promises

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.

Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military

For much of last year, US Marines conducting training exercises in the waters off South Korea, the Philippines, India, and Indonesia were also running an experiment. The service members in the unit responsible for sorting through foreign intelligence and making their superiors aware of possible local threats were for the first time using generative AI to do it, testing a leading AI tool the Pentagon has been funding.

Two officers tell us that they used the new system to help scour thousands of pieces of open-source intelligence—nonclassified articles, reports, images, videos—collected in the various countries where they operated, and that it did so far faster than was possible with the old method of analyzing them manually.

Though the US military has been developing computer vision models and similar AI tools since 2017, the use of generative AI—tools that can engage in human-like conversation—represent a newer frontier. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

Why the climate promises of AI sound a lot like carbon offsets 

The International Energy Agency states in a new report that AI could eventually reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, possibly by much more than the boom in energy-guzzling data center development pushes them up.

The finding echoes a point that prominent figures in the AI sector have made as well to justify, at least implicitly, the gigawatts’ worth of electricity demand that new data centers are placing on regional grid systems across the world.

There’s something familiar about the suggestion that it’s okay to build data centers that run on fossil fuels today because AI tools will help the world drive down emissions eventually—it recalls the purported promise of carbon credits. Unfortunately, we’ve seen again and again that such programs often overstate any climate benefits, doing little to alter the balance of what’s going into or coming out of the atmosphere. Read the full story. 

—James Temple

The must-reads

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

1 MAGA influencers are downplaying Trump’s market turmoil
They’re finding creative ways to frame the financial tumult as character building. (WP $)
+ Some democrats are echoing his trade myths, too. (Vox)

2 Amazon products are going to cost more
CEO Andy Jassy says he anticipates third party sellers passing the costs introduced by tariffs on to their customers. (CNBC)
+ He says the company has been renegotiating terms with sellers. (CNN)

3 OpenAI has slashed its model safety testing time
Which experts worry will mean it rushes out models without sufficient safeguarding. (FT $)
+ Why we need an AI safety hotline. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A woman gave birth to a stranger’s baby in an IVF mixup
Monash IVF transferred another woman’s embryo to her by accident. (The Guardian)
+ Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Amazon equipped some of its delivery vans in Europe with defibrillators 
In an experiment to see if drivers could speed up help to heart attack patients. (Bloomberg $)

6 The future of biotech is looking shaky
RFK Jr’s appointment and soaring interest rates are rocking an already volatile industry. (WSJ $)
+ Meanwhile, RFK Jr has visited the families of two girls who died from measles. (The Atlantic $)

7 Alexandre de Moraes isn’t backing down
The Brazilian judge, who has butted heads with Elon Musk, is worried about extremist digital populism. (New Yorker $)

8 An experimental pill mimics the effects of gastric bypass surgery
And could be touted as an alternative to weight-loss drugs. (Wired $)
+ Drugs like Ozempic now make up 5% of prescriptions in the US. (MIT Technology Review)

9 What happens when video games start bleeding into the real world
Game Transfer Phenomenon is a real thing, and nowhere near as fun as it sounds. (BBC)
+ How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Londoners smashed up a Tesla in a public art project 
The car was provided by an anonymous donor. (The Guardian)
+ Proceeds from the installation will go to food banks in the UK. (The Standard)

Quote of the day

“It feels so good to be surrounded by a bunch of people who disconnected.”

—Steven Vernon III, who works in finance, describes the beauties of a digital detox at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia as the markets descend into chaos, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The big story

This scientist is trying to create an accessible, unhackable voting machine

For the past 19 years, computer science professor Juan Gilbert has immersed himself in perhaps the most contentious debate over election administration in the United States—what role, if any, touch-screen ballot-marking devices should play in the voting process.

While advocates claim that electronic voting systems can be relatively secure, improve accessibility, and simplify voting and vote tallying, critics have argued that they are insecure and should be used as infrequently as possible.

As for Gilbert? He claims he’s finally invented “the most secure voting technology ever created.” And he’s invited several of the most respected and vocal critics of voting technology to prove his point. Read the full story.

—Spenser Mestel

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.)

+ Bad news for hoodie lovers: your favorite comfy item of clothing is no longer cutting the mustard.
+ What happens inside Black Holes? A lot more than you might think.
+ Unfortunately, pushups are as beneficial for you as they are horrible to execute.
+ Very cool—archaeologists are making new discoveries in Pompeii.

The Download: AI co-creativity, and what Trump’s tariffs mean for batteries

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 can help supercharge creativity

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

And so they are looking for ways to inject human creativity back into the process: working on what’s known as co-­creativity or more-than-human creativity. The idea is that AI can be used to inspire or critique creative projects, helping people make things that they would not have made by themselves.

The aim is to develop AI tools that augment our creativity rather than strip it from us—pushing us to be better at composing music, developing games, designing toys, and much more—and lay the groundwork for a future in which humans and machines create things together.

Ultimately, generative models could offer artists and designers a whole new medium, pushing them to make things that couldn’t have been made before, and give everyone creative superpowers. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

This story is from the next edition of our print magazine, which is all about creativity. Subscribe now to read it and get a copy of the magazine when it lands!

Tariffs are bad news for batteries

Since Donald Trump announced his plans for sweeping tariffs last week, the vibes have been, in a word, chaotic. Markets have seen one of the quickest drops in the last century, and it’s widely anticipated that the global economic order may be forever changed.  

These tariffs could be particularly rough on the battery industry. China dominates the entire supply chain and is subject to monster tariff rates, and even US battery makers won’t escape the effects. 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 Donald Trump has announced a 90-day tariff pause for some countries 
He’s decided that all the countries that didn’t retaliate against the severe tariffs would receive a reprieve. (The Guardian)
+ China, however, is now subject to a whopping 125% tariff. (CNBC)
+ Chinese sellers on Amazon are preparing to hike their prices in response. (Reuters)
+ Trump’s advisors have claimed the pivot was always part of the plan. (Vox)

2 DOGE has fired driverless car safety assessors
Many of whom were in charge of regulating Tesla, among other companies. (FT $)
+ The department is being audited by the Government Accountability Office. (Wired $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The cost of a US-made iPhone could rise by 90%
Bank of America has crunched the numbers. (Bloomberg $)
+ Even so, an American-made iPhone could be inferior quality. (WSJ $)
+ Apple has chartered 600 tons of iPhones to India. (Reuters)

4 The EU wants to build its own AI gigafactories
In a bid to catch up with the US and China. (WSJ $)

5 Amazon was forced to cancel its satellite internet launch
A rocket carrying a few thousands satellites was unable to take off due to bad weather. (NYT $)

6 America’s air quality is likely to get worse
The Trump administration is rolling back the environmental rules that helped lower air pollution. (The Atlantic $)
+ The world’s next big environmental problem could come from space. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Spammers exploited OpenAI’s tech to blast customized spam
The unwanted messages were distributed over four months. (Ars Technica)

8 Chinese social media is filled with memes mocking Trump’s tariffs
Featuring finance bros and JD Vance unhappily laboring in factories. (Insider $)

9 Do you have a Fortnite accent?
Players of the popular game tend to speak in a highly specific way. (Wired $)

10 An em dash is not a giveaway something has been written by AI
Humans use it too—and love it. (WP $)
+ Not all AI-generated writing is bad. (New Yorker $)
+ AI-text detection tools are really easy to fool. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Entering a group chat is like leaving your front door unlocked and letting strangers wander in.”

—Author LM Chilton reflects on the innate dangers of trusting that what you say in a group chat stays in the group chat to Wired.

The big story

Digital twins of human organs are here. They’re set to transform medical treatment.

Steven Niederer, a biomedical engineer at the Alan Turing Institute and Imperial College London, has a cardboard box filled with 3D-printed hearts. Each of them is modeled on the real heart of a person with heart failure, but Niederer is more interested in creating detailed replicas of people’s hearts using computers.

These “digital twins” are the same size and shape as the real thing. They work in the same way. But they exist only virtually. Scientists can do virtual surgery on these virtual hearts, figuring out the best course of action for a patient’s condition.

After decades of research, models like these are now entering clinical trials and starting to be used for patient care. The eventual goal is to create digital versions of our bodies—computer copies that could help researchers and doctors figure out our risk of developing various diseases and determine which treatments might work best.

But the budding technology will need to be developed very carefully. Read the full story to learn why.

—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.)

+ Good news pop fans: Madonna and Elton John have ended their decades-long feud.
+ It’s time to take a trip to all 15 of these top restaurants across the world.
+ These tales of cross-generational friendships are truly heartwarming.
+ I’d love to know the secret behind America’s mystery mounds.

The Download: detecting bird flu, and powering industrial processes with nuclear energy

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 new biosensor can detect bird flu in five minutes

Over the winter, eggs suddenly became all but impossible to buy. As a bird flu outbreak rippled through dairy and poultry farms, grocery stores struggled to keep them on shelves.

The shortages and record-high prices in February raised costs dramatically for restaurants and bakeries and led some shoppers to skip the breakfast staple entirely. But a team based at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a device that could help slow future outbreaks by detecting bird flu in air samples in just five minutes. Read the full story.

—Carly Kay

This story is from the next edition of our print magazine, which is all about the body. Subscribe now to read it and get a copy of the magazine when it lands!

This Texas chemical plant could get its own nuclear reactors

Nuclear reactors could someday power a chemical plant in Texas, making it the first with such a facility onsite. The factory, which makes plastics and other materials, could become a model for power-hungry data centers and other industrial operations going forward.

The plans are the work of Dow Chemical and X-energy, which last week applied for a construction permit with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency in the US that governs nuclear energy.

While it’ll be years before nuclear reactors will actually turn on, this application marks a major milestone for the project, and for the potential of advanced nuclear technology to power industrial processes. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work.

People are spending thousands of dollars on unproven exosome therapies for hair loss, skin aging, and acne, as well as more serious conditions like long covid and Alzheimer’s.

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

The must-reads

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

1 Donald Trump is confident Apple can make iPhones in the US 
Tim Cook is probably less sure about that. (9to5Mac)
+ Politicians are obsessed with the fantasy of an America-made iPhone. (404 Media)
+ If you need a new phone, you’re better off buying one now. (Wired $)

2 Trade groups are weighing up suing Trump to fight his tariffs
The Chamber of Commerce and other groups feel they may not have another option. (WSJ $)
+ Trump has hit China with a 104% tariff. (CNBC)
+ What does he really hope to achieve? (Vox)
+ Even the conservative podcasters that helped him win aren’t happy. (FT $)
+ Trump’s tariffs will deliver a big blow to climate tech. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The UK government is building a “murder prediction” tool
But research shows that algorithmic crime prediction systems don’t work. (The Guardian)
+ Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled. (MIT Technology Review)

4 DOGE has converted magnetic tapes to digital records
The problem is, magnetic tapes are stable and safe. Digital records are both hackable and vulnerable to bit rot. (404 Media)
+ Government technologists aren’t happy about the switch. (Economist $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The crypto industry isn’t benefiting from Trump quite yet
In fact, VC investment has fallen. (Bloomberg $)
+ However, prosecutors are being told to stop pursuing certain crypto crimes. (WP $)

6 Tech bros are building a Christian utopia in Appalachia
These groups have traditionally existed only online. Can building a town bring them together? (Mother Jones $)

7 California’s only nuclear power plant is using AI
It’s the first time generative AI has been used onsite at a power plant.(The Markup)
+ Interest in nuclear power is surging. Is it enough to build new reactors? (MIT Technology Review)

8 Custom 3D-printed railway shelters are being trialed in Japan
In a bid to help rural stations replace ageing infrastructure. (Ars Technica)

9 We’re learning more about how the Titanic sank
Thanks to a new scan of its wreckage. (BBC)

10 Would you ride this headless horse robot?
Kawasaki’s outlandish concept model looks decidedly unsafe. (Vice)
+ A skeptic’s guide to humanoid-robot videos. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“iPhone manufacturing isn’t coming back to America.”

—An anonymous source familiar with Apple’s plans has some bad news for the Trump administration, the Washington Post reports.

The big story

Inside effective altruism, where the far future counts a lot more than the present

Since its birth in the late 2000s, effective altruism has aimed to answer the question “How can those with means have the most impact on the world in a quantifiable way?”—and supplied methods for calculating the answer.

It’s no surprise that effective altruisms’ ideas have long faced criticism for reflecting white Western saviorism, alongside an avoidance of structural problems in favor of abstract math. And as believers pour even greater amounts of money into the movement’s increasingly sci-fi ideals, such charges are only intensifying. 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.)

+ Why is everybody suddenly obsessed with Dubai chocolate?
+ Inside one academic’s quest to locate the famous photograph hanging on the wall of The Shining’s Overlook Hotel.
+ Adorable: a Japanese town has created its own trading card game featuring older men in the community.
+ I think it’s safe to say Val Kilmer really didn’t enjoy being in the largely forgotten film Spartan.

The Download: a “dire wolf” revival, and safeguarding AI companions

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.

Game of clones: Colossal’s new wolves are cute, but are they dire?

For several years now, Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences has been in the news for its plans to re-create woolly mammoths someday. But now it’s making a bold new claim—that it has actually “de-extincted” an animal called the dire wolf.

Dire wolves were large, big-jawed members of the canine family. More than 400 of their skulls have been recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits in California. Ultimately they were replaced by smaller relatives like the gray wolf.

In its effort to re-create the animal, Colossal says, it extracted DNA information from dire wolf bones and used gene editing to introduce some of those elements into cells from gray wolves. It then used a cloning procedure to turn the cells into three actual animals.

But some scientists reject the company’s claim that the new animals are a revival of the extinct creatures, since in reality dire wolves and gray wolves are different species separated by a few million of years of evolution and several million letters of DNA. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

AI companions are the final stage of digital addiction, and lawmakers are taking aim

This week, California state senator Steve Padilla will make an appearance with Megan Garcia, the mother of a Florida teen who killed himself following a relationship with an AI companion that Garcia alleges contributed to her son’s death.

The two will announce a new bill that would force the tech companies behind such AI companions to implement more safeguards to protect children. The design of these AI characters makes lawmakers’ concern well warranted. The problem: companions are upending the paradigm that has thus far defined the way social media companies have cultivated our attention and replacing it with something poised to be far more addictive. Read the full story.

—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 The Trump administration’s tariffs are already starting to bite startups
VC funding, acquisitions and unnecessary spending has been put on hold. (The Information $)
+ Modular laptop company Framework is pausing its sales in the US. (Ars Technica)
+ Towns near the Canadian border are feeling the squeeze. (The Atlantic $)
+ China has vowed to fight the measures ‘to the end.’ (FT $)

2 Elon Musk asked Trump to reverse his aggressive tariffs
But the billionaire’s pleas have fallen on deaf ears. (WP $)
+ It’s not surprising he’s refusing to follow the markets on his policies. (NY Mag $)
+ CEOs are starting to speak up about the reality of a global trade war. (WSJ $)

3 Renewable energy reached record heights last year
It accounted for 32% of global electricity in 2024. (Reuters)
+ Lawyers are turning to the courts to force governments to save the planet. (The Guardian)

4 A Meta executive has denied claims it fudged Llama 4’s benchmark scores
Ahmad Al-Dahle dismissed the rumor Meta had trained its models on test sets. (TechCrunch)
+ These new AI benchmarks could help make models less biased. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A baby has been born in the UK to a woman with a transplanted womb 
Grace Davidson gave birth to her daughter thanks to her sister’s womb donation. (BBC)
+ The operation’s success offers new hope to those born without a womb. (The Guardian)
+ Everything you need to know about artificial wombs. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The US is still ahead in the AI race—for now
But training all those models is still seriously expensive. (IEEE Spectrum)

7 We know very little about how bird flu spreads in wildlife 
As the deaths of two cougars who weren’t living near any known outbreaks illustrate. (Undark)

8 This publishing platform uses AI to create sequels to its authors’ work
The only problem? Its writing isn’t great. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI can make you more creative—but it has limits. (MIT Technology Review)

9 SimCity 4 refuses to die
A thriving community of modders are keeping the game going more than two decades after its launch.(The Verge)

10 Architects in Maui are building homes from old surfboard scraps
Turns out the foam makes excellent housing insulation. (Fast Company $)

Quote of the day

“No longer do I have to drive a symbol of racism, greed and ignorance! Life is suddenly so much better!”

—Actor Bette Middler expresses her joy at selling her Tesla, Insider reports.

The big story

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

Two years ago, Yuri Burda and Harri Edwards, researchers at OpenAI, were trying to find out what it would take to get a large language model to do basic arithmetic. At first, things didn’t go too well. The models memorized the sums they saw but failed to solve new ones.

By accident, Burda and Edwards left some of their experiments running for days rather than hours. The models were shown the example sums over and over again, and eventually they learned to add two numbers—it had just taken a lot more time than anybody thought it should.

In certain cases, models could seemingly fail to learn a task and then all of a sudden just get it, as if a lightbulb had switched on, a behavior the researchers called grokking. Grokking is just one of several odd phenomena that have AI researchers scratching their heads. The largest models, and large language models in particular, seem to behave in ways textbook math says they shouldn’t.

This highlights a remarkable fact about deep learning, the fundamental technology behind today’s AI boom: for all its runaway success, nobody knows exactly how—or why—it works. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

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

+ What happened when Wham! took Western pop music to China 40 years ago.
+ Who knew that sharks do make noises after all?
+ Microsoft is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and with it, 50 seriously strange inventions.
+ What the heck is a prototaxite, anyway?

The Download: how the US is meeting China’s technological rise, and Trump’s tariff war intensifies

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 the Pentagon is adapting to China’s technological rise

It’s been just over two months since Kathleen Hicks stepped down as US deputy secretary of defense. As the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history, Hicks shaped US military posture through an era defined by renewed competition between powerful countries and a scramble to modernize defense technology.  

Over the past three decades, Hicks has watched the Pentagon transform—politically, strategically, and technologically. In this conversation with MIT Technology Review, Hicks reflects on how the Pentagon is adapting—or failing to adapt—to a new era of geopolitical competition. She discusses China’s technological rise, the future of AI in warfare, and her signature initiative, Replicator, a Pentagon initiative to rapidly field thousands of low-cost autonomous systems such as drones. Read the full story.

—Caiwen Chen

The must-reads

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

1 Donald Trump’s trade war could trigger a global recession
Investors are sounding the alarm as markets struggle to react to his tariffs. (Economist $)
+ Unsurprisingly, the President has doubled down on his tariffs. (BBC)
+ It’s all part of his plan to “reset global trade.” (Politico)
+ Trump’s tariffs will deliver a big blow to climate tech. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The White House was just hours from announcing a TikTok deal
Until the Chinese government insisted on tariff negotiations first. (WP $)
+ The two countries now seem likely to descend into tit-for-tat restrictions. (WSJ $)
+ The President has extended the sale deadline by another 75 days. (NBC News)

3 DeepSeek is working on self-improving AI models
It’s working with Tsinghua University to reduce its models’ training needs. (Bloomberg $)
+ China is narrowing the AI dominance gap between it and the US. (Wired $)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everyone’s going to follow its lead. (MIT Technology Review)

4 X is flourishing under the Trump administration
Elon Musk appears to be positioning the platform as a new media outlet. (NYT $)
+ X is cracking down on parody accounts. (BBC)

5 A shingles vaccine could help lower the risk of developing dementia
We might have to overhaul the way we treat neurodegenerative diseases. (Vox)
+ It may help to treat them like viruses. (NYT $)
+ Dementia content gets billions of views on TikTok. Whose story does it tell? (MIT Technology Review)

6 San Francisco’s mayor is trying to convince tech leaders to come back
He may be willing to offer tax breaks as an incentive. (TechCrunch)
+ Some of his supporters aren’t in favor of his new upzoning plan. (SF Standard)

7 TikTok’s algorithm promotes live streams of begging children
While taking fees and commission of up to 70%. (The Guardian)

8 China’s EV makers are locked in intense competition
And consumers are spoilt for choice. (FT $)
+ Argentina has lifted tariffs on EVs. (Rest of World)
+ China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)

9 This version of video game Quake was created using AI
Microsoft has opened a demo up to Copilot users. (The Verge)
+ How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Tracking celebrity heights is an internet obsession
Is anyone actually 5”11? (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We’d like to put this chapter behind us.”

—Sean Murphy, executive vice president of policy at trade group the Information Technology Industry Council, tells the Washington Post how the tech industry is desperate to see the tariffs that affect it reversed as quickly as possible.

The big story

The messy quest to replace drugs with electricity

In the early 2010s, electricity seemed poised for a hostile takeover of your doctor’s office. Research into how the nervous system—the highway that carries electrical messages between the brain and the body— controls the immune response was gaining traction.

And that had opened the door to the possibility of hacking into the body’s circuitry and thereby controlling a host of chronic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and diabetes, as if the immune system were as reprogrammable as a computer.

To do that you’d need a new class of implant: an “electroceutical.” These devices would replace drugs. No more messy side effects. And no more guessing whether a drug would work differently for you and someone else. In the 10 years or so since, around a billion dollars has accreted around the effort. But electroceuticals have still not taken off as hoped.

Now, however, a growing number of researchers are starting to look beyond the nervous system, and experimenting with clever ways to electrically manipulate cells elsewhere in the body, such as the skin.

Their work suggests that this approach could match the early promise of electroceuticals, yielding fast-healing bioelectric bandages, novel approaches to treating autoimmune disorders, new ways of repairing nerve damage, and even better treatments for cancer. Read the full story.

—Sally Adee

We can still have nice things

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

+ The internet is hating on the Beatles biopics before they’re even out—but why?
+ Do you know the last time all of humanity was on Earth?
+ The new Naked Gun film looks suitably unhinged.
+ Here’s some simple bits of advice to help make each day that little bit happier.

The Download: what Trump’s tariffs mean for climate tech, and hacking AI agents

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.

Trump’s tariffs will deliver a big blow to climate tech

US president Donald Trump’s massive, sweeping tariffs sent global stock markets tumbling yesterday, setting the stage for a worldwide trade war and ratcheting up the dangers of a punishing recession.

Experts fear that the US cleantech sector is especially vulnerable to a deep downturn, which would undermine progress on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Read the full story.

—James Temple

Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming

Agents are the talk of the AI industry—they’re capable of planning, reasoning, and executing complex tasks like scheduling meetings, ordering groceries, or even taking over your computer to change settings on your behalf. 

But the same sophisticated abilities that make agents helpful assistants could also make them powerful tools for conducting cyberattacks. They could readily be used to identify vulnerable targets, hijack their systems, and steal valuable data from unsuspecting victims.

At present, cybercriminals are not deploying AI agents to hack at scale. But researchers have demonstrated that agents are capable of executing complex attacks, and cybersecurity experts warn that we should expect to start seeing these types of attacks spilling over into the real world—and soon. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

The must-reads

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

1 Did the Trump administration use AI to calculate its new tariffs? 
It appears to use an oversimplified calculation several major chatbots recommend. (The Verge)
+ The economically-flawed formula has shocked analysts. (FT $)
+ The severe tariffs may harm America’s data center ambitions. (Reuters)

2 The EU is preparing to slap X with major financial penalties
Even if it risks provoking Elon Musk’s ire. (NYT $)

3 Google’s tech will be used to surveil the US-Mexico border 
As part of plans to upgrade the ‘virtual wall’ between the countries. (The Intercept)
+ The number of illegal border crossings hit a record low last month. (Semafor)

4 Hurricane season is set to be busier than usual
Forecasters are predicting at least 17 tropical storms and four major hurricanes. (WP $)
+ They aren’t as confident about this early forecast as they were last year. (CNN)
+ Here’s what we know about hurricanes and climate change. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Myanmar’s internet shutdown is thwarting aid efforts
Aid and rescue workers are struggling to help people caught up in its recent devastating earthquake. (Rest of World)

6 Google is yet to publish safety reports for its latest AI models
It appears to be launching models faster than it can publicly verify their safety. (TechCrunch)

7 Online influencing has a major gender pay gap
Although the majority of content creators are female, they earn less per collaboration than their male counterparts. (Fast Company $)
+ Why can’t tech fix its gender problem? (MIT Technology Review)

8 How to make solar panels on the moon
Moon dust could help to power future lunar bases. (New Scientist $)
+ Nokia is putting the first cellular network on the moon. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The economy may be collapsing, but at least the memes are good
Social media is bringing the lols in uncertain times. (NY Mag $)

10 Bonobos communicate in similar ways to humans
The great apes combine basic sound into larger structures—just like us. (Ars Technica)
+ How machine learning is helping us probe the secret names of animals. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“There will be blood.”

—Bruce Kasman, JPMorgan’s chief global economist, is not optimistic about Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy, Insider reports.

The big story

The weeds are winning

October 2024 

Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to the biochemical mechanisms that herbicides leverage to kill them. This herbicidal resistance threatens to decrease yields—out-of-control weeds can reduce them by 50% or more, and extreme cases can wipe out whole fields.

At worst, it can even drive farmers out of business. It’s the agricultural equivalent of antibiotic resistance, and it keeps getting worse. Weeds have evolved resistance to 168 different herbicides and 21 of the 31 known “modes of action,” which means the specific biochemical target or pathway a chemical is designed to disrupt.

Agriculture needs to embrace a diversity of weed control practices. But that’s much easier said than done. Read the full story.

—Douglas Main

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.)

+ Sweet Moroccan flatbreads sound like a fantastic way to start the day.
+ Val Kilmer was more than just a heartthrob—he was a really great actor too.
+ Drop everything: there’s an uncut version of the White Lotus series three theme.
+ All aboard the giant almond car!

The Download: dethroning SpaceX, and air-conditioning’s energy demands

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.

Rivals are rising to challenge the dominance of SpaceX

SpaceX is a space launch juggernaut. In just two decades, the company has managed to edge out former aerospace heavyweights Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman to gain near-monopoly status over rocket launches in the US. It is now also the go-to launch provider for commercial customers, having lofted numerous satellites and five private crewed spaceflights, with more to come.

Other space companies have been scrambling to compete for years, but developing a reliable rocket takes slow, steady work and big budgets. Now at least some of them are catching up. Read the full story.

—Ramin Skibba

We should talk more about air-conditioning

—Casey Crownhart

Things are starting to warm up here in the New York City area, and it’s got me thinking once again about something that people aren’t talking about enough: energy demand for air conditioners. 

I get it: Data centers are the shiny new thing to worry about. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t be thinking about the strain that gigawatt-scale computing installations put on the grid. But a little bit of perspective is important here.

I just finished up a new story about a novel way to make heat exchangers, a crucial component in air conditioners and a whole host of other technologies that cool our buildings, food, and electronics. Let’s dig into why I’m writing about the guts of cooling technologies, and why this sector really needs innovation. Read the full story.

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 Donald Trump has announced sweeping new tariffs
Experts fear the measures will spark a global trade war. (FT $)
+ The new tariffs are significantly higher than America’s targeted trade partners. (Vox)
+ US tech companies are reliant on global supply chains. What happens next? (Wired $)
+ Tech stocks dropped sharply following the announcement. (CNBC)

2 Elon Musk tried to control the Wisconsin Supreme Court race—and lost
The billionaire was mocked on his own platform, X, after the state rejected the Republican candidate he spent millions bankrolling. (The Guardian)
+ It was the most expensive judicial election in American history. (Economist $)
+ It appears as though Musk’s political influence is waning. (The Atlantic $)

3 Amazon made a bid to keep TikTok operational in the US
As has mobile tech company AppLovin. (WSJ $)
+ The founder of OnlyFans partnered with a crypto foundation in another bid. (Reuters)

4 Parents are worried about their teenagers’ smartphone use
But drawing firm conclusions about phones and social media’s effects on their mental health is far from easy. (Nature)

5 How China gets around America’s chip restrictions
Smuggling and subsidiaries are just some of the ways it skirts the bans. (Rest of World)
+ This super-thin semiconductor is just one molecule thick. (Ars Technica)
+ What’s next in chips. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Neuralink is looking for new patients across the world
The company has implanted devices in three people’s brains to date. (Bloomberg $)
+ Brain-computer interfaces face a critical test. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Italian police are investigating a major fire at a Tesla dealership
The blaze destroyed 17 cars in Rome. (The Guardian)

8 Publishers are experimenting with AI translations for books
Not everyone agrees that the technology is ready. (The Markup)

9 Vibe coding needs a reality check
A new AI app created using the loose process generated a recipe for deadly cyanide ice cream. (404 Media)

10 You may be unwittingly following JD Vance’s wife on Instagram
If you were following Kamala Harris’s husband on the platform, you’re now following Usha Vance. (TechCrunch)

Quote of the day

“Elon Musk’s money might buy some ads, but it repels voters.”

—Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler reflects on how his party’s candidate Susan Crawford won the state’s Supreme Court election, despite Musk spending $25 million supporting her Trump-endorsed rival, The Hill reports.

The big story

The lucky break behind the first CRISPR treatment

December 2023

The world’s first commercial gene-editing treatment is set to start changing the lives of people with sickle-cell disease. It’s called Casgevy, and it was approved in November 2022 in the UK.

The treatment, which will be sold in the US by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, employs CRISPR, which can be easily programmed by scientists to cut DNA at precise locations they choose.

But where do you aim CRISPR, and how did the researchers know what DNA to change? That’s the lesser-known story of the sickle-cell breakthrough. Read more about it.

—Antonio Regalado

We can still have nice things

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

+ If you’re stuck for what to read next, this list of the 21st century’s best books is a great source of inspiration.
+ Controversial ranking time—do you agree that Abbey Road is the Beatles’ best album?
+ Inside the tricky technicalities of time travel.
+ Uhoh: magnolia paint is making a comeback.

The Download: how to make better cooling systems, and farming on Mars

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 3D printing could make better cooling systems

A new 3D-printed design could make an integral part of cooling systems like air conditioners or refrigerators smaller and more efficient, according to new research.

Heat exchangers are devices that whisk away heat, and they’re everywhere—used in data centers, ships, factories, and buildings. The aim is to pass as much heat as possible from one side of the device to the other. Most use one of a few standard designs that have historically been easiest and cheapest to make.

Energy demand for cooling buildings alone is set to double between now and 2050, and new designs could help efficiently meet the massive demand forecast for the coming decades. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

MIT Technology Review Narrated: The quest to figure out farming on Mars

If we’re going to live on Mars we’ll need a way to grow food in its arid dirt. Researchers think they know a way.

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 Thousands of US health agency workers have been laid off
Experts warn that patients will die preventable deaths as a result. (Wired $)
+ How will the US respond to the measles and bird flu outbreaks? (Reuters)  
+ US cuts could lead to serious delays in forecasting extreme weather. (Undark)
+ The wide-ranging cuts are also likely to lose America money. (The Atlantic $)

2 Donald Trump is set to discuss a proposal to save TikTok  
He’s due to meet with aides today to thrash out a new ownership structure. (NYT $)
+ Oracle and Blackstone are among the companies in talks to make an offer. (WSJ $)
+ The White House is playing the role of investment bank. (The Guardian)

3 X has asked the Supreme Court to exempt its users from law enforcement
It claims to be worried by broad, suspicionless requests. (FT $)

4 Things aren’t looking good for Mexico-based Chinese companies 
Trump’s tariff plans could imperil an awful lot of deals. (WSJ $)
+ The US Chips Act is another probable casualty. (Bloomberg $)

5 US lawmakers want to regulate AI companions
A proposed bill would allow users to sue if they suffer harm from their interactions with a companion bot. (WP $)
+ We need to prepare for ‘addictive intelligence.’ (MIT Technology Review)

6 Covid hasn’t gone away
And life for the covid-conscious is getting increasingly difficult. (The Atlantic $)

7 Brands are trying to game Reddit to show up in ChatGPT recommendations
Catering to AI search is a whole business model now. (The Information $)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Nothing could destroy the universe
Humans have long been obsessed with nothingness. (New Scientist $)

9 Would you flirt with a chatbot?
Tinder wants you to give it a go. (Bloomberg $)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Trading in your Tesla is TikTok’s favorite trend
Clips of Tesla owners ditching their cars are going viral. (Fast Company $)
+ This guy returned his Cybertruck out of fear his daughter would get bullied. (Insider $)
+ Sales of new Teslas are slumping too. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“I’d get on in a heartbeat.”

—Butch Wilmore, one of the pair of astronauts who was stuck in space for nine months, explains how he’d be willing to fly on the beleaguered Starliner again, the Washington Post reports.

The big story

Bringing the lofty ideas of pure math down to earth

April 2023

—Pradeep Niroula

Mathematics has long been presented as a sanctuary from confusion and doubt, a place to go in search of answers. Perhaps part of the mystique comes from the fact that biographies of mathematicians often paint them as otherworldly savants.

As a graduate student in physics, I have seen the work that goes into conducting delicate experiments, but the daily grind of mathematical discovery is a ritual altogether foreign to me. And this feeling is only reinforced by popular books on math, which often take the tone of a pastor dispensing sermons to the faithful.

Luckily, there are ways to bring it back down to earth. Popular math books seek a fresher take on these old ideas, be it through baking recipes or hot-button political issues. My verdict: Why not? It’s worth a shot. 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.)

+ Why are cats the way they are? This database might help us find out.
+ John McFall could become the first disabled person in space.
+ ASMR at the V&A is just delightful.
+ Addicted to lip balm? You’re not the only one.

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

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

Brain-computer interfaces face a critical test

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

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

—Antonio Regalado

How do you teach an AI model to give therapy?

—James O’Donnell

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

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

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

The must-reads

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quote of the day

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

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

The big story

The quest to protect farmworkers from extreme heat

October 2024

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

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

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

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

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

—Kalena Thomhave

We can still have nice things

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

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

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

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

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

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

—James O’Donnell

How a bankruptcy judge can stop a genetic privacy disaster

—Keith Porcaro

The fate of 15 million people’s genetic data rests in the hands of a bankruptcy judge now that 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy. But there’s still a small chance of writing a better ending for users—and it’s a simple fix. Read the full story.

The must-reads

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

1 Meet the online activists fighting back against ICE raids
Their networks are warning migrants about ICE officer hotspots in major cities. (WP $)
+ Noncitizens are growing increasingly anxious. (NPR)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quote of the day

“Viruses don’t need a passport.”

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

The big story

Marseille’s battle against the surveillance state

June 2022

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

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

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

—Fleur Macdonald

We can still have nice things

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

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