The Download: Google DeepMind’s plans for robots, and Eastern Europe’s changing tech sector

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.

Gemini Robotics uses Google’s top language model to make robots more useful

The news: Google DeepMind has released a new model, Gemini Robotics, that combines its best large language model with robotics. Plugging in the LLM seems to give robots the ability to be more dexterous, work from natural-language commands, and generalize across tasks. All three are things that robots have struggled to do until now.

Why it matters: The team hopes their work could usher in an era of robots that are far more useful and require less detailed training for each task. Incorporating LLMs into robotics is part of a growing trend, and this may be the most impressive example yet. Read the full story.

—Scott J Mulligan

If you’re interested in how researchers are making robots more useful, why not take a look at these stories:

+ The robot race is fueling a fight for training data. AI is upending the way robots learn, leaving companies and researchers with a need for more data. Read the full story.

+ It’s becoming easier to train robots with sound, which helps them adapt to tasks and environments where visibility is limited. Read the full story.

+ To be more useful, robots need to become lazier. Smarter data processing could make machines more helpful and energy-efficient in the real world. A good way to test this principle is to make robots play soccer.

+ Gen AI models aren’t just good for creating pictures—they can be fine-tuned to generate useful robot training data, too. Read the full story.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe

Startups in Latvia and other nearby countries see the mobilization of Ukraine as a warning and as inspiration. They are now changing consumer products—from scooters to recreational drones—for use on the battlefield.

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 The European Union is pushing back against Donald Trump’s tariffs
By slapping the US with its own levies. (WP $)
+ Its measure could affect up to €26bn of American-made goods. (FT $)

2 What does ‘waste’ mean to Elon Musk?
DOGE’s crude calculation of what is—and isn’t—valuable doesn’t make sense. (The Atlantic $)
+ Musk seems to be testing the limits of Trump’s patience. (FT $)
+ He’s admitted he’s struggling to balance his DOGE commitments with his work. (Insider $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Big Tech is calling for new nuclear power stations 
With the notable exception of Microsoft. (FT $)
+ Interest in nuclear power is surging. Is it enough to build new reactors? (MIT Technology Review)

4 BYD is rapidly gaining on Tesla
It’s undercutting the EV maker in 10 major non-Western markets. (Rest of World)
+ Mercedes-Benz is turning its attention to solid-state batteries. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Where it all went wrong for Europe’s EV battery darling. (Bloomberg $)
+ BYD is one of MIT Technology Review’s 15 climate tech companies to watch. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Intel’s future is hanging in the balance
Shares are down, jobs are being cut, and competition is heating up. (The Guardian)

6 North Korean hackers snuck spyware onto the Google Play app store
The malicious software can take control of a device’s audio and camera systems. (TechCrunch)

7 Things aren’t looking good for iRobot
Its future seems increasingly precarious. (The Verge)
+ The company is undergoing a strategic review to see if it can be salvaged. (Bloomberg $)
+ A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? (MIT Technology Review) 

8 Spotify has removed Andrew Tate’s misogynistic courses
Following complaints from its own employees. (404 Media)

9 An arbitrator has instructed a former Meta employee to stop promoting her new book
The new memoir details alleged claims of misconduct at the company. (The Verge)

10 How to decide where to hunt for alien life
Top tip: search for the cosmic shoreline. (Quanta Magazine)

Quote of the day

“The President is basically a car salesman now.”

—Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky accuses Donald Trump of acting like a showroom salesman after he urged Americans to buy Tesla electric cars, MSNBC reports.

The big story

What the future holds for those born today

August 2024

Happy birthday, baby.

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

Your arrival coincided with the 125th anniversary of this magazine. With a bit of luck and the right genes, you might see the next 125 years. How will you and the next generation of machines grow up together? We asked more than a dozen experts to imagine your future. Read what they prophesied.

—Kara Platoni

We can still have nice things

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

+ These indigenous heavy metal bands are tackling climate change, one devastating riff at a time.
+ Eating asparagus raw is a thing, apparently.
+ How our culture’s monsters have evolved over time, and what they tell us about ourselves.
+ There are few animals more fascinating than the Greenland shark.

The Download: testing new AI agent Manus, and Waabi’s virtual robotruck ambitions

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.

Everyone in AI is talking about Manus. We put it to the test.

Since the general AI agent Manus was launched last week, it has spread online like wildfire. And not just in China, where it was developed by the Wuhan-based startup Butterfly Effect. It’s made its way into the global conversation, with some even dubbing it “the second DeepSeek”.

Manus claims to be the world’s first general AI agent, building off multiple AI models and agents to act autonomously on a wide range of tasks. Despite all the hype, very few people have had a chance to use it. MIT Technology Review was able to obtain access to Manus. Here’s what we made of it. 

—Caiwei Chen 

Waabi says its virtual robotrucks are realistic enough to prove the real ones are safe

The news: Canadian robotruck startup Waabi says its super-realistic virtual simulation is now accurate enough to prove the safety of its driverless big rigs without having to run them for miles on real roads.

How it did it: The company uses a digital twin of its real-world robotrucks, loaded up with real sensor data, and measures how the twin’s performance compares to that of real trucks on real roads. Waabi says they now match almost exactly, and claims its approach is a better way to demonstrate safety than just racking up real-world miles, as many of its competitors do. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

This artificial leaf makes hydrocarbons out of carbon dioxide

For many years, researchers have been working to build devices that can mimic photosynthesis—the process by which plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to make their fuel. These artificial leaves use sunlight to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, which could then be used to fuel cars or generate electricity. Now a research team from the University of Cambridge has taken aim at creating more energy-dense fuels.

The group’s device produces ethylene and ethane, proving that artificial leaves can create hydrocarbons. The development could offer a cheaper, cleaner way to make fuels, chemicals, and plastics—with the ultimate goal of creating fuels that don’t leave a harmful carbon footprint after they’re burned. Read the full story.

—Carly Kay

This startup just hit a big milestone for green steel production

Green-steel startup Boston Metal just showed that it has all the ingredients needed to make steel without emitting gobs of greenhouse gases. The company successfully ran its largest reactor yet to make steel, producing over a ton of metal, MIT Technology Review can exclusively report.

The latest milestone means that Boston Metal just got one step closer to commercializing its technology. And while there are still a lot of milestones left before reaching the scale needed to make a dent in the steel industry, the latest run shows that the company can scale up its process. 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 The US has resumed aid deliveries to Ukraine 
Leaders have also agreed to start sharing military intelligence again. (The Guardian)
+ Ukraine also endorsed a US proposal for a ceasefire. (Vox)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Donald Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on metal imports
The decision is likely to raise costs for American carmakers, and other manufacturers. (NYT $)
+ Business leaders feel spooked by his frequent mixed messaging around tariffs. (WSJ $)
+ However, US-native metal makers are delighted by the tariffs. (Economist $)
+ How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Texas’ measles outbreak appears to be spreading 
Two people in Oklahoma are being treated for measles-like symptoms. (Ars Technica)
+ An unvaccinated six-year old girl recently died in Texas. (The Atlantic $)
+ The state is scrambling to respond to the outbreak. (Undark)
+ The virus is extremely contagious and dangerous to children and adults alike. (Wired $)

4 Elon Musk wants the US government to shut down
Partly because it would make it easier to fire federal workers. (Wired $)
+ A judge has ruled that DOGE must comply with the Freedom of Information Act. (The Verge)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

5 OpenAI says it’s trained an AI to be ‘really good’ at creative writing|
The question is, can a model trained on existing material ever be truly creative? (TechCrunch)
+ AI can make you more creative—but it has limits. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Silicon Valley’s AI startups are expanding in India
Talent is plentiful, particularly in tech hub Bangalore. (Bloomberg $)

7 Spotify claims it paid $10 billion in royalties last year
It called the payout “the largest in music industry history.” (FT $)
+ How to break free of Spotify’s algorithm. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Saturn has more moons than the rest of the planets combined
Researchers have finally spotted new moons that have previously evaded detection. (New Scientist $)

9 This coffee shop is New York’s hottest AI spot
Handily, OpenAI’s office is just across the street. (Insider $)

10 Netflix shouldn’t use AI to upscale resolution
The technology left sitcom A Different World looking freakishly warped. (Vice)

Quote of the day

“The uncertainty is just as bad as tariffs themselves.”

—Donald Schneider, deputy head of US policy at investment bank Piper Sandler, explains to the Washington Post why investors are feeling rattled by Donald Trump’s volatile approach to imposing tariffs.

The big story

Can Afghanistan’s underground “sneakernet” survive the Taliban?

November 2021

When Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Mohammad Yasin had to make some difficult decisions very quickly. He began erasing some of the sensitive data on his computer and moving the rest onto two of his largest hard drives, which he then wrapped in a layer of plastic and buried underground.

Yasin is what is locally referred to as a “computer kar”: someone who sells digital content by hand in a country where a steady internet connection can be hard to come by, selling everything from movies, music, mobile applications, to iOS updates. And despite the dangers of Taliban rule, the country’s extensive “sneakernet” isn’t planning on shutting down. Read the full story.

—Ruchi Kumar

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.)

+ Check out these novels inspired by what it means to be middle-aged.
+ After a long absence, it’s looking like the Loch Ness Monster is staging its return.
+ Chappell Roan, you are just fantastic.
+ An AI stylist telling me what to wear? No thanks.

The Download: making AI fairer, and why everyone’s talking about AGI

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.

Two new measures show where AI models fail on fairness

What’s new: A new pair of AI benchmarks could help developers reduce bias in AI models, potentially making them fairer and less likely to cause harm. The benchmarks evaluate AI systems based on their awareness of different scenarios and contexts. They could offer a more nuanced way to measure AI’s bias and its understanding of the world.

Why it matters: The researchers were inspired to look into the problem of bias after witnessing clumsy missteps in previous approaches, demonstrating how ignoring differences between groups may in fact make AI systems less fair. But while these new benchmarks could help teams better judge fairness in AI models, actually fixing them may require some other techniques altogether. Read the full story.

—Scott J Mulligan

AGI is suddenly a dinner table topic

The concept of artificial general intelligence—an ultra-powerful AI system we don’t have yet—can be thought of as a balloon, repeatedly inflated with hype during peaks of optimism (or fear) about its potential impact and then deflated as reality fails to meet expectations.

Over the past week, lots of news went into inflating that AGI balloon, including the launch of a new, seemingly super-capable AI agent called Manus, created by a Chinese startup. Read our story to learn what’s happened, and why it matters.

—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 US has rebranded its immigration app with a ‘self-deport’ function
It’s a bid to encourage people living illegally to leave the country voluntarily. (AP News)
+ If they fail to self-report, undocumented migrants could face harsher consequences. (BBC)
+ But immigrants should think very carefully before trusting the app. (The Guardian)
+ The app was previously used to schedule asylum appointments. (MIT Technology Review)

2 DOGE is scrabbling around for some wins
The growing backlash against its clumsy cuts puts DOGE’s top brass under pressure. (WP $)
+ Biomedical research cuts would affect both elite and less-wealthy universities. (Undark)
+ The agency is causing chaos within social security’s offices. (New Yorker $)
+ The next phase? Handing over decisions to machines. (The Atlantic $)

3 Donald Trump isn’t a fan of the CHIPS Act
Even though the law is designed to support chip manufacturing in the US. (NYT $)
+ Here’s what is at stake if he follows through on his threats to scrap it. (Bloomberg $)

4 Elon Musk claims a cyber attack on X came from ‘the Ukraine area’
But the billionaire, who is a fierce critic of Ukraine, hasn’t provided any evidence. (FT $)
+ The platform buckled temporarily under the unusually powerful attack. (Reuters)
+ Cyber experts aren’t convinced, however. (AP News)

5 AI-powered PlayStation characters are on the horizon
Sony is testing out AI avatars that can hold conversations with players. (The Verge)
+ How generative AI could reinvent what it means to play. (MIT Technology Review)

6 DeepSeek’s founder isn’t fussed about making a quick buck
Liang Wenfeng is turning down big investment offers in favor of retaining the freedom to make his own decisions. (WSJ $)
+ China’s tech optimism is at an all-time high. (Bloomberg $)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everyone’s going to follow its lead. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The rain is full of pollutants, including microplastics
And you thought acid rain was bad. (Vox)

8 An all-electric seaglider is being tested in Rhode Island
It can switch seamlessly between floating and flying. (New Scientist $)
+ These aircraft could change how we fly. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Tesla Cybertruck owners have formed an emotional support group
One member is pushing for Cybertruck abuse to be treated as hate crimes. (Fast Company $)

10 There’s only one good X account left
Step forward Joyce Carol Oates. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“There is no more asylum.”

—US immigration officials tell a businessman seeking legitimate asylum that he can’t enter the country just days after Donald Trump took office, the Washington Post reports.

The big story

Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

August 2023

PowerPoint is everywhere. It’s used in religious sermons; by schoolchildren preparing book reports; at funerals and weddings. In 2010, Microsoft announced that PowerPoint was installed on more than a billion computers worldwide.

But before PowerPoint, 35-millimeter film slides were king. They were the only medium for the kinds of high-impact presentations given by CEOs and top brass at annual meetings for stockholders, employees, and salespeople.

Known in the business as “multi-image” shows, these presentations required a small army of producers, photographers, and live production staff to pull off. Read this story to delve into the fascinating, flashy history of corporate presentations. 

—Claire L. Evans

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.)+ Here’s how to prevent yourself getting a crick in the neck during your next flight.
+ I would love to go on all of these dreamy train journeys.
+ This Singaporean chocolate cake is delightfully simple to make.
+ Meet Jo Nemeth, the woman who lives entirely without money.

The Download: supercharging the power grid, and a new Chinese AI agent

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 cheapest way to supercharge America’s power grid

—Brian Deese is an innovation fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as director of the White House National Economic Council from 2021 to 2023. Rob Gramlich is founder and president of Grid Strategies and was economic advisor to the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during the George W. Bush administration.

US electricity consumption is rising faster than it has in decades. Accommodating that growth will require building wind turbines, solar farms, and other power plants faster than we ever have before—and expanding the network of wires needed to connect those facilities to the grid.

But one major problem is that it’s expensive and slow to secure permits for new transmission lines and build them across the country. Fortunately, there are some shortcuts that could expand the capacity of the existing system without requiring completely new infrastructure: a suite of hardware and software tools known as advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), which can increase both the capacity and the efficiency of the power sector.

ATTs have the potential to radically reduce timelines for grid upgrades, avoid tricky permitting issues, and yield billions in annual savings for US consumers. So why are we not seeing an explosion in ATT investment and deployment in the US? Read the full story.

Interested in learning more about this topic? Read more of our stories:

+ What’s driving electricity demand? It isn’t just AI and data centers.

+ That said, AI’s search for energy is growing more urgent. 

+ Why this developer won’t quit fighting to connect the US’s grids. 

+ Here are four ways AI is making the power grid faster and more resilient. 

The must-reads

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

1 China claims to have created the world’s first fully autonomous AI agent 
The agent, called Manus, can allegedly operate fully free of human intervention. (Forbes)
+ But it’s not clear if the hype can be justified at this stage. (TechCrunch)
+ Two former DeepMind researchers are chasing superintelligence. (Bloomberg $)
+ Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Meta went to extreme lengths to win China’s approval
Including developing a censorship system to comply with the CCP. (WP $)
+ However, its attempts to curry favor with the party did not bear fruit. (Gizmodo)

3 Anonymous Chinese investors are quietly funding Elon Musk’s ventures
They’re happy to invest tens of millions—so long as their identities remain under wraps. (FT $)
+ Despite the influx of cash, SpaceX isn’t having a great year. (NYT $)
+ Starlink is reaping the benefits of its founder’s proximity to the White House. (NBC News)

4 Ukraine doesn’t have minable rare earths
And even if it did, it would take at least 15 years to reach them. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ The country is preparing to hold negotiations with the US this week. (Economist $)

5 Farewell, the Athena lunar lander
It landed sideways in a crater and has been officially written off. (The Register)
+ Intuitive Machines, the company behind it, is contracted for another two landings. (AP News)
+ Firefly Aerospace, another private firm, had better luck. (Economist $)

6 The American public really doesn’t like DOGE
And Donald Trump is starting to pay attention. (The Atlantic $)
+ Musk represents the problem he is claiming he wants to solve. (Wired $)
+ The Trump administration is threatening scientific progress. (New Yorker $)
+ Anti-Musk protestors are targeting Tesla stores and infrastructure. (WP $)

7 Wikipedia is struggling to document the war in the Middle East
Certain editors have been forbidden from working on related pages. (Bloomberg $)

8 How to store the world’s data
Hard discs seem the obvious choice—for now. (WSJ $)
+ Music labels are going after the Internet Archive for copyright infringement. (Ars Technica)
+ The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age. (MIT Technology Review)

9 YouTube bros are peddling Taliban tourism
Inside the depressing rise of videos purporting to show “another side to Afghanistan.” (Insider $)

10 Amazon and Google’s AI calls Mein Kampf “a true work of art” 
That’s what happens when you search for positive reviews of the Nazi manifesto. (404 Media)
+ Want AI that flags hateful content? Build it. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The US won the internet and the US should win crypto.”

—Tyler Winklevoss, who runs crypto exchange Gemini with his twin brother Cameron, could not be happier with the outcome of Donald Trump’s crypto summit, according to a post on X.

The big story

How this Turing Award–winning researcher became a legendary academic advisor

October 2023

Every academic field has its superstars. But a rare few achieve superstardom not just by demonstrating individual excellence but also by consistently producing future superstars.

Computer science has its own such figure: Manuel Blum, who won the 1995 Turing Award—the Nobel Prize of computer science. He is the inventor of the captcha—a test designed to distinguish humans from bots online.

Three of Blum’s students have also won Turing Awards, and many have received other high honors in theoretical computer science. More than 20 hold professorships at top computer science departments. So what’s the formula to his success? Read the full story.

—Sheon Han

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.)

+ Looking for some books to make you laugh out loud? Look no further.
+ What can’t White Lotus star Walton Goggins live without? An orange pen and 22-year old sand, apparently.
+ When it’s time to take a break, here’s how to recharge properly.
+ $40 for “magic” yogurt? What the hell, sure.

The Download: gene de-extinction, and Ukraine’s Starlink connection

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 short, strange history of gene de-extinction

This week saw the release of some fascinating news about some very furry rodents—so-called “woolly mice”—created as part of an experiment to explore how we might one day resurrect the woolly mammoth.

The idea of bringing back extinct species has gained traction thanks to advances in sequencing of ancient DNA. This ancient genetic data is deepening our understanding of the past—for instance, by shedding light on interactions among prehistoric humans. But researchers are becoming more ambitious. Rather than just reading ancient DNA, they want to use it—by inserting it into living organisms.

Because this idea is so new and attracting so much attention, I decided it would be useful to create a record of previous attempts to add extinct DNA to living organisms. And since the technology doesn’t have a name, let’s give it one: “chronogenics.” Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

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

If you’re interested in de-extinction, why not check out:

+ How much would you pay to see a woolly mammoth? We spoke to Sara Ord, director of species restoration at Colossal, the world’s first “de-extinction” company, about its big ambitions.

+ Colossal is also a de-extinction company, which is trying to resurrect the dodo. Read the full story.

+ DNA that was frozen for 2 million years has been sequenced. The ancient DNA fragments come from a Greenland ecosystem where mastodons roamed among flowering plants. It may hold clues to how to survive a warming climate.

The must-reads

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

1 Ukraine is worried the US could sever its vital Starlink connection
Its satellite internet is vital to Ukraine’s drone operations. (WP $)
+ Thankfully, there are alternative providers. (Wired $)
+ Ukraine is due to start a fresh round of war-ending negotiations next week. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Israel’s military has trained a powerful AI model on intercepted Palestinian data
The ChatGPT-like tool can answer queries about the people it’s monitoring. (The Guardian)

3 Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on Canada and Mexico
Until April 2, at least. (Reuters)
+ It’s the second time Trump has rolled back import taxes in as many days. (BBC)
+ How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Can someone check on NASA’s Athena lunar lander?
While we know it reached the moon, it appears to have toppled over. (NYT $)
+ If it remains in an incorrect position, it may be unable to complete its mission. (CNN)
+ Its engineers aren’t sure exactly where it is on the moon, either. (NBC News)

5 Shutting down 2G is easier said than done
Millions of vulnerable people around the world still rely on it to communicate. (Rest of World)

6 The hunt for the world’s oldest functional computer code
Spoiler: it may no longer be on Earth. (New Scientist $)

7 Robots are set to compete with humans in a Beijing half marathon
My money’s on the flesh and blood competitors. (Insider $)
+ Researchers taught robots to run. Now they’re teaching them to walk. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Where did it all go wrong for Skype?
It was the world leading video-calling app—until it wasn’t. (The Verge) 

9 Dating is out, matchmaking is in
Why swipe when a platform can do the hard work for you? (Wired $)
+ Forget dating apps: Here’s how the net’s newest matchmakers help you find love. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Apps are back, baby!
It’s like the original smartphone app boom all over again. (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“You can only get so much juice out of every lemon.”

—Carl-Benedikt Frey, a professor of AI and work at Oxford University’s Internet Institute, explains why pushing AI as a means of merely increasing productivity won’t always work, the Financial Times reports.

The big story

The cost of building the perfect wave

June 2024

For nearly as long as surfing has existed, surfers have been obsessed with the search for the perfect wave.

While this hunt has taken surfers from tropical coastlines to icebergs, these days that search may take place closer to home. That is, at least, the vision presented by developers and boosters in the growing industry of surf pools, spurred by advances in wave-­generating technology that have finally created artificial waves surfers actually want to ride.

But there’s a problem: some of these pools are in drought-ridden areas, and face fierce local opposition. At the core of these fights is a question that’s also at the heart of the sport: What is the cost of finding, or now creating, the perfect wave—and who will have to bear it? Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

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.)+ Planning a holiday? These handy accessories could make your journey a whole lot easier (beach powder optional)
+ How to avoid making common mistakes.
+ The latest food trend is dry-aged fish—tasty.
+ It’s Friday, so let’s enjoy a bit of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

The Download: Denmark’s robot city, and Google’s AI-only search results

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 robot city

The city of Odense, in Denmark, is best known as the site where King Canute, Denmark’s last Viking king, was murdered during the 11th century. Today, Odense it’s also home to more than 150 robotics, automation, and drone companies. It’s particularly renowned for collaborative robots, or cobots—those designed to work alongside humans, often in an industrial setting.

Odense’s robotics success has its roots in the more traditional industry of shipbuilding. During the ‘90s, the Mærsk shipping company funded the creation of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute (MMMI), a center dedicated to autonomous systems that drew students keen to study robotics. But there are challenges to being based in a city that, though the third-largest in Denmark, is undeniably small on the global scale. Read the full story.

—Victoria Turk

This story is from our latest print issue, which is all about how technology is changing our relationships with each other—and ourselves. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

If you’re interested in robotics, why not check out: 

+ Will we ever trust robots? If most robots still need remote human operators to be safe and effective, why should we welcome them into our homes? Read the full story.

+ Why robots need to become lazier before they can be truly useful.

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

+ What’s next for robots in 2025, from humanoid bots to new developments in military applications.

The must-reads

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

1 Google has started testing AI-only search results
What could possibly go wrong? (Ars Technica)
+ It’s also rolling out more AI Overview result summaries. (The Verge)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)  

2 Elon Musk’s DOGE is coming for consultants
Deloitte, Accenture and others will be told to justify the billions of dollars they receive from the US government. (FT $)
+ One federal agency has forbidden DOGE workers from entering its office. (WP $)
+ Anti-Musk protestors set up camp inside a Portland Tesla store. (Reuters)

3 The US military will use AI tools to plan maneuvers
Thanks to a new deal with startup Scale AI. (WP $)
+ Meanwhile, Europe’s defense sector is on the ascendancy. (FT $)
+ We saw a demo of the new AI system powering Anduril’s vision for war. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Global sea ice levels have fallen to a record low
The north pole experienced a period of extreme heat last month. (The Guardian)
+ The ice cores that will let us look 1.5 million years into the past. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Where are all the EV chargers?
Lack of charging infrastructure is still a major roadblock to wider adoption. So why haven’t we solved it? (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Why EV charging needs more than Tesla. (MIT Technology Review)

6 We need new tests to measure AI progress
Training models on questions they’re later tested on is a poor metric. (The Atlantic $)
+ The way we measure progress in AI is terrible. (MIT Technology Review)

7 American cities have a plan to combat extreme heatwaves
Data mapping projects are shedding new light on how to save lives. (Knowable Magazine)
+ A successful air monitoring program has come to an abrupt halt. (Wired $)

8 Chatbots need love too
New research suggests models can tweak their behavior to appear more likeable. (Wired $)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 McDonald’s is being given an AI makeover
In a bid to reduce stress for customers and its workers alike. (WSJ $)

10 How to stop doom scrolling
Spoiler: those screen time reports aren’t helping. (Vox)
+ How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“What happens when you get to a point where every video, audio, everything you read and see online can be fake? Where’s our shared sense of reality?”

—Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, tells the Guardian why it’s essential to question the veracity of the media we come across online.

The big story

What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player

November 2024

Africa is still early in the process of adopting AI technologies. But researchers say the continent is uniquely hospitable to it for several reasons, including a relatively young and increasingly well-educated population, a rapidly growing ecosystem of AI startups, and lots of potential consumers. 

However, ambitious efforts to develop AI tools that answer the needs of Africans face numerous hurdles. The biggest are inadequate funding and poor infrastructure. Limited internet access and a scarcity of domestic data centers also mean that developers might not be able to deploy cutting-edge AI capabilities. Complicating this further is a lack of overarching policies or strategies for harnessing AI’s immense benefits—and regulating its downsides.

Taken together, researchers worry, these issues will hold Africa’s AI sector back and hamper its efforts to pave its own pathway in the global AI race. Read the full story.

—Abdullahi Tsanni

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.)+ Are you a summer or winter? Warm or cool? If you don’t know, it’s time to get your colors done.
+ Why more women are choosing to explore the world on women-only trips.
+ Whitetop the llama, who spends his days comforting ill kids, is a true hero
+ If you missed the great sourdough craze of 2020, fear not—here are some great tips to get you started.

The Download: AI can cheat at chess, and the future of search

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 reasoning models can cheat to win chess games

The news: Facing defeat in chess, the latest generation of AI reasoning models sometimes cheat without being instructed to do so. The finding suggests that the next wave of AI models could be more likely to seek out deceptive ways of doing whatever they’ve been asked to do. And worst of all? There’s no simple way to fix it.

How they did it: Researchers from the AI research organization Palisade Research instructed seven large language models to play hundreds of games of chess against Stockfish, a powerful open-source chess engine. The research suggests that the more sophisticated the AI model, the more likely it is to spontaneously try to “hack” the game in an attempt to beat its opponent. Older models would do this kind of thing only after explicit nudging from the team. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

MIT Technology Review Narrated: AI search could break the web

At its best, AI search can infer a user’s intent, amplify quality content, and synthesize information from diverse sources. But if AI search becomes our primary portal to the web, it threatens to disrupt an already precarious digital economy.
Today, the production of content online depends on a fragile set of incentives tied to virtual foot traffic: ads, subscriptions, donations, sales, or brand exposure. By shielding the web behind an all-knowing chatbot, AI search could deprive creators of the visits and “eyeballs” they need to survive.

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.

Join us to discuss disruption in the AI model market

Join MIT Technology Review’s AI writers as they discuss the latest upheaval in the AI marketplace. Editor in chief Mat Honan will be joined by Will Douglas Heaven, our senior AI editor, and James O’Donnell, our AI and hardware reporter, to dive into how new developments in AI model development are reshaping competition, raising questions for investors, challenging industry assumptions, and accelerating timelines for AI adoption and innovation. Make sure you register here—it kicks off at 12.30pm ET today.

The must-reads

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

1 A judge has denied Elon Musk’s attempt to halt OpenAI’s for-profit plans
But other aspects of the lawsuit have been permitted to proceed. (CNBC)
+ The court will fast-track a trial later this year. (FT $)

2 ChatGPT isn’t going to dethrone Google
At least not any time soon. (Insider $)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Beijing is going all in on AI
China is treating the technology as key to boosting its economy—and lessening its reliance on overseas trade. (WSJ $)
+ DeepSeek is, naturally, the jewel in its crown. (Reuters)
+ Four Chinese AI startups to watch beyond DeepSeek. (MIT Technology Review)

4  A pair of reinforcement learning pioneers have won the Turing Award
Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton’s technique underpins today’s chatbots. (Axios)
+ The former professor and student wrote the literal book on reinforcement learning. (NYT $)
+ The pair will share a million dollar prize. (New Scientist $)

5 US apps are being used to groom and exploit minors in Colombia 
Better internet service is making it easier for sex traffickers to find and sell young girls. (Bloomberg $)
+ An AI companion site is hosting sexually charged conversations with underage celebrity bots. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Europe is on high alert following undersea cable attacks
It’s unclear whether improving Russian-American relations will help. (The Guardian)
+ These stunning images trace ships’ routes as they move. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Jeff Bezos is cracking the whip at Blue Origin
He’s implementing a tougher, Amazon-like approach to catch up with rival SpaceX. (FT $)

8 All hail the return of Digg
The news aggregator is staging a comeback, over a decade after it was split into parts. (Inc)
+ It’s been acquired by its original founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. (TechCrunch)
+ Digg wants to resurrect the community-first social platform. (The Verge)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)

9 We’re still learning about how memory works
Greater understanding could pave the way to better treatments for anxiety and chronic pain. (Knowable Magazine)
+ A memory prosthesis could restore memory in people with damaged brains. (MIT Technology Review)

10 AI can’t replace your personality
Despite what Big Tech seems to be peddling. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“That is just a lot of money [to invest] on a handshake.”

—US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers questions why Elon Musk invested tens of millions of dollars in OpenAI without a written contract, Associated Press reports.

The big story

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

January 2024

It was 1938, and the pain of the Great Depression was still very real. Unemployment in the US was around 20%. New machinery was transforming factories and farms, and everyone was worried about jobs.

Were the impressive technological achievements that were making life easier for many also destroying jobs and wreaking havoc on the economy? To make sense of it all, Karl T. Compton, the president of MIT from 1930 to 1948 and one of the leading scientists of the day, wrote in the December 1938 issue of this publication about the “Bogey of Technological Unemployment.”

His essay concisely framed the debate over jobs and technical progress in a way that remains relevant, especially given today’s fears over the impact of artificial intelligence. It’s a worthwhile reminder that worries over the future of jobs are not new and are best addressed by applying an understanding of economics, rather than conjuring up genies and monsters. Read the full story.

—David Rotman

We can still have nice things

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

+ Congratulations are in order for LeBron James, the first NBA player to break an astounding 50,000 combined points.
+ RIP millennial culture, we hardly knew ye.
+ It’s time to start prepping for the Blood Moon total lunar eclipse later this month.
+ Ancient frogs were surprisingly ruthless when they had to be

The Download: DeepSeek for fortune telling, and the second private moon landing

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 DeepSeek became a fortune teller for China’s youth

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

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

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

—Caiwen Chen

Are you interested in learning more about DeepSeek? Read our stories:

+ How DeepSeek overcame US sanctions and managed to turn restrictions into innovation. Read the full story.

+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everyone’s going to follow its lead. The Chinese firm has pulled back the curtain to expose how the top labs may be building their next-generation models. Now things get interesting.

+ DeepSeek might not be such good news for energy after all. New figures show that if the model’s energy-intensive “chain of thought” reasoning gets added to everything, the promise of efficiency gets murky. Read the full story.

+ Three things to know as the dust settles from DeepSeek—and four other Chinese AI startups to keep an eye on.

The must-reads

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

1 A private lander has touched down on the moon
US startup Firefly is the second private company to land on lunar soil. (The Guardian)
+ The mission is part of NASA’s plans to lower costs via private enterprises. (NYT $)
+ Nokia is putting the first cellular network on the moon. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Donald Trump may create America’s first strategic crypto reserve  
Crypto champions believe it could finally lend the industry a sense of legitimacy. (CoinDesk)
+ But some Republican lawmakers worry it could put taxpayer funds at risk. (FT $)
+ Other crypto investors are pushing for the reserve to hold only bitcoin. (CNBC)
+ Meanwhile, Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind Dogecoin. (Ars Technica)

3 AI firms are racing to create cheaper models
And they’re pinning their hopes on a process called distillation to do just that. (FT $)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everyone’s going to follow its lead. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Amazon has lost its bid to escape regulatory oversight 
It’s been denied permission to skip permitting rules for a proposed data center. (WP $)

5 The US federal layoffs are bad news for aquatic ecosystems 
Firing wildlife workers could lead to an outbreak of parasitic lampreys, which wreak havoc on freshwater fish. (Ars Technica)
+ It’s just one of the many cuts that could make life in the US worse. (The Atlantic $)

6 Smart cameras can detect wildfires before they spread
They’re also adept at spotting blazes overnight. (WSJ $)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Beware the creep of AI chatbots aimed at kids
They can’t be relied upon to always dispense correct information. (Insider $)
+ Some parents are teaching children how to use models safely. (The Guardian)
+ You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say. (MIT Technology Review)

8 RIP Skype
Microsoft is shutting it down in favor of Teams. (CNN)
+ You’ve got until May to decide what to do with your data. (The Register)

9 This artificial tongue could allow you to taste flavors in VR
Yum, tasty hydrogels. (New Scientist $)
+ The device helped volunteers taste coffee, fried eggs, and fish soup. (NYT $)

10 How social media drove a Japanese matcha shortage
The tasty green drink is a TikTok sensation. (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“This is the real, actual revenge of the nerds.”

—Hasan Piker, an online political commentator, reflects on how DOGE feels like the culmination of Elon Musk’s eternally-online existence, the New York Times reports.

The big story

These artificial snowdrifts protect seal pups from climate change

April 2024

For millennia, during Finland’s blistering winters, wind drove snow into meters-high snowbanks along Lake Saimaa’s shoreline, offering prime real estate from which seals carved cave-like dens to shelter from the elements and raise newborns.

But in recent decades, these snowdrifts have failed to form in sufficient numbers, as climate change has brought warming temperatures and rain in place of snow, decimating the seal population.

For the last 11 years, humans have stepped in to construct what nature can no longer reliably provide. Human-made snowdrifts, built using handheld snowplows, now house 90% of seal pups. They are the latest in a raft of measures that have brought Saimaa’s seals back from the brink of extinction. 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.)

+ This behind the scenes look at how they created the podracing scenes in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is remarkably cool.
+ Has Shrek had botox? Much to think about.
+ The largest live game of Dungeons and Dragons ever played looks incredible ($)
+ Five years ago in the UK, we collectively lost our minds.

The Download: underage celebrity chatbots, and OpenAI’s latest model

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 AI companion site is hosting sexually charged conversations with underage celebrity bots

Botify AI, a site for chatting with AI companions that’s backed by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, hosts bots resembling real actors that state their age as under 18, engage in sexually charged conversations, offer “hot photos,” and in some instances describe age-of-consent laws as “arbitrary” and “meant to be broken.”

When MIT Technology Review tested the site this week, we found popular user-created bots taking on underage characters meant to resemble Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, and Millie Bobby Brown, among others. 

The conversations—along with the fact that Botify AI includes “send a hot photo” as a feature for its characters—suggest that the ability to elicit sexually charged conversations and images is not accidental. Instead, sexually suggestive conversations appear to be baked in. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

OpenAI just released GPT-4.5 and says it is its biggest and best chat model yet

What’s new: OpenAI has just released GPT-4.5, a new version of its flagship large language model which it claims is its biggest and best model for chat yet. The new model, which is already available for subscribers to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro tier, is part of its non-reasoning lineup.

Why it matters: OpenAI won’t say exactly how big its new model is. But it says the jump in scale from GPT-4o to GPT-4.5 is the same as the jump from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4o. Experts have estimated that GPT-4 could have as many as 1.8 trillion parameters, the values that get tweaked when a model is trained. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

How a volcanic eruption turned a human brain into glass

They look like small pieces of obsidian, smooth and shiny. But a set of small black fragments found inside the skull of a man who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Southern Italy, in the year 79 CE, are thought to be pieces of his brain—turned to glass.

The discovery, reported in 2020, was exciting because a human brain had never been found in this state. 

Now, scientists studying his remains believe they’ve found out more details about how the glass fragments were formed. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

To read more about this fascinating story, check out the latest edition of The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

The must-reads

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

1 A judge has blocked mass firings of US federal workers
After ruling the terminations were probably illegal. (WP $)
+ Trump’s purges align with his personal campaign against the federal government. (The Atlantic $)
+ The DOGE cuts are likely to get much, much worse. (Wired $)

2 Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown is fuelling a surveillance boom
Firms are rushing to ready tracking tech to meet the administration’s demands. (The Guardian)
+ Things aren’t looking so rosy for other big government contractors, though. (WSJ $)

3 The US is weighing up vaccinating chickens against bird flu
The country’s egg supply is under serious strain. (Wired $)
+ More than 35 million birds have been culled this year alone. (BBC)
+ Businesses are struggling, and consumers are suffering. (The Atlantic $)
+ How the US is preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic. (MIT Technology Review)

4 An AI model is capable of solving million-step math problems
Far beyond the capacity of any human. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Why does AI being good at math matter? (MIT Technology Review)

5 How map apps deal with government disputes over place names
Including the Gulf of Mexico/America. (Rest of World $)

6 A new AI system neutralizes call center staff’s Indian accents
The industry’s largest operator is preparing to roll it out in Latin America, too. (Bloomberg $)
+ How this grassroots effort could make AI voices more diverse. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The future of xenotransplantation
Cross-species organ transplants are on the rise, but risks remain. (Knowable Magazine)
+ A woman in the US is the third person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney. (MIT Technology Review)

8 This Abu Dhabi royal is obsessed with AI 
And he’s willing to splash his colossal wealth to transform his tiny emirate into a major AI player. (WSJ $)

9 Alibaba’s new video model is a big hit among AI porn fans
And they’re already sharing their creations. (404 Media)
+ Three ways we can fight deepfake porn. (MIT Technology Review)

10 No good can come from having your read receipts turned on
Do yourself a favor and switch ‘em off. (Vox)

Quote of the day

“I recommend being in the office at least every weekday… I think we have all the ingredients to win this race, but we are going to have to turbocharge our efforts.”

—Google co-founder Sergey Brin urges the company’s AI teams to work harder to beat its competition to become the first firm to achieve artificial general intelligence, the New York Times reports.

The big story

The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age

August 2024

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to collect and analyze photos of the faces of migrant children at the border in a bid to improve facial recognition technology, MIT Technology Review can reveal.

The technology has traditionally not been applied to children, largely because training data sets of real children’s faces are few and far between, and consist of either low-quality images drawn from the internet or small sample sizes with little diversity. Such limitations reflect the significant sensitivities regarding privacy and consent when it comes to minors.

In practice, the new DHS plan could effectively solve that problem. But, beyond concerns about privacy, transparency, and accountability, some experts also worry about testing and developing new technologies using data from a population that has little recourse to provide—or withhold—consent. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

We can still have nice things

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

+ Congratulations to Hilda Jackson, 105 years young and still raving!
+ If you’re a chronic procrastinator, here’s some helpful tips to break the cycle.
+ All aboard the dog bus! (thanks Beth!)
+ In more canine news, I need a one-way ticket to Puppy Mountain, stat.

The Download: Introducing the Relationships issue

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.

Introducing: the Relationships issue

Relationships are the stories of people and systems working together. Sometimes by choice. Sometimes for practicality. Sometimes by force. Too often, for purely transactional reasons.

That’s why we’re exploring relationships in this issue. Relationships connect us to one another, but also to the machines, platforms, technologies, and systems that mediate modern life.

They’re behind the partnerships that make breakthroughs possible, the networks that help ideas spread, and the bonds that build trust—or at least access. In this issue, you’ll find stories about the relationships we forge with each other, with our past, with our children, and with technology itself.

Here’s just a taste of what you can expect:

+ People are forming relationships with AI chatbots. Some of these are purely professional, others more complicated. This kind of relationship may be novel now, but it’s something we will all take for granted in just a few years. 

+ Adventures in the genetic time machine. Ancient DNA is telling us more and more about humans and environments long past. Could it also help rescue the future?

+ Frozen embryos are filling storage banks around the world. It’s a struggle to know what to do with them. Read the full story.

+ Our relationships with our employers are often mediated through monitoring systems. And while it’s increasing the power imbalance between companies and workers, protections are lagging far behind. Read the full story.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: The messy quest to replace drugs with electricity

“Electroceuticals” promised the post-pharma future for medicine. But their exclusive focus on the nervous system is seeming less and less warranted.

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 DOGE is working on software to automate firing workers
It builds on an existing program previously used by the US Department of Defense. (Wired $)
+ DOGE workers are already resigning from the department. (Fast Company $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

2 American workers are generally pessimistic about AI
Whereas Silicon Valley can’t get enough of it.(WP $)
+ How to fine-tune AI for prosperity. (MIT Technology Review)

 3 iPhones are autocorrecting the term ‘racist’ to ‘Trump’
The company is blaming what it calls a ‘phonetic overlap.’ (NYT $)
+ It’s promised to fix the bug as soon as possible. (FT $)

4 Amy Gleason is the head of DOGE, apparently
The former Digital Service senior advisor is the acting administrator. (NY Mag $)
+ But Elon Musk is still ultimately in charge. (NBC News)

5 Grok’s new unhinged mode can simulate phone sex
If that’s what you’re into. (Ars Technica)

6 More data centers don’t necessarily mean more jobs
The massive facilities don’t actually need many humans to run them. (WSJ $)
+ Not that that’s putting Meta off building a gigantic data center campus. (The Information $)

7 China is keen for tech companies to monetize their data
But not everyone is buying in. (Rest of World)

8 The slow death of the combustion engine
Pistons are out, and electrons are in. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Why EVs are (mostly) set for solid growth in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The US is in love with cheap clothing
And established brands are the ones paying the price. (Insider $)

10 What frozen mummies can tell us about the ancient world
From wolf pups to mammoths. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“I felt nothing but utter disgust. I no longer enjoyed sitting in my Tesla.”

—Mike Schwede, an entrepreneur living in Switzerland, tells the Guardian he’s turned his back on the electric car company after Elon Musk’s Nazi-linked salutes during Trump’s inauguration.

The big story

Think that your plastic is being recycled? Think again.

October 2023

The problem of plastic waste hides in plain sight, a ubiquitous part of our lives we rarely question. But a closer examination of the situation is shocking. To date, humans have created around 11 billion metric tons of plastic. 72% of the plastic we make ends up in landfills or the environment. Only 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled.

To make matters worse, plastic production is growing dramatically; in fact, half of all plastics in existence have been produced in just the last two decades. Production is projected to continue growing, at about 5% annually.

So what do we do? Sadly, solutions such as recycling and reuse aren’t equal to the scale of the task. The only answer is drastic cuts in production in the first place. 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.)

+ Look up to the sky over the next few nights: seven planets will be aligned, and won’t do so again until 2040.
+ Jeremy Strong probably won’t win an Oscar next week, but he definitely deserves to.
+ Why English is such a strange language.
+ 1985 produced some truly anthemic songs—and some absolute bilge.