The Download: training robots with gen AI, and the state of climate tech

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-generated images can teach robots how to act

Generative AI models can produce images in response to prompts within seconds, and they’ve recently been used for everything from highlighting their own inherent bias to preserving precious memories.

Now, researchers from Stephen James’s Robot Learning Lab in London are using image-generating AI models for a new purpose: creating training data for robots. They’ve developed a new system, called Genima, that fine-tunes the image-generating AI model Stable Diffusion to draw robots’ movements, helping guide them both in simulations and in the real world. 

Genima could make it easier to train different types of robots to complete tasks—machines ranging from mechanical arms to humanoid robots and driverless cars—as well as making AI web agents more useful. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

These 15 companies are innovating in climate tech

We’ve just unveiled our 2024 list of 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch. This annual project is one the climate team at MIT Technology Review pours a lot of time and thought into, and we’re thrilled to finally share it with you.

Our goal is to spotlight businesses we believe could help make a dent in climate change. This year’s list includes companies from a wide range of industries, headquartered on five continents. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend giving it a look. Each company has a profile in which we’ve outlined why it made the list, what sort of impact the business might have, and what challenges it’s likely to face. 

Casey Crownhart, our senior climate reporter, has dug into what these pioneering businesses reveal about the race to address climate change. Read about what she found out here.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI has been valued at an eye watering $157 billion 
A new funding round has made it one of the most valuable startups of all time. (WP $)
+ The company has urged investors to avoid funding rival AI firms. (FT $)
+ The secret to OpenAI’s fundraising success? Its extremely capable CFO. (The Information $)

2 Chipmakers are keeping a close eye on two North Carolina mines
Hurricane Helene has forced production to grind to a halt. (Bloomberg $)
+ The mines contain high purity quartz, which is essential to make chips. (Vox)

3 Hacking Meta’s smart glasses turns them into powerful doxxing tools
Students equipped the device with real-time facial recognition software. (404 Media)
+ The coolest thing about smart glasses is not the AR. It’s the AI. (MIT Technology Review)

4 American chips are powering Russian missiles
The deadly weapons are killing Ukrainian civilians, including a six-year old girl. (Bloomberg $)

5 Character.ai is pivoting away from making AI models
Ultimately, training LLMs proved to be too expensive. (FT $)
+ Make no mistake—AI is owned by Big Tech. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Apple is punishing social apps
They’re no longer allowed to access a user’s contact list. (NYT $)
+ Threads is letting users connect with other social networks for the first time. (WP $)

7 Flying cars are hovering in a gray legal area
Today’s EVOTLs are technically breaking the law, and it’s hard to see that changing. (NY Mag $)
+ These aircraft could change how we fly. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Workplace AI tools can’t always be trusted
Make sure you’re aware of when it’s still writing a transcript, for one. (WP $)
+ You should think twice about sharing personal info with chatbots, too. (The Atlantic $)

9 How to boost the benefits of meditation
Stimulating the brain could help to unlock the mysteries of the mind. (Vox)
+ Here’s how personalized brain stimulation could treat depression. (MIT Technology Review)

10 This video game birthed a generation of historians  
Age of Empires is a classic that defined a genre. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We have some stock in Nvidia, and that’s who’s going to get all of this money anyway.”

—A venture capitalist who didn’t participate in OpenAI’s massive funding round explains why they don’t have FOMO to Axios’ business editor Dan Primack.

The big story

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

January 2024

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

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

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

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

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

+ Watch out, Nibi the adorable beaver’s about! (Thanks Alice!)
+ If you’ve never seen one man sing both sides of Phantom of the Opera before, now you have.
+ TV doesn’t come much more unhinged than Love Is Blind (if you haven’t seen it, you’re in for a treat).
+ How to catch a glimpse of the Comet A3, also known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

The Download: how to connect the US’s grids, and OpenAI’s new voice mode

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

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

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

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

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

—James Temple

OpenAI released its advanced voice mode to more people. Here’s how to get it.

OpenAI is broadening access to Advanced Voice Mode, a feature of ChatGPT that allows you to speak more naturally with the AI model. It allows you to interrupt its responses midsentence, and it can sense and interpret your emotions from your tone of voice and adjust its responses accordingly. 

Users who’ve been able to try it have largely described the model as an impressively fast, dynamic, and realistic voice assistant—which has made its limited availability particularly frustrating to some other OpenAI users. This is the first time the company has promised to bring the new voice mode to a wide range of users. Here’s what you need to know.

—James O’Donnell

An AI script editor could help decide what films get made in Hollywood

Every day across Hollywood, scores of film school graduates and production assistants work as script readers. Their job is to find the diamonds in the rough from the 50,000 or so screenplays pitched each year and flag any worth pursuing further. 

Now the film-focused tech company Cinelytic, which works with major studios like Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures to analyze film budgets and box office potential, aims to offer script feedback with generative AI. 

It takes its new tool Callaia less than a minute to compile a synopsis, a list of comparable films, grades for areas like dialogue and originality, and actor recommendations. Cool idea, but is it any good? Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

The must-reads

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

1 The star witness in the FTX case has been sentenced to two years in prison
 Caroline Ellison got off lightly in exchange for her extensive cooperation. (CNBC)
+ In contrast, Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years earlier this year. (FT $)
+ Her help has been credited with helping to recover customer assets. (The Verge)

2 A Chinese-funded US VC fund is under scrutiny from the FBI
There are fears it may have passed trade secrets to Beijing. (FT $)
+ Hone Capital has invested in heavy-hitters including Stripe. (TechCrunch)

3 CrowdStrike’s CEO apologized to US Congress over the catastrophic outage
The crash highlighted the dangers of relying on single vendors. (WP $)
+ It’s facing legal action from its disgruntled shareholders. (Bloomberg $)+ The system failure affected millions of PCs across the world. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A bold plan to refreeze the Arctic may just work
Trials pumping seawater over existing ice appear have proved successful. (New Scientist $)
+ Europe is running rings around the US in terms of heat pump adoption. (The Atlantic $)

5 Huge data centers are springing up across Latin America
And local communities are paying the price. (The Guardian)
+ Energy-hungry data centers are quietly moving into cities. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Why Mark Zuckerberg washed his hands of politics
He regrets some of the political posturing he dabbled in during his 20s. (NYT $)
+ Meta isn’t giving up on giving its chatbots famous voices. (Insider $)

7 Be wary of Google Images of risky mushroom species
They could be AI-generated and look nothing like the real thing. (404 Media)
+ Director and AI-embracer James Cameron has joined Stability AI’s board. (The Verge)

8 You probably don’t need an iPhone 16
How much better can a camera get, really? (New Yorker $) 

9 Resist the temptation to vent about work online
Anything you share on company devices could come back to bite you. (WSJ $)

10 How to save the Earth from a colossal asteroid
Blast it into oblivion using a massive X-ray beam, obviously. (Vice)
+ Earth is probably safe from a killer asteroid for 1,000 years. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about all of the people I hurt. I participated in a criminal conspiracy that ultimately stole billions of dollars from people who entrusted their money with us.”

—Caroline Ellison, a former executive at FTX, apologizes to New York federal court during her sentencing, Bloomberg reports.

The big story

How tracking animal movement may save the planet

February 2024

Animals have long been able to offer unique insights about the natural world around us, acting as organic sensors picking up phenomena invisible to humans. Canaries warned of looming catastrophe in coal mines until the 1980s, for example.

These days, we have more insight into animal behavior than ever before thanks to technologies like sensor tags. But the data we gather from these animals still adds up to only a relatively narrow slice of the whole picture.

This is beginning to change. Researchers are asking: What will we find if we follow even the smallest animals? What could we learn from a system of animal movement, continuously monitoring how creatures big and small adapt to the world around us? It may be, some researchers believe, a vital tool in the effort to save our increasingly crisis-plagued planet. 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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ This night parrot looks like it’s hard some seriously late nights.
+ The Nazgûl morning routine sounds like a great way to start the day.
+ Time for a hypnotic pencil-sharpening video.
+ Spooky season’s starting early this year: we’ve just discovered a new species of ghost shark!

The Download: training robots for unfamiliar environments, and all-new bird flu

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

AI models let robots carry out tasks in unfamiliar environments

What’s new: It’s tricky to get robots to do things in environments they’ve never seen before. Typically, researchers need to train them on new data for every new place they encounter, which can become very time-consuming and expensive. Now, researchers have developed a series of AI models that teach robots to complete basic tasks in new surroundings without further training or fine-tuning.

What they achieved: The five AI models, called robot utility models, (RUMs), allow machines to complete five separate tasks: opening doors and drawers, and picking up tissues, bags and cylindrical objects in unfamiliar environments with a 90% success rate. 

The big picture: The team hope their findings will make it quicker and easier to teach robots new skills while helping them function within previously-unseen domains. The approach could make it easier and cheaper to deploy robots in our homes in future. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

Flu season is coming—and so is the risk of an all-new bird flu

September will soon be drawing to a close. The kids are back to school, and those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are experiencing the joys the end of summer brings: the cooling temperatures, the falling leaves, and, inevitably, the start of flu season.

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the flu vaccine for everyone over six months old. This year, following the spread of the “bird flu” H5N1 in cattle, the CDC is especially urging dairy farm workers to get vaccinated.

The goal is not only to protect those workers from seasonal flu, but to protect us all from a potentially more devastating consequence: the emergence of a new form of flu that could trigger another pandemic. That hasn’t happened yet, but unfortunately, it’s looking increasingly possible. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly health and 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 Things aren’t looking good for the Doomsday Glacier
It’s rapidly melting, and its collapse appears imminent. (CNN)
+ If that happened, it’d be a disaster for global sea levels. (Bloomberg $)
+ But we still have time to influence how rapidly the process unfolds. (New Scientist $)
+ Interventional measures have been in place for years. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Major social media firms harvested vast amounts of user data
To the extent that it qualifies as mass surveillance. (NYT $)
+ The US FTC accused firms of failing to protect user privacy. (WP $)

3 Apple’s new Mac update is breaking cybersecurity systems
The Sequoia update has messed up tools from CrowdStrike and others. (TechCrunch)
+ The company’s suite of AI tools is now available to test out in public betas. (The Verge)

4 Tech companies are pushing to weaken the EU AI Act
It’s a last ditch attempt to lobby for lighter regulation before its codes of practice are finalized. (Reuters)
+ The AI Act is done. Here’s what will (and won’t) change. (MIT Technology Review)

5 To build better batteries, we need new anodes
Cathodes get all the attention, but other components are equally important. (Economist $)
+ Three takeaways about the current state of batteries. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Most of us can’t afford to avoid microplastics
Non-plastic alternatives are wildly expensive. So what can we do? (The Atlantic $)
+ Microplastics are everywhere. What does that mean for our immune systems? (MIT Technology Review)

7 Crypto thieves sold $243 million from a single person
The creditor of a defunct trading firm fell for a sophisticated scam. (CoinDesk)

8 Blue light glasses aren’t as useful as they claim to be
You’re better off taking regular screen breaks instead. (WP $)

9 This delivery robot knocked over a passing pedestrian
The robot actually drove away, reversed and hit them for a second time. (404 Media)
+ The company has offered the victim vouchers in compensation. (The Verge)

10 iPhones are nudging their owners to check in with their exes
No thanks! (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“Self-regulation has been a failure.”

—The Federal Trade Commission criticizes social media platforms and video streaming services’ surveillance of their users in a damning new report, the Verge reports.

The big story

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

October 2022

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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ Mmmm, doughnuts
+ Gentlemen, step away from the chore jacket.
+ Once a spelling bee champion, always a spelling bee champion. But what do they do once they get older?
+ Why Hugh Grant is the perfect villain, actually.

The Download: Congress’s AI bills, and Snap’s new AR spectacles

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.

There are more than 120 AI bills in Congress right now

More than 120 bills related to regulating artificial intelligence are currently floating around the US Congress. This flood of bills is indicative of the desperation Congress feels to keep up with the rapid pace of technological improvements. 

Because of the way Congress works, the majority of these bills will never make it into law. But simply taking a look at them all can give us insight into policymakers’ current preoccupations: where they think the dangers are, what each party is focusing on, and more broadly, what vision the US is pursuing when it comes to AI and how it should be regulated.

That’s why, with help from the Brennan Center for Justice, we’ve created a tracker with all the AI bills circulating in various committees in Congress right now, to see if there’s anything we can learn from this legislative smorgasbord. Read the full story.

—Scott J Mulligan

Here’s what I made of Snap’s new augmented-reality Spectacles

Snap has announced a new version of its Spectacles: AR glasses that could finally deliver on the promises that devices like Magic Leap, or HoloLens, or even Google Glass, made many years ago.

Our editor-in-chief Mat Honan got to try them out a couple of weeks ago. He found they packed a pretty impressive punch layering visual information and applications directly on their see-through lenses, making objects appear as if they are in the real world—if you don’t mind looking a little goofy, that is. Read Mat’s full thoughts here.

Google is funding an AI-powered satellite constellation that will spot wildfires faster

What’s happening: Early next year, Google and its partners plan to launch the first in a series of satellites that together would provide close-up, frequently refreshed images of wildfires around the world, offering data that could help firefighters battle blazes more rapidly, effectively, and safely.

Why it matters: The images and analysis will be provided free to fire agencies around the world, helping to improve understanding of where fires are, where they’re moving, and how hot they’re burning. The information could help agencies stamp out small fires before they turn into raging infernos, place limited firefighting resources where they’ll do the most good, and evacuate people along the safest paths. 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 California has passed three election deepfake laws
But only one will take effect in time for the presidential election in November. (NYT $)
+ The bills also protect actors from AI impersonation without their consent. (WP $)

2 How did thousands of Hezbollah pagers explode simultaneously?
The devices were probably intercepted by hackers during shipment. (WSJ $)
+ Here’s everything we know about the attack so far. (Vox)
+ Small lithium batteries alone don’t tend to cause this much damage. (404 Media)
+ Exploding comms devices are nothing new. (FT $)

3 Instagram has introduced new accounts specifically for teens
In response to increasing pressure over Meta’s minor protection policies. (BBC)
+ Parents will be given greater control over their activities. (The Guardian)
+ Here’s how to set up the new restricted accounts. (WP $)

4 Google has won its bid to overturn a €1.5 billion fine from the EU
But the court said it stands by the majority of the previous findings. (CNBC)
+ But the ruling can still be appealed in the Court of Justice. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meanwhile, Meta’s antitrust woes are escalating. (FT $)

5 SpaceX has been accused of breaking launch rules 
And the US Federal Aviation Administration wants to slap it with a hefty fine. (WP $)

6 Electric cars now outnumber petrol cars in Norway
It’s particularly impressive given the country’s history as an oil producer. (The Guardian)
+ Why full EVs, not hybrids, are the future. (Economist $)
+ Three frequently asked questions about EVs, answered. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Our understanding of the universe is still up in the air
What looked like a breakthrough in physics actually might not be at all. (New Scientist $)
+ Why is the universe so complex and beautiful? (MIT Technology Review)

8 Tech’s middle managers are having a tough time
They’re losing their jobs left, right and center. (Insider $)

9 YouTube astrology is booming in Pakistan
Amid economic and political turmoil, Pakistanis are seeking answers in the stars. (Rest of World)

10 Not everything bad is AI-generated
But what’s AI-generated is often bad. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“I’d rather go back to school than work in an office again.”

—CJ Felli, a system development engineer for Amazon Web Services, is not happy about the company’s back-to-the-office directive, Quartz reports.

The big story

What’s next for the world’s fastest supercomputers

September 2023

When the Frontier supercomputer came online last year, it marked the dawn of so-called exascale computing, with machines that can execute an exaflop—or a quintillion (1018) floating point operations a second.

Since then, scientists have geared up to make more of these blazingly fast computers: several exascale machines are due to come online in the US and Europe in 2024.

But speed itself isn’t the endgame. Researchers hope to pursue previously unanswerable questions about nature—and to design new technologies in areas from transportation to medicine. Read the full story.

—Sophia Chen

We can still have nice things

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

+ These Ocean Photographer of the Year winning images are simply stunning ($)
+ Here’s where you’ll have the best chance of finding a fossilized shark tooth in the US.
+ Vans are back in style, as if they ever went out of it.
+ Potatoes are great every which way, but here’s how long to boil them for that perfect al dente bite.

The Download: Ukraine’s drone defenses, and today’s climate heroes

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.

Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense

Drones have come to define the brutal conflict in Ukraine that has now dragged on for more than two and a half years. And most rely on radio communications—a technology that Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov has obsessed over since childhood.

While Flash is now a civilian, the former officer has still taken it upon himself to inform his country’s defense in all matters related to radio. Once a month, he studies the skies for Russian radio transmissions and tries to learn about the problems facing troops in the fields and in the trenches.

In this race for survival—as each side constantly tries to best the other, only to start all over again when the other inevitably catches up—Ukrainian soldiers need to develop creative solutions, and fast. As Ukraine’s wartime radio guru, Flash may just be one of their best hopes for doing that. Read the full story.

—Charlie Metcalfe

Meet 2024’s climate innovators under 35

One way to know where a field is going? Take a look at what the sharpest new innovators are working on.

Good news for all of us: MIT Technology Review’s list of 35 Innovators Under 35 just dropped. A decent number of the people who made the list are working in fields that touch climate and energy in one way or another. And our senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart noticed a few trends that might provide some hints about the future. Read the full story.

This year’s list is available exclusively to MIT Technology Review subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber already, you sign up here with a 25% discount on the usual price.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 The first commercial spacewalk by private citizens is underway
And, thus far, it’s been a success. (CNN)
+ Take a look at the long and illustrious history of spacewalks. (BBC)

2 Silicon Valley is divided over California’s AI safety bill
Big Tech is waiting anxiously for the state’s governor to make a decision. (FT $)
+ What’s next for AI regulation? (MIT Technology Review)

3 Wildfires are raging across southern California
The state has weathered nearly three times as much acreage burn this year so far compared to the whole of 2023. (The Guardian)
+ Canada’s 2023 wildfires produced more emissions than fossil fuels in most countries. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Broken wind turbines have major repercussions
Multiple offshore wind projects have run into serious trouble. (NYT $)

5 The percentage of women in tech has hardly changed in 20 year
Women and people of color face an uphill battle to get hired. (WP $)
+ Why can’t tech fix its gender problem? (MIT Technology Review)

6 Google’s new app can turn your research into an AI podcast
Please don’t do this, though. (The Verge)

7 Human drivers keep crashing into Waymo robotaxis
The company has launched a new website to put the incidents into perspective.(Ars Technica)
+ What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)

8 This tiny SpaceX rival is poised to launch its first satellites
AST SpaceMobile’s star appears to be on the rise—but for how long?(Bloomberg $)

9 You’ve got a fax
Pagers, fax machines and dumbphones are all the rage these days. (WSJ $)

10 Have we reached peak emoji?
The little pictograms are an illustrative language, not an ideographic one. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“A beautiful world.”

—Billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman’s reaction as he saw Earth from space during the first privately funded spacewalk today, the BBC reports.

The big story

What does GPT-3 “know” about me?

August 2022

One of the biggest stories in tech is the rise of large language models that produce text that reads like a human might have written it.

These models’ power comes from being trained on troves of publicly available human-created text hoovered up from the internet. If you’ve posted anything even remotely personal in English on the internet, chances are your data might be part of some of the world’s most popular LLMs.

Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review’s senior AI reporter, wondered what data these models might have on her—and how it could be misused. So she put OpenAI’s GPT-3 to the test. Read about what she found.

In this section yesterday we stated that Amazon had acquired iRobot. This was incorrect—the acquisition never completed. We apologize for the error.

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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ These photos of London taken on a Casio camera watch are a snapshot of bygone times.
+ If you’ve noticed elaborate painted nails making their way into your cookbooks, it’s part of a wider trend.
+ Painting Paint, now that’s meta.
+ Wow, enthusiastic skeletons are already limbering up for next month!

The Download: a quantum breakthrough, and the Internet Archive ruling

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.

Google says it’s made a quantum computing breakthrough that reduces errors

The news: Google researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in quantum error correction, one that could pave the way for quantum computers that finally live up to the technology’s promise.

Why it matters: One major challenge facing the field has been that quantum computers can store or manipulate information incorrectly, preventing them from executing algorithms that are long enough to be useful. 

The new research from Google Quantum AI and its academic collaborators demonstrates that they can add components to reduce these errors. Ultimately, it bolsters the idea that error correction is a viable strategy toward building a useful quantum computer. Read the full story.

—Sophia Chen

Why a ruling against the Internet Archive threatens the future of America’s libraries

—Chris Lewis is president and CEO of Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group that works to shape technology policy in the public interest.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, it didn’t matter if you didn’t have a computer or your parents lacked infinite money for tutors—you could get a lifetime’s education for free at the public library.

A ruling from the US Second Circuit against the Internet Archive and in favor of publisher Hachette has just thrown that promise of equality into doubt by limiting libraries’ access to digital lending. Read this to learn why.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI’s new reasoning AI model is coming
The Strawberry model is reportedly planned for release within a fortnight. (The Information $)+ It’s an area of research that Google DeepMind is also invested in. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Another human has contracted bird flu in the US
And worryingly, they don’t seem to have been in direct contact with animals. (Vox)
+ How worried should we be, really? (The Atlantic $)
+ What’s next for bird flu vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A US legal advisor coalition wants warning labels for social media 
The 42-strong attorney general group is urging Congress to take action. (WP $)
+ Australia is planning to introduce a minimum age limit for social media use. (BBC)
+ Should social media come with a health warning? (MIT Technology Review)

4 How 9/11 changed the internet
It shaped how we talk—and to some people’s distaste, joke—about national tragedies online. (Insider $)

5 Huawei has announced a triple-folding smartphone
The $2,800 Mate XT folds up like a pamphlet. (FT $)
+ If you want more memory, its price tag rises to an eye-watering $3,300. (Reuters)

6 Caroline Ellison is likely to receive a sentence soon
The key FTX case witness has pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges.(NY Mag $)
+ She’s seeking no prison time as a result of her cooperation in the trial. (Boston Globe $)

7 Satellites are at risk from “killer electrons”
Luckily, a secretive radio wave method could help safeguard them. (Economist $)

8 Researchers have created a cloud atlas of Mars
While some formations are similar to Earth’s, others are completely different. (New Scientist $)

9 Kamala Harris supporters are using Trump’s weirdest quotes against him
A new platform catalogs all of his strangest missives in real time. (Fast Company $)

10 The British are coming!
Britishcore is the latest tongue-in-cheek trend to grab Gen Z’s attention. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Parents want their kids off their phones and on the footy field and so do I.”

—Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, explains the rationale behind his government’s plans to restrict social media access for teenagers and children, the Financial Times reports.

The big story

A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?

December 2022

In the fall of 2020, gig workers in Venezuela posted a series of images to online forums where they talk shop. The photos were mundane, if sometimes intimate, household scenes—including a particularly revealing shot of a young woman in a lavender T-shirt sitting on the toilet, her shorts pulled down to mid-thigh.

The images were not taken by a person, but by development versions of iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that contracts workers around the world to label data used to train artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, MIT Technology Review obtained 15 screenshots of these private photos, which had been posted to closed social media groups. The images speak to the growing practice of sharing potentially sensitive data to train algorithms. They also reveal a whole data supply chain—and new points where personal information could leak out—that few consumers are even aware of. 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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ What do astronauts and deep sea divers have in common? Their training is surprisingly similar.
+ Eggs, eggs eggs—who doesn’t love eggs?
+ Better gut health is something we should all be aiming for. Here’s where to start.
+ Single women of TikTok, we salute you.

Correction: The piece has been updated to remove a reference to Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot, which was never completed.

The Download: introducing our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2024

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: our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2024

Tomorrow’s technologies are being developed today. And every year, we recognize young people from around the world who are leading the way through their research and entrepreneurship.

This year’s 35 young innovators are driving progress toward better health, a more stable climate, and greater equality. Each was selected from hundreds of nominees by expert judges. Keep an eye out for these innovators in the years to come—they’re already making an impact.

Today, we’re excited to unveil our latest cohort of Innovators. Read the full list of this year’s honorees making a difference in robotics, computing, biotech, climate and energy, and AI.

This year’s list is available exclusively to MIT Technology Review subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber already, sign up here to save 25%.

Innovator of the Year: Shawn Shan builds tools to help artists fight back against exploitative AI

When image-generating models kick-started the generative AI boom in early 2022, artists started noticing odd similarities between AI-generated images and those they’d created themselves. Many found that their work had been scraped into massive data sets and used to train AI models, which then produced knockoffs in their creative style. 

Now artists are fighting back. And some of the most powerful tools they have were built by Shawn Shan, 26, a PhD student in computer science at the University of Chicago, and MIT Technology Review’s 2024 Innovator of the Year.

Shan created the algorithm behind Glaze, a tool that lets artists mask their personal style from AI mimicry, and another tool called Nightshade. Both algorithms work by adding invisible changes to the pixels of images that disrupt the way machine-learning models interpret them—allowing artists to be creative online again. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

To be more useful, robots need to become lazier

Unlike humans, robots treat all the information they receive about their surroundings with equal importance. Driverless cars, for example, have to continuously analyze data about things around them whether or not they are relevant. This keeps drivers and pedestrians safe, but it draws on a lot of energy and computing power. What if there’s a way to cut that down by teaching robots what they should prioritize and what they can safely ignore?

That’s the principle underpinning “lazy robotics,” a field of study which proposes that teaching all kinds of robots to be “lazier” with their data could help pave the way for better, more efficient machines. And researchers have hit on a fun way to test this line of enquiry: teaching robots to play soccer. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

What impact will AI have on video game development?

Video game development has long been plagued by fear of the “crunch”—essentially, being forced to work overtime on a game to meet a deadline. 

In the early days of video games, the crunch was often viewed as a rite of passage. However, nowadays the crunch is less likely to be glamorized than to be seen as a form of exploitation. With games getting more expensive, companies are incentivized to make even more short-term profits by squeezing developers. 

But what if AI could help to alleviate game-development hell? If you look closely, it may in fact already be happening. Here’s how.

—Scott J Mulligan

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

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

1 The first private human spacewalk mission is underway
The ambitious mission will see four astronauts spend five days in space. (BBC)
+ It’s also the riskiest private mission to date—they’ve got limited life support. (CNN)

2 The first artificially intelligent iPhone is here
But its Apple Intelligence software is far from infallible. (WP $)
+ Not all of the AI features will be available when the iPhone 16 goes on sale. (FT $)
+ Here’s a list of everything Apple announced during its annual keynote. (WSJ $)

3 How to weather this winter’s viral illnesses
Colds, flu, and covid will be doing the rounds. (Vox)
+ How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Apple and Google owe Europe billions of euros in fines
Both companies have lost appeals against European Union rulings. (CNN)
+ It’s a major victory for European regulators seeking to curb Big Tech. (WP $)

5 We’re developing a new weapon for the war against antibiotic resistance
In the form of trapping bacteria between hostile viruses and antibiotics. (Knowable Magazine)
+ How CRISPR could help to make UTIs a thing of the past. (Wired $)
+ How bacteria-fighting viruses could go mainstream. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Can you spot an AI-generated video?
It’s a lot harder than you may think. (NYT $)
+ AI slop and social media is a match made in heaven. (The Atlantic $)
+ Audible will invite US audiobook narrators to create AI models of their voices. (Bloomberg $)
+ What this futuristic Olympics video says about the state of generative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 We’re still waiting for useful robots
The former head of Google’s robotic moonshot project has some ideas about how we should build them.(Wired $)
+ Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment? (MIT Technology Review)

8 How solar panels can help boost biodiversity efforts
The same patch of land can help to address two crises at once. (New Yorker $)

9 Elon Musk may be summoned before UK Parliament
But, like Mark Zuckerberg before him, he may simply choose not to appear. (FT $)

10 Doctors can’t get enough of this medical TikTok star
His insider jokes are resonating with fellow physicians. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“One monopoly is bad enough. But a trifecta of monopolies is what we have here.”

—Julia Tarver Wood, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, makes her opening statement during the first day of Google’s latest antitrust trial, Ars Technica reports.

The big story

How one mine could unlock billions in EV subsidies

January 2024

On a pine farm north of the tiny town of Tamarack, Minnesota, Talon Metals has uncovered one of America’s densest nickel deposits—and now it wants to begin extracting it.

If regulators approve the mine, it could mark the starting point in what the company claims would become the country’s first complete domestic nickel supply chain, running from the bedrock beneath the Minnesota earth to the batteries in electric vehicles across the nation.

MIT Technology Review wanted to provide a clearer sense of the law’s on-the-ground impact by zeroing in on a single project and examining how these rich subsidies could be unlocked at each point along the supply chain. Take a look at what we found out.

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

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

+ How to organize your kitchen like a professional chef.
+ This is one seriously impressive marble run.
+ Meet the retirees spending their golden years hopping from cruise ship to cruise ship.
+ Dinosaurs were no fools—it’s looking like they evolved to fly in multiple ways.

The Download: climate tipping point alarms, and AI’s vision of the 3028 Olympics

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 UK is building an alarm system for climate tipping points

The news: The UK’s new moonshot research agency just launched an £81 million ($106 million) program to develop early warning systems to sound the alarm if Earth gets perilously close to crossing climate tipping points.

How they’re doing it: The teams the agency supports will work toward three goals: developing low-cost sensors to provide more precise data about the conditions of these systems; deploying those and other sensing technologies to create an observational network to monitor these tipping systems; and building computer models that harness physics and artificial intelligence to pick up subtle early warning signs of tipping in the data.

What it matters: The goal of the five-year program will be to reduce scientific uncertainty about when these events could occur, how they would affect the planet and the species on it, and over what period those effects might develop and persist. Read the full story.

—James Temple

What this futuristic Olympics video says about the state of generative AI

The Olympic Games in Paris just finished last month and the Paralympics are still underway, so the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles feel like a lifetime from now. But the prospect of watching the games in his home city has Josh Kahn, a filmmaker in the sports entertainment world, thinking even further into the future: What might an LA Olympics in the year 3028 look like?

It’s the perfect type of creative exercise for AI video generation, which allows users to generate fairly high-definition video in minutes. More than anything, the video shows what a boon the generative technology may be for creators. However, it also indicates what’s holding it back.

Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

Coming soon: Our 2024 list of Innovators Under 35

To tackle complex global problems such as preventing disease and mitigating climate change, we’re going to need new ideas from our brightest minds. Every year, MIT Technology Review identifies a new class of Innovators Under 35 taking on these and other challenges.

On September 10, we will honor the 2024 class of Innovators Under 35. These 35 researchers and entrepreneurs are rising stars in their fields pursuing ambitious projects. Each is doing groundbreaking work to advance one of five areas: materials science, biotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, or climate and energy.

Keep an eye on this newsletter next Tuesday for our announcement of the 2024 list, which will be made available exclusively to subscribers. Read the full story for more details, and if you’re not a subscriber already, sign up here to save 25%.

—Amy Nordum

If you can’t wait until then, we’ll reveal our Innovator of the Year during a live broadcast on LinkedIn on Monday, September 9. Register here to be among the first to find out who it is, and learn about their work and the impact they’re having.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How a tiny Pacific Island became the global capital of cybercrime

Tokelau is a group of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Hawaii.

Despite its size, Tokelau has become an internet giant. Until recently, its .tk domain had more users than any other country’s: a staggering 25 million. Yet only one website with a .tk domain is actually from Tokelau. Nearly all the others are used by spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.

This is the story of how Tokelau unwittingly became the global capital of cybercrime—and its fight to fix its reputation.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast. In partnership with News Over Audio, we’ll be making a selection of our stories available, each one read by a professional voice actor. You’ll be able to listen to them on the go or download them to listen to offline.

We’re publishing a new story each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, including some taken from our most recent print magazine.

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 Clearview AI has been slapped with its largest fine to date 
A Dutch regulator has ordered it to pay more than 30 million euros for creating an illegal database of “unique biometric codes.” (The Verge)
+ Clearview has missed its window to appeal the decision. (Ars Technica)
+ It’s not the first time the company has been in legal hot water. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Bluesky is gaining millions of new users
It’s struggling to cope with the influx triggered by X’s shutdown in Brazil. (TechCrunch)
+ Some worry that judge Alexandre de Moraes has overreached his powers. (Economist $)

3 Training AI to appear human-like is unrewarding work
Workers cite long hours, low pay, and unstable employment. (Fast Company $)
+ The people paid to train AI are outsourcing their work… to AI. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 The Chinese Communist Party is silencing protesters in San Francisco
It’s part of a bigger pattern of China overreaching beyond its borders. (WP $)
+ How Twitter’s “Teacher Li” became the central hub of China protest information. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Mega AI data centers are coming
But the companies behind the multi-billion dollar projects are a mystery. (The Information $)
+ Energy-hungry data centers are quietly moving into cities. (MIT Technology Review)

6 New York vigilantes are making big bucks reporting idling polluters
The only problem is, the police keep getting in the way. (NY Mag $)

7 Beware of Bitcoin ATM scams
Criminals are finding new ways to part victims from their hard-earned cash. (The Verge) 

8 What’s going to happen to all our old gas-powered cars?
Giving them a second life undermines efforts to curb climate change. (Vox)
+ This company wants to inject petroleum carbon emissions back underground. (The Atlantic $)
+ The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers. (MIT Technology Review)

9 You can’t play video games on Microsoft’s new AI computers
Their new chip architecture isn’t playing ball with more than 1,000 games. (WSJ $)

10 Yarn made from potato is a sustainable cotton alternative
There’s no guarantee it’ll taste good, though. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“We’re a Brazilian app now.”

—Bluesky jokes about the millions of new users it’s gained in the wake of Brazil’s Supreme Court banning access to X in the country, the Financial Times reports.

The big story

Hydrogen trains could revolutionize how Americans get around

April 2024

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

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

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

—Benjamin Schneider

We can still have nice things

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

+ The time and effort it must have taken to paint all 151 original Pokemon is mind-boggling.
+ You’ve heard of Stonehenge, but do you know Kilmartin Glen?
+ The Netherlands recently hosted a celebration for thousands of redheads.
+ Peter Blackert builds some seriously impressive Lego cars.

The Download: introducing: the 125th Anniversary 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 125th Anniversary issue

With this issue, we wanted to celebrate our milestone as a publication without dwelling too much on our own past. Victory laps are for race cars, not magazines. Instead, we decided to try to use history as a way to explore what things may look like over the next 125 years. 

The longer you report on tech, the more you realize how often we get the future wrong. Predictions have a way of not coming true. The things that seem so clear now can shift and change, rearranging themselves into wholly new forms we never thought of.

But also, predictions that we laugh off as having been so wrong often have a way of coming true eventually. Throughout this latest edition of MIT Technology Review you’ll find some of our best bets as to what the future may hold. We may not get it exactly right, but we think we’re at least pointing toward where things are headed.

Here’s a selection of some of the most fascinating stories from the magazine:

+ What the future and its emerging technologies hold for those born today, from intelligent digital companions for life, to virtual first dates.

+ What the rare earth metal neodymium shows us about our clean-energy future, and the resources we’ll need to create and maintain it.

+ Delve into the challenges archivists face as they try to preserve information about our current lives for those living far off in the future.

+ Why it’s looking likely that something will be developed in the coming decades that will help us live longer, in better health.

+ Read our investigation into the ways we may all play God in the coming years, thanks to the ability to change our very DNA.

+ How the rise of AI porn could change our expectations of relationships.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary

An AI startup created a hyperrealistic deepfake of MIT Technology Review’s senior AI reporter Melissa Heikkilä that was so believable, even she thought it was really her at first. This technology is impressive, to be sure. But it raises big questions about a world where we increasingly can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast. In partnership with News Over Audio, we’ll be making a selection of our stories available, each one read by a professional voice actor. You’ll be able to listen to them on the go or download them to listen to offline.

We’re publishing a new story each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, including some taken from our most recent print magazine.

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 Hackers from China infiltrated US internet providers to spy on users 
They penetrated multiple providers with millions of customers. (WP $)
+ The group exploited a bug in a California startup to hack the companies. (Bloomberg $)
+ It appears as though they hoped to pivot into other networks on the servers. (TechCrunch)

2 The crypto industry is rallying around Telegram
Enthusiasts have pledged to support its founder following his arrest. (NYT $)
+ Pavel Durov may be held in France until tonight. (FT $)
+ Conservatives are also big fans of the app. (404 Media)
+ Child safety watchdogs say Telegram ignored their warnings about illegal material on its platform. (NBC News)

3 OpenAI is working on a problem-solving AI
To solve math problems it has never encountered before. (The Information $)
+ Google DeepMind’s AI systems can solve these sorts of problems too. (MIT Technology Review)

4 SpaceX has delayed its first private spacewalk mission
It had been scheduled to take off in the early hours of this morning. (BBC)
+ If successful, the mission will go further into space than we’ve been in 50 years. (Vox)

5 Police officers are using AI tools to write crime reports
But what if the chatbots get crucial details wrong? (Associated Press)
+ After all, we know AI has a hallucination problem. (Vice)
+ Why does AI hallucinate? (MIT Technology Review)

6 Homeland security really wants to use face recognition at the border
Authorities have approached private vendors to capture drivers’ faces. (The Intercept)
+ The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Persecuted Venezuelan journalists are using AI avatars
To avoid arrest amid a media crackdown led by the country’s disputed president. (The Guardian)

8 The UK is embracing China’s EVs
In stark contrast to the US and Europe. (Economist $)
+ Europe’s best-selling Chinese EV maker has a surprising name. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Black holes are getting colorful
The team that captured the first image of one has a new color vision frequency to play around with. (Inverse)
+ This is the first image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Mavis Beacon taught millions of people to touch type
Decades after the height of her fame, a documentary attempts to track her down. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“If you don’t upskill, obviously, AI will replace you.”

—Arsenio Balisacan, secretary of the Philippines’ National Economic and Development Authority, has a warning for the country’s workers, Bloomberg reports.

The big story

Inside the hunt for new physics at the world’s largest particle collider

February 2024

In 2012, using data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, researchers discovered a particle called the Higgs boson. In the process, they answered a nagging question: Where do fundamental particles, such as the ones that make up all the protons and neutrons in our bodies, get their mass?

But now, more than a decade later, there is a sense of unease. That’s because there are still so many unanswered questions about the fundamental constituents of the universe. 

So researchers are trying something new. They are repurposing detectors to search for unusual-looking particles, squeezing what they can out of the data with machine learning, and planning for entirely new kinds of colliders. Read the full story.

—Dan Garisto

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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ We all know sleep is important, but did you know just how important?
+ Why we love souvenirs so much—even the tacky ones.
+ The Indigenous Yaghan people have multiple words for the sea.
+ Don’t call it a comeback, Enya never went away.

The Download: simulating solar geoengineering, and AI-enabled accessibility

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.

Andrew Ng’s new model lets you play around with solar geoengineering to see what would happen

AI pioneer Andrew Ng has released a simple online tool that allows anyone to tinker with the dials of a solar geoengineering model, exploring what might happen if nations attempt to counteract climate change by spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere.

The concept of solar geoengineering was born from the realization that the planet has cooled after massive volcanic eruptions. But critics fear that deliberately releasing such materials could harm certain regions of the world, discourage efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, or spark conflicts between nations, among other bad outcomes.

The goal of Ng’s emulator, called Planet Parasol, is to invite more people to think about solar geoengineering, explore the potential trade-offs involved in such interventions, and use the results to discuss and debate our options for climate action. Read the full story.

—James Temple

AI could be a game changer for people with disabilities 

It’s normal, and maybe even wise, to view emerging technologies with skepticism. That’s especially true as most new things are built for the majority of people—which is to say people without disabilities. 

However, there are exceptions to the rule. A prime example is the iPhone, which had a relatively large screen and a touch-based UI. And now, it seems AI could make these kinds of jumps in accessibility even more common across a wider range of technologies. Read the full story. 

—Steven Aquino

This piece is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review, which lands on Wednesday August 28. It’s dedicated to celebrating 125 years of the magazine and promises to be a great read. If you don’t already, subscribe now to get your copy.

Tech that measures our brainwaves is 100 years old. How will we be using it 100 years from now?

It’s 100 years this week since EEG (electroencephalography) was first used to measure electrical activity in a person’s brain. The finding was revolutionary. It helped people understand that epilepsy was a neurological disorder as opposed to a personality trait, for one thing (yes, really).

The fundamentals of EEG have not changed much over the last century—scientists and doctors still put electrodes on people’s heads to try to work out what’s going on inside their brains. But we’ve been able to do a lot more with the information that’s collected, from learning how we think to diagnosing brain and hearing disorders. So what more might we be able to do 100 years from now? Read our story to find out.

—Jessica Hamzelou 

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly newsletter all about the latest in health and biotech. 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 We aren’t ready for the creep of AI into our cameras
Capabilities embedded in the latest Google Pixel handset will further destroy our ability to believe what we see. (The Verge)
+ Is this really the direction we want to go in? (MIT Technology Review)

2 Kamala Harris’ campaign has joined Twitch
In a bid to keep attracting younger voters. (Wired $)
+ Meanwhile, Trump is launching some sort of crypto platform. (CNBC)
+ And people are having a lot of fun remixing JD Vance’s ‘Never Trump’ comment. (NYT $)

3 NASA is set to decide on Starliner’s return tomorrow
There’s a lot at stake, especially for the two astronauts it’s set to ferry back from the ISS. (Ars Technica)

4 Inside the crazy world of Palmer Luckey
Restless, controversial and clever, the tech billionaire is a difficult person to pin down. (Tablet)

5 There’s a new humanoid robot in town
Just one problem though: it doesn’t have legs (yet.) (IEEE Spectrum)
+ A new system lets robots sense human touch without artificial skin. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Can Ford wean America off its addiction to big cars?
It may be crucial to transitioning to electric vehicles, as heavier cars demand so much more of their batteries. (The Atlantic $)
+ Why bigger EVs aren’t always better. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Competition for copper is more intense than ever
Clean energy is pushing up demand, and people are stealing, fighting and even dying to meet it.  (Wired $)

8 Bored? Scrolling on your phone might make it worse
Maybe we should all try to get better at tolerating the discomfort of boredom every now and then. (WP $)
+ A dubious trend for non-traditional pets is taking off on TikTok. (The Guardian)

9 Hydrogel can learn to play Pong 
Researchers now plan to see what else it could do too—maybe even help control robots. (New Scientist $)

10 You can now cross-post from Instagram to Threads
Though watch out: content for one doesn’t always translate well to the other. (TechCrunch)
+ Instagram’s also adding a MySpace-esque ‘song on profile’ feature. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“We chase the approval of strangers on our phones. We build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone.” 

 —Former US President Barack Obama offers his diagnosis of society’s ills to the Democratic National Convention, Politico reports.

The big story

This startup wants to find out if humans can have babies in space

MARIA JESUS CONTRERAS

October 2023

Despite the burgeoning interest in deep space exploration and settlement, we still know very little about what happens to our reproductive biology when we’re in orbit. Scientists have started to speculate on whether in vitro fertilization technology is possible beyond Earth. That’s something SpaceBorn United, a biotech startup, is seeking to pioneer. 

It plans to send a mini lab on a rocket into low Earth orbit, where in vitro fertilization, or IVF, will take place. If it succeeds, the company’s research could pave the way for future space settlements. Read the full story.

—Scott Solomon

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 tweet ’em at me.)

+ Metallica’s gig in Moscow in 1991 was one for the ages. You can watch the whole thing online too!
+ If you’ve been gripped by the need to do some summertime clearing out, here’s how minimalists do it.
+ Please resist taking a photo of your airport tray—you’re holding everyone up.
+ One of the most intense zombie video games has been given a makeover.