The Download: AI agents’ autonomy, and sodium-based batteries

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

Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys?

In recent months, a new class of agents has arrived on the scene: ones built using large language models. Any action that can be captured by text—from playing a video game using written commands to running a social media account—is potentially within the purview of this type of system.

LLM agents don’t have much of a track record yet, but to hear CEOs tell it, they will transform the economy—and soon. Despite that, like chatbot LLMs, agents can be chaotic and unpredictable. Here’s what could happen as we try to integrate them into everything.

—Grace Huckins

This story is from the next print edition of MIT Technology Review, which explores power—who has it, and who wants it. It’s set to go live on Wednesday June 25, so subscribe & save 25% to read it and get a copy of the issue when it lands!

These new batteries are finding a niche

Lithium-ion batteries have some emerging competition: Sodium-based alternatives.

Sodium is more abundant on Earth than lithium, and batteries that use the material could be cheaper in the future. Building a new battery chemistry is difficult, mostly because lithium is so entrenched. But, as I’ve noted before, this new technology has some advantages in nooks and crannies.

I’ve been following sodium-ion batteries for a few years, and we’re starting to see the chemistry make progress. Let’s talk about what’s new for sodium batteries, and what it’ll take for them to really break out.

—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 Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney
The movie companies allege that its software “blatantly” copies their characters. (NYT $)
+ They argue its tools facilitate personalized AI slop of their IP. (Hollywood Reporter $)
+ Midjourney’s forthcoming video generator is a particular point of concern. (The Verge)

2 Microsoft is reportedly preparing an AI tool for the Pentagon
It’s working on a version of Copilot for more than one million licenses. (Insider $)
+ The Pentagon is gutting the team that tests AI and weapons systems. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The US is rolling back emissions standards for power plants
Even though power stations are its second-largest source of CO2 emissions. (Wired $)
+ It’s the Trump administration’s biggest reversal of green policies yet. (FT $)
+ The repeals could affect public health across the nation. (CNN)
+ Interest in nuclear power is surging. Is it enough to build new reactors? (MIT Technology Review)

4 A new kind of AI bot is scraping the web
Retrieval bots crawl websites for up-to-date information to supplement AI models. (WP $)

5 Nvidia’s new AI model simulates the world’s climate
Researchers may be able to predict weather conditions decades into the future. (WSJ $)
+ AI is changing how we predict the weather. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China is demanding sensitive information to secure rare earths
Companies fear their trade secrets could end up exposed. (FT $)
+ This rare earth metal shows us the future of our planet’s resources. (MIT Technology Review)

7 What Vietnam stands to lose in Trump’s trade war
The country, which has transformed into an industrial hub, is waiting for the 46% tariffs to hit. (Bloomberg $)

8 AI is helping pharmacists to process prescriptions in the remote Amazon
Its success could lead to wider adoption in under-resourced countries. (Rest of World)

9 How to save an age-damaged oil painting
With a bit of AI-aided wizardry. (The Guardian)
+ This artist collaborates with AI and robots. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Gen Z is enchanted by the BlackBerry
QWERTY keyboards never truly die, apparently. (Fast Company $)

Quote of the day

“Cancel your Chinese New Year holiday. Everybody stay in the company. Sleep in the office.”

—Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s chairman, recalls how the company’s engineering leads worked through the Lunar New Year holiday in January to play catch up with rival DeepSeek, Bloomberg reports

One more thing

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

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.)

+ Brian Wilson was a visionary who changed popular music forever. He will be dearly missed.
+ Roman-era fast food was something else.
+ This fossil skull of Nigersaurus was one of the first dinosaur skulls to be digitally reconstructed from CT scans.
+ Parker Posey, you will always be cool.

The Download: Amsterdam’s welfare AI experiment, and making humanoid robots safer

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.

Inside Amsterdam’s high-stakes experiment to create fair welfare AI

Amsterdam thought it was on the right track. City officials in the welfare department believed they could build technology that would prevent fraud while protecting citizens’ rights. They followed these emerging best practices and invested a vast amount of time and money in a project that eventually processed live welfare applications. But in their pilot, they found that the system they’d developed was still not fair and effective. Why?

Lighthouse Reports, MIT Technology Review, and the Dutch newspaper Trouw have gained unprecedented access to the system to try to find out. Read about what we discovered.

—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun

This story is a partnership between MIT Technology Review, Lighthouse Reports, and Trouw, and was supported by the Pulitzer Center. 

+ Can you make AI fairer than a judge? Play our courtroom algorithm game to find out.

Why humanoid robots need their own safety rules

While humanoid robots are taking their first tentative steps into industrial applications, the ultimate goal is to have them operating in close quarters with humans.

One reason for making robots human-shaped in the first place is so they can more easily navigate the environments we’ve designed around ourselves. This means they will need to be able to share space with people, not just stay behind protective barriers. But first, they need to be safe. Read the full story.

—Victoria Turk

MIT Technology Review Narrated: The surprising barrier that keeps us from building the housing we need

Sure, there’s too much red tape, but there is another reason building anything is so expensive: the construction industry’s “awful” productivity.

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 Chatbots are getting facts about the LA riots wrong
AI systems can’t be relied upon at the best of times, let alone with fast-moving news. (Wired $)
+ What’s Trump’s goal here, exactly? (NY Mag $)

2 Gavin Newsom is becoming a meme
The California governor’s Trump clapbacks are winning him a legion of online fans. (WP $)
+ He’s accused the President of “pulling a military dragnet” across the city. (The Guardian)
+ Newsom has warned that other states are likely to be next. (Politico)

3 Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill could lead to more than 51,000 deaths a year
Due to the bill’s provisions for public health insurance. (Undark)

4 How Ukraine’s AI-guided drones hit Russia’s airfields
But its opponent is also stepping up its AI capabilities. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)

5 US agencies tracked foreign nationals travelling to Elon Musk
Officials kept an eye on who visited him in 2022 and 2023. (WSJ $)

6 Snap’s new AR smart glasses will go on sale next year
Its sixth generation of Specs will enter an increasingly crowded field. (CNBC)
+ Qualcomm has made a new processor to power similar glasses. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s next for smart glasses. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Each ChatGPT query uses ‘roughly one fifteenth of a teaspoon’ of water
That’s according to Sam Altman, at least. (The Verge)
+ We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Death Valley’s air could be a valuable water source
Scientists proved their hydrogel method worked in the real world. (New Scientist $)

9 Gen Z is choosing to skip college entirely
Increasing numbers of young tech workers are opting out and entering the workforce early. (Insider $)

10 How to fight back against a world of AI-generated choices
Good taste is your friend here. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“We’re probably going to have flying taxis before we have autonomous ones in London.”

—Steve McNamara, the general secretary of the UK’s Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, isn’t optimistic about London’s plans to trial autonomous cars, he tells the Guardian.

One more thing

Exosomes are touted as a trendy cure-all. We don’t know if they work.

There’s a trendy new cure-all in town—you might have seen ads pop up on social media or read rave reviews in beauty magazines.

Exosomes are being touted as a miraculous treatment for hair loss, aging skin, acne, eczema, pain conditions, long covid, and even neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. That’s, of course, if you can afford the price tag—which can stretch to thousands of dollars.

But there’s a big problem with these big promises: We don’t fully understand how exosomes work—or what they even really are. Read our story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

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

+ Here’s how to tap into your flow state and get things DONE.
+ Check out these must-see art shows and exhibitions of the year.
+ Everybody’s free (to listen to one of the best hits of the 90s)
+ Turns out 10CC frontman Graham Gouldman doesn’t just like cricket—he’s just watched his first ever game and he really does love it

The Download: IBM’s quantum computer, and cuts to military AI testing

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.

IBM aims to build the world’s first large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer by 2028

The news: IBM announced detailed plans today to build an error-corrected quantum computer with significantly more computational capability than existing machines by 2028. It hopes to make the computer available to users via the cloud by 2029.

What is it? The proposed machine, named Starling, will consist of a network of modules, each of which contains a set of chips, housed within a new data center in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Why it matters: IBM claims Starling will be a leap forward in quantum computing. In particular, the company aims for it to be the first large-scale machine to implement error correction. If Starling achieves this, IBM will have solved arguably the biggest technical hurdle facing the industry today. Read the full story.

—Sophia Chen

The Pentagon is gutting the team that tests AI and weapons systems

The Trump administration’s chainsaw approach to federal spending lives on, even as Elon Musk turns on the president. 

As part of a string of moves, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has cut the size of the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation in half. The group was established in the 1980s after criticisms that the Pentagon was fielding weapons and systems that didn’t perform as safely or effectively as advertised. Hegseth is reducing the agency’s staff to about 45, down from 94, and firing and replacing its director. 

It is a significant overhaul of a department that in 40 years has never before been placed so squarely on the chopping block. Here’s how defense tech companies stand to gain (and the rest of us may stand to lose).

—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 Conspiracy theories are spreading about the LA protests
Misleading photos and videos are circulating on social media. (NYT $)
+ Donald Trump has vowed to send 700 Marines to the city. (The Guardian)
+ Waymo has paused its service in downtown LA after its vehicles were set alight. (LA Times $)

2 RFK Jr has fired an entire CDC panel of vaccine experts
The anti-vaccine advocate accused them of conflicts of interest. (Ars Technica)
+ He claims that their replacements will “exercise independent judgment.” (WSJ $)
+ RFK Jr is interested in using a toxic bleach solution to treat ailments. (Wired $)
+ How measuring vaccine hesitancy could help health professionals tackle it. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A new covid variant is spreading across Europe and the US
While it’s considered low risk, ‘Nimbus’ appears to be more infectious. (Wired $)

4 White House security cautioned against installing Starlink internet
But Elon Musk’s team ignored them and fitted the service in the complex anyway. (WP $)
+ Trump isn’t planning on getting rid of it, though. (Bloomberg $)

5 Developers are underwhelmed by Apple’s AI efforts
Its WWDC announcements haven’t been met with much enthusiasm. (WSJ $)
+ The company is opening up its AI models to developers for the first time. (FT $)
+ Where’s the overhauled, AI-powered Siri we were promised? (TechCrunch)

6 Meta is assembling a new AI research lab
Researchers will be tasked with beating its rivals to achieve superintelligence. (Bloomberg $)
+ There’s no doubt that Meta is feeling the heat right now. (The Information $)

7 Vulnerable minors are increasingly becoming radicalized online
The sad case of Rhianan Rudd illustrates the ease of access to extremist material. (FT $)

8 Our nerves may play a central role in how cancer spreads
Researchers believe they may help tumors to grow. (New Scientist $)
+ Why it’s so hard to use AI to diagnose cancer. (MIT Technology Review)

9 An end is in sight for the video game actors’ strike
Major labels have reached a tentative deal with the SAG-AFTRA. (Variety $)
+ How Meta and AI companies recruited striking actors to train AI. (MIT Technology Review)

10 The UK is planning a robotaxi trial next next
Many years behind other countries. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“At the end of the day, what they need to do is deliver on what they presented a year ago.”

—Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research, tells Reuters where Apple went wrong with its lacklustre WWDC announcements.

One more thing

The great AI consciousness conundrum

AI consciousness isn’t just a devilishly tricky intellectual puzzle; it’s a morally weighty problem with potentially dire consequences that philosophers, cognitive scientists, and engineers alike are currently grappling with.

Fail to identify a conscious AI, and you might unintentionally subjugate a being whose interests ought to matter. Mistake an unconscious AI for a conscious one, and you risk compromising human safety and happiness for the sake of an unthinking, unfeeling hunk of silicon and code.

Over the past few decades, a small research community has doggedly attacked the question of what consciousness is and how it works. The effort has yielded real progress. And now, with the rapid advance of AI technology, these insights could offer our only guide to the untested, morally fraught waters of artificial consciousness. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

We can still have nice things

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

+ Rest in power Sly Stone, truly one of the funky greats.
+ Did you know there’s an Olympics for scaffolding? Well, you do now.
+ Just one man is responsible for some of the greatest film artwork of all time—Drew Struzan.
+ That’s one dramatic pizza maker.

The Download: funding a CRISPR embryo startup, and bad news for clean cement

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.

Crypto billionaire Brian Armstrong is ready to invest in CRISPR baby tech

Brian Armstrong, the billionaire CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, says he’s ready to fund a US startup focused on gene-editing human embryos. If he goes forward, it would be the first major commercial investment in one of medicine’s most fraught ideas.

In a post on X June 2, Armstrong announced he was looking for gene-editing scientists and bioinformatics specialists to form a founding team for an “embryo editing” effort targeting an unmet medical need, such as a genetic disease.

The announcement from a deep-pocketed backer is a striking shift for a field considered taboo following the 2018 birth of the world’s first genetically edited children in China—a secretive experiment that led to international outrage and prison time for the lead scientist. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

Over $1 billion in federal funding got slashed for this polluting industry

The clean cement industry might be facing the end of the road, before it ever really got rolling. 

Last week, the US Department of Energy announced that it was canceling $3.7 billion in funding for 24 projects related to energy and industry. That included nearly $1.3 billion for cement-related projects.

Cement is a massive climate problem, accounting for roughly 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. What’s more, it’s a difficult industry to clean up, with huge traditional players and expensive equipment and infrastructure to replace. This funding was supposed to help address those difficulties, by supporting projects on the cusp of commercialization. Now companies will need to fill in the gap left by these cancellations, and it’s a big one. 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.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How DeepSeek became a fortune teller for China’s youth

AI-powered BaZi analysis has become the new oracle for a disillusioned generation seeking answers.

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 Reddit is suing Anthropic 
Reddit claims the AI company kept accessing its site after claiming it had stopped. (WSJ $)
+ Reddit says AI companies should not scrape the web without limitations. (NYT $)
+ It claims that other AI giants have played by its rules. (NBC News)

2 Inside the rise and rise of deepfake scams
The best way to protect yourself is to back up and think who (or what) you’re trusting. (Wired $)
+ An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A lawsuit accuses DOGE of exploiting “error-riden” data to fire workers
It claims the department knew its records were inaccurate, but used them to fire 10,000 employees anyway.(Ars Technica)
+ Unlike Elon Musk, Russ Vought knows the federal government inside out. (NY Mag $)
+ The first wave of DOGE staffers are becoming full-time government workers. (Wired $)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Can we make AI behave how we want it to?
Looking all the way back to Asimov’s Laws can offer us some clues. (New Yorker $)

5 Abuse is rife in Taiwan’s semiconductor factories
Workers were threatened with deportation and regular 16-hour shifts. (Rest of World)
+ The Trump administration is renegotiating chip grants, apparently. (Reuters)

6 Amazon wants to use humanoid robots to deliver packages
It’s planning to test its bipedal machines’ ability to tackle an obstacle course.(The Information $)
+ Why the humanoid workforce is running late. (MIT Technology Review)

7 We don’t know how to archive the digital age properly
Historians worry that they may lose access to intimate materials. (The Atlantic $)
+ The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Here’s how major AI helpers tackled a rigorous reading test
Bearing in mind, they all still hallucinated. (WP $)

9 Christians really love AI slop
A major Christian media company is using new tools to spread the word. (404 Media)
+ AI-generated garbage will make ads creepier and worse. (Bloomberg $)
+ It’s also warping media metrics beyond recognition. (Digiday)

10 What we can learn from potty-mouthed robots
A lot of people swear. Why shouldn’t robots, too? (IEEE Spectrum)

Quote of the day

“Anthropic bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry. It is anything but.” 

—Reddit takes aim at Anthropic in a legal filing against the AI company, the Verge reports.

One more thing

Maybe you will be able to live past 122

How long can humans live? This is a good time to ask the question. The longevity scene is having a moment, and research suggests that we might be able to push human life spans further, potentially even reversing some signs of aging.

Researchers can’t even agree on what the exact mechanisms of aging are and which they should be targeting. Debates continue to rage over how long it’s possible for humans to live—and whether there is a limit at all.

But it looks likely that something will be developed in the coming decades that will help us live longer, in better health. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

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

+ There’s something so uplifting about this user-generated collection of videos of parks. 
+ I could get on board with living in a cabin in the woods if it was this one. 
+ You should probably let go of that grudge you’re holding onto. 
+ Looking for some seasonal recipe inspo? Look no further.

The Download: AI’s role in math, and calculating its energy footprint

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.

What’s next for AI and math

The modern world is built on mathematics. Math lets us model complex systems such as the way air flows around an aircraft, the way financial markets fluctuate, and the way blood flows through the heart. Mathematicians have used computers for decades, but the new vision is that AI might help them crack problems that were previously uncrackable.  

However, there’s a huge difference between AI that can solve the kinds of problems set in high school—math that the latest generation of models has already mastered—and AI that could (in theory) solve the kinds of problems that professional mathematicians spend careers chipping away at. Here are three ways to understand that gulf. 

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

Inside the effort to tally AI’s energy appetite

—James O’Donnell

After working on it for months, my colleague Casey Crownhart and I finally saw our story on AI’s energy and emissions burden go live last week. 

The initial goal sounded simple: Calculate how much energy is used when we interact with a chatbot, then tally that up to understand why leaders in tech and politics are so keen to harness unprecedented levels of electricity to power AI and reshape our energy grids in the process.

It was, of course, not so simple. After speaking with dozens of researchers, we realized that the common understanding of AI’s energy appetite is full of holes. I encourage you to read the full story, which has some incredible graphics to help you understand this topic. But here are three takeaways I have after the project.

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get it in your inbox first, sign up here, and check out the rest of our Power Hungry package about AI here.

The must-reads

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

1 Elon Musk has turned on Trump 
He called Trump’s domestic policy agenda a “disgusting abomination.” (NYT $)
+ House Speaker Mike Johnson has, naturally, hit back. (Insider $)

2 NASA is in crisis
Its budget has been cut by a quarter, and now its new leader has had his nomination revoked. (New Scientist $)
+ What’s next for NASA’s giant moon rocket? (MIT Technology Review)

3 Here’s how Big Tech plans to wield AI
To build ‘everything apps’ that keep you inside their ecosystem, forever. (The Atlantic $)
+ The trouble is, the experience isn’t always slick enough, as Google has discovered with its ‘Ask Photos’ feature. (The Verge $)
+ How to fight your instinct to blindly trust AI. (WP $)

4 Meta has signed a 20-year deal to buy nuclear power 
It’s the latest in a race to try to keep up with AI’s surging energy demands. (ABC)
+ Can nuclear power really fuel the rise of AI? (MIT Technology Review) 

5 Extreme heat takes a huge toll on people’s mental health
It’s yet another issue we’re failing to prepare for, as summers get hotter and hotter. (Scientific American $)
+ The quest to protect farmworkers from extreme heat. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China’s robotaxi companies are planning to expand in the Middle East 
And they’re getting a warmer welcome than in the US or Europe. (WSJ $)
+ China’s EV giants are also betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)

7 AI will supercharge hackers
The full impact of new AI techniques is yet to be felt, but experts say it’s only a matter of time. (Wired $)
+ Five ways criminals are using AI. (MIT Technology Review)

8 It’s an exciting time to be working on Alzheimer’s treatments 
12 of them are moving to the final phase of clinical trials this year. (The Economist $)
+ The innovation that gets an Alzheimer’s drug through the blood-brain barrier. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Workers are being subjected to more and more surveillance
Not just in the gig economy either—’bossware’ is increasingly appearing in offices too. (Rest of World)

10 Noughties nostalgia is rife on TikTok
It was a pretty fun decade, to be fair. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

 “This is scientific heaven. Or it used to be.”

—Tom Rapoport, a 77-year-old Harvard Medical School professor from Germany, expresses his sadness about Trump’s cuts to US science funding to the New York Times. 

One more thing

OLCF

What’s next for the world’s fastest supercomputers

When the Frontier supercomputer came online in 2022, 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.

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 skeet ’em at me.)

+ If tracking tube trains in London is your thing, you’ll love this live map.
+ Take a truly bonkers trip down memory lane, courtesy of these FBI artifacts.
+ Netflix’s Frankenstein looks pretty intense.
+ Why landlines are so darn spooky

The Download: reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy use, and Caiwei Chen’s three things

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.

Four reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy usage

Two weeks ago, we launched Power Hungry, a new series shining a light on the energy demands and carbon costs of the artificial intelligence revolution.

It raised some worrying issues, not least the incredible energy demands of AI video generation. But there are also reasons to be hopeful: innovations that could improve the efficiency of the software behind AI models, the computer chips those models run on, and the data centers where those chips hum around the clock.

Here’s what you need to know about how energy use, and therefore carbon emissions, could be cut across all three of those domains, plus an added argument for cautious optimism: the underlying business realities may ultimately bend toward more energy-efficient AI. Read the full story and check out the rest of the package here.

—Will Douglas Heaven

3 Things Caiwei Chen is into right now

In each issue of our print magazine, we ask a member of staff to tell us about three things they’re loving at the moment. For our latest edition, which was all about creativity, we asked our China reporter Caiwei Chen to give us an insight into her life. Check out her recommendations here, and subscribe to catch future editions here.

The must-reads

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

1 DOGE’s efforts are slowing down federal agencies
Even though the taskforce was assembled under the guise of doing the exact opposite. (WP $)
+ The Trump administration wants to slash the federal workforce even further. (AP News)
+ Right wing politicians in the UK are trying to ape DOGE. (The Guardian)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

2 AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio wants to build ‘honest’ AI
His new non-profit will develop a system to catch deceptive agents. (The Guardian)
+ Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The FDA is launching an agency-wide AI tool
It’s designed to help scientific reviewers and others to streamline their work. (Axios)
+ Restoring “gold standard science” is easier said than done. (Ars Technica)

4 A Neuralink rival has successfully inserted a brain implant into a patient
It’s a first step towards longer trials for startup Paradromics. (Wired $)
+ What to expect from Neuralink in 2025. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The FTC is investigating US advertising and advocacy groups 
It’s probing whether they violated antitrust law by coordinating boycotts. (NYT $)

6 How Alibaba AI models leapfrogged Meta’s
After initial struggles, Alibaba is now the world’s open-source leader. (The Information $)

7 AI is shaking up how your home maintenance services operate
From plumbers and electricians to roofers and heating specialists. (WSJ $)

8 Why it’s so difficult to track down critical minerals
They’re vital for clean energy, and demand for them is surging.(Vox)
+ The race to produce rare earth elements. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Tinder is testing out a height filter
Which doesn’t seem very fair on the world’s short kings. (Mashable)

10 Animal cloning is big business
Some people will go to great lengths to keep their pets alive. (The Atlantic $)
+ Game of clones: Colossal’s new wolves are cute, but are they dire? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“If we build AIs that are smarter than us and are not aligned with us and compete with us, then we’re basically cooked.”

—Yoshua Bengio, an academic regarded as one of the godfathers of AI, warns about the dangers of putting AI progress before safety, the Financial Times reports.

One more thing

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

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, a company now owned by Amazon. They were then sent to Scale AI, a startup that contracts workers around the world to label data used to train artificial intelligence.

In 2022, 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 skeet ’em at me.)

+ How cool are Latvia’s passports?
+ Not only are seals incredibly smart, they’re a dab hand (flipper?) at video games
+ A slice of New Jersey crumb cake and a cup of tea, please.
+ Happy world bicycle day to all who celebrate!

The Download: US climate studies are being shut down, and building cities from lava

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 Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies

The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change, according to an MIT Technology Review analysis of a database that tracks such cuts.

The move will cut off what’s likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars for studies that were previously approved and, in most cases, already in the works. Many believe the administration’s broader motivation is to undermine the power of the university system and prevent research findings that cut against its politics. Read the full story.

—James Temple

This architect wants to build cities out of lava

Arnhildur Pálmadóttir is an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it.

Pálmadóttir believes the lava that flows from a single eruption could yield enough building material to lay the foundations of an entire city. She has been researching this possibility for more than five years as part of a project she calls Lavaforming. Together with her son and colleague Arnar Skarphéðinsson, she has identified three potential techniques that could change how future homes are designed and built from repurposed lava. Read the full story.

—Elissaveta M. Brandon

This story is from the most recent edition of our print magazine, which is all about how technology is changing creativity. Subscribe now to read it and to receive future print copies once they land.

The must-reads

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

1 America is failing to win the tech race against China
In fields as diverse as drones and energy. (WSJ $)
+ Humanoid robots is an area of particular interest. (Bloomberg $)
+ China has accused the US of violating the pair’s trade truce. (FT $)

2 Who is really in charge of DOGE?
According to a fired staffer, it wasn’t Elon Musk. (Wired $)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital data
It’s the first time citizens will be able to monetize their digital footprint. (Rest of World)

4 The Trump administration’s anti-vaccine stance is stoking fear among scientists
It’s slashing funding for mRNA trials, and experts are afraid to speak out. (The Atlantic $)
+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Tech companies want us to spend longer talking to chatbots
Those conversations can easily veer into dangerous territory. (WP $)
+ How we use AI in the future is up to us. (New Yorker $)
+ This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Tiktok’s mental health videos are rife with misinformation
A lot of the advice is useless at best, and harmful at worst. (The Guardian)

7 Lawyers are hooked on ChatGPT
Even though it’s inherently unreliable. (The Verge)
+ Yet another lawyer has been found referencing nonexistent citations. (The Guardian)
+ How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How chefs are using generative AI
They’re starting to experiment with using it to create innovative new dishes. (NYT $)
+ Watch this robot cook shrimp and clean autonomously. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The influencer suing her rival has dropped her lawsuit
The legal fight over ownership of a basic aesthetic has come to an end. (NBC News)

10 Roblox’s new game has sparked a digital fruit underground market
And players are already spending millions of dollars every week. (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“We can’t substitute complex thinking with machines. AI can’t replace our curiosity, creativity or emotional intelligence.”

—Mateusz Demski, a journalist in Poland, tells the Guardian about how his radio station employer laid him off, only to later launch shows fronted by AI-generated presenters.

One more thing

​​Adventures in the genetic time machine

An ancient-DNA revolution is turning the high-speed equipment used to study the DNA of living things on to specimens from the past.

The technology is being used to create genetic maps of saber-toothed cats, cave bears, and thousands of ancient humans, including Vikings, Polynesian navigators, and numerous Neanderthals. The total number of ancient humans studied is more than 10,000 and rising fast.

The old genes have already revealed remarkable stories of human migrations around the globe.

But researchers are hoping ancient DNA will be more than a telescope on the past—they hope it will have concrete practical use in the present. Read the full story. 

—Antonio Regalado

We can still have nice things

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

+ The ancient Persians managed to keep cool using an innovative breeze-catching technique that could still be useful today.
+ Knowledge is power—here’s a helpful list of hoaxes to be aware of.
+ How said it: Homer Simpson or Pete Hegseth?
+ I had no idea London has so many cat statues.

The Download: sycophantic LLMs, and the AI Hype Index

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

This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us

Back in April, OpenAI announced it was rolling back an update to its GPT-4o model that made ChatGPT’s responses to user queries too sycophantic.

An AI model that acts in an overly agreeable and flattering way is more than just annoying. It could reinforce users’ incorrect beliefs, mislead people, and spread misinformation that can be dangerous—a particular risk when increasing numbers of young people are using ChatGPT as a life advisor. And because sycophancy is difficult to detect, it can go unnoticed until a model or update has already been deployed.

A new benchmark called Elephant that measures the sycophantic tendencies of major AI models could help companies avoid these issues in the future. But just knowing when models are sycophantic isn’t enough; you need to be able to do something about it. And that’s trickier. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

The AI Hype Index

Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you need to know about the state of the industry. Take a look at this month’s edition of the index here.

The must-reads

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

1 Anduril is partnering with Meta to build an advanced weapons system
EagleEye’s VR headsets will enhance soldiers’ hearing and vision. (WSJ $)
+ Palmer Luckey wants to turn “warfighters into technomancers.” (TechCrunch)
+ Luckey and Mark Zuckerberg have buried the hatchet, then. (Insider $)
+ Palmer Luckey on the Pentagon’s future of mixed reality. (MIT Technology Review)

2 A new Texas law requires app stores to verify users’ ages
It’s following in Utah’s footsteps, which passed a similar bill in March. (NYT $)
+ Apple has pushed back on the law. (CNN)

3 What happens to DOGE now?
It has lost its leader and a top lieutenant within the space of a week. (WSJ $)
+ Musk’s departure raises questions over how much power it will wield without him. (The Guardian)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

4 NASA’s ambitions of a 2027 moon landing are looking less likely
It needs SpaceX’s Starship, which keeps blowing up. (WP $)
+ Is there a viable alternative? (New Scientist $)

5 Students are using AI to generate nude images of each other
It’s a grave and growing problem that no one has a solution for. (404 Media)

6 Google AI Overviews doesn’t know what year it is
A year after its introduction, the feature is still making obvious mistakes. (Wired $)
+ Google’s new AI-powered search isn’t fit to handle even basic queries. (NYT $)
+ The company is pushing AI into everything. Will it pay off? (Vox)
+ Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Hugging Face has created two humanoid robots
The machines are open source, meaning anyone can build software for them. (TechCrunch)

8 A popular vibe coding app has a major security flaw
Despite being notified about it months ago. (Semafor)
+ Any AI coding program catering to amateurs faces the same issue. (The Information $)
+ What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)

9 AI-generated videos are becoming way more realistic
But not when it comes to depicting gymnastics. (Ars Technica)

10 This electronic tattoo measures your stress levels
Consider it a mood ring for your face. (IEEE Spectrum)

Quote of the day

“I think finally we are seeing Apple being dragged into the child safety arena kicking and screaming.”

—Sarah Gardner, CEO of child safety collective Heat Initiative, tells the Washington Post why Texas’ new app store law could signal a turning point for Apple.

One more thing

House-flipping algorithms are coming to your neighborhood

When Michael Maxson found his dream home in Nevada, it was not owned by a person but by a tech company, Zillow. When he went to take a look at the property, however, he discovered it damaged by a huge water leak. Despite offering to handle the costly repairs himself, Maxson discovered that the house had already been sold to another family, at the same price he had offered.

During this time, Zillow lost more than $420 million in three months of erratic house buying and unprofitable sales, leading analysts to question whether the entire tech-driven model is really viable. For the rest of us, a bigger question remains: Does the arrival of Silicon Valley tech point to a better future for housing or an industry disruption to fear? 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.)

+ A 100-mile real-time ultramarathon video game that lasts anywhere up to 27 hours is about as fun as it sounds.
+ Here’s how edible glitter could help save the humble water vole from extinction.
+ Cleaning massive statues is not for the faint-hearted ($)
+ When is a flute teacher not a flautist? When he’s a whistleblower.

The Download: the next anti-drone weapon, and powering AI’s growth

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

This giant microwave may change the future of war

Imagine: China deploys hundreds of thousands of autonomous drones in the air, on the sea, and under the water—all armed with explosive warheads or small missiles. These machines descend in a swarm toward military installations on Taiwan and nearby US bases, and over the course of a few hours, a single robotic blitzkrieg overwhelms the US Pacific force before it can even begin to fight back.

The proliferation of cheap drones means just about any group with the wherewithal to assemble and launch a swarm could wreak havoc, no expensive jets or massive missile installations required.

The US armed forces are now hunting for a solution—and they want it fast. Every branch of the service and a host of defense tech startups are testing out new weapons that promise to disable drones en masse. 

And one of these is microwaves: high-powered electronic devices that push out kilowatts of power to zap the circuits of a drone as if it were the tinfoil you forgot to take off your leftovers when you heated them up. Read the full story.

—Sam Dean

This article is part of the Big Story series: MIT Technology Review’s most important, ambitious reporting that takes a deep look at the technologies that are coming next and what they will mean for us and the world we live in. Check out the rest of them here.

What will power AI’s growth?

Last week we published Power Hungry, a series that takes a hard look at the expected energy demands of AI. Last week in this newsletter, I broke down its centerpiece, an analysis I did with my colleague James O’Donnell.

But this week, I want to talk about another story that I also wrote for that package, which focused on nuclear energy. As I discovered, building new nuclear plants isn’t so simple or so fast. And as my colleague David Rotman lays out in his story, the AI boom could wind up relying on another energy source: fossil fuels. So what’s going to power AI? 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 Elon Musk is leaving his role in the Trump administration 
To focus on rebuilding the damaged brand reputations of Tesla and SpaceX. (Axios)
+ Musk has complained that DOGE has become a government scapegoat. (WP $)
+ Tesla shareholders have asked its board to lay out a succession plan. (CNN)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The US will start revoking the visas of Chinese students
Including those studying in what the US government deems “critical fields.” (Politico)
+ It’s also ordered US chip software suppliers to stop selling to China. (FT $)

3 The US is storing the DNA of migrant children
It’s been uploaded into a criminal database to track them as they age. (Wired $)
+ The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age. (MIT Technology Review)

4 RFK Jr is threatening to ban federal scientists from top journals
Instead, they may be forced to publish in state-run alternatives. (The Hill)
+ He accused major medical journals of being funded by Big Pharma. (Stat)

5 India and Pakistan are locked in disinformation warfare
False reports and doctored images are circulating online. (The Guardian)
+ Fact checkers are working around the clock to debunk fake news. (Reuters)

6 How North Korea is infiltrating remote jobs in the US
With the help of regular Americans. (WSJ $)

7 This Discord community is creating its own hair-growth drugs
Men are going to extreme lengths to reverse their hair loss. (404 Media)

8 Inside YouTube’s quest to dominate your living room
It wants to move away from controversial clips and into prestige TV. (Bloomberg $)

9 Sergey Brin threatens AI models with physical violence
The Google co-founder insists that it produces better results. (The Register)

10 It must be nice to be a moving day influencer
They reap all of the benefits, with none of the stress. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“I studied in the US because I loved what America is about: it’s open, inclusive and diverse. Now my students and I feel slapped in the face by Trump’s policy.”

—Cathy Tu, a Chinese AI researcher, tells the Washington Post why many of her students are already applying to universities outside the US after the Trump administration announced a crackdown on visas for Chinese students.

One more thing

The second wave of AI coding is here

Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right now—what they’re really fired up about—and many will tell you: coding.

Everyone from established AI giants to buzzy startups is promising to take coding assistants to the next level. Instead of providing developers with a kind of supercharged autocomplete, this next generation can prototype, test, and debug code for you. The upshot is that developers could essentially turn into managers, who may spend more time reviewing and correcting code written by a model than writing it from scratch themselves.

But there’s more. Many of the people building generative coding assistants think that they could be a fast track to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical superhuman technology that a number of top firms claim to have in their sights. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

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

+ If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a piece of cinematic history, more than 400 of David Lynch’s personal items are going up for auction.
+ How accurate are those Hollywood films based on true stories? Let’s find out.
+ Rest in peace Chicago Mike: the legendary hype man to Kool & the Gang.
+ How to fully trust in one another.

The Download: the story of OpenAI, and making magnesium

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.

OpenAI: The power and the pride

OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT 3.5 set in motion an AI arms race that has changed the world.

How that turns out for humanity is something we are still reckoning with and may be for quite some time. But a pair of recent books both attempt to get their arms around it.

In Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao tells the story of the company’s rise to power and its far-reaching impact all over the world. Meanwhile, The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future, by the Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey, homes in more on Altman’s personal life, from his childhood through the present day, in order to tell the story of OpenAI. 

Both paint complex pictures and show Altman in particular as a brilliantly effective yet deeply flawed creature of Silicon Valley—someone capable of always getting what he wants, but often by manipulating others. Read the full review.

—Mat Honan

This startup wants to make more climate-friendly metal in the US

The news: A California-based company called Magrathea just turned on a new electrolyzer that can make magnesium metal from seawater. The technology has the potential to produce the material, which is used in vehicles and defense applications, with net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions.

Why it matters: Today, China dominates production of magnesium, and the most common method generates a lot of the emissions that cause climate change. If Magrathea can scale up its process, it could help provide an alternative source of the metal and clean up industries that rely on it, including automotive manufacturing. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

A new sodium metal fuel cell could help clean up transportation

A new type of fuel cell that runs on sodium metal could one day help clean up sectors where it’s difficult to replace fossil fuels, like rail, regional aviation, and short-distance shipping. The device represents a departure from technologies like lithium-based batteries and is more similar conceptually to hydrogen fuel cell systems.
 
The sodium-air fuel cell has a higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries and doesn’t require the super-cold temperatures or high pressures that hydrogen does, making it potentially more practical for transport. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

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

1 The US state department is considering vetting foreign students’ social media
After ordering US embassies to suspend international students’ visa appointments. (Politico)
+ Applicants’ posts, shares and comments could be assessed. (The Guardian)
+ The Trump administration also wants to cut off Harvard’s funding. (NYT $)

2 SpaceX’s rocket exploded during its test flight 
It’s the third consecutive explosion the company has suffered this year. (CNBC)
+ It was the first significant attempt to reuse Starship hardware. (Space)
+ Elon Musk is fairly confident the problem with the engine bay has been resolved. (Ars Technica)

3 The age of AI layoffs is here
And it’s taking place in conference rooms, not on factory floors. (Quartz)
+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Thousands of IVF embryos in Gaza were destroyed by Israeli strikes
An attack destroyed the fertility clinic where they were housed. (BBC)
+ Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos. (MIT Technology Review)

5 China’s overall greenhouse gas emissions have fallen for the first time
Even as energy demand has risen. (Vox)
+ China’s complicated role in climate change. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The sun is damaging Starlink’s satellites
Its eruptions are reducing the satellite’s lifespans. (New Scientist $)
+ Apple’s satellite connectivity dreams are being thwarted by Musk. (The Information $)

7 European companies are struggling to do business in China
Even the ones that have operated there for decades. (NYT $)
+ The country’s economic slowdown is making things tough. (Bloomberg $)

8 US hospitals are embracing helpful robots
They’re delivering medications and supplies so nurses don’t have to. (FT $)
+ Will we ever trust robots? (MIT Technology Review)

9 Meet the people who write the text messages on your favorite show
They try to make messages as realistic, and intriguing, as possible. (The Guardian)

10 Robot dogs are delivering parcels in Austin
Well, over 100 yard distances at least. (TechCrunch)

Quote of the day

“I wouldn’t say there’s hope. I wouldn’t bet on that.”

—Michael Roll, a partner at law firm Roll & Harris, explains to Wired why businesses shouldn’t get their hopes up over obtaining refunds for Donald Trump’s tariff price hikes.

One more thing

Is the digital dollar dead?

In 2020, digital currencies were one of the hottest topics in town. China was well on its way to launching its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC, and many other countries launched CBDC research projects, including the US.

How things change. The digital dollar—even though it doesn’t exist—has now become political red meat, as some politicians label it a dystopian tool for surveillance. So is the dream of the digital dollar dead? Read the full story.

—Mike Orcutt

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.)

+ Recently returned from vacation? Here’s how to cope with coming back to reality.
+ Reconnecting with friends is one of life’s great joys.
+ A new Parisian cocktail bar has done away with ice entirely in a bid to be more sustainable.
+ Why being bored is good for you—no, really.