The Download: accidental AI relationships, and the future of contraception

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.

It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot

The news: The first large-scale computational analysis of the Reddit community r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, which is dedicated to discussing AI relationships, found that many people formed those relationships unintentionally while using AI for other purposes. In fact, only 6.5% of them said they’d deliberately sought out an AI companion. 

Why it matters: The study found that AI companionship provides vital support for some but exacerbates underlying problems for others. This means it’s hard to take a one-size-fits-all approach to user safety. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

Join us at 1.30pm ET today to learn about the future of birth control 

Conversations around birth control usually focus on women, but Kevin Eisenfrats, one of the MIT Technology Review 2025 Innovators Under 35, is working to change that. His company, Contraline, is working toward testing new birth control options for men. Join us for an exclusive subscribers-only Roundtable interview to hear Kevin in conversation with our executive editor Amy Nordrum at 1.30 ET today. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: What’s next for AI and math

The last year has seen rapid progress in the ability of large language models to tackle math at high school level and beyond. Is AI closing in on human mathematicians? 

This story is the latest to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to listen to all our new episodes as they’re released.

The must-reads

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

1 Secret Service agents dismantled a giant operation to cripple cell networks
They say it’s likely it was intended to be used for scams. (Wired $)

2 Welcome to the new era of fragmented US vaccine policies
The federal government is abdicating responsibility for public health. Who will fill the void? (New Yorker $)
+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

3 European defense leaders are discussing building a ‘drone wall’ 
They’re scrambling to catch up as Russian incursions into their territory increase. (ABC)

4 How will we know if we’ve reached artificial general intelligence?
That’s the multi-billion dollar question—but there’s no clear answer. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Experts don’t even agree on what AI is to begin with, never mind AGI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Robot umpires are coming to baseball’s major leagues next year 
Humans will still be in charge of calling balls and strikes, but tech will help to judge appealed decisions. (AP)

6 AI’s energy needs are being overstated
And that could lock us into unnecessary, costly fossil fuel projects. (The Verge)
+ Four reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy usage. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Extreme drought is set to become a lot more commonplace
Governments need to do a lot more to prepare. (Gizmodo) 

8 AI is coming for subtitle writers’ jobs 
But their work is harder to replace than you might think. (The Guardian)
+ ‘Workslop’ is slowing everything down. (Harvard Business Review)
+ And, to add to the problem, AI systems may never be secure. (The Economist $)

9 How epigenetics could help save wildlife from extinction
It could allow scientists to detect accelerated aging before an animal population starts to visibly collapse. (Knowable)
+ Aging clocks aim to predict how long you’ll live. (MIT Technology Review)

10 TikTok is getting introduced to the concept of the rapture 
Which is due today, according to some. If so, it’s been great knowing you. Good luck! (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Everybody has a backup.”

—Stella Li, executive vice president at BYD, tells CNBC the company has contingency plans in case Beijing orders it to stop using Nvidia chips.

One more thing

GETTY IMAGES

This app is helping workers reclaim millions in lost wages

Reclamo, a new web app, helps immigrant workers who have experienced wage theft. It guides them through assembling case details, and ultimately produces finished legal claims that can be filed instantly. A process that would otherwise take multiple meetings with an attorney can now be done within an hour.

A significant amount of wage theft targets immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in part because of communication barriers and their perceived lack of power or legal recourse. But the app is already making a difference—helping workers to reclaim $1 million in lost wages since it started beta testing in October 2022. Read the full story.

—Patrick Sisson

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.)

+ It’s Fat Bear Week! Who gets your vote this year?
+ Learn about Lord Woodbine, the forgotten sixth Beatle. 
+ There are some truly wild and wacky recipes in this Medieval Cookery collection. Venison porridge, anyone? 
+ Pessimism about technology is as old as technology itself, as this archive shows.

The Download: AI’s retracted papers problem

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 are using material from retracted scientific papers

The news: Some AI chatbots rely on flawed research from retracted scientific papers to answer questions, according to recent studies. In one such study, researchers asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT questions based on information from 21 retracted papers on medical imaging. The chatbot’s answers referenced retracted papers in five cases but advised caution in only three. 

The bigger picture: The findings raise serious questions about how reliable AI tools are at evaluating scientific research, or answering people’s health queries. They could also complicate efforts to invest in AI tools for scientists. And it’s not an easy problem to fix. Read the full story.

—Ananya

Join us at 1pm ET today to meet our Innovator of the Year

Every year, MIT Technology Review awards Innovator of the Year to someone whose work we admire. This year we selected Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method.

Her work could transform medical care by allowing physicians to sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose genetic conditions in less than eight hours.

Register here to join an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation with Goenka, Leilani Battle, assistant professor at the University of Washington, and our editor in chief Mat Honan at 1pm ET today. 

The must-reads

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

1 There’s scant evidence tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism
The biggest cause of autism is genetic—that’s why it often runs in families. (Scientific American $)
+ Anti-vaxxers are furious the White House didn’t link autism to vaccines. (Ars Technica)
+ The company that sells Tylenol is being forced to defend the medicine’s safety. (Axios)

2 Nvidia is investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI
OpenAI is already a major customer, but this will bind the two even more closely together. (Reuters $)
+ America’s top companies keep talking about AI—but they can’t explain its upsides. (FT $)

3 Denmark’s biggest airport was shut down by drones
Its prime minister refused to rule out Russian involvement. (FT $)
+ Poland and Estonia have been speaking up at the UN about Russian incursions into their airspace. (The Guardian)

4 Google is facing another antitrust trial in the US
This one will focus on remedies to its dominance of the advertising tech market. (Ars Technica)
+ The FTC is also taking Amazon to court over accusations the company tricks people into paying for Prime. (NPR)
+ The Supreme Court has ruled to allow Trump’s firing of a Democrat FTC commissioner. (NYT $)

5 Here’s the potential impact of Trump’s H-1B crackdown on tech
It’s likely to push a lot of skilled workers elsewhere. (Rest of World)

6 How TikTok’s deal to stay in the US will work
Oracle will manage its algorithm for US users and oversee security operations. (ABC)
+ It’s a giant prize for Trump’s friend Larry Ellison, Oracle’s cofounder. (NYT $)
+ Trump and his allies are now likely to exert a lot of political influence over TikTok. (WP $)

7 Record labels are escalating their lawsuit against an AI music startup
They claim it knowingly pirated songs from YouTube to train its generative AI models. (The Verge $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review) 

8 There’s a big fight in the US over who pays for weight loss drugs
Although they’ll save insurers money long-term, they cost a lot upfront. (WP $)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How a lone vigilante ended up blowing up 5G towers
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. (Wired $)

10 The moon is rusting 
And it’s our fault. Awkward! (Nature)

Quote of the day

“At the heart of this is people trying to look for simple answers to complex problems.”

—James Cusack, chief executive of an autism charity called Autistica, tells Nature what he thinks is driving Trump and others to incorrectly link the condition with Tylenol use during pregnancy. 

One more thing

SARAH ROGERS / MITTR | PHOTOS GETTY

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 a few key areas of research suggest that we might be able to push human life spans further, and potentially reverse at least 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.)

+ This website lets you send a letter to your future self. 
+ Here’s what Brian Eno has to say about art.
+ This photographer takes stunning pictures of Greenland. 
+ The Hungarian dish Rakott krumpli isn’t going to win any health plaudits, but it looks very comforting all the same.

The Download: the LLM will see you now, and a new fusion power deal

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 medical startup uses LLMs to run appointments and make diagnoses

Patients at a small number of clinics in Southern California run by the medical startup Akido Labs are spending relatively little time, or even no time at all, with their doctors. Instead, they see a medical assistant, who can lend a sympathetic ear but has limited clinical training.

The job of formulating diagnoses and concocting a treatment plan is done by an LLM-based system called ScopeAI that transcribes and analyzes the dialogue between patient and assistant. A doctor then approves, or corrects, the AI system’s recommendations.

According to Akido’s CEO, this approach allows doctors to see four to five times as many patients as they could previously. But experts aren’t convinced that displacing so much of the cognitive work of medicine onto AI is the right way to remedy the doctor shortage. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

An oil and gas giant signed a $1 billion deal with Commonwealth Fusion Systems

Eni, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, just agreed to buy $1 billion in electricity from a power plant being built by Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The deal is the latest to illustrate just how much investment Commonwealth and other fusion companies are courting as they attempt to take fusion power from the lab to the power grid.

The agreement will see Eni purchase electricity from Commonwealth’s first commercial fusion power plant, in Virginia. The facility is still in the planning stages but is scheduled to come online in the early 2030s. 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 Trump officials are expected to link Tylenol to autism
They’re also likely to tout a lesser-known drug called leucovorin as a potential treatment. (WP $)
+ They’ll warn women in the early stages of pregnancy that they should only take Tylenol to treat high fevers. (Politico)
+ But a huge study found no connection last year. (Axios)

2 Trump wants to charge skilled foreign workers $100,000 for H-1B visas
The decision is highly likely to harm US growth, especially in its tech sector. (The Guardian)
+ The visa has been a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of tech workers. (BBC)
+ Indian outsourcing companies are struggling to pivot. (Bloomberg $)
+ Tech firms are sending memos to their workers on the visa. (Insider $)

3 The European Commission wants to ax cookie consent banners
A 2009 law triggered an influx in pesky pop-ups that the EU now wants to get rid of. (Politico)

4 The Murdochs and Michael Dell are among TikTok’s potential buyers
The media mogul family and Dell founder are interested in shares, Trump says. (CNN)

5 Inside China’s plan to put its data centers to work
A mega-cluster of centers is springing up in the city of Wuhu. (FT $)
+ China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Seattle’s tech scene is in trouble
When its biggest firms slash their workforces, where does that leave everyone else? (WSJ $)

7 Innocent people are being scammed into scamming
Chinese gangs are imprisoning trafficking victims in compounds on the Myanmar-Thai border. (Reuters)
+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Europe’s reusable rocket dream isn’t entirely dead
But progress has been a lot slower than it should be. (Ars Technica)
+ Elon Musk’s utter dominance of space tech is hard to overestimate. (Wired $)
+ Europe is finally getting serious about commercial rockets. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How ChatGPT fares as a financial stock picker
Be prepared to roll the dice. (Fast Company $)

10 Silicon Valley is ditching dating apps
And turning to elite matchmakers instead. (The Information $)

Quote of the day

“I didn’t sleep all night. I kept thinking: What if I get stuck outside the US?”

—Akaash Hazarika, a Salesforce engineer, tells Insider he was forced to cut his vacation to Toronto short and rush back to America after the Trump administration announced changes to the H-1B skilled foreign worker visa.

One more thing

The quest to figure out farming on Mars

Once upon a time, water flowed across the surface of Mars. Waves lapped against shorelines, strong winds gusted and howled, and driving rain fell from thick, cloudy skies. It wasn’t really so different from our own planet 4 billion years ago, except for one crucial detail—its size. Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, and that’s where things went wrong.

The Martian core cooled quickly, soon leaving the planet without a magnetic field. This, in turn, left it vulnerable to the solar wind, which swept away much of its atmosphere. Without a critical shield from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, Mars could not retain its heat. Some of the oceans evaporated, and the subsurface absorbed the rest, with only a bit of water left behind and frozen at its poles. If ever a blade of grass grew on Mars, those days are over.

But could they begin again? And what would it take to grow plants to feed future astronauts on Mars? Read the full story.

—David W. Brown

We can still have nice things

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

+  These abandoned blogs are a relic of the bygone internet (bring them back!)
+ How to strengthen your bond with your reluctant cat
+ How Metal Gear Solid inspired the video to one of the greatest hits of the late 90s.
+ If I had to explain British culture to someone, I’d just send them this video.

The Download: the CDC’s vaccine chaos

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

A pivotal meeting on vaccine guidance is underway—and former CDC leaders are alarmed

This week has been an eventful one for America’s public health agency. Two former leaders of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained why they suddenly departed in a Senate hearing. They also described how CDC employees are being instructed to turn their backs on scientific evidence.

They painted a picture of a health agency in turmoil—and at risk of harming the people it is meant to serve. And, just hours afterwards, a panel of CDC advisers voted to stop recommending the MMRV vaccine for children under four. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

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

If you’re interested in reading more about US vaccine policy, check out:

+ Read our profile of Jim O’Neill, the deputy health secretary and current acting CDC director.

+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. Read the full story.

+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. No vaccine is perfect, but these medicines are still saving millions of lives. Read the full story. 

+ The FDA plans to limit access to covid vaccines. Here’s why that’s not all bad.

Meet Sneha Goenka: our 2025 Innovator of the Year

Every year, MIT Technology Review selects one individual whose work we admire to recognize as Innovator of the Year. For 2025, we chose Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method. 

Thanks to her work, physicians can now sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose a genetic condition in less than eight hours—an achievement that could transform medical care.

Register here to join an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation with Goenka, Leilani Battle, assistant professor at the University of Washington, and our editor in chief Mat Honan at 1pm ET next Tuesday September 23.

The must-reads

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

1 The CDC voted against giving some children a combined vaccine 
If accepted, the agency will stop recommending the MMRV vaccine for children under 4. (CNN)
+ Its vote on hepatitis B vaccines for newborns is expected today too. (The Atlantic $)
+ RFK JR’s allies are closing ranks around him. (Politico)

2 Russia is using Charlie Kirk’s murder to sow division in the US
It’s using the momentum to push pro-Kremlin narratives and divide Americans. (WP $)
+ The complicated phenomenon of political violence. (Vox)
+ We don’t know what being ‘terminally online’ means any more. (Wired $)

3 Nvidia will invest $5 billion in Intel
The partnership allows Intel to develop custom CPUs to work with Nvidia’s chips. (WSJ $)
+ It’s a much-needed financial shot in the arm for Intel. (WP $)
+ It’s also great news for Intel’s Asian suppliers. (Bloomberg $)

4 Medical AI tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities
Experts fear that LLM-powered tools could lead to worse health outcomes. (FT $)
+ Artificial intelligence is infiltrating health care. We shouldn’t let it make all the decisions. (MIT Technology Review)

5 AI browsers have hit the mainstream
Where’s the off switch? (Wired $)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China has entered the global brain interface race
Its ambitious government-backed startups are primed to challenge Neuralink. (Bloomberg $)
+ This patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets a boost from generative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 What makes humans unique in the age of AI?
Defining the distinctions between us and machines isn’t as easy as it used to be. (New Yorker $)
+ How AI can help supercharge creativity. (MIT Technology Review)

8 This ship helps to reconnect Africa’s internet
AI needs high speed internet, which needs undersea cables. (Rest of World)
+ What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Hundreds of people queued in Beijing to buy Apple’s new iPhone
Desire for Apple products in the country appears to be alive and well. (Reuters)

10 San Francisco’s idea of a great night out? A robot cage fight
It’s certainly one way to have a good time. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“Get off the iPad!”

—An irate air traffic controller tells the pilots of a Spirit Airlines flight to pay attention to avoid potentially colliding with Donald Trump’s Air Force One aircraft, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

As a philosopher who studies AI and data, Shannon Vallor’s Twitter feed is always filled with the latest tech news. Increasingly, she’s realized that the constant stream of information is no longer inspiring joy, but a sense of resignation.

Joy is missing from our lives, and from our technology. Its absence is feeding a growing unease being voiced by many who work in tech or study it. Fixing it depends on understanding how and why the priorities in our tech ecosystem have changed. Read the full story.

We can still have nice things

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

+ Would you go about your daily business with a soft toy on your shoulder? This intrepid reporter gave it a go.
+ How dying dinosaurs shaped the landscapes around us.
+ I can’t believe I missed Pythagorean Theorem day earlier this week.
+ Inside the rise in popularity of the no-water yard.

The Download: AI-designed viruses, and bad news for the hydrogen industry

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

AI-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria

Artificial intelligence can draw cat pictures and write emails. Now the same technology can compose a working genome.

A research team in California says it used AI to propose new genetic codes for viruses—and managed to get several of them to replicate and kill bacteria.

The work, described in a preprint paper, has the potential to create new treatments and accelerate research into artificially engineered cells. But experts believe it is also an “impressive first step” toward AI-designed life forms. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

Clean hydrogen is facing a big reality check

Hydrogen is sometimes held up as a master key for the energy transition. It can be made using several low-emissions methods and could play a role in cleaning up industries ranging from agriculture to aviation to shipping.

This moment is a complicated one for the green fuel, though, as a new report from the International Energy Agency lays out. A number of major projects face cancellations and delays. The US in particular is seeing a slowdown after changes to key tax credits and cuts in support for renewable energy.

Still, there are bright spots for the industry, including in China, and new markets could soon become crucial for growth. Here are three things to know about the state of hydrogen in 2025.

—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 Meta’s new smart glasses have a tiny screen
Welcome back, Google Glass. (NYT $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg says the devices are our best bet at unlocking “superintelligence.” (FT $)
+ He’s also refusing to let his metaverse dream die. (WP $)
+ What’s next for smart glasses. (MIT Technology Review)

2 DeepSeek writes flawed code for groups China disfavors
Researchers found that it produced code with major security weaknesses when told it was for the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong. (WP $)

3 The CDC is a mess
Its advice can no longer be trusted. Here’s where to turn instead. (The Atlantic $)
+ Its ousted director claims RFK Jr pressured her to approve vaccine changes. (Wired $)
+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Google’s gen-AI image model Nano Banana is a global smash hit
Particularly in India. (TechCrunch)
+ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang really loves it, too. (Wired $)

5 OpenAI has found a way to reduce its models’ scheming
But they weren’t able to eradicate it completely. (ZDNET)
+ AI systems are getting better at tricking us. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Inside Texas’ efforts to keep vector-borne diseases at bay
The Arbovirus-Entomology Laboratory analyzes mosquitos, but resources are drying up. (Vox)
+ Brazil is fighting dengue with bacteria-infected mosquitos. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Financial AI advisors are coming
But companies are still cautious about rolling them out at scale. (WSJ $)
+ Warning: ChatGPT’s advice may not necessarily be financially sound. (NYT $)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)

8 China’s flying car market is raring to take off
Hovering taxis above the city of Guangzhou could soon become commonplace. (FT $)
+ Eek—a pair of flying cars collided during an airshow earlier this week. (CNN)
+ These aircraft could change how we fly. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Samsung’s US fridges will soon display ads
Wow, that’s not depressing at all. (The Verge)

10 Online dating is getting even worse
And AI is to blame. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“How do educators have any real choice here about intentional use of AI when it is just being injected into educational environments without warning, without testing and without consultation?”

—Eamon Costello, an associate professor at Dublin City University, tells the Washington Post why he’s against Google adding a ‘homework help’ button to its Chrome browser.

One more thing

Your boss is watching

Working today—whether in an office, a warehouse, or your car—can mean constant electronic surveillance with little transparency, and potentially with livelihood-­ending consequences if your productivity flags.

But what matters even more than the effects of this ubiquitous monitoring on privacy may be how all that data is shifting the relationships between workers and managers, companies and their workforce. It’s a huge power shift that may require new policies and protections. Read the full story.

—Rebecca Ackermann

We can still have nice things

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

+ Find yourself feeling sleepy every afternoon? Here’s how to fight the post-lunch slump.
+ Life lessons from a London graffiti artist.
+ If you’re in need of a laugh, a good comedy is a great place to start.
+ Yellowstone’s famous hot springs are under attack—from tourists’ hats.

The Download: measuring returns on R&D, and AI’s creative potential

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

How to measure the returns on R&D spending

Given the draconian cuts to US federal funding for science, it’s worth asking some hard-nosed money questions: How much should we be spending on R&D? How much value do we get out of such investments, anyway? 

To answer that, in several recent papers, economists have approached this issue in clever new ways.  And, though they ask slightly different questions, their conclusions share a bottom line: R&D is, in fact, one of the better long-term investments that the government can make. Read the full story.

—David Rotman

This article is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.

If you’re interested in reading more about America’s economic situation, check out:

+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound—and they could stunt its ability to make tomorrow’s breakthroughs. Read the full story.

+ The surprising barrier that keeps us from building the housing we need. Read the full story.

+ How to fine-tune AI for prosperity.

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

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How AI can help supercharge creativity

Forget one-click creativity. Artists and musicians are finding new ways to make art using AI, by injecting friction, challenge, and serendipity into the process.

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 TikTok’s buyers may include Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz 
They would control around 80% of the business, with Chinese shareholders holding the rest. (WSJ $)
+ We still have plenty of unanswered questions about the deal. (Bloomberg $)
+ It was brokered in Madrid. (The Guardian)

2 OpenAI is working on a version of ChatGPT for teenagers
And it’ll use age-prediction tech to bar them from the standard version. (Axios)
+ The move comes as the US Senate is hearing evidence about chatbot harms. (404 Media)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

3 China has banned tech firms from buying Nvidia’s chips
In an effort to boost its own companies. (FT $)
+ Alibaba and ByteDance have been instructed to terminate orders. (Bloomberg $)

4 Anthropic refuses to let US law enforcement use its models
Much to the White House’s chagrin. (Semafor)

5 Tesla’s doors may trap passengers inside its cars
Vehicle safety regulators are investigating after people reported being forced to break windows to retrieve children. (NYT $)  

6 How AI companies train their models to do white-collar jobs  
After hitting a wall, they’re throwing money at the problem. (The Information $)
+ New training ‘environments’ are a hot AI topic right now.  (TechCrunch)
+ How AI is shaking up corporate hierarchies. (WSJ $)

7 Inside Damascus’ bid to become a tech hub
The city’s tech industry has been embraced by its new government. (Rest of World)

8 A supply shipment to the ISS has been delayed
NASA is blaming engine trouble. (Ars Technica)
+ The great commercial takeover of low Earth orbit. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Our darkest nights are getting lighter
Artificial light is ruining our chances of seeing starry skies. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Bright LEDs could spell the end of dark skies. (MIT Technology Review)

10 You can now book a safari through Uber
Expedition into Nairobi National Park, anyone? (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“What began as a homework helper gradually turned itself into a confidant and then a suicide coach.”

—Matthew Raine, whose 16-year old son Adam died by suicide after repeatedly sharing his intentions with ChatGPT, gives evidence to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating chatbot dangers, the Washington Post reports.

One more thing

AI is coming for music, too

While large language models that generate text have exploded in the last three years, a different type of AI, based on what are called diffusion models, is having an unprecedented impact on creative domains.

By transforming random noise into coherent patterns, diffusion models can generate new images, videos, or speech, guided by text prompts or other input data. The best ones can create outputs indistinguishable from the work of people

Now these models are marching into a creative field that is arguably more vulnerable to disruption than any other: music. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

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.)

+ Food, in all shapes and forms, is bigger than ever. So why aren’t we watching cooking shows any more?
+ Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love turns 40 this year, but still sounds as fresh as ever.
+ Here’s how to maximize your chances of booking a bargain flight.
+ Robert Redford, you were one of a kind.

The Download: regulators are coming for AI companions, and meet our Innovator of 2025

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 looming crackdown on AI companionship

As long as there has been AI, there have been people sounding alarms about what it might do to us: rogue superintelligence, mass unemployment, or environmental ruin. But another threat entirely—that of kids forming unhealthy bonds with AI—is pulling AI safety out of the academic fringe and into regulators’ crosshairs.

This has been bubbling for a while. Two high-profile lawsuits filed in the last year, against Character.AI and OpenAI, allege that their models contributed to the suicides of two teenagers. A study published in July, found that 72% of teenagers have used AI for companionship. And stories about “AI psychosis” have highlighted how endless conversations with chatbots can lead people down delusional spirals.

It’s hard to overstate the impact of these stories. To the public, they are proof that AI is not merely imperfect, but harmful. If you doubted that this outrage would be taken seriously by regulators and companies, three things happened this week that might change your mind.

—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.

If you’re interested in reading more about AI companionship, why not check out:

+ AI companions are the final stage of digital addiction—and lawmakers are taking aim. Read the full story.

+ Chatbots are rapidly changing how we connect to each other—and ourselves. We’re never going back. Read the full story.

+ Why GPT-4o’s sudden shutdown last month left people grieving. Read the full story.

+ An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company doesn’t want to “censor” it.

+ OpenAI has released its first research into how using ChatGPT affects people’s emotional well-being. But there’s still a lot we don’t know.

Meet the designer of the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method

Every year, MIT Technology Review selects one individual whose work we admire to recognize as Innovator of the Year. For 2025, we chose Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method. Thanks to her work, physicians can now sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose a genetic condition in less than eight hours—an achievement that could transform medical care.

Register here to join an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation with Goenka, Leilani Battle, assistant professor at the University of Washington, and our editor in chief Mat Honan at 1pm ET on Tuesday September 23.

The must-reads

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

1 Childhood vaccination rates are falling across the US
Much of the country no longer has the means to stop the spread of deadly disease. (NBC News)
+ Take a look at the factors driving vaccine hesitancy. (WP $)
+ RFK Jr is appointing more vaccine skeptics to the CDC advisory panel. (Ars Technica)
+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The US and China have reached a TikTok deal 
Beijing says the spin-off version sold to US investors will still use ByteDance’s algorithm. (FT $)
+ But further details are still pretty scarce. (WP $)
+ The deal may have been fueled by China’s desire for Trump to visit the country. (WSJ $)

3 OpenAI is releasing a version of GPT-5 optimized for agentic coding
It’s a direct rival to Anthropic’s Claude Code and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. (TechCrunch)
+ OpenAI says it’s been trained on real-world engineering tasks. (VentureBeat)
+ The second wave of AI coding is here. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The FTC is investigating Ticketmaster’s bot-fighting measures 
It’s probing whether the platform is doing enough to prevent illegal automated reselling. (Bloomberg $)

5 Google has created a new privacy-preserving LLM
VaultGemma uses a technique called differential privacy to reduce the amount of data AI holds onto. (Ars Technica)

6 Space tech firms are fighting it out for NATO contracts
Militaries are willing to branch out and strike deals with commercial vendors. (FT $)
+ Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Facebook users are receiving their Cambridge Analytica payouts
Don’t spend it all at once! (The Verge)

8 The future of supercomputing could hinge on moon mining missions
Companies are rushing to buy the moon’s resources before mining has even begun. (WP $)

9 What it’s like living with an AI toy
Featuring unsettling conversations galore. (The Guardian)

10 Anthropic’s staff are obsessed with an albino alligator
As luck would have it, he just happens to be called Claude. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“It’s going to mean more infections, more hospitalizations, more disability and more death.”

—Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, explains the probable outcomes of America’s current vaccine policy jumble, the BBC reports.

One more thing

Robots are bringing new life to extinct species

In the last few years, paleontologists have developed a new trick for turning back time and studying prehistoric animals: building experimental robotic models of them.

In the absence of a living specimen, scientists say, an ambling, flying, swimming, or slithering automaton is the next best thing for studying the behavior of extinct organisms. Here are four examples of robots that are shedding light on creatures of yore.

—Shi En Kim

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.)

+ New York City is full of natural life, if you know where to look.
+ This photo of Jim Morrison enjoying a beer for breakfast is the epitome of rock ‘n’ roll.
+ How to age like a champion athlete.
+ Would you dare drive the world’s most narrow car?

The Download: computing’s bright young minds, and cleaning up satellite streaks

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 tomorrow’s rising stars of computing

Each year, MIT Technology Review honors 35 outstanding people under the age of 35 who are driving scientific progress and solving tough problems in their fields.

Today we want to introduce you to the computing innovators on the list who are coming up with new AI chips and specialized datasets—along with smart ideas about how to assess advanced systems for safety.

Check out the full list of honorees—including our innovator of the year—here. 

Job titles of the future: Satellite streak astronomer

Earlier this year, the $800 million Vera Rubin Observatory commenced its decade-long quest to create an extremely detailed time-lapse movie of the universe.

Rubin is capable of capturing many more stars than any other astronomical observatory ever built; it also sees many more satellites. Up to 40% of images captured by the observatory within its first 10 years of operation will be marred by their sunlight-reflecting streaks.

Meredith Rawls, a research scientist at the telescope’s flagship observation project, Vera Rubin’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, is one of the experts tasked with protecting Rubin’s science mission from the satellite blight. Read the full story.

—Tereza Pultarova

This story is from our new print edition, which is all about the future of security. Subscribe here to catch future copies when they land.

The must-reads

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

1 China has accused Nvidia of violating anti-monopoly laws
As US and Chinese officials head into a second day of tariff negotiations. (Bloomberg $)
+ The investigation dug into Nvidia’s 2020 acquisition of computing firm Mellanox. (CNBC)
+ But China’s antitrust regulator hasn’t confirmed if it will punish it. (WSJ $)

2 The US is getting closer to making a TikTok deal
But it’s still prepared to go ahead with a ban if an agreement can’t be reached. (Reuters)

3 Grok spread misinformation about a far-right rally in London
It falsely claimed that police misrepresented old footage as being from the protest. (The Guardian)
+ Elon Musk called for a new UK government during a video speech. (Politico)

4 Here’s what people are really using ChatGPT for
Users are more likely to use it for personal, rather than work-related queries. (WP $)
+ Anthropic says businesses are using AI to automate, not collaborate. (Bloomberg $)
+ Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered. (MIT Technology Review)

5 How China’s Hangzhou became a global AI hub
Spawning not just Alibaba, but DeepSeek too. (WSJ $)
+ China and the US are completely dominating the global AI race. (Rest of World)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Driverless car fleets could plunge US cities into traffic chaos
Are we really prepared? (Vox $)

7 The shipping industry is harnessing AI to fight cargo fires
The risk of deadly fires is rising due to shipments of batteries and other flammable goods. (FT $)

8 Sales of used EVs are sky-rocketing
Buyers are snapping up previously-owned bargains. (NYT $)
+ EV owners won’t be able to drive in carpool lanes any more. (Wired $)

9 A table-top fusion reactor isn’t as crazy as it sounds
This startup is trying to make compact reactors a reality. (Economist $)
+ Inside a fusion energy facility. (MIT Technology Review)

10 How a magnetic field could help clean up space
If we don’t, we could soon lose access to Earth’s low orbit altogether. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ The world’s next big environmental problem could come from space. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“If we’re going on a journey, they’re absolutely taking travel sickness tablets immediately. They’re not even considering coming in the car without them.”

—Phil Bellamy, an electric car owner, describes the extreme nausea his daughters experience while riding in his vehicle to the Guardian.

One more thing

Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech’s climate claims

Last year, Amazon trumpeted that it had purchased enough clean electricity to cover the energy demands of all its global operations, seven years ahead of its sustainability target.

That news closely followed Google’s acknowledgment that the soaring energy demands of its AI operations helped ratchet up its corporate emissions by 13% last year—and that it had backed away from claims that it was already carbon neutral.

If you were to take the announcements at face value, you’d be forgiven for believing that Google is stumbling while Amazon is speeding ahead in the race to clean up climate pollution.

But while both companies are coming up short in their own ways, Google’s approach to driving down greenhouse-gas emissions is now arguably more defensible. To learn why, read our 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 skeet ’em at me.)

+ Steven Spielberg was just 26 when he made Jaws? The more you know.
+ This tiny car’s huge racing track journey is completely hypnotic.
+ Easy dinner recipes? Yes please.
+ This archive of thousands of historical children’s books is a real treasure trove—and completely free to read.

The Download: America’s gun crisis, and how AI video models work

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.

We can’t “make American children healthy again” without tackling the gun crisis

This week, the Trump administration released a strategy for improving the health and well-being of American children. The report was titled—you guessed it—Make Our Children Healthy Again. It suggests American children should be eating more healthily. And they should be getting more exercise.

But there’s a glaring omission. The leading cause of death for American children and teenagers isn’t ultraprocessed food or exposure to some chemical. It’s gun violence. 

This week’s news of yet more high-profile shootings at schools in the US throws this disconnect into even sharper relief. Experts believe it is time to treat gun violence in the US as what it is: a public health crisis. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

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

How do AI models generate videos?

It’s been a big year for video generation. In the last nine months OpenAI made Sora public, Google DeepMind launched Veo 3, and the video startup Runway launched Gen-4. All can produce video clips that are (almost) impossible to distinguish from actual filmed footage or CGI animation.

The downside is that creators are competing with AI slop, and social media feeds are filling up with faked news footage. Video generation also uses up a huge amount of energy, many times more than text or image generation.

With AI-generated videos everywhere, let’s take a moment to talk about the tech that makes them work. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

This article is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here.

Meet our 2025 Innovator of the Year: Sneha Goenka

Up to a quarter of children entering intensive care have undiagnosed genetic conditions. To be treated properly, they must first get diagnoses—which means having their genomes sequenced. This process typically takes up to seven weeks. Sadly, that’s often too slow to save a critically ill child.

Hospitals may soon have a faster option, thanks to a groundbreaking system built in part by Sneha Goenka, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton—and MIT Technology Review’s 2025 Innovator of the Year. Read all about Goenka and her work in this profile.

—Helen Thomson

As well as our Innovator of the Year, Goenka is one of the biotech honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2025. Meet the rest of our biotech and materials science innovators, and the full list here. 

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI and Microsoft have agreed a revised deal
But haven’t actually revealed any details of said deal. (Axios)
+ The news comes as OpenAI keeps pursuing its for-profit pivot. (Ars Technica)
+ The world’s largest startup is going to need more paying users soon. (WSJ $)

2 A child has died from a measles complication in Los Angeles
They had contracted the virus before they were old enough to be vaccinated. (Ars Technica)
+ Infants are best protected by community immunity. (LA Times $)
+ They’d originally recovered from measles before developing the condition. (CNN)
+ Why childhood vaccines are a public health success story. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Ukrainian drone attacks triggered internet blackouts in Russia
The Kremlin cut internet access in a bid to thwart the mobile-guided drones. (FT $)
+ The UK is poised to mass-produce drones to aid Ukraine. (Sky News)
+ On the ground in Ukraine’s largest Starlink repair shop. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Demis Hasabis says AI may slash drug discovery time to under a year
Or perhaps even faster. (Bloomberg $)
+ But there’s good reason to be skeptical of that claim. (FT $)
+ An AI-driven “factory of drugs” claims to have hit a big milestone. (MIT Technology Review)

5 How chatbots alter how we think
We shouldn’t outsource our critical thinking to them. (Undark)
+ AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Fraudsters are threatening small businesses with one-star reviews
Online reviews can make or break fledgling enterprises, and scammers know it. (NYT $)

7 Why humanoid robots aren’t taking off any time soon
The industry has a major hype problem. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Chinese tech giant Ant Group showed off its own humanoid machine. (The Verge)
+ Why the humanoid workforce is running late. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster are suing Perplexity
In yet another case of alleged copyright infringement. (Reuters)
+ What comes next for AI copyright lawsuits? (MIT Technology Review)

9 Where we’re most likely to find extraterrestrial life in the next decade
Warning: Hollywood may have given us unrealistic expectations. (BBC)

10 Want to build a trillion-dollar company?
Then kiss your social life goodbye. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“Nooooo I’m going to have to use my brain again and write 100% of my code like a caveman from December 2024.”

—A Hacker News commenter jokes about a service outage that left Anthropic users unable to access its AI coding tools, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

What Africa needs to do to become a major AI player

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

However, ambitious efforts to develop AI tools that answer the needs of Africans face numerous hurdles. Read our story to learn what they are, and how they could be overcome.

—Abdullahi Tsanni

We can still have nice things

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

+ The fascinating, unexpected origins of everyone’s favorite pastime—karaoke.
+ Why the Twilight juggernaut just refuses to die.
+ If you’re among the mass of excited Hollow Knight fans, here’s a few tips to get through the early stages of the new Silksong game.
+ A sloe gin bramble pie sounds like the perfect way to welcome fall.

The Download: Trump’s impact on science, and meet our climate and energy honorees

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

How Trump’s policies are affecting early-career scientists—in their own words

Every year MIT Technology Review celebrates accomplished young scientists, entrepreneurs, and inventors from around the world in our Innovators Under 35 list. We’ve just published the 2025 edition. This year, though, the context is different: The US scientific community is under attack.

Since Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has fired top government scientists, targeted universities and academia, and made substantial funding cuts to the country’s science and technology infrastructure.

We asked our six most recent cohorts about both positive and negative impacts of the administration’s new policies. Their responses provide a glimpse into the complexities of building labs, companies, and careers in today’s political climate. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo & Amy Nordrum

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s “America Undone” series, examining how the foundations of US success in science and innovation are currently under threat. You can read the rest here.

This Ethiopian entrepreneur is reinventing ammonia production

In the small town in Ethiopia where he grew up, Iwnetim Abate’s family had electricity, but it was unreliable. So, for several days each week when they were without power, Abate would finish his homework by candlelight.

Growing up without the access to electricity that many people take for granted shaped the way Abate thinks about energy issues. Today, the 32-year old is an assistant professor at MIT in the department of materials science and engineering. 

Part of his research focuses on sodium-ion batteries, which could be cheaper than the lithium-based ones that typically power electric vehicles and grid installations. He’s also pursuing a new research path, examining how to harness the heat and pressure under the Earth’s surface to make ammonia, a chemical used in fertilizer and as a green fuel. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

Abate is one of the climate and energy honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2025. Meet the rest of our climate and energy innovators here, and the full list—including our innovator of the year—here. 

Texas banned lab-grown meat. What’s next for the industry?

Last week, a legal battle over lab-grown meat kicked off in Texas. On September 1, a two-year ban on the technology went into effect across the state; the following day, two companies filed a lawsuit against state officials.

The two companies, Wildtype Foods and Upside Foods, are part of a growing industry that aims to bring new types of food to people’s plates. These products, often called cultivated meat by the industry, take live animal cells and grow them in the lab to make food products without the need to slaughter animals.

Texas joins six other US states and the country of Italy in banning these products—adding barriers to an industry that’s still in its infancy, and already faces plenty of challenges before it can reach consumers in a meaningful way. 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 Videos of Charlie Kirk’s shooting are everywhere on social media
It demonstrates just how poorly equipped platforms are to stop the spread of violent material. (NYT $)
+ Why social media can’t get on top of its graphic video problem. (NY Mag $)
+ Here’s how platforms say they’ll treat the videos. (The Verge)
+ Far-right communities reacted to Kirk’s murder by calling for more violence. (Wired $)

2 NASA has uncovered the clearest sign of life on Mars to date
Some unusual rocks may have been formed by ancient microbes. (WP $)
+ Scientists are very excited by the possibility they were created by living organisms. (New Scientist $)

3 A California bill to regulate AI companion chatbots is close to passing
It would become the first US state to make chatbot operators legally accountable. (TechCrunch)
+ Wall Street is only now starting to worry about “AI psychosis.” (Insider $)
+ AI companions are the final stage of digital addiction, and lawmakers are taking aim. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Larry Ellison briefly overtook Elon Musk as the world’s richest person
His firm Oracle reported far better-than expected results. (The Guardian)
+ Oracle is riding high on a surge of demand for its data centers. (BBC)
+ But its continued success will depend on its ability to deliver promised hardware. (FT $)

5 The ousted CDC director is set to testify before the US Senate
RFK Jr repeatedly called Susan Monarez a liar during a hearing last week. (Ars Technica)
+ The backlash to Kennedy’s actions is intensifying. (NY Mag $)

6 A new system can pinpoint the best spot to hit an asteroid
Making destroying them a whole lot safer, in theory. (New Scientist $)
+ Meet the researchers testing the “Armageddon” approach to asteroid defense. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Saudi Arabia is building some of the world’s biggest solar farms
It needs plenty more electricity for its new resorts and data centers. (WSJ $)
+ AI is changing the grid. Could it help more than it harms? (MIT Technology Review)

8 CRISPR could help to combat diabetes
Scientists successfully implanted insulin-producing edited cells into a man’s pancreas. (Wired $)
+ A US court just put ownership of CRISPR back in play. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How to save oyster reefs
Conservation projects are helping to rebuild destroyed populations. (Knowable Magazine)
+ How the humble sea creature could hold the key to restoring coastal waters. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Bluesky is not as fun as it should be
It fosters a culture of reactionary scolding that’s driving some users back to X. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“For the love of God and Charlie’s family, just stop.”

—A poster on X begs fellow social media users to stop sharing images and videos of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder online, the Associated Press reports.

One more thing

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. 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

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.)

+ They’ve finally done it—the Stephen King novel they claimed was impossible to adapt is coming to the big screen.
+ Do you have more zucchinis than you know what to do with? This tasty bread is one solution.
+ How The Penguin’s production designers transformed NYC into spooky, dirty Gotham.
+ This fascinating website shows you what today’s date looks like on dozens of different calendars and clocks.