The Download: AI benchmarks, and Spain’s grid blackout

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 build a better AI benchmark

It’s not easy being one of Silicon Valley’s favorite benchmarks. 

SWE-Bench (pronounced “swee bench”) launched in November 2024 as a way to evaluate an AI model’s coding skill. It has since quickly become one of the most popular tests in AI. A SWE-Bench score has become a mainstay of major model releases from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google—and outside of foundation models, the fine-tuners at AI firms are in constant competition to see who can rise above the pack.

Despite all the fervor, this isn’t exactly a truthful assessment of which model is “better.” Entrants have begun to game the system—which is pushing many others to wonder whether there’s a better way to actually measure AI achievement. Read the full story.

—Russell Brandom

Did solar power cause Spain’s blackout?

At roughly midday on Monday, April 28, the lights went out in Spain. The grid blackout, which extended into parts of Portugal and France, affected tens of millions of people—flights were grounded, cell networks went down, and businesses closed for the day.

Over a week later, officials still aren’t entirely sure what happened, but some have suggested that renewables may have played a role, because just before the outage happened, wind and solar accounted for about 70% of electricity generation. Others, including Spanish government officials, insist that it’s too early to assign blame.

It’ll take weeks to get the full report, but we do know a few things about what happened. Here are a few takeaways that could help our future grid. 

—Casey Crownhart

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

The must-reads

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

1 The Trump administration will repeal some global chip curbs 
It’s drawing up new rules that prioritize direct negotiations with various nations. (Bloomberg $)
+ The curbs have always been leaky anyway. (Economist $)

2 India and Pakistan have accused each other of overnight drone attacks
The conflict between the two countries is rapidly escalating. (The Guardian)
+ Pakistan claims to have shot down 25 drones in its airspace. (Reuters)
+ Mass-market military drones have changed the way wars are fought. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The FDA is interested in using AI for drug evaluation
And has met with OpenAI to hear more about how to do it. (Wired $)
+ An AI-driven “factory of drugs” claims to have hit a big milestone. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The US is pushing nations facing its tariffs to adopt Starlink
Government officials in India and other countries have fast tracked approvals. (WP $)
+ India recently announced new rules for satellite internet providers. (Rest of World)

5 Apple is overhauling its Safari browser to focus on AI search
Its search volume is down for the first time in 22 years. (The Verge)
+ Apple exec Eddy Cue thinks AI search will replace traditional search engines. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Mark Zuckerberg is betting big on AI chatbots
He’s on a media charm offensive to convince us that AI friends are the future. (WSJ $)
+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Students can’t wean themselves off ChatGPT
And experts fear that they’ll emerge into the workforce essentially illiterate. (NY Mag $)
+ Some educators believe that AI highlights how the ways we teach need to change. (MIT Technology Review)

8 We don’t really know how memory works
But these researchers are doing their best to find out. (Quanta Magazine)

9 The vast majority of the sea depths are still unexplored
What lies beneath is a mystery. (New Scientist $)
+ Meet the divers trying to figure out how deep humans can go. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Pet psychics are taking over TikTok
But does your furry friend have anything to say?(NYT $)
+ Humans are still better than AI at futuregazing—for now. (Vox)
+ How DeepSeek became a fortune teller for China’s youth. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“It’s like living in hell.”

—Elizabeth Martorana, a Virginia resident, describes what it’s like to live in a development zone for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google data centers, Semafor reports.

One more thing

How Antarctica’s history of isolation is ending—thanks to Starlink

“This is one of the least visited places on planet Earth and I got to open the door,” Matty Jordan, a construction specialist at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica, wrote in the caption to the video he posted to Instagram and TikTok in October 2023.

In the video, he guides viewers through the hut, pointing out where the men of Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 expedition lived and worked.

The video has racked up millions of views from all over the world. It’s also kind of a miracle: until very recently, those who lived and worked on Antarctic bases had no hope of communicating so readily with the outside world.

That’s starting to change, thanks to Starlink, the satellite constellation developed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to service the world with high-speed broadband internet. Read the full story.

—Allegra Rosenberg

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.)

+ Does Boston still drink? Not in the same way it used to.
+ Where in the US you should set up camp to stargaze right now.
+ Wow: this New Zealand snail lays eggs from its neck.
+ Jurassic World Rebirth is coming: and it looks suitably bonkers.

The Download: AI headphone translation, and the link between microbes and our behavior

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

A new AI translation system for headphones clones multiple voices simultaneously

What’s new: Imagine going for dinner with a group of friends who switch in and out of different languages you don’t speak, but still being able to understand what they’re saying. This scenario is the inspiration for a new AI headphone system that translates the speech of multiple speakers simultaneously, in real time.

How it works: The system tracks the direction and vocal characteristics of each speaker, helping the person wearing the headphones to identify who is saying what in a group setting. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

Your gut microbes might encourage criminal behavior

A few years ago, a Belgian man in his 30s drove into a lamppost. Twice. Local authorities found that his blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit. Over the space of a few years, the man was apprehended for drunk driving three times. And on all three occasions, he insisted he hadn’t been drinking.

He was telling the truth. A doctor later diagnosed auto-brewery syndrome—a rare condition in which the body makes its own alcohol. Microbes living inside the man’s body were fermenting the carbohydrates in his diet to create ethanol. Last year, he was acquitted of drunk driving.

His case, along with several other scientific studies, raises a fascinating question for microbiology, neuroscience, and the law: How much of our behavior can we blame on our microbes? 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.

The must-reads

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

1 How the Gates Foundation will end
Bill Gates will wind it down in 2045, after distributing most of his remaining fortune. (NYT $)
+ He estimates he’ll give away $200 billion in the next 20 years. (Semafor)
+ The foundation is shuttering several decades earlier than he expected. (BBC)

2 US Customs and Border Protection will no longer protect pregnant women
It’s rolled back policies designed to protect vulnerable people, including infants. (Wired $)
+ The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age. (MIT Technology Review)

3 DOGE is readying software to turbo-charge mass layoffs
After some 260,000 government workers have already been let go. (Reuters)
+ DOGE’s math doesn’t add up. (The Atlantic $)
+ One of its biggest inspirations is no fan of the program. (WP $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Scientists are using AI to predict cancer survival outcomes
In some cases, it’s outperforming clinicians’ forecasts. (FT $)
+ Why it’s so hard to use AI to diagnose cancer. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Apple is reportedly working on new chips for its smart glasses
But we’ll have to wait a few more years. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s next for smart glasses. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Silicon Valley has a vision for the future of warfare
Military technologies are no longer solely the preserve of governments. (Bloomberg $)
+ Palmer Luckey on the Pentagon’s future of mixed reality. (MIT Technology Review)

7 AI companies don’t want regulation any more
Just a few short years after they claimed regulation was the best way of making AI safe. (WP $)

8 Forget SEO, GEO is where it’s at these days
Marketers are scrambling to adopt best Generative Engine Optimization practices now that AI is upending how we search the web. (WSJ $)
+ Your most important customer may be AI. (MIT Technology Review)

9 AI-generated recruiters are making job hunting even worse
Avatars can glitch out and stumble over their words. (404 Media)

10 A Soviet-era spacecraft is reentering Earth’s atmosphere
More than 50 years after it misfired on a journey to Venus. (Ars Technica)
+ The world’s next big environmental problem could come from space. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”

—Bill Gates lashes out at Elon Musk’s cuts to USAID in an interview with the Financial Times.

One more thing

The great commercial takeover of low Earth orbit

NASA designed the International Space Station to fly for 20 years. It has lasted six years longer than that, though it is showing its age, and NASA is currently studying how to safely destroy the space laboratory by around 2030.

The ISS never really became what some had hoped: a launching point for an expanding human presence in the solar system. But it did enable fundamental research on materials and medicine, and it helped us start to understand how space affects the human body.

To build on that work, NASA has partnered with private companies to develop new, commercial space stations for research, manufacturing, and tourism. If they are successful, these companies will bring about a new era of space exploration: private rockets flying to private destinations. They’re already planning to do it around the moon. One day, Mars could follow. 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.)

+ It’s almost pasta salad time!
+ Who is the better fictional archaeologist: Indiana Jones or Lara Croft?
+ How a good night’s sleep could help to give you a long-lasting memory boost.
+ How millennials became deeply uncool (allegedly)

The Download: Neuralink’s AI boost, and Trump’s tariffs

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 patient’s Neuralink brain implant gets a boost from generative AI

Last November, Bradford G. Smith got a brain implant from Elon Musk’s company Neuralink. The device, a set of thin wires attached to a miniscule computer that sits in his skull, lets him use his thoughts to move a computer pointer on a screen. And by last week he was ready to reveal it in a post on X.

Smith’s case is drawing interest because he’s not only communicating via a brain implant but also getting help from Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot. The generative AI is speeding up the rate at which he can communicate, but it also raises questions about who is really talking—him or Musk’s software. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How Trump’s tariffs could drive up the cost of batteries, EVs, and more

The Trump administration’s hostile trade plans threaten to slow the shift to cleaner industries, boost inflation, and stall the economy.

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 NSO Group has been ordered to pay Meta $167 million
After the Israeli firm’s spyware was used to hack journalists, activists, and politicians. (NYT $)
+ The firm has been implicated in abusive surveillance before. (Reuters)

2 OpenAI plans to reduce the fraction of its revenue Microsoft receives
It told investors it plans to slash the shared revenue from 20% to 10%. (The Information $)
+ Its for-profit U-turn is not yet a done deal. (Bloomberg $)+ We still don’t know a lot about OpenAI’s structure. (Economist $)

3 The Trump administration is axing the Energy Star program
The project certifies the energy efficiency of home appliances in the US. (WP $)

4 The US Justice Department wants Google to sell its ad businesses
But Google claims it’s not technically feasible. (WSJ $)
+ The judge says he’ll rule on the remedies by August. (The Information $)

5 Grok AI is undressing women on X
That’s what happens when you create AI models without proper guardrails. (404 Media)
+ Text-to-image AI models can be tricked into generating nude images. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Private investors are prepared to plow billions into Europe’s defense industry
They’re stepping up to fill gaps that governments can’t fund. (FT $)
+ The US is likely to strike a weapons deal in Riyadh next week. (Semafor)
+ Phase two of military AI has arrived. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Can anyone stop Starlink?
The speed of its total dominance of the satellite sector is unprecedented. (The Atlantic $)
+ The world’s next big environmental problem could come from space. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Amazon’s new robot has a sense of touch
To help it grab items in the e-retail giant’s warehouses. (The Guardian)
+ The Vulcan robot could end up shouldering more manufacturing work in the future. (Wired $)
+ Will we ever trust robots? (MIT Technology Review)

9 Argentina is investing big in nuclear-powered AI data centers
In an effort to attract big tech firms from overseas. (Rest of World)
+ Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is still not operational. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused. (MIT Technology Review)

10 RIP prompt engineering
The hottest job of 2023 is quickly fizzling out. (Fast Company $)

Quote of the day

“I think upper class households will be able to have something that makes your Roomba look like a total joke.”

—Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian believes that advanced robot domestic helpers are imminent, Insider reports.

One more thing

Is this the end of animal testing?

Animal studies are notoriously bad at identifying human treatments. Around 95% of the drugs developed through animal research fail in people, but until recently there was no other option.

Now organs on chips, also known as microphysiological systems, may offer a truly viable alternative. They’re triumphs of bioengineering, intricate constructions furrowed with tiny channels that are lined with living human tissues that expand and contract with the flow of fluid and air, mimicking key organ functions like breathing, blood flow, and peristalsis, the muscular contractions of the digestive system.

It’s only early days, but if they work as hoped, organs on chips could solve one of the biggest problems in medicine today. Read the full story.

—Harriet 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.)

+ If you enjoyed this year’s Met Gala theme, check out this fascinating history of the Black dandy in art.
+ 2025 is shaping up to be a great year for literature.
+ The good news is that GTA VI finally has a release date—but it’s over a year away.
+ Chocolate pie for breakfast? I could be convinced.

The Download: a longevity influencer’s new religion, and humanoid robots’ shortcomings

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.

Bryan Johnson wants to start a new religion in which “the body is God”

Bryan Johnson is on a mission to not die. The 47-year-old multimillionaire has already applied his slogan “Don’t Die” to events, merchandise, and a Netflix documentary. Now he’s founding a Don’t Die religion.

Johnson, who famously spends millions of dollars on scans, tests, supplements, and a lifestyle routine designed to slow or reverse the aging process, has enjoyed extensive media coverage, and a huge social media following. For many people, he has become the face of the longevity field.

I sat down with Johnson at an event for people interested in longevity in Berkeley, California, in late April to hear more about the key concern underpinning his Don’t Die mission: ensuring AI is aligned with preserving human existence. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Why the humanoid workforce is running late

Last week I watched Daniela Rus, one of the world’s top experts on AI-powered robots, address a packed room at a Boston robotics expo. Rus spent a portion of her talk busting the notion that giant fleets of humanoids are already making themselves useful in manufacturing and warehouses around the world. 

That might come as a surprise. For years AI has made it faster to train robots, and investors have responded feverishly. Figure AI, a startup that aims to build general-purpose humanoid robots for both homes and industry, is looking at a $1.5 billion funding round, and there are commercial experiments with humanoids at Amazon and auto manufacturers. Bank of America predicts wider adoption of these robots around the corner, with a billion humanoids at work by 2050.

But Rus and many others I spoke with at the expo suggest that this hype just doesn’t add up. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

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

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI is abandoning its plans to become a for-profit company
Following a legal battle with Elon Musk and meetings with lawmakers. (WP $)
+ But major stakeholder Microsoft is still negotiating the details. (Bloomberg $)
+ Musk is proceeding with the lawsuit, too. (Reuters)

2 Donald Trump’s green energy crackdown may hurt America’s AI ambitions
Reliable energy is getting harder for the country’s data center industry to come by. (FT $)+ Meanwhile, China is still accessing banned Nvidia chips. (Economist $)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)

3 US border protection wants to photograph everyone entering in a vehicle
And it’s asking tech companies to pitch facial recognition tools to do just that. (Wired $)
+ The US wants to use facial recognition to identify migrant children as they age. (MIT Technology Review)

4 ChatGPT is fueling vulnerable users’ spiritual delusions
Leaving family and friends unsure of how best to help them. (Rolling Stone $)
+ Chatbots’ hallucinations appear to be worsening. (NYT $)
+ An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company doesn’t want to “censor” it. (MIT Technology Review)

5 US companies might find it harder to raise money from overseas investors 
Trump’s tariffs are biting, even for Big Tech. (The Information $)
+ The dollar is in freefall. (Economist $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Waymo is ramping up its robotaxi production
Its new factory in Arizona will build more than 2,000 new vehicles. (TechCrunch)
+ Tesla plans to roll out its robotaxi service in Austin next month. (Insider $)

7 Elon Musk’s neighbors aren’t happy
Residents of the Texan cul-de-sac are fed up with his entourage’s frequent comings and goings. (NYT $)
+ People living next to crypto mining facilities are also suffering. (The Guardian)

8  Food-scanning apps are changing how consumers shop
But critics say their nutrition and additives results are often wrong. (WSJ $)

9 We’re living in the Community Notes era of the internet
For better or worse. (The Atlantic $)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Social media is fixated on “recession indicators”
Even though we’re not actually in one. At least, not yet. (CNN)

Quote of the day

“This changes nothing. The founding mission remains betrayed.”

—Marc Toberoff, Elon Musk’s lead counsel in his legal case against OpenAI, is not convinced by the changes the startup is making to its structure, the Wall Street Journal reports.

One more thing

How did life begin?

How life begins is one of the biggest and hardest questions in science. All we know is that something happened on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago, and it may well have occurred on many other worlds in the universe as well.

We know how complex the environment was on primordial Earth, with chemicals, metals, minerals, gases and waters all blasted around by winds and volcanic eruptions. But we don’t know exactly what did the trick.

Now, a few researchers are harnessing artificial intelligence to zero in on the winning conditions. The hope is that machine learning tools will help devise a universal theory of the origins of life—one that applies not just on Earth but on any other world. Read the full story.

—Michael Marshall

We can still have nice things

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

+ If you’re the kind of person who always gets stuck on video game puzzles, these hints and tips might help.
+ This artichoke is so good, fraudsters grow counterfeit versions.
+ Meet the men bringing TikTok’s favorite romantasy novels to life.
+ Did you know that the ancient Egyptians were astute astronomers?

The Download: foreign disinformation intel, and gene-edited pork

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 senior State Department official demanded records of communications with journalists, European officials, and Trump critics

A previously unreported document distributed by senior US State Department official Darren Beattie reveals a sweeping effort to uncover all communications between the staff of a small government office focused on online disinformation and a lengthy list of public and private figures—many of whom are longtime targets of the political right.

The document, originally shared in person with roughly a dozen State Department employees in early March, requested staff emails and other records with or about a host of individuals and organizations that track or write about foreign disinformation—including Atlantic journalist Anne Applebaum, former US cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs, and the Stanford Internet Observatory—or have criticized President Donald Trump and his allies, such as the conservative anti-Trump commentator Bill Kristol. 

The broad requests for unredacted information felt like a “witch hunt,” one official says—one that could put the privacy and security of numerous individuals and organizations at risk. Read the full story.

—Eileen Guo

The US has approved CRISPR pigs for food

Most pigs in the US are confined to factory farms where they can be afflicted by a nasty respiratory virus that kills piglets. The illness is called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS.

A few years ago, a British company called Genus set out to design pigs immune to this germ using CRISPR gene editing. Not only did they succeed, but its pigs are now poised to enter the food chain following approval of the animals this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

This article is from The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly health and biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, sign up here.

The must-reads

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

1 The US has closed a China tariff loophole
The costs of plenty of goods are likely to shoot up in response. (NYT $)
+ But China is still extremely dependent on US-made car chips. (WSJ $)
+ Chinese retail giant Temu is pivoting its business model. (Bloomberg $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Technology Review)

2 DOGE’s future is looking uncertain
It’s fallen far short of its goal to slash $2 trillion in spending. (WP $)+ No more late-night ice cream for Elon Musk. (CNBC)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Microsoft is hiking the price of its Xbox games console
By a whopping 27% in the US. (The Guardian)
+ Apple estimates that the tariffs will add $900 million to its costs. (WP $)
+ But Apple isn’t announcing any price increases (yet.) (TechCrunch)
+ Here’s what is—and isn’t—getting pricier under the tariffs. (Vox)

4 Tech giants have been accused of deliberately distorting AI rankings
A new study claims they’re making untrue claims about the best models. (New Scientist $)
+ It accuses benchmark organisation LM Arena of unfair practices. (TechCrunch)
+ The site’s operators refute the findings, saying its conclusions are wrong. (Ars Technica)

5 Europe wants to replicate America’s military-industrial complex
And US contractors are likely to benefit. (WSJ $)
+ US soldiers may finally be able to repair their own equipment. (404 Media)
+ Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI will move forward
A judge rejected OpenAI’s attempt to dismiss the case. (FT $)

7 What a post-4Chan internet looks like
What was once contained to a tiny corner of the web is now commonplace. (New Yorker $)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How North Korea infiltrates the US
Fully remote coders are not who they appear to be. (Wired $)

9 You no longer need a password to open a new Microsoft account
The company’s gone passkey-first. (The Verge)

10 Fecal transplants are a possible way to treat gut disease
And the approach is becoming more mainstream. (Undark)
+ How bugs and chemicals in your poo could give away exactly what you’ve eaten. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“What about the next Taylor Swift?”

—US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria questions how powerful musical AI tools will affect up-and-coming musicians during Meta’s copyright court battle, Wired reports.

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.

We are in the midst of a shift in work and workplace relationships as significant as the Second Industrial Revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And new policies and protections may be necessary to correct the balance of power. 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.)

+ This is cool: scientists have successfully triggered a lightning strike using a drone.
+ It’s the age-old question—why do so many men refuse to wear shorts in hot weather?
+ The American accent that’s hardest for British actors to pull off seems to be either New York or Boston.
+ Happy 50th birthday to David Beckham, best of British.

The Download: China’s energy throwback, and choosing between love and immortality

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 long-abandoned US nuclear technology is making a comeback in China

China has once again beat everyone else to a clean energy milestone—its new nuclear reactor is reportedly one of the first to use thorium instead of uranium as a fuel and the first of its kind that can be refueled while it’s running.

It’s an interesting (if decidedly experimental) development out of a country that’s edging toward becoming the world leader in nuclear energy. China has now surpassed France in terms of generation, though not capacity; it still lags behind the US in both categories. But one recurring theme in media coverage about the reactor struck me, because it’s so familiar: This technology was invented decades ago, and then abandoned.

And this one research reactor in China running with an alternative fuel says a lot about this moment for nuclear energy technology: Many groups are looking into the past for technologies, with a new appetite for building them. 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.

Love or immortality: A short story

In this short fiction story from the latest edition of our print magazine, writer Alexandra Chang imagines what might happen to a couple’s relationship when one person wants to live life to the fullest, while another wants to live forever. Read the full story and if you aren’t already a subscriber, sign up now to get the next edition of the print magazine.

The must-reads

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

1 RFK Jr wants to change how new vaccines are tested
Medical experts are concerned the shift will curtail access to the jabs. (WP $)
+ He has also overseen the closure of a long-running diabetes study. (New Yorker $)
+ America’s public health crisis is worsening. (The Atlantic $)

2 Sam Altman’s biometric World project has launched in the US
It’s been dogged by privacy and security concerns in other countries. (FT $)
+ It bills its Orb devices as powerful identity-verification tools. (Bloomberg $)
+ In fact, it’s partnering with Match Group to verify users are who they say they are. (Wired $)
+ How the company recruited its first half a million test users. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Tesla was reportedly looking for a new CEO 
A rough few months allegedly pushed the firm to search for Elon Musk’s successor. (WSJ $)
+ But the company was quick to deny the report. (The Guardian)
+ Meanwhile, Musk has insisted he’ll continue working on DOGE. (Semafor)

4 A judge has ordered Apple to loosen its grip on the App Store
The ruling spells the end of a five-year antitrust case. (NYT $)
+ As a result, Fortnite will return to the US iOS App Store. (Variety $)

5 Climate change is worsening our eye health
Common eye disorders are linked with heat and higher UV exposure. (Knowable Magazine)

6 Instagram’s AI chatbots are claiming to be licensed therapists
And will happily make up qualifications. (404 Media)
+ But the first trial of generative AI therapy shows it might help with depression. (MIT Technology Review)

7 US drug overdoses are finally declining
But the Trump administration threatens to undo that progress. (Vox)
+ How the federal government is tracking changes in the supply of street drugs. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Young Brazilians dream of becoming social media stars
But TikTok is being investigated for monetizing them when they don’t have the right to work. (Rest of World)
+ Meet the wannabe kidfluencers struggling for stardom. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Duolingo has launched 148 AI-powered language courses
Just days after announcing its plans to replace human workers. (TechCrunch)

10 The BBC created a deepfake of Agatha Christie
49 years after her death, the crime author is teaching online writing classes. (The Verge)
+ An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The sacrifice to research is immense.” 

—Gigi Kwik Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, explains the consequences of the Trump administration’s decision to force a health department focused on studying deadly infectious diseases to cease operating to Wired.

One more thing

The flawed logic of rushing out extreme climate solutions

Early in 2022, entrepreneur Luke Iseman says, he released a pair of sulfur dioxide–filled weather balloons from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, in the hope that they’d burst miles above Earth.

It was a trivial act in itself, effectively a tiny, DIY act of solar geoengineering, the controversial proposal that the world could counteract climate change by releasing particles that reflect more sunlight back into space.

Entrepreneurs like Iseman invoke the stark dangers of climate change to explain why they do what they do—even if they don’t know how effective their interventions are. But experts say that urgency doesn’t create a social license to ignore the underlying dangers or leapfrog the scientific process. Read the full story.

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

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

+ The oldest woman in the world, 115-year old Ethel May Caterham, is the last known surviving subject of Edward VII.
+ Great news for axolotl lovers: a captive-bred group of the little amphibians can thrive in the wild.
+ Thor Pedersen spent almost a decade travelling the world without flying.
+ The fifth annual European Gull Screeching Championship did not disappoint.

The Download: the AI Hype Index, and “normal” AI

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 AI Hype Index: AI agent cyberattacks, racing robots, and musical models

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.

Is AI “normal”?

Despite its ubiquity, AI is seen as anything but a normal technology. There is talk of AI systems that will soon merit the term “superintelligence,” and the former CEO of Google recently suggested we control AI models the way we control uranium and other nuclear weapons materials.

A recent essay by two AI researchers at Princeton argues that AI is a general-purpose technology whose application might be better compared to the drawn-out adoption of electricity or the internet than to nuclear weapons. Read on to learn more about the policies the authors propose.

—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 US Congress has passed the Take It Down Act
The legislation is designed to crack down on revenge porn and deepfake nudes. (WP $)
+ But critics fear it’ll be weaponized to suppress online speech and encryption. (The Verge)
+ Donald Trump has said he wants to use the bill to protect himself. (The Hill)

2 The Trump administration is embracing shady crypto firms
Including Tether, whose stablecoin is often used by criminals. (NYT $)
+ Crypto lender Nexo, which ran into regulatory trouble, is now returning to the US. (CoinDesk)
+ The UAE is planning a stablecoin regulated by the country’s central bank. (Bloomberg $)

3 Elon Musk’s DOGE conflicts of interest are worth $2.37 billion
Although experts estimate the true worth could be higher. (The Guardian)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Researchers secretly deployed bots into a debate subreddit
In a highly unethical bid to try and change users’ minds. (404 Media)
+ AI is no replacement for human mediators. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Amazon’s first internet satellites have been launched successfully
27 down, 3,209 to go. (Reuters)
+ It’s Bezos’s answer to Musk’s Starlink. (FT $)

6 Amazon is pressuring its suppliers to slash their prices
It’s trying to protect its margins as Trump’s tariffs start to bite. (FT $)
+ Temu’s approach? Pass on the new taxes to its customers. (Bloomberg $)
+ Here’s how the tariffs are going to worsen the digital divide. (Wired $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Sam Altman and Satya Nadella are drifting apart
The pair disagree on OpenAI’s approach to AGI, among other things. (WSJ $)

8 Duolingo is replacing human workers with AI
It’s all part of the plan to make the language learning app “AI-first.” (The Verge)

9 Earthquakes may be a rich source of hydrogen 
Which is good news for the scientists trying to track down the gas. (New Scientist $)
+ Why the next energy race is for underground hydrogen. (MIT Technology Review)

10 The Hubble Space Telescope is turning 35-years old
And it’s still capturing jaw dropping images. (The Atlantic $)
+ Scientists have made some interesting discoveries about Jupiter’s volcanic moon. (Quanta Magazine)

Quote of the day

“When the person championing your anti-abuse legislation is promising to use it for abuse, you might have a problem.”

—Entrepreneur Mike Masnick says Donald Trump’s endorsement of the Take It Down Bill is self-serving in a post on Techdirt.

One more thing

The terrible complexity of technological problems

The philosopher Karl Popper once argued that there are two kinds of problems in the world: clock problems and cloud problems. As the metaphor suggests, clock problems obey a certain logic. The fix may not be easy, but it’s achievable.

Cloud problems offer no such assurances. They are inherently complex and unpredictable, and they usually have social, psychological, or political dimensions. Because of their dynamic, shape-shifting nature, trying to “fix” a cloud problem often ends up creating several new problems.

But there are ways to reckon with this kind of technological complexity—and the wicked problems it creates. Read the full story.

—Bryan Gardiner

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 annual Corgi Derby is a sight to behold—congratulations to the winner Juno!
+ Caroline Polachek is the sound of spring.
+ Why women are overtaking men in the most extreme sporting events
+ Maybe there’s something to these obscenely-priced celebrity smoothies.

The Download: China’s manufacturers’ viral moment, and how AI is changing creativity

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

Why Chinese manufacturers are going viral on TikTok

Since the video was posted earlier this month, millions of TikTok users have watched as a young Chinese man in a blue T-shirt sits beside a traditional tea set and speaks directly to the camera in accented English: “Let’s expose luxury’s biggest secret.” 

He stands and lifts what looks like an Hermès Birkin bag, one of the world’s most exclusive and expensive handbags, before gesturing toward the shelves filled with more bags behind him. “You recognize them: Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci—all crafted in our workshops.” He ends by urging viewers to buy directly from his factory.

Video “exposés” like this—where a sales agent breaks down the material cost of luxury goods, from handbags to perfumes to appliances—are everywhere on TikTok right now. And whether or not their claims are true, these videos and their virality speak to a new, serious push by Chinese manufacturers to connect directly with American consumers. Read the full story.

—Caiwei Chen

How AI is interacting with our creative human processes

The rapid proliferation of AI in our lives introduces new challenges around authorship, authenticity, and ethics in work and art. But it also offers a particularly human problem in narrative: How can we make sense of these machines, not just use them?

Three new books examine what we gain and lose when we let machines create, and pose the question: how do the words we choose and stories we tell about technology affect the role we allow it to take on (or even take over) in our creative lives? Read the full story.

—Rebecca Ackermann

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 Inside the powerful Signal chat shaping America
Marc Andreessen’s Chatham House group unites figures across Silicon Valley, politics and journalism. (Semafor)
+ Many in tech may come to regret their investment in Trump. (Vox)

2 RFK Jr’s autism study has got scientists worried
They fear it’ll give credence to unproven theories. (Axios)
+ His claims that autism is caused by environmental toxins are not backed by science. (PBS)
+ Experts say lack of support is the biggest challenge facing autistic people. (The Guardian) 

3 Only Google can run Chrome properly
That’s what the browser’s general manager told the judge presiding over its antitrust trial. (Bloomberg $)
+ Companies are still expressing interest in buying it, though. (The Verge)

4 Meta’s chatbots will hold explicit conversations with minors
Including chatbots voiced by celebrities, including wrestler-turned-actor John Cena. (WSJ $)
+ An AI companion site is hosting sexually charged conversations with underage celebrity bots. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Here’s why it would be so difficult to build an iPhone in the US
It’s not just about the cost of labor. (FT $)
+ His steep tariffs mean this Christmas will be an even more expensive affair. (Wired $)
+ Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Mexico’s drug cartels have become influencers
Their posts are some of the only insights we have into their activities. (The Atlantic $)
+ The mothers of Mexico’s missing use social media to search for mass graves. (MIT Technology Review)

7 People with autism are using AI to navigate everyday situations 
But experts warn that chatbots’ responses should be treated with caution. (WP $)

8 Clean energy is still making progress
Despite those political and economic headwinds. (Vox)
+ Europe is committed to looking beyond fossil fuels. (Politico)
+ 4 technologies that could power the future of energy. (MIT Technology Review)

9 What rats can teach us about hunger
We’re getting closer to understanding what makes us start and stop eating. (NYT $)
+ We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change. (MIT Technology Review)

10 It’s no wonder Trump loves AI slop
He’s been pushing a surreal, gaudy vision of the world for years.(New Yorker $)
+ AI slop infiltrated almost every corner of the internet last year. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“You know the best thing about these things is that nothing leaks…but it looks like that’s changed a little.”

—A longtime attendee of the secretive intimate networking events favored by tech, media and finance bigwigs spills the beans to The Information. 

One more thing

AI hype is built on high test scores. Those tests are flawed.

In the past few years, multiple researchers claim to have shown that large language models can pass cognitive tests designed for humans, from working through problems step by step, to guessing what other people are thinking.

These kinds of results are feeding a hype machine predicting that these machines will soon come for white-collar jobs. But there’s a problem: There’s little agreement on what those results really mean. Read the full story.

—William 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.)

+ The Magic Circle has readmitted a female magician who was expelled 30 years ago after she revealed she’d disguised herself as a man to gain access to the formerly male-only society.
+ These National Parks are stunningly beautiful.
+ The Fear of Flying Subreddit is one of the last pure places remaining on the internet.
+ Why Gen Z is so obsessed with iced coffee.

The Download: how Trump’s tariffs will affect US manufacturing, and AI architecture

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.

Sweeping tariffs could threaten the US manufacturing rebound

Despite the geopolitical chaos and market collapses triggered by President Trump’s announcement of broad tariffs on international goods, some supporters still hope the strategy will produce a “golden age” of American industry.

In fact, the high and crudely designed tariffs set out by the administration could damage a recent rebound in US manufacturing. Building factories and the supply chains they run on takes years—even decades—of steady investment. Meanwhile, tariffs have the immediate impact of boosting costs for critical supplies, many of which come from overseas—helping to raise prices and, in turn, slowing demand.

None of that is good for those planning to invest in US manufacturing. The longer-terms effects of the tariffs are, of course, unknown. And it’s that uncertainty, above all else, that could derail a reindustrialization still in the early stages for much of the country. Read the full story.

—David Rotman

AI is pushing the limits of the physical world

Architecture often assumes a binary between built projects and theoretical ones. What physics allows in actual buildings, after all, is vastly different from what architects can imagine and design. That imagination has long been supported and enabled by design technology, but the latest advancements in artificial intelligence have prompted a surge in the theoretical. Read the full story.

—Allison Arieff

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 Donald Trump wants to make AI a national priority
That’s in spite of his plans to axe the agency in charge of implementing the plan. (Ars Technica)
+ The new executive action outlines plans for AI courses and programs. (Bloomberg $)
+ But schools across the US are struggling with their existing curriculums. (Axios)

2 Driverless car makers won’t have to report as much crash data
An overhaul of the US Department of Transport’s rules limits what companies need to declare. (Wired $)
+ Unsurprisingly, the new framework benefits Tesla. (The Verge)
+ Officials claim it will allow US automakers to compete better with China. (AP News)

3 Apple plans to wind down US iPhone production in China
Instead, the handsets will be assembled in India. (FT $)+ It’s switching up its supply chains amid the tariff chaos. (Bloomberg $)
+ The change could come as soon as 2026. (The Guardian)

4 Meta is finally cracking down on spam
The days of multiple hashtags are over. (The Verge)

5 How Elon Musk’s friends control access to his company shares
Most people who hold stakes in SpaceX have no idea how much money it makes. (WSJ $)

6 How Israel used the war in Gaza to deploy new military AI 
To a degree that’s never been seen before. (NYT $)
+ Meanwhile, the US is preparing to offer Saudi Arabia a $100 billion arms package. (Reuters)
+ Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The US is facing millions of measles cases in future decades
That’s if falling vaccination rates continue. (WP $)
+ How measuring vaccine hesitancy could help health professionals tackle it. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Brazil’s AI welfare app is wrongly rejecting vulnerable applications
Digitizing its complex systems has come at a cost. (Rest of World)
+ An algorithm intended to reduce poverty might disqualify people in need. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How smart glasses can help people with hearing loss
Real-time subtitles for the conversations around you may not be too far away. (New Yorker $)
+ What’s next for smart glasses. (MIT Technology Review)

10 What it’s like to read an AI-generated book about yourself
Extremely uncanny valley vibes. (Slate $)

Quote of the day

“While it is true that an AI has no feelings, my concern is that any sort of nastiness that starts to fill our interactions will not end well.”

—Screenwriter Scott Z Burns reflects on the ethics of not saying please and thank you to chatbots, the New York Times reports.

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.)

+ Understanding the science behind stress can give us handy tools to cope with it.
+ Rockalina the turtle is enjoying the great outdoors after spending close to 50 years indoors.
+ If you don’t have the greenest of thumbs, don’t panic—these plants are super easy to take care of.
+ Why TikTok wants you to live like a dinosaur.

The Download: Apple’s eucalyptus carbon bet, and climate tech’s bad vibes

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 the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goal

“We were losing the light, and still about 20 kilometers from the main road, when the car shuddered and died at the edge of a strange forest. 

The grove grew as if indifferent to certain unspoken rules of botany. There was no understory, no foreground or background, only the trees themselves, which grew as a wall of bare trunks that rose 100 feet or so before concluding with a burst of thick foliage near the top. The rows of trees ran perhaps the length of a New York City block and fell away abruptly on either side into untidy fields of dirt and grass. The vista recalled the husk of a failed condo development, its first apartments marooned when the builders ran out of cash.”

This is the opening to our latest Big Story, which we are excited to share today. It’s all about how Apple (and its peers) are planting vast forests of eucalyptus trees in Brazil to try to offset their climate emissions, striking some of the largest-ever deals for carbon credits in the process. 

The big question is: Can Latin America’s eucalyptus be a scalable climate solution? Read the full story.

—Gregory Barber

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.

The vibes are shifting for US climate tech

The past few years have been an almost nonstop parade of good news for climate tech in the US. Headlines about billion-dollar grants from the government, massive private funding rounds, and labs churning out advance after advance have been routine. Now, though, things are starting to shift.  

About $8 billion worth of US climate tech projects have been canceled or downsized so far in 2025. There are still projects moving forward, but these cancellations definitely aren’t a good sign. So, how worried should we be? 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 had a shouting match with the US Treasury Secretary  
Scott Bessent did not take DOGE meddling with the IRS lying down. (Axios)
+ Musk announced he’d spend less time on government work shortly afterwards. (WP $)
+ What has the agency achieved in its first 100 days? Chaos. (Reuters)

2 Trump’s tariffs are disrupting production of vital medical devices
Of everything from MRI scanners to glucose monitors. (FT $)
+ The tariffs aren’t good news for protective medical gear makers either. (NYT $)

3 Nvidia has released a new platform for building AI agents 
And unlike its rivals, it relies on open-source models to make them. (WSJ $)
+ Nvidia has a very specific vision for how they’ll work. (The Register)
+ Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Even Mark Zuckerberg thinks social media isn’t what it was 
The question is, what comes next? (New Yorker $)
+ Meta’s Oversight Board ruled that videos disparaging trans women aren’t hate speech. (WP $)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)

5 How AI can help programmers preserve aging computer code
Governments across the world are using AI tools to modernize their systems. (Bloomberg $)
+ The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age. (MIT Technology Review)

6 LinkedIn is rolling out its verification system
Adobe is among its first adoptees. (The Verge)

7 Google’s AI Overviews is making stuff up again
This time, it’s confidently claiming that made-up idioms are real. (Wired $)
+ Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Reselling apps are flourishing in the US
Savvy shoppers are dodging tariffs by shopping second-hand. (WP $)
+ The end of ultra-cheap shopping is nigh. (Rest of World)

9 How to create a new color
Olo is a bit like teal—but it doesn’t technically exist. (The Atlantic $)

10 This Starbucks store is entirely 3D-printed
The coffee will still taste the same, though. (Fast Company $)
+ Meet the designers printing houses out of salt and clay. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“It went from a Cinderella story to Nightmare on Elm Street.”

—Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, tells the Financial Times why Elon Musk’s allegiance to Donald Trump has backfired for his businesses.

One more thing

How a tiny Pacific Island became the global capital of cybercrimeTokelau, a string of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific, is so remote that it was the last place on Earth to be connected to the telephone—only in 1997. Just three years later, the islands received a fax with an unlikely business proposal that would change everything.

It was from an early internet entrepreneur from Amsterdam, named Joost Zuurbier. He wanted to manage Tokelau’s country-code top-level domain, or ccTLD—the short string of characters that is tacked onto the end of a URL—in exchange for money.

In the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau became an unlikely internet giant—but not in the way it may have hoped. Until recently, its .tk domain had more users than any other country’s: a staggering 25 million—but the vast majority were spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.

Now the territory is desperately trying to clean up .tk. Its international standing, and even its sovereignty, may depend on it. Read the full story.

—Jacob Judah

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.)

+ An almond and potato cake? You’ve got my attention.
+ When you get a tattoo, where does the ink go?
+ The latest season of Black Mirror was filmed almost entirely in the UK.
+ Lenny Kravitz’s Parisian home is incredibly chic.