The Download: spotting crimes in prisoners’ phone calls, and nominate an Innovator Under 35

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

An AI model trained on prison phone calls now looks for planned crimes in those calls

A US telecom company trained an AI model on years of inmates’ phone and video calls and is now piloting that model to scan their calls, texts, and emails in the hope of predicting and preventing crimes.

Securus Technologies president Kevin Elder told MIT Technology Review that the company began building its AI tools in 2023, using its massive database of recorded calls to train AI models to detect criminal activity. It created one model, for example, using seven years of calls made by inmates in the Texas prison system, but it has been working on models for other states and counties.

However, prisoner rights advocates say that the new AI system enables a system of invasive surveillance, and courts have specified few limits to this power.  Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

Nominations are now open for our global 2026 Innovators Under 35 competition

We have some exciting news: Nominations are now open for MIT Technology Review’s 2026 Innovators Under 35 competition. This annual list recognizes 35 of the world’s best young scientists and inventors, and our newsroom has produced it for more than two decades. 

It’s free to nominate yourself or someone you know, and it only takes a few moments. Here’s how to submit your nomination.

The must-reads

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

1 New York is cracking down on personalized pricing algorithms
A new law forces retailers to declare if their pricing is informed by users’ data. (NYT $)
+ The US National Retail Federation tried to block it from passing. (TechCrunch)

2 The White House has launched a media bias tracker
Complete with a “media offender of the week” section and a Hall of Shame. (WP $)
+ The Washington Post is currently listed as the site’s top offender. (The Guardian)
+ Donald Trump has lashed out at several reporters in the past few weeks. (The Hill)

3 American startups are hooked on open-source Chinese AI models
They’re cheap and customizable—what’s not to like? (NBC News)
+ Americans also love China’s cheap goods, regardless of tariffs. (WP $)
+ The State of AI: Is China about to win the race? (MIT Technology Review)

4 How police body cam footage became viral YouTube content
Recent arrestees live in fear of ending up on popular channels. (Vox)
+ AI was supposed to make police bodycams better. What happened? (MIT Technology Review)

5 Construction workers are cashing in on the data center boom
Might as well enjoy it while it lasts. (WSJ $)
+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)

6 China isn’t convinced by crypto
Even though bitcoin mining is quietly making a (banned) comeback. (Reuters)
+ The country’s central bank is no fan of stablecoins. (CoinDesk)

7 A startup is treating its AI companions like characters in a novel
Could that approach make for better AI companions? (Fast Company $)
+ Gemini is the most empathetic model, apparently. (Semafor)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Ozempic is so yesterday
New weight-loss drugs are tailored to individual patients. (The Atlantic $)
+ What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs. (MIT Technology Review)

9 AI is upending how consultants work
For the third year in a row, big firms are freezing junior workers’ salaries. (FT $)

10 Behind the scenes of Disney’s AI animation accelerator
What took five months to create has been whittled down to under five weeks. (CNET)
+ Director supremo James Cameron appears to have changed his mind about AI. (TechCrunch)
+ Why are people scrolling through weirdly-formatted TV clips? (WP $)

Quote of the day

“[I hope AI] comes to a point where it becomes sort of mental junk food and we feel sick and we don’t know why.”

—Actor Jenna Ortega outlines her hopes for AI’s future role in filmmaking, Variety reports.

One more thing

The weeds are winning

Since the 1980s, more and more plants have evolved to become immune to the biochemical mechanisms that herbicides leverage to kill them. This herbicidal resistance threatens to decrease yields—out-of-control weeds can reduce them by 50% or more, and extreme cases can wipe out whole fields.

At worst, it can even drive farmers out of business. It’s the agricultural equivalent of antibiotic resistance, and it keeps getting worse. Weeds have evolved resistance to 168 different herbicides and 21 of the 31 known “modes of action,” which means the specific biochemical target or pathway a chemical is designed to disrupt.

Agriculture needs to embrace a diversity of weed control practices. But that’s much easier said than done. Read the full story.

—Douglas Main

We can still have nice things

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

+ Now we’re finally in December, don’t let Iceland’s gigantic child-eating Yule Cat give you nightmares
+ These breathtaking sculpture parks are serious must-sees ($)
+ 1985 sure was a vintage year for films.
+ Is nothing sacred?! Now Ozempic has come for our Christmas trees!

The Download: the mysteries surrounding weight-loss drugs, and the economic effects of 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.

What we still don’t know about weight-loss drugs

Weight-loss drugs have been back in the news this week. First, we heard that Eli Lilly, the company behind Mounjaro and Zepbound, became the first healthcare company in the world to achieve a trillion-dollar valuation.

But we also learned that, disappointingly, GLP-1 drugs don’t seem to help people with Alzheimer’s disease. And that people who stop taking the drugs when they become pregnant can experience potentially dangerous levels of weight gain. On top of that, some researchers worry that people are using the drugs postpartum to lose pregnancy weight without understanding potential risks.

All of this news should serve as a reminder that there’s a lot we still don’t know about these drugs. So let’s look at the enduring questions surrounding GLP-1 agonist drugs.

—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 weight loss drugs and how they affect us, take a look at:

+ GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro might benefit heart and brain health—but research suggests they might also cause pregnancy complications and harm some users. Read the full story.

+ We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change. Read the full story.

+ Weight-loss injections have taken over the internet. But what does this mean for people IRL?

+ This vibrating weight-loss pill seems to work—in pigs. Read the full story.

What we know about how AI is affecting the economy

There’s a lot at stake when it comes to understanding how AI is changing the economy right now. Should we be pessimistic? Optimistic? Or is the situation too nuanced for that?

Hopefully, we can point you towards some answers. Mat Honan, our editor in chief, will hold a special subscriber-only Roundtables conversation with our editor at large David Rotman, and Richard Waters, Financial Times columnist, exploring what’s happening across different markets. Register here to join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday December 9.

The event is part of the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review “The State of AI” partnership, exploring the global impact of artificial intelligence. Over the past month, we’ve been running discussions between our journalists—sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.

The must-reads

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

1 Tech billionaires are gearing up to fight AI regulation 
By amassing multi-million dollar war chests ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections. (WSJ $)
+ Donald Trump’s “Manhattan Project” for AI is certainly ambitious. (The Information $)

2 The EU wants to hold social media platforms liable for financial scams
New rules will force tech firms to compensate banks if they fail to remove reported scams. (Politico)

3 China is worried about a humanoid robot bubble
Because more than 150 companies there are building very similar machines. (Bloomberg $)
+ It could learn some lessons from the current AI bubble. (CNN)+ Why the humanoid workforce is running late. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A Myanmar scam compound was blown up
But its residents will simply find new bases for their operations. (NYT $)
+ Experts suspect the destruction may have been for show. (Wired $)
+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Navies across the world are investing in submarine drones 
They cost a fraction of what it takes to run a traditional manned sub. (The Guardian)
+ How underwater drones could shape a potential Taiwan-China conflict. (MIT Technology Review)

6 What to expect from China’s seemingly unstoppable innovation drive
Its extremely permissive regulators play a big role. (Economist $)
+ Is China about to win the AI race? (MIT Technology Review)

7 The UK is waging a war on VPNs
Good luck trying to persuade people to stop using them. (The Verge)

8 We’re learning more about Jeff Bezos’ mysterious clock project
He’s backed the Clock of the Long Now for years—and construction is amping up. (FT $)
+ How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we can reverse it. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Have we finally seen the first hints of dark matter?
These researchers seem to think so. (New Scientist $)

10 A helpful robot is helping archaeologists reconstruct Pompeii
Reassembling ancient frescos is fiddly and time-consuming, but less so if you’re a dextrous machine. (Reuters)

Quote of the day

“We do fail… a lot.”

—Defense company Anduril explains its move-fast-and-break-things ethos to the Wall Street Journal in response to reports its systems have been marred by issues in Ukraine.

One more thing

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

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.)

+ Aww, these sharks appear to be playing with pool toys.
+ Strange things are happening over on Easter Island (even weirder than you can imagine)
+ Very cool—archaeologists have uncovered a Roman tomb that’s been sealed shut for 1,700 years.
+ This Japanese mass media collage is making my eyes swim, in a good way.

The Download: the fossil fuel elephant in the room, and better tests for endometriosis

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 year’s UN climate talks avoided fossil fuels, again

Over the past few weeks in Belem, Brazil, attendees of this year’s UN climate talks dealt with oppressive heat and flooding, and at one point a literal fire broke out, delaying negotiations. The symbolism was almost too much to bear.

While many, including the president of Brazil, framed this year’s conference as one of action, the talks ended with a watered-down agreement. The final draft doesn’t even include the phrase “fossil fuels.”

As emissions and global temperatures reach record highs again this year, I’m left wondering: Why is it so hard to formally acknowledge what’s causing the problem?

—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.

New noninvasive endometriosis tests are on the rise

Endometriosis inflicts debilitating pain and heavy bleeding on more than 11% of reproductive-­age women in the United States. Diagnosis takes nearly 10 years on average, partly because half the cases don’t show up on scans, and surgery is required to obtain tissue samples.

But a new generation of noninvasive tests are emerging that could help accelerate diagnosis and improve management of this poorly understood condition. Read the full story.

—Colleen de Bellefonds

This story is from the last print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues 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 OpenAI claims a teenager circumvented its safety features before ending his life
It says ChatGPT directed Adam Raine to seek help more than 100 times. (TechCrunch)
+ OpenAI is strongly refuting the idea it’s liable for the 16-year old’s death. (NBC News)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The CDC’s new deputy director prefers natural immunity to vaccines
And he wasn’t even the worst choice among those considered for the role. (Ars Technica)
+ Meet Jim O’Neill, the longevity enthusiast who is now RFK Jr.’s right-hand man. (MIT Technology Review)

3 An MIT study says AI could already replace 12% of the US workforce
Researchers drew that conclusion after simulating a digital twin of the US labor market. (CNBC)
+ Separate research suggests it could replace 3 million jobs in the UK, too. (The Guardian)
+ AI usage looks unlikely to keep climbing. (Economist $)

4 An Italian defense group has created an AI-powered air shield system
It claims the system allows defenders to generate dome-style missile shields. (FT $)
+ Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The EU is considering a ban on social media for under-16s
Following in Australia’s footsteps, whose own ban comes into power next month. (Politico)
+ The European Parliament wants parents to decide on access. (The Guardian)

6 Why do so many astronauts keep getting stuck in space?
America, Russia and now China have had to contend with this situation. (WP $)
+ A rescue craft for three stranded Chinese astronauts has successfully reached them. (The Register)

7 Uploading pictures of your hotel room could help trafficking victims
A new app uses computer vision to determine where pictures of generic-looking rooms were taken. (IEEE Spectrum)

8 This browser tool turns back the clock to a pre-AI slop web
Back to the golden age of pre-November 30 2022. (404 Media)
+ The White House’s slop posts are shockingly bad. (NY Mag $)
+ Animated neo-Nazi propaganda is freely available on X. (The Atlantic $)

9 Grok’s “epic roasts” are as tragic as you’d expect
Test it out at parties at your own peril. (Wired $)

10 Startup founders dread explaining their jobs at Thanksgiving
Yes Grandma, I work with computers. (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“AI cannot ever replace the unique gift that you are to the world.”

—Pope Leo XIV warns students about the dangers of over-relying on AI, New York Magazine reports.

One more thing

Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs

People looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction or thought experiments like the Turing test. But an equally important, if surprising and less appreciated, forerunner is American psychologist B.F. Skinner’s research with pigeons in the middle of the 20th century.

Skinner believed that association—learning, through trial and error, to link an action with a punishment or reward—was the building block of every behavior, not just in pigeons but in all living organisms, including human beings.

His “behaviorist” theories fell out of favor in the 1960s but were taken up by computer scientists who eventually provided the foundation for many of the leading AI tools. Read the full story.

—Ben Crair

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.)

+ I hope you had a happy, err, Green Wednesday if you partook this year.
+ Here how to help an endangered species from the comfort of your own home.
+ Polly wants to FaceTime—now! (thanks Alice!)
+ I need Macaulay Culkin’s idea for another Home Alone sequel to get greenlit, stat.

The Download: AI and the economy, and slop for the masses

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 AI is changing the economy

There’s a lot at stake when it comes to understanding how AI is changing the economy right now. Should we be pessimistic? Optimistic? Or is the situation too nuanced for that?

Hopefully, we can point you towards some answers. Mat Honan, our editor in chief, will hold a special subscriber-only Roundtables conversation with our editor at large David Rotman, and Richard Waters, Financial Times columnist, exploring what’s happening across different markets. Register here to join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday December 9.

The event is part of the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review “The State of AI” partnership, exploring the global impact of artificial intelligence. Over the past month, we’ve been running discussions between our journalists—sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.

If you’re interested in how AI is affecting the economy, take a look at: 

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

+  What will AI mean for economic inequality? If we’re not careful, we could see widening gaps within countries and between them. Read the full story.

+ Artificial intelligence could put us on the path to a booming economic future, but getting there will take some serious course corrections. Here’s how to fine-tune AI for prosperity.

The AI Hype Index: The people can’t get enough of AI slop

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, featuring everything from replacing animal testing with AI to our story on why AGI should be viewed as a conspiracy theory. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How to fix the internet

We all know the internet (well, social media) is broken. But it has also provided a haven for marginalized groups and a place for support. It offers information at times of crisis. It can connect you with long-lost friends. It can make you laugh.

That makes it worth fighting for. And yet, fixing online discourse is the definition of a hard problem.

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 How much AI investment is too much AI investment?
Tech companies hope to learn from beleaguered Intel. (WSJ $)
+ HP is pivoting to AI in the hopes of saving $1 billion a year. (The Guardian)
+ The European Central bank has accused tech investors of FOMO. (FT $)

2 ICE is outsourcing immigrant surveillance to private firms
It’s incentivizing contractors with multi-million dollar rewards. (Wired $)
+ Californian residents have been traumatized by recent raids. (The Guardian)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Poland plans to use drones to defend its rail network from attack
It’s blaming Russia for a recent line explosion. (FT $)
+ This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)

4 ChatGPT could eventually have as many subscribers as Spotify
According to erm, OpenAI. (The Information $)

5 Here’s how your phone-checking habits could shape your daily life
You’re probably underestimating just how often you pick it up. (WP $)
+ How to log off. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Chinese drugs are coming
Its drugmakers are on the verge of making more money overseas than at home. (Economist $)

7 Uber is deploying fully driverless robotaxis in an Abu Dhabi island
Roaming 12 square miles of the popular tourist destination. (The Verge)
+ Tesla is hoping to double its robotaxi fleet in Austin next month. (Reuters)

8 Apple is set to become the world’s largest smartphone maker
After more than a decade in Samsung’s shadow. (Bloomberg $)

9 An AI teddy bear that discussed sexual topics is back on sale
But the Teddy Kumma toy is now powered by a different chatbot. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)

10 How Stranger Things became the ultimate algorithmic TV show
Its creators mashed a load of pop culture references together and created a streaming phenomenon. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“AI is a very powerful tool—it’s a hammer and that doesn’t mean everything is a nail.”

—Marketing consultant Ryan Bearden explains to the Wall Street Journal why it pays to be discerning when using AI.

One more thing

Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys?

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

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

—Grace Huckins

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 entries for this year’s Nature inFocus Photography Awards are fantastic.
+ There’s nothing like a good karaoke sesh.
+ Happy heavenly birthday Tina Turner, who would have turned 86 years old today.
+ Stop the presses—the hotly-contested list of the world’s top 50 vineyards has officially been announced

The Download: the future of AlphaFold, and chatbot privacy concerns

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

What’s next for AlphaFold: A conversation with a Google DeepMind Nobel laureate

In 2017, fresh off a PhD on theoretical chemistry, John Jumper heard rumors that Google DeepMind had moved on from game-playing AI to a secret project to predict the structures of proteins. He applied for a job.

Just three years later, Jumper and CEO Demis Hassabis had led the development of an AI system called AlphaFold 2 that was able to predict the structures of proteins to within the width of an atom, matching lab-level accuracy, and doing it many times faster—returning results in hours instead of months.

Last year, Jumper and Hassabis shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Now that the hype has died down, what impact has AlphaFold really had? How are scientists using it? And what’s next? I talked to Jumper (as well as a few other scientists) to find out. Read the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

The State of AI: Chatbot companions and the future of our privacy

—Eileen Guo & Melissa Heikkilä

Even if you don’t have an AI friend yourself, you probably know someone who does. A recent study found that one of the top uses of generative AI is companionship: On platforms like Character.AI, Replika, or Meta AI, people can create personalized chatbots to pose as the ideal friend, romantic partner, parent, therapist, or any other persona they can dream up.

Some state governments are taking notice and starting to regulate companion AI. But tellingly, one area the laws fail to address is user privacy. Read the full story.

This is the fourth edition of The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review. Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.

While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the MIT Technology Review are able to read the whole thing on our site.

The must-reads

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

1 Donald Trump has signed an executive order to boost AI innovation 
The “Genesis Mission” will try to speed up the rate of scientific breakthroughs. (Politico)
+ The order directs government science agencies to aggressively embrace AI. (Axios)
+ It’s also being touted as a way to lower energy prices. (CNN)

2 Anthropic’s new AI model is designed to be better at coding
We’ll discover just how much better once Claude Opus 4.5 has been properly put through its paces. (Bloomberg $)
+ It reportedly outscored human candidates in an internal engineering test. (VentureBeat)
+ What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)

3 The AI boom is keeping India hooked on coal
Leaving little chance of cleaning up Mumbai’s famously deadly pollution. (The Guardian)
+ It’s lethal smog season in New Delhi right now. (CNN)
+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Teenagers are losing access to their AI companions
Character.AI is limiting the amount of time underage users can spend interacting with its chatbots. (WSJ $)
+ The majority of the company’s users are young and female. (CNBC)
+ One of OpenAI’s key safety leaders is leaving the company. (Wired $)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Weight-loss drugs may be riskier during pregnancy 
Recipients are more likely to deliver babies prematurely. (WP $)
+ The pill version of Ozempic failed to halt Alzheimer’s progression in a trial. (The Guardian)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

6 OpenAI is launching a new “shopping research” tool
All the better to track your consumer spending with. (CNBC)
+ It’s designed for price comparisons and compiling buyer’s guides. (The Information $)
+ The company is clearly aiming for a share of Amazon’s e-commerce pie. (Semafor)

7 LA residents displaced by wildfires are moving into prefab housing
Their new homes are cheap to build and simple to install. (Fast Company $)
+ How AI can help spot wildfires. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Why former Uber drivers are undertaking the world’s toughest driving test
They’re taking the Knowledge—London’s gruelling street test that bypasses GPS. (NYT $)

9 How to spot a fake battery
Great, one more thing to worry about. (IEEE Spectrum)

10 Where is the Trump Mobile?
Almost six months after it was announced, there’s no sign of it. (CNBC)

Quote of the day

“AI is a tsunami that is gonna wipe out everyone. So I’m handing out surfboards.”

—Filmmaker PJ Accetturo, tells Ars Technica why he’s writing a newsletter advising fellow creatives how to pivot to AI tools.

One more thing

The second wave of AI coding is here

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

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

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

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

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

+ If you’re planning a visit to Istanbul here’s hoping you like cats—the city can’t get enough of them.
+ Rest in power reggae icon Jimmy Cliff.
+ Did you know the ancient Egyptians had a pretty accurate way of testing for pregnancy?
+ As our readers in the US start prepping for Thanksgiving, spare a thought for Astoria the lovelorn turkey

The Download: how to fix a tractor, and living among conspiracy theorists

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

Meet the man building a starter kit for civilization

You live in a house you designed and built yourself. You rely on the sun for power, heat your home with a woodstove, and farm your own fish and vegetables. The year is 2025.

This is the life of Marcin Jakubowski, the 53-year-old founder of Open Source Ecology, an open collaborative of engineers, producers, and builders developing what they call the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS).

It’s a set of 50 machines—everything from a tractor to an oven to a circuit maker—that are capable of building civilization from scratch and can be reconfigured however you see fit. It’s all part of his ethos that life-changing technology should be available to all, not controlled by a select few. Read the full story.

—Tiffany Ng

This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

What it’s like to find yourself in the middle of a conspiracy theory

Last week, we held a subscribers-only Roundtables discussion exploring how to cope in this new age of conspiracy theories. Our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth were joined by conspiracy expert Mike Rothschild, who explained exactly what it’s like to find yourself at the center of a conspiracy you can’t control. Watch the conversation back here.

The must-reads

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

1 DOGE has been disbanded
Even though it’s got eight months left before its official scheduled end. (Reuters)
+ It leaves a legacy of chaos and few measurable savings. (Politico)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

2 How OpenAI’s tweaks to ChatGPT sent some users into delusional spirals
It essentially turned a dial that increased both usage of the chatbot and the risks it poses to a subset of people. (NYT $)
+ AI workers are warning loved ones to stay away from the technology. (The Guardian)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A three-year old has received the world’s first gene therapy for Hunter syndrome
Oliver Chu appears to be developing normally one year after starting therapy. (BBC)

4 Why we may—or may not—be in an AI bubble
It’s time to follow the data. (WP $)
+ Even tech leaders don’t appear to be entirely sure. (Insider $)
+ How far can the ‘fake it til you make it’ strategy take us? (WSJ $)
+ Nvidia is still riding the wave with abandon. (NY Mag $)

5 Many MAGA influencers are based in Russia, India and Nigeria
X’s new account provenance feature is revealing some interesting truths. (The Daily Beast)

6 The FBI wants to equip drones with facial recognition tech
Civil libertarians claim the plans equate to airborne surveillance. (The Intercept)
+ This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)

7  Snapchat is alerting users ahead of Australia’s under-16s social media ban  
The platform will analyze an account’s “behavioral signals” to estimate a user’s age. (The Guardian)
+ An AI nudification site has been fined for skipping age checks. (The Register)
+ Millennial parents are fetishizing the notion of an offline childhood. (The Observer)

8 Activists are roleplaying ICE raids in Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto
It’s in a bid to prepare players to exercise their rights in the real world. (Wired $)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The JWST may have uncovered colossal stars
In fact, they’re so big their masses are 10,000 times bigger than the sun. (New Scientist $)
+ Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Social media users are lying about brands ghosting them
Completely normal behavior. (WSJ $)
+ This would never have happened on Vine, I’ll tell you now. (The Verge)

Quote of the day

“I can’t believe we have to say this, but this account has only ever been run and operated from the United States.” 

—The US Department of Homeland Security’s X account attempts to end speculation surrounding its social media origins, the New York Times reports.

One more thing

This company is planning a lithium empire from the shores of the Great Salt Lake

On a bright afternoon in August, the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake looks like something out of a science fiction film set in a scorching alien world.

This otherworldly scene is the test site for a company called Lilac Solutions, which is developing a technology it says will shake up the United States’ efforts to pry control over the global supply of lithium, the so-called “white gold” needed for electric vehicles and batteries, away from China.

The startup is in a race to commercialize a new, less environmentally-damaging way to extract lithium from rocks. If everything pans out, it could significantly increase domestic supply at a crucial moment for the nation’s lithium extraction industry. Read the full story.

—Alexander C. Kaufman

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.)

+ I love the thought of clever crows putting their smarts to use picking up cigarette butts (thanks Alice!)
+ Talking of brains, sea urchins have a whole lot more than we originally suspected.
+ Wow—a Ukrainian refugee has won an elite-level sumo competition in Japan.
+ How to make any day feel a little bit brighter.

The Download: the secrets of vitamin D, and an AI party in Africa

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’re learning more about what vitamin D does to our bodies

At a checkup a few years ago, a doctor told me I was deficient in vitamin D. But he wouldn’t write me a prescription for supplements, simply because, as he put it, everyone in the UK is deficient. Putting the entire population on vitamin D supplements would be too expensive for the country’s national health service, he told me.

But supplementation—whether covered by a health-care provider or not—can be important. As those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere spend fewer of our waking hours in sunlight, let’s consider the importance of vitamin D. 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 other stories from our biotech writers, check out some of their most recent work:

+ Advanced in organs on chips, digital twins, and AI are ushering in a new era of research and drug development that could help put a stop to animal testing. Read the full story.

+ Here’s the latest company planning for gene-edited babies.

+ Preventing the common cold is extremely tricky—but not impossible. Here’s why we don’t have a cold vaccine. Yet.

+ Scientists are creating the beginnings of bodies without sperm or eggs. How far should they be allowed to go? Read the full story.

+ This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle. Read the full story.

Partying at one of Africa’s largest AI gatherings

It’s late August in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, and people are filling a large hall at one of Africa’s biggest gatherings of minds in AI and machine learning. Deep Learning Indaba is an annual AI conference where Africans present their research and technologies they’ve built, mingling with friends as a giant screen blinks with videos created with generative AI.

The main “prize” for many attendees is to be hired by a tech company or accepted into a PhD program. But the organizers hope to see more homegrown ventures create opportunities within Africa. Read the full story.

—Abdullahi Tsanni

This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of fascinating stories. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues 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 Google’s new Nano Banana Pro generates convincing propaganda
The company’s latest image-generating AI model seems to have few guardrails. (The Verge)
+ Google wants its creations to be slicker than ever. (Wired $)
+ Google’s new Gemini 3 “vibe-codes” responses and comes with its own agent. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Taiwan says the US won’t punish it with high chip tariffs
In fact, official Wu Cheng-wen says Taiwan will help support the US chip industry in exchange for tariff relief. (FT $)

3 Mental health support is one of the most dangerous uses for chatbots
They fail to recognize psychiatric conditions and can miss critical warning signs. (WP $)
+ AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors. (MIT Technology Review)

4 It costs an average of $17,121 to deport one person from the US
But in some cases it can cost much, much more. (Bloomberg $)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Grok is telling users that Elon Musk is the world’s greatest lover
What’s it basing that on, exactly? (Rolling Stone $)
+ It also claims he’s fitter than basketball legend LeBron James. Sure. (The Guardian)

6 Who’s really in charge of US health policy?
RFK Jr. and FDA commissioner Marty Makary are reportedly at odds behind the scenes. (Vox)
+ Republicans are lightly pushing back on the CDC’s new stance on vaccines. (Politico)
+ Why anti-vaxxers are seeking to discredit Danish studies. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meet Jim O’Neill, the longevity enthusiast who is now RFK Jr.’s right-hand man. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Inequality is worsening in San Francisco
As billionaires thrive, hundreds of thousands of others are struggling to get by. (WP $)
+ A massive airship has been spotted floating over the city. (SF Gate)

8 Donald Trump is thrusting obscure meme-makers into the mainstream
He’s been reposting flattering AI-generated memes by the dozen. (NYT $)
+ MAGA YouTube stars are pushing a boom in politically charged ads. (Bloomberg $)

9 Moss spores survived nine months in space
And they could remain reproductively viable for another 15 years. (New Scientist $)
+ It suggests that some life on Earth has evolved to endure space conditions. (NBC News)
+ The quest to figure out farming on Mars. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Does AI really need a physical shape?
It doesn’t really matter—companies are rushing to give it one anyway. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“At some point you’ve got to wonder whether the bug is a feature.”

—Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, ponders xAI and Grok’s proclivity for surfacing Elon Musk-friendly and/or far-right sources, the Washington Post reports.

One more thing

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

Back in 2022, the tech community was buzzing over image-generating AI models, such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, which could follow simple word prompts to depict fantasylands or whimsical chairs made of avocados.

But artists saw this technological wonder as a new kind of theft. They felt the models were effectively stealing and replacing their work.

Ben Zhao, a computer security researcher at the University of Chicago, was listening. He and his colleagues have built arguably the most prominent weapons in an artist’s arsenal against nonconsensual AI scraping: two tools called Glaze and Nightshade that add barely perceptible perturbations to an image’s pixels so that machine-learning models cannot read them properly.

But Zhao sees the tools as part of a battle to slowly tilt the balance of power from large corporations back to individual creators. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

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 ever tempted to try and recreate a Jackson Pollock painting, maybe you’d be best leaving it to the kids.
+ Scientists have discovered that lions have not one, but two distinct types of roars
+ The relentless rise of the quarter-zip must be stopped!
+ Pucker up: here’s a brief history of kissing

The Download: what’s next for electricity, and living in the conspiracy age

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.

Three things to know about the future of electricity

The International Energy Agency recently released the latest version of the World Energy Outlook, the annual report that takes stock of the current state of global energy and looks toward the future.

It contains some interesting insights and a few surprising figures about electricity, grids, and the state of climate change. Let’s dig into some numbers.

—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.

How to survive in the new age of conspiracies

Everything is a conspiracy theory now. Our latest series “The New Conspiracy Age” delves into how conspiracies have gripped the White House, turning fringe ideas into dangerous policy, and how generative AI is altering the fabric of truth.

If you’re interested in hearing more about how to survive in this strange new age, join our features editor Amanda Silverman and executive editor Niall Firth today at 1pm ET for an subscriber-exclusive Roundtable conversation. They’ll be joined by conspiracy expert Mike Rothschild, who’s written a fascinating piece for us about what it’s like to find yourself at the heart of a conspiracy theory. Register now to join us!

The must-reads

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

1 Donald Trump is poised to ban AI state laws
The US President is considering signing an order to give the federal government unilateral power over regulating AI. (The Verge)
+ It would give the Justice Department power to sue dissenting states. (WP $)
+ Critics claim the draft undermines trust in the US’s ability to make AI safe. (Wired $)
+ It’s not just America—the EU fumbled its attempts to rein in AI, too. (FT $)

2 The CDC is making false claims about a link between vaccines and autism
Despite previously spending decades fighting misinformation connecting them. (WP $)
+ The National Institutes of Health is parroting RFK Jr’s messaging, too. (The Atlantic $)

3 China is going all-in on autonomous vehicles
Which is bad news for its millions of delivery drivers. (FT $)
+ It’s also throwing its full weight behind its native EV industry. (Rest of World)

5 Major music labels have inked a deal with an AI streaming service
Klay users will be able to remodel songs from the likes of Universal using AI. (Bloomberg $)
+ What happens next is anyone’s guess. (Billboard $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)

5 How quantum sensors could overhaul GPS navigation
Current GPS is vulnerable to spoofing and jamming. But what comes next? (WSJ $)
+ Inside the race to find GPS alternatives. (MIT Technology Review)

6 There’s a divide inside the community of people in relationships with chatbots 
Some users assert their love interests are real—to the concern of others. (NY Mag $)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)

7 There’s still hope for a functional cure to HIV
Even in the face of crippling funding cuts. (Knowable Magazine)
+ Breakthrough drug lenacapavir is being rolled out in parts of Africa. (NPR)
+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Is it possible to reverse years of AI brainrot?
A new wave of memes is fighting the good fight. (Wired $)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Tourists fell for an AI-generated Christmas market outside Buckingham Palace
If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. (The Guardian)
+ It’s unclear who is behind the pictures, which spread on Instagram. (BBC)

10 Here’s what people return to Amazon
A whole lot of polyester clothing, by the sounds of it. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“I think we’re in an LLM bubble, and I think the LLM bubble might be bursting next year.”

—Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue has a slightly different take on the reports we’re in an AI bubble, TechCrunch reports.

One more thing

Inside a new quest to save the “doomsday glacier”

The Thwaites glacier is a fortress larger than Florida, a wall of ice that reaches nearly 4,000 feet above the bedrock of West Antarctica, guarding the low-lying ice sheet behind it.

But a strong, warm ocean current is weakening its foundations and accelerating its slide into the sea. Scientists fear the waters could topple the walls in the coming decades, kick-starting a runaway process that would crack up the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, marking the start of a global climate disaster. As a result, they are eager to understand just how likely such a collapse is, when it could happen, and if we have the power to stop it. 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.)

+ As Christmas approaches, micro-gifting might be a fun new tradition to try out.
+ I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—movies are too long these days.
+ If you’re feeling a bit existential this morning, these books are a great starting point for finding a sense of purpose.
+ This is a fun list of the internet’s weird and wonderful obsessive lists.

The Download: de-censoring DeepSeek, and Gemini 3

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.

Quantum physicists have shrunk and “de-censored” DeepSeek R1

The news: A group of quantum physicists at Spanish firm Multiverse Computing claims to have created a version of the powerful reasoning AI model DeepSeek R1 that strips out the censorship built into the original by its Chinese creators. 

Why it matters: In China, AI companies are subject to rules and regulations meant to ensure that content output aligns with laws and “socialist values.” As a result, companies build in layers of censorship when training the AI systems. When asked questions that are deemed “politically sensitive,” the models often refuse to answer or provide talking points straight from state propaganda.

How they did it: Multiverse Computing specializes in quantum-inspired AI techniques, which it used to create DeepSeek R1 Slim, a model that is 55% smaller but performs almost as well as the original model. It allowed them to identify and remove Chinese censorship so that the model answered sensitive questions in much the same way as Western models. Read the full story.

—Caiwei Chen

Google’s new Gemini 3 “vibe-codes” responses and comes with its own agent

Google today unveiled Gemini 3, a major upgrade to its flagship multimodal model. The firm says the new model is better at reasoning, has more fluid multimodal capabilities (the ability to work across voice, text or images), and will work like an agent.

Gemini Agent is an experimental feature designed to handle multi-step tasks directly inside the app. The agent can connect to services such as Google Calendar, Gmail, and Reminders. Once granted access, it can execute tasks like organizing an inbox or managing schedules. Read the full story.

—Caiwei Chen

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Why climate researchers are taking the temperature of mountain snow

The Sierra’s frozen reservoir provides about a third of California’s water and most of what comes out of the faucets, shower heads, and sprinklers in the towns and cities of northwestern Nevada.

The need for better snowpack temperature data has become increasingly critical for predicting when the water will flow down the mountains, as climate change fuels hotter weather, melts snow faster, and drives rapid swings between very wet and very dry periods.

A new generation of tools, techniques, and models promises to improve water forecasts, and help California and other states manage in the face of increasingly severe droughts and flooding. However, observers fear that any such advances could be undercut by the Trump administration’s cutbacks across federal agencies.

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 Yesterday’s Cloudflare outage was not triggered by a hack
An error in its bot management system was to blame. (The Verge)
+ ChatGPT, X and Uber were among the services that dropped. (WP $)
+ It’s another example of the dangers of having a handful of infrastructure providers. (WSJ $)
+ Today’s web is incredibly fragile. (Bloomberg $)

2 Donald Trump has called for a federal AI regulatory standard
Instead of allowing each state to make its own laws. (Axios)
+ He claims the current approach risks slowing down AI progress. (Bloomberg $)

3 Meta has won the antitrust case that threatened to spin off Instagram
It’s one of the most high-profile cases in recent years. (FT $)
+ A judge ruled that Meta doesn’t hold a social media monopoly. (BBC)

4 The Three Mile Island nuclear plant is making a comeback
It’s the lucky recipient of a $1 billion federal loan to kickstart the facility. (WP $)
+ Why Microsoft made a deal to help restart Three Mile Island. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Roblox will block children from speaking to adult strangers 
The gaming platform is facing fresh lawsuits alleging it is failing to protect young users from online predators. (The Guardian)
+ But we don’t know much about how accurate its age verification is. (CNN)
+ All users will have to submit a selfie or an ID to use chat features. (Engadget)

6 Boston Dynamics’ robot dog is becoming a widespread policing tool
It’s deployed by dozens of US and Canadian bomb squads and SWAT teams. (Bloomberg $)

7 A tribally-owned network of EV chargers is nearing completion
It’s part of Standing Rock reservation’s big push for clean energy. (NYT $)

8 Resist the temptation to use AI to cheat at conversations
It makes it much more difficult to forge a connection. (The Atlantic $)

9 Amazon wants San Francisco residents to ride its robotaxis for free
It’s squaring up against Alphabet’s Waymo in the city for the first time. (CNBC)
+ But its cars look very different to traditional vehicles. (LA Times $)
+ Zoox is operating around 50 robotaxis across SF and Las Vegas. (The Verge)

10 TikTok’s new setting allows you to filter out AI-generated clips
Farewell, sweet slop. (TechCrunch)
+ How do AI models generate videos? (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The rapids of social media rush along so fast that the Court has never even stepped into the same case twice.”

—Judge James Boasberg, who rejected the Federal Trade Commission’s claim that Meta had created an illegal social media monopoly, acknowledges the law’s failure to keep up with technology, Politico reports.

One more thing

Namibia wants to build the world’s first hydrogen economy

Factories have used fossil fuels to process iron ore for three centuries, and the climate has paid a heavy price: According to the International Energy Agency, the steel industry today accounts for 8% of carbon dioxide emissions.

But it turns out there is a less carbon-­intensive alternative: using hydrogen. Unlike coal or natural gas, which release carbon dioxide as a by-product, this process releases water. And if the hydrogen itself is “green,” the climate impact of the entire process will be minimal.

HyIron, which has a site in the Namib desert, is one of a handful of companies around the world that are betting green hydrogen can help the $1.8 trillion steel industry clean up its act. The question now is whether Namibia’s government, its trading partners, and hydrogen innovators can work together to build the industry in a way that satisfies the world’s appetite for cleaner fuels—and also helps improve lives at home. Read the full story.

—Jonathan W. Rosen

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 art installation in Paris revolves around porcelain bowls clanging against each other in a pool of water—it’s oddly hypnotic.
+ Feeling burnt out? Get down to your local sauna for a quick reset.
+ New York’s subway system is something else.
+ Your dog has ancient origins. No, really!

The Download: AI-powered warfare, and how embryo care is changing

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 State of AI: How war will be changed forever

—Helen Warrell & James O’Donnell

It is July 2027, and China is on the brink of invading Taiwan. Autonomous drones with AI targeting capabilities are primed to overpower the island’s air defenses as a series of crippling AI-generated cyberattacks cut off energy supplies and key communications. In the meantime, a vast disinformation campaign enacted by an AI-powered pro-Chinese meme farm spreads across global social media, deadening the outcry at Beijing’s act of aggression.

Scenarios such as this have brought dystopian horror to the debate about the use of AI in warfare. Military commanders hope for a digitally enhanced force that is faster and more accurate than human-directed combat. 

But there are fears that as AI assumes an increasingly central role, these same commanders will lose control of a conflict that escalates too quickly and lacks ethical or legal oversight. Read the full story.

This is the third edition of The State of AI, our subscriber-only collaboration between the Financial Times & MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power.

Every Monday, writers from both publications will debate one aspect of the generative AI revolution reshaping global power. While subscribers to The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, get access to an extended excerpt, subscribers to the MIT Technology Review are able to read the whole thing. Sign up here to receive future editions every Monday.

Job titles of the future: AI embryologist

Embryologists are the scientists behind the scenes of in vitro fertilization who oversee the development and selection of embryos, prepare them for transfer, and maintain the lab environment. They’ve been a critical part of IVF for decades, but their job has gotten a whole lot busier in recent years as demand for the fertility treatment skyrockets and clinics struggle to keep up.

Klaus Wiemer, a veteran embryologist and IVF lab director, believes artificial intelligence might help by predicting embryo health in real time and unlocking new avenues for productivity in the lab. Read the full story.

—Amanda Smith

The must-reads

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

1 Big Tech’s job cuts are a warning sign
They’re a canary down the mine for other industries. (WP $)
+ Americans appear to feel increasingly unsettled by AI. (WSJ $)
+ Global fund managers worry companies are overinvesting in the technology. (FT $)

2 Iran is attempting to stimulate rain to end its deadly drought
But critics warn that cloud seeding is a challenging process. (New Scientist $)
+ Parts of western Iran are now experiencing flooding. (Reuters)
+ Why it’s so hard to bust the weather control conspiracy theory. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Air taxi startups may produce new aircraft for war zones
The US Army has announced its intentions to acquire most of its weapons from startups, not major contractors. (The Information $)
+ US firm Joby Aviation is launching flying taxis in Dubai. (NBC News)
+ This giant microwave may change the future of war. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Weight-loss drug make Eli Lilly is likely to cross a trillion-dollar valuation
As it prepares to launch a pill alternative to its injections. (WSJ $)
+ Arch rival Novo Nordisk A/S is undercutting the company to compete. (Bloomberg $)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

5 What’s going on with the US TikTok ban?
Even the lawmakers in charge don’t seem to know. (The Verge)

6 It’s getting harder to grow cocoa
Mass tree felling and lower rainfall in the Congo Basin is to blame. (FT $)
+ Industrial agriculture activists are everywhere at COP30. (The Guardian)
+ Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Russia is cracking down on its critical military bloggers
Armchair critics are facing jail time if they refuse to apologize. (Economist $)

8 Why the auto industry is so obsessed with humanoid robots
It’s not just Tesla—plenty of others want to get in on the act. (The Atlantic $)
+ China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Indian startups are challenging ChatGPT’s AI dominance
They support a far wider range of languages than the large AI firms’ models. (Rest of World)
+ OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias. (MIT Technology Review)

10 These tiny sensors track butterflies on their journey to Mexico
Scientists hope it’ll shed some light on their mysterious life cycles. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“I think no company is going to be immune, including us.” 

—Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, warns the BBC about the precarious nature of the AI bubble.

One more thing

How a 1980s toy robot arm inspired modern robotics

—Jon Keegan

As a child of an electronic engineer, I spent a lot of time in our local Radio Shack as a kid. While my dad was locating capacitors and resistors, I was in the toy section. It was there, in 1984, that I discovered the best toy of my childhood: the Armatron robotic arm.

Described as a “robot-like arm to aid young masterminds in scientific and laboratory experiments,” it was a legit robotic arm. And the bold look and function of Armatron made quite an impression on many young kids who would one day have a career in robotics. 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.)

+ The US Library of Congress has attained some handwritten drafts of iconic songs from The Wizard of Oz.
+ This interesting dashboard tracks the world’s top 500 musical artists in the world right now—some of the listings may surprise you (or just make you feel really old.)
+ Cult author Chris Kraus shares what’s floating her boat right now.+ The first images of the forthcoming Legend of Zelda film are here!