The Download: surviving extreme temperatures, and the big whale-wind turbine conspiracy

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 quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures

Climate change is subjecting vulnerable people to temperatures that push their limits. In 2023, about 47,000 heat-related deaths are believed to have occurred in Europe. Researchers estimate that climate change could add an extra 2.3 million European heat deaths this century. That’s heightened the stakes for solving the mystery of just what happens to bodies in extreme conditions.

While we broadly know how people thermoregulate, the science of keeping warm or cool is mottled with blind spots. Researchers around the world are revising rules about when extremes veer from uncomfortable to deadly. Their findings change how we should think about the limits of hot and cold—and how to survive in a new world. Read the full story.

—Max G.Levy

This story is from the latest 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.

Whales are dying. Don’t blame wind turbines.

Whale deaths have become a political flashpoint. There are currently three active mortality events for whales in the Atlantic, meaning clusters of deaths that experts consider unusual. And Republican lawmakers, conservative think tanks, and—most notably—President Donald Trump (a longtime enemy of wind power) are making dubious claims that offshore wind farms are responsible.

But any finger-pointing at wind turbines for whale deaths ignores the fact that whales have been washing up on beaches since long before the giant machines were rooted in the ocean floor. This is something that has always happened. And the scientific consensus is clear: There’s no evidence that wind farms are the cause of recent increases in whale deaths. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here.

The State of AI: Energy is king, and the US is falling behind

In the age of AI, the biggest barrier to progress isn’t money but energy. That should be particularly worrying in the US, where massive data centers are waiting to come online. It doesn’t look as if the country will build the steady power supply or infrastructure needed to serve them all.

It wasn’t always like this. For about a decade before 2020, data centers were able to offset increased demand with efficiency improvements. Now, though, electricity demand is ticking up in the US, with billions of queries to popular AI models each day—and efficiency gains aren’t keeping pace.

If we want AI to have the chance to deliver on big promises without driving electricity prices sky-high for the rest of us, the US needs to learn some lessons from the rest of the world on energy abundance. Just look at China. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart & Pilita Clark

This is from 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 for the next four weeks, 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 magazine are able to read the whole thing. 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 How China narrowed its AI divide with the US
America still has a clear lead—but for how long? (WSJ $)
+ The AI boom won’t offset tariffs and America’s immigration crackdown forever. (FT $)
+ How quickly is AI likely to progress really? (Economist $)
+ Is China about to win the AI race? (MIT Technology Review)

2 Anthropic is due to turn a profit much faster than OpenAI
The two companies are taking very different approaches to making money. (WSJ $)
+ OpenAI has lured Intel’s AI chief away. (Bloomberg $)

3 The EU is setting up a new intelligence sharing unit
It’s a bid to shore up intel in the wake of Donald Trump’s plans to reduce security support for Europe. (FT $)

4 Trump officials are poised to suggest oil drilling off the coast of California
That’s likely to rile the state’s politicians and leaders. (WP $)
+ What role should oil and gas companies play in climate tech? (MIT Technology Review)

5 America’s cyber defenses are poor
Repeated cuts and mass layoffs are making it harder to protect the nation. (The Verge)

6 China is on track to hit its peak CO2 emissions target early
Although it’s likely to miss its goal for cutting carbon intensity. (The Guardian)
+ World leaders are heading to COP30 in Brazil this week. (New Yorker $)

7 OpenAI cannot use song lyrics without a license
That’s what a German court has decided, after siding with a music rights society. (Reuters)
+ OpenAI is no stranger to legal proceedings. (The Atlantic $)
+ AI is coming for music. (MIT Technology Review)

8 A small Michigan town is fighting a proposed AI data center
The planned center is part of a collaboration between the University of Michigan and nuclear weapons scientists. (404 Media)
+ Here’s where America’s data centers should be built instead. (Wired $)
+ Communities in Latin America are pushing back, too. (The Guardian)
+ Should we be moving data centers to space? (MIT Technology Review)

9 AI models can’t tell the time
Analog clocks leave them completely stumped. (IEEE Spectrum)

10 ChatGPT is giving daters the ick
These refuseniks don’t want anything to do with AI, or love interests who use it. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“I never imagined that making a cup of tea or obtaining water, antibiotics, or painkillers would require such tremendous effort.”

—An anonymous member of startup accelerator Gaza Sky Geeks tells Rest of World about the impact the war has had on them.

One more thing

How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language

Many software projects emerge because—somewhere out there—a programmer had a personal problem to solve.

That’s more or less what happened to Graydon Hoare. In 2006, Hoare was a 29-year-old computer programmer working for Mozilla. After a software crash broke the elevator in his building, he set about designing a new computer language; one that he hoped would make it possible to write small, fast code without memory bugs.

That language developed into Rust, one of the hottest new languages on the planet. But while it isn’t unusual for someone to make a new computer language, it’s incredibly rare for one to take hold and become part of the programming pantheon. How did Rust do it? Read the full story. 

—Clive Thompson

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.)

+ Having a bit of a rubbish day so far? Here’s how to make it better.
+ A Hungarian man played Dance Dance Revolution for 144 hours non-stop, because he knows how to have a seriously good time.
+ A new book is celebrating cats, as it should (thanks Jess!)
+ How a poem from a medieval trickster sowed the seed for hundreds of years of bubonic plague misinformation

The Download: busting weather myths, and AI heart attack prediction

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 it’s so hard to bust the weather control conspiracy theory

It was October 2024, and Hurricane Helene had just devastated the US Southeast. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia found an abstract target on which to pin the blame: “Yes they can control the weather,” she posted on X. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

She was repeating what’s by now a pretty familiar and popular conspiracy theory: that shadowy forces are out there, wielding technology to control the weather and wreak havoc on their enemies. This preposterous claim has grown louder and more common in recent years, especially after extreme weather strikes.

But here’s the thing: While Greene and other believers are not correct, this conspiracy theory—like so many others—holds a kernel of much more modest truth. Read the full story.

—Dave Levitan

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. Check out the rest of the series here.

AI could predict who will have a heart attack 

For all the modern marvels of cardiology, we struggle to predict who will have a heart attack. Many people never get screened at all. Now, startups are applying AI algorithms to screen millions of CT scans for early signs of heart disease.

This technology could be a breakthrough for public health, applying an old tool to uncover patients whose high risk for a heart attack is hiding in plain sight. But it remains unproven at scale, while raising thorny questions about implementation and even how we define disease. Read the full story.

—Vishal Khetpal

This story is from the latest 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 Spending on AI may be to blame for all those tech layoffs
AI isn’t necessarily replacing jobs, but spending on it is gobbling up budgets. (Fast Company $)
+ Junior roles are likely to be the first on the chopping block. (FT $)
+ Are the crazy sums that businesses are sinking into AI sustainable? (WP $)
+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Anti-vaccine activists gathered in Austin over the weekend
They celebrated RFK Jr’s rise and outlined their goals—including eliminating school vaccine mandates. (WP $)
+ We’re on the verge of stopping the next pandemic. But will we? (Vox)
+ How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office. (MIT Technology Review)

3 People who’ve experienced AI-induced delusions are forming a movement
They’re pushing for legal action against chatbot makers. (Bloomberg $)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

4 AI-generated clips of women being strangled are flooding social media
Many of them appear to have been created using OpenAI’s Sora 2. (404 Media)

5 Tech leaders are obsessed with bioengineering babies
They’re not allowed to, but they’re not letting a little thing like ethics get in the way. (WSJ $)
+ The race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Apple has removed two popular gay dating apps in China 
The country ordered it to take down Blued and Finka from its app. (Wired $)

7 The UK government is worried China could turn off its buses remotely
It fears hundreds of Chinese-made electric buses on British roads could be at risk. (FT $)

8 How AI is changing the world’s newsrooms
It’s brilliant at analyzing large data sets—but shouldn’t be used to write stories. (NYT $)

9 How to contain an invasive species
Experts argue that too much red tape is getting in the way. (Undark)
+ The weeds are winning. (MIT Technology Review)

10 The world’s largest electric ship is charging up
Once it’s ready to go, it’ll serve as a ferry in 90 minute bursts. (IEEE Spectrum)

Quote of the day

“We would move heaven and Earth, pun intended, to try to get to the Moon sooner.” 

—Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, says the company is raring to work with NASA to get humans back on the Moon, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?

In the 1990s, a six-step methodology for innovation called design thinking started to grow in popularity. Key to its spread was its replicable aesthetic, represented by the Post-it note: a humble square that anyone can use in infinite ways.

But in recent years, for a number of reasons, the shine of design thinking has been wearing off. Critics have argued that its short-term focus on novel and naive ideas results in unrealistic and ungrounded recommendations.

Today, some groups are working to reform both design thinking’s principles and its methodologies. These new efforts seek a set of design tools capable of equitably serving diverse communities and solving diverse problems well into the future. It’s a much more daunting—and crucial—task than design thinking’s original remit. 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.)

+ These tree-dwelling toads give birth to live young—who knew?!
+ Now’s the time to practice your baking skills ahead of Thanksgiving.
+ Younguk Yi’s glitching paintings are a lot of fun.
+ Place your bets! This fun game follows three balls in a race to the bottom, but who will win?

The Download: a new home under the sea, and cloning pets

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 first new subsea habitat in 40 years is about to launch

Vanguard feels and smells like a new RV. It has long, gray banquettes that convert into bunks, a microwave cleverly hidden under a counter, a functional steel sink with a French press and crockery above. A weird little toilet hides behind a curtain.

But you can’t just fire up Vanguard’s engine and roll off the lot. Once it is sealed and moved to its permanent home beneath the waves of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary early next year, Vanguard will be the world’s first new subsea habitat in nearly four decades.

Teams of four scientists will live and work on the seabed for a week at a time, entering and leaving the habitat as scuba divers. Read our story about some of their potential missions.

—Mark Harris

Cloning isn’t just for celebrity pets like Tom Brady’s dog

This week, we heard that Tom Brady had his dog cloned. The former quarterback revealed that his Junie is actually a clone of Lua, a pit bull mix that died in 2023.

Brady’s announcement follows those of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Barbra Streisand, who also famously cloned their pet dogs. But some believe there are better ways to make use of cloning technologies, such as diversifying the genetic pools of inbred species, or potentially bringing other animals back from the brink of extinction. 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 OpenAI is facing a wave of new lawsuits 
The cases concern wrongful death complaints, and claims ChatGPT caused mental breakdowns. (NYT $)
+ One family claims ChatGPT “goaded” their son into taking his own life. (CNN)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Tesla shareholders approved Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package
More than 75% of voters backed it. (WSJ $)
+ Musk had hinted he’d leave Tesla if the deal wasn’t greenlit. (Axios)
+ Tesla has to hit its ambitious targets before he can get his hands on the cash. (Wired $)

3 The EU is poised to water down the AI act
After pressure from Big Tech and the US government. (FT $)
+ While the legislation was passed last year, many provisions haven’t kicked in yet. (Reuters)

4 Meta is earning a colossal amount of money from scam ads
They accounted for 10% of its revenue last year. (Reuters)
+ Meta claims it “aggressively” addresses scam ads on its platform. (CNBC)

5 The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is pivoting to AI
It’s shifting its philanthropic focus from social justice programs to curing disease. (WP $)
+ To achieve its goals, the charity will need extra computing power. (NYT $)

6 Unesco has adopted global standards on neurotechnology
Experts were increasingly concerned that a lack of guardrails could give rise to unethical practices. (The Guardian)
+ Meet the other companies developing brain-computer interfaces. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Benchmarks hugely oversell AI performance
A new study questions their reliability and the validity of their results. (NBC News)
+ How to build a better AI benchmark. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Kim Kardashian blames ChatGPT for failing her law exams
It’s almost like she shouldn’t have been consulting it for legal expertise in the first place. (Hollywood Reporter)
+ AI and social media is worsening brain rot. (NYT $)
+ How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Hyundai is using robot dogs to inspect its EV production line
And they may soon be joined by a bipedal master. (IEEE Spectrum)

10 Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed yet again
The highly anticipated video game has big, big shoes to fill. (Bloomberg $)
+ It’ll land a full 13 years after its previous incarnation—or will it? (BBC)

Quote of the day

“This is what oligarchy looks like.”

—Senator Bernie Sanders reacts to Tesla shareholders’ decision to award Elon Musk a $1 trillion pay package in a post on X.

One more thing

Finding forgotten Indigenous landscapes with electromagnetic technology

The fertile river valleys of the American Midwest hide tens of thousands of Indigenous earthworks, according to experts: geometric structures consisting of walls, mounds, ditches, and berms, some dating back nearly 3,000 years.

Archaeologists now believe that the earthworks functioned as religious gathering places, tombs for culturally important clans, and annual calendars, perhaps all at the same time. They can take the form of giant circles and squares, cloverleafs and octagons, complex S-curves and simple mounds.

Until recently, it seemed as if much of the continent’s pre-European archaeological heritage had been carelessly wiped out, uprooted, and lost for good. But traces remain: electromagnetic remnants in the soil that can be detected using specialty surveying equipment. And archaeologists and tribal historians are working together to uncover them. Read the full story.

—Geoff Manaugh

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 a wildlife fan, take a look at this compilation of the best places to catch a glimpse of unusual animals.
+ El Salvador’s annual fireball festival is a completely unhinged celebration of all things volcanic.
+ The most influential Bostonians of 2025 have been announced.
+ Get me in a potato bed, stat.

The Download: how doctors fight conspiracy theories, and your AI footprint

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

How conspiracy theories infiltrated the doctor’s office

As anyone who has googled their symptoms and convinced themselves that they’ve got a brain tumor will attest, the internet makes it very easy to self-(mis)diagnose your health problems. And although social media and other digital forums can be a lifeline for some people looking for a diagnosis or community, when that information is wrong, it can put their well-being and even lives in danger.

We spoke to a number of health-care professionals who told us how this modern impulse to “do your own research” is changing their profession. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.

Stop worrying about your AI footprint. Look at the big picture instead.

—Casey Crownhart

As a climate technology reporter, I’m often asked by people whether they should be using AI, given how awful it is for the environment. Generally, I tell them not to worry—let a chatbot plan your vacation, suggest recipe ideas, or write you a poem if you want.

That response might surprise some. I promise I’m not living under a rock, and I have seen all the concerning projections about how much electricity AI is using. But I feel strongly about not putting the onus on individuals. Here’s why.

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

A new ion-based quantum computer makes error correction simpler

A company called Quantinuum has just unveiled Helios, its third-generation quantum computer, which includes expanded computing power and error correction capability.

Like all other existing quantum computers, Helios is not powerful enough to execute the industry’s dream money-making algorithms, such as those that would be useful for materials discovery or financial modeling.

But Quantinuum’s machines, which use individual ions as qubits, could be easier to scale up than quantum computers that use superconducting circuits as qubits, such as Google’s and IBM’s. Read the full story.

—Sophia Chen

The must-reads

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

1 A new California law could change how all Americans browse online 
It gives web users the chance to opt out of having their personal information sold or shared. (The Markup)

2 The FDA has fast-tracked a pill to treat pancreatic cancer
The experimental drug appears promising, but experts worry corners may be cut. (WP $)
+ Demand for AstraZeneca’s cancer and diabetes drugs is pushing profits up. (Bloomberg $)
+ A new cancer treatment kills cells using localized heat. (Wired $)

3 AI pioneers claim it is already superior to humans in many tasks
But not all tasks are created equal. (FT $)
+ Are we all wandering into an AGI trap? (Vox)
+ How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time. (MIT Technology Review)

4 IBM is planning on cutting thousands of jobs
It’s shifting its focus to software and AI consulting, apparently. (Bloomberg $)
+ It’s keen to grow the number of its customers seeking AI advice. (NYT $)

5 Big Tech’s data centers aren’t the job-generators we were promised
The jobs they do create are largely in security and cleaning. (Rest of World)
+ We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Microsoft let AI shopping agents loose in a fake marketplace 
They were easily manipulated into buying goods, it found. (TechCrunch)
+ When AIs bargain, a less advanced agent could cost you. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Sony has compiled a dataset to test the fairness of computer vision models
And it’s confident it’s been compiled in a fair and ethical way. (The Register)
+ These new tools could make AI vision systems less biased. (MIT Technology Review)

8 The social network is no more
We’re living in an age of anti-social media. (The Atlantic $)
+ Scam ads are rife across platforms, but these former Meta workers have a plan. (Wired $)
+ The ultimate online flex? Having no followers. (New Yorker $)

9 Vibe coding is Collins dictionary’s word of 2025
Beating stiff competition from “clanker.” (The Guardian)
+ What is vibe coding, exactly? (MIT Technology Review)

10 These people found romance with their chatbot companions
The AI may not be real, but the humans’ feelings certainly are. (NYT $)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“The opportunistic side of me is realizing that your average accountant won’t be doing this.”

—Sal Abdulla, founder of accounting-software startup NixSheets, tells the Wall Street Journal he’s using AI tools to gain an edge on his competitors.

One more thing

Ethically sourced “spare” human bodies could revolutionize medicine

Many challenges in medicine stem, in large part, from a common root cause: a severe shortage of ethically-sourced human bodies.

There might be a way to get out of this moral and scientific deadlock. Recent advances in biotechnology now provide a pathway to producing living human bodies without the neural components that allow us to think, be aware, or feel pain.

Many will find this possibility disturbing, but if researchers and policymakers can find a way to pull these technologies together, we may one day be able to create “spare” bodies, both human and nonhuman. Read the full story.

—Carsten T. Charlesworth, Henry T. Greely & Hiromitsu Nakauchi

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.)

+ Make sure to look up so you don’t miss November’s supermoon.
+ If you keep finding yourself mindlessly scrolling (and who doesn’t?), maybe this whopping six-pound phone case could solve your addiction.
+ Life lessons from a 101-year old who has no plans to retire.
+ Are you a fan of movement snacking?

The Download: the solar geoengineering race, and future gazing with the The Simpsons

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 the for-profit race into solar geoengineering is bad for science and public trust

—David Keith is the professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and Daniele Visioni is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University

Last week, an American-Israeli company that claims it’s developed proprietary technology to cool the planet announced it had raised $60 million, by far the largest known venture capital round to date for a solar geoengineering startup.

The company, Stardust, says the funding will enable it to develop a system that could be deployed by the start of the next decade, according to Heatmap, which broke the story.

As scientists who have worked on the science of solar geoengineering for decades, we have grown increasingly concerned about emerging efforts to start and fund private companies to deploy technologies that could alter the climate of the planet. We also strongly dispute some of the technical claims that certain companies have made about their offerings. Read the full story.

This story is part of Heat Exchange, MIT Technology Review’s guest opinion series offering expert commentary on legal, political and regulatory issues related to climate change and clean energy. You can read the rest of the series here.

Can “The Simpsons” really predict the future?

According to internet listicles, the animated sitcom The Simpsons has predicted the future anywhere from 17 to 55 times.

The show foresaw Donald Trump becoming US President a full 17 years before the real estate mogul was inaugurated as the 45th leader of the United States. Earlier, in 1993, an episode of the show featured the “Osaka flu,” which some felt was eerily prescient of the coronavirus pandemic. And—somehow!—Simpsons writers just knew that the US Olympic curling team would beat Sweden eight whole years before they did it.

Al Jean has worked on The Simpsons on and off since 1989; he is the cartoon’s longest-serving showrunner. Here, he reflects on the conspiracy theories that have sprung from these apparent prophecies. Read the full story.

—Amelia Tait

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” about how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered.

Declan would never have found out his therapist was using ChatGPT had it not been for a technical mishap where his therapist began inadvertently sharing his screen.

For the rest of the session, Declan was privy to a real-time stream of ChatGPT analysis rippling across his therapist’s screen, who was taking what Declan was saying, putting it into ChatGPT, and then parroting its answers.

But Declan is not alone. In fact, a growing number of people are reporting receiving AI-generated communiqués from their therapists. Clients’ trust and privacy are being abandoned in the process.

This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.

The must-reads

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

1 Amazon is suing Perplexity over its Comet AI agent
It alleges Perplexity is committing computer fraud by not disclosing when Comet is shopping on a human’s behalf. (Bloomberg $)
+ In turn, Perplexity has accused Amazon of bullying. (CNBC)

2 Trump has nominated the billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA
Five months after he withdrew Isaacman’s nomination for the same job. (WP $)
+ It was around the same time Elon Musk left the US government. (WSJ $)

3 Homeland Security has released an app for police forces to scan people’s faces 
Mobile Fortify uses facial recognition to identify whether someone’s been given a deportation order. (404 Media)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Scientific journals are being swamped with AI-written letters
Researchers are sifting through their inbox trying to work out what to believe. (NYT $)
+ ArXiv is no longer accepting certain papers for fear they’ve been written by AI. (404 Media)

5 The AI boom has proved a major windfall for equipment makers 
Makers of small turbines and fuel cells, rejoice. (WSJ $)

6 Chronic kidney disease may be the first chronic illness linked to climate change
Experts have linked a surge in the disease to hotter temperatures. (Undark)
+ The quest to find out how our bodies react to extreme temperatures. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Brazil is proposing a fund to protect tropical forests
It would pay countries not to fell their trees. (NYT $)

8 New York has voted for a citywide digital map
It’ll officially represent the five boroughs for the first time. (Fast Company $)

9 The internet could be at risk of catastrophic collapse
Meet the people preparing for that exact eventuality. (New Scientist $)

10 A Chinese space craft may have been hit by space junk
Three astronauts have been forced to remain on the Tiangong space station while the damage is investigated. (Ars Technica)

Quote of the day

“I am not sure how I earned the trust of so many, but I will do everything I can to live up to those expectations.”

—Jared Isaacman, Donald Trump’s renomination to lead NASA, doesn’t appear entirely sure in his own abilities to lead the agency, Ars Technica reports.

One more thing

Is the digital dollar dead?

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

How things change. Years later, the digital dollar—even though it doesn’t exist—has become political red meat, as some politicians label it a dystopian tool for surveillance. And late last year, the Boston Fed quietly stopped working on its CBDC project. So is the dream of the digital dollar dead? Read the full story.

—Mike Orcutt

We can still have nice things

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

+ The world’s oldest air has been unleashed, after six million years under ice.
+ How to stop sweating the small stuff and try to be happy in this mad world.
+ Happy Bonfire Night to our British readers!
+ The spirit of Halloween is still with us: the scariest music ever recorded.

The Download: the AGI myth, and US/China AI competition

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 AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time

—Will Douglas Heaven, senior AI editor 

Are you feeling it?

I hear it’s close: two years, five years—maybe next year! And I hear it’s going to solve our biggest problems in ways we cannot yet imagine. I also hear it will bring on the apocalypse and kill us all…

We’re of course talking about artificial general intelligence, or AGI—that hypothetical near-future technology that (I hear) will be able to do pretty much whatever a human brain can do.

Every age has its believers, people with an unshakeable faith that something huge is about to happen—a before and an after that they are privileged (or doomed) to live through. For us, that’s the promised advent of AGI. And here’s what I think: AGI is a lot like a conspiracy theory, and it may be the most consequential one of our time. Read the full story.

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.

The State of AI: Is China about to win the race? 

Viewed from abroad, it seems only a matter of time before China emerges as the AI superpower of the 21st century. 

In the West, our initial instinct is to focus on America’s significant lead in semiconductor expertise, its cutting-edge AI research, and its vast investments in data centers.

Today, however, China has the means, motive, and opportunity to win. When it comes to mobilizing the whole-of-society resources needed to develop and deploy AI to maximum effect, it may be rash to bet against it. Read the full story.

—John Thornhill & Caiwei Chen

This is the first edition of The State of AI, a collaboration between the Financial Times & MIT Technology Review examining the ways in which AI is reshaping global power. Every Monday for the next six weeks, writers from both publications will debate one aspect of the generative AI revolution reshaping global power. Sign up 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 China is prepared to cut its data centers a sweet deal
If they agree to use native chips over American rivals’, that is. (FT $)
+ What happened when a data center moved into a small American town. (WSJ $)
+ Microsoft and OpenAI want more power—they just don’t know how much more. (TechCrunch)
+ The data center boom in the desert. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Norway’s oil fund has rejected Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package
The Tesla shareholder is concerned about the size of the reward. (WSJ $)
+ It says it will vote against the deal on Thursday. (FT $)

3 OpenAI has signed a massive compute deal with Amazon
It’s the latest in a long string of blockbuster deals for the AI company. (Wired $)

4 Cybersecurity workers moonlighted as criminal hackers
They’re accused of sharing their profits with the creators of the ransomware they deployed. (Bloomberg $)
+ The hackers demanded tens of millions in extortion payments. (The Register)

5 Tech’s elites are funding plans to safeguard MAGA
Entrepreneur Chris Buskirk is using donor money to equip it to outlive Trump. (WP $)

6 These startups supply the labor to train multitasking humanoid robots
Teams of humans are doing the dirty work, including filming themselves folding towels hundreds of times a day. (LA Times $)
+ This new system can teach a robot a simple household task within 20 minutes. (MIT Technology Review)

7 LLMs can’t accurately describe their internal processes
Anthropic is on a mission to measure their so-called introspective awareness. (Ars Technica)

8 Why are people using AI to hack their hobbies?
Talk about the death of fun. (NY Mag $)
+ While we’re at it, don’t use chatbots to answer friends’ dilemmas either. (Wired $)
+ Or to write research papers. (404 Media)

9 Coca-Cola is doubling down on AI in its ads
Undeterred by criticism last year, it’s back with more for the 2025 holidays. (WSJ $)
+ Nothing says festive joy like AI slop. (The Verge)

10 Facebook Dating is a…hit?
But you should still be on the lookout for scammers. (NYT $)
+ It’s not just for boomers—younger people are using it too. (TechCrunch)
+ For better or worse, AI is seeping into all the biggest dating platforms. (Economist $)

Quote of the day

“That was the kick of it, that the AI actually did find compatibility. It was the human part that didn’t work out.”

—Emma Inge, a project manager looking for love in San Francisco, describes the trouble with using an AI matchmaker to the New York Times: it can’t stop you getting ghosted.

One more thing

Inside the most dangerous asteroid hunt ever

If you were told that the odds of something were 3.1%, it might not seem like much. But for the people charged with protecting our planet, it was huge.

On February 18, astronomers determined that a 130- to 300-foot-long asteroid had a 3.1% chance of crashing into Earth in 2032. Never had an asteroid of such dangerous dimensions stood such a high chance of striking the planet. Then, just days later on February 24, experts declared that the danger had passed. Earth would be spared.

How did they do it? What was it like to track the rising danger of this asteroid, and to ultimately determine that it’d miss us?

This is the inside story of how a sprawling network of astronomers found, followed, mapped, planned for, and finally dismissed the most dangerous asteroid ever found—all under the tightest of timelines and, for just a moment, with the highest of stakes. Read the full story.

—Robin George Andrews

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.)

+ People in the Middle Ages chose to depict the devil in very interesting ways, I’ll say that much.
+ We may be inching closer to understanding why the animal kingdom has developed such elaborate markings.
+ The music in the new game Pokémon Legends: Z-A sure is interesting.
+ Slow cooker dinners are beckoning.

The Download: gene-edited babies, and cleaning up copper

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.

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

The news: A West Coast biotech entrepreneur says he’s secured $30 million to form a public-benefit company to study how to safely create genetically edited babies, marking the largest known investment into the taboo technology.  

How they’re doing it: The new company, called Preventive, is being formed to research so-called “heritable genome editing,” in which the DNA of embryos would be modified by correcting harmful mutations or installing beneficial genes. The goal would be to prevent disease.

Why it’s contentious: Creating genetically edited humans remains controversial. The first scientist to do it, in China, was imprisoned for three years. The procedure remains illegal in many countries, including the US, and doubts surround its usefulness as a form of medicine. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

This startup wants to clean up the copper industry

Demand for copper is surging, as is pollution from its dirty production processes. The founders of one startup, Still Bright, think they have a better, cleaner way to generate the copper the world needs. 

The company uses water-based reactions, based on battery chemistry technology, to purify copper in a process that could be less polluting than traditional smelting. And the hope is that this alternative will also help ease growing strain on the copper supply chain. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

The must-reads

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

1 The FDA’s top drug regulator has resigned
George Tidmarsh allegedly abused his position to inflict financial harm on a former associate. (STAT)
+ He’s only been in the post since July. (WP $)
+ It’s just the latest in a long line of slapdash leadership changes at the agency. (AP News)
+ Here’s what food and drug regulation might look like under the Trump administration. (MIT Technology Review)

2 America’s nuclear weapons testing won’t involve explosions
So don’t expect to see mushroom clouds any time soon. (BBC)
+ The tests will involve “the other parts of a nuclear weapon,” apparently. (NYT $)
+ The US is working to modernize its nuclear stockpile too. (The Hill)

3 Mustafa Suleyman wants researchers to stop pursuing conscious AI 
The Microsoft AI boss believes consciousness is reserved for biological beings only. (CNBC)
+ Here’s what the man who coined the term AGI has to say. (Wired $)
+ “We will never build a sex robot,” says Mustafa Suleyman. (MIT Technology Review) 

4 Elon Musk may relinquish control of Tesla
If the company’s shareholders decide against awarding him close to $1 trillion in stock. (NYT $)
+ One major investor has already said it won’t be supporting the pay package. (Gizmodo)

5 The hottest job in AI right now? Forward-deployed engineers
They’re specialists who help AI companies’ customers adopt their models. (FT $)

6 Hackers are stealing cargo shipments from transportation firms
They’re successfully infecting networks with remote access tools. (Bloomberg $)

7 OpenAI’s o1 model can analyze languages like a human expert
Experts suggest linguistic analysis is a key testbed for assessing the extent to which these models can reason like we can. (Quanta Magazine)

8 US obesity rates have started to drop
And weight-loss drugs are highly likely to be the reason why. (Vox)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Why it’s so tricky to make a good grocery list app
Notes just won’t cut it. (The Verge)

10 Many robots make light work
Lots of machines working in tandem can achieve what they’d struggle to do alone. (WSJ $)
+ Tiny robots inspired by spiders could help deliver diagnoses. (IEEE Spectrum)

Quote of the day

“You can check if there’s a backdoor.”

—China’s leader Xi Jinping jokes about the security of two Chinese-made cellphones he gifted to South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, the New York Times reports.

One more thing

Digital twins of human organs are here. They’re set to transform medical treatment.

“Digital twins” are the same size and shape as the human organs they’re designed to mimic. They work in the same way. But they exist only virtually. Scientists can do virtual surgery on virtual hearts, figuring out the best course of action for a patient’s condition.

After decades of research, models like these are now entering clinical trials and starting to be used for patient care. The eventual goal is to create digital versions of our bodies—computer copies that could help researchers and doctors figure out our risk of developing various diseases and determine which treatments might work best.

But the budding technology will need to be developed very carefully. Read the full story to learn why.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

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

+ The Empire State Building Run-Up race sounds amazing, if completely gruelling.
+ Very cool: each year, the scientific staff of the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station screen horror classic The Thing to prepare themselves for the long, isolated winter ahead.
+ How caterpillars spin their protective little cocoons.
+ One-pot chicken sounds like a great winter warmer of a recipe.

The Download: down the Mandela effect rabbit hole, and the promise of a vaccine for colds

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 do so many people think the Fruit of the Loom logo had a cornucopia?

Quick question: Does the Fruit of the Loom logo feature a cornucopia?

Many of us have been wearing the company’s T-shirts for decades, and yet the question of whether there is a woven brown horn of plenty on the logo is surprisingly contentious.

According to a 2022 poll, 55% of Americans believe the logo does include a cornucopia, 25% are unsure, and only 21% are confident that it doesn’t, even though this last group is correct.

There’s a name for what’s happening here: the “Mandela effect,” or collective false memory, so called because a number of people misremember that Nelson Mandela died in prison. Yet while many find it easy to let their unconfirmable beliefs go, some spend years seeking answers—and vindication. Read the full story.

—Amelia Tait

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” on how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.

Here’s why we don’t have a cold vaccine. Yet.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the season of the sniffles. As the weather turns, we’re all spending more time indoors. The kids have been back at school for a couple of months. And cold germs are everywhere.

So why can’t we get a vaccine to protect us against the common cold? Scientists have been working on this for decades, but it turns out that creating a cold vaccine is hard. Really hard. But not impossible. There’s still hope. 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.

Inside the archives of the NASA Ames Research Center

At the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, surrounded by the tech giants Google, Apple, and Microsoft, sits the historic NASA Ames Research Center. Its rich history includes a grab bag of fascinating scientific research involving massive wind tunnels, experimental aircraft, supercomputing, astrobiology, and more.

A collection of 5,000 images from NASA Ames’s archives paints a vivid picture of bleeding-edge work at the heart of America’s technology hub. Read the full story.

—Jon Keegan

This story is from the latest print issue of MIT Technology Review magazine, which is full of 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 The US government is considering banning TP-Link routers
An investigation has raised concerns over the company’s links to China. (WP $)
+ Lawmakers are worried its equipment is vulnerable to hacking. (Bloomberg $)

2 ICE has proposed building a deportation network in Texas
The 24/7 operation would transfer detained immigrants into holding facilities. (Wired $)
+ But US citizens keep being detained, too. (NY Mag $)
+ Inside the operation giving ICE a run for its money. (Slate $)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Ukrainian drone teams are gamifying their war efforts
Officials say rewarding soldiers for successful attacks keeps them motivated. (NYT $)
+ A Peter Thiel-backed drone startup crashed and burned during military trials. (FT $)
+ Meet the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Meta has denied torrenting porn to train its AI models
Instead, it claims, the downloads were for someone’s “private personal use.” (Ars Technica)

5 Bird flu is getting harder to keep tabs on
The virus has wreaked havoc on the US poultry industry for close to four years. (Vox)
+ A new biosensor can detect bird flu in five minutes. (MIT Technology Review)

6 AI browsers are a cybersecurity nightmare
They’re a hotbed of known—and unknown—risks. (The Verge)
+ I tried OpenAI’s new Atlas browser but I still don’t know what it’s for. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Robots are starting to do more jobs across America
But they’re still proving buggy and expensive to run. (WSJ $)
+ When you might start speaking to robots. (MIT Technology Review)

8 These are the jobs that AI built
From conversation designer to adoption strategist. (WP $)
+ if you fancy landing a job in quantum computing, here’s how to do it. (IEEE Spectrum)

9 Computer vision is getting much, much better
Their blind spots are rapidly being eliminated. (Knowable Magazine)

10 A lock-cracking YouTuber is being sued by a lockmaking company  
It’s arguing he defamed the company, even though he didn’t say a word during the clip. (Ars Technica)

Quote of the day

“Yes, we’ve been to the Moon before… six times!”

—NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy reacts to Kim Kardashian’s belief that man has never set foot on the moon, the Guardian reports.

One more thing

What happens when you donate your body to science

Rebecca George doesn’t mind the vultures that complain from the trees that surround the Western Carolina University body farm. Her arrival has interrupted their breakfast. George studies human decomposition, and part of decomposing is becoming food. Scavengers are welcome.

In the US, about 20,000 people or their families donate their bodies to scientific research and education each year. Whatever the reason, the decision becomes a gift. Western Carolina’s FOREST is among the places where watchful caretakers know that the dead and the living are deeply connected, and the way you treat the first reflects how you treat the second. Read the full story.

—Abby Ohlheiser

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.)

+ Zoo animals across the world are getting into the Halloween spirit with some tasty pumpkins.
+ If you’re stuck for something suitably spooky to watch tonight, this list is a great place to start.
+ New York’s historic Morris-Jumel Mansion is seriously beautiful—and seriously haunted.
+ Salem’s Lucipurr is on the prowl!

The Download: Introducing: the new 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.

Introducing: the new conspiracy age

Everything is a conspiracy theory now. Conspiracists are all over the White House, turning fringe ideas into dangerous policy. America’s institutions are crumbling under the weight of deep suspicion and the lasting effects of covid isolation. Online echo chambers are getting harder to escape, and generative AI is altering the fabric of truth. A mix of technology and politics has given an unprecedented boost to once-fringe ideas—but they are pretty much the same fantasies that have been spreading for hundreds of years.

MIT Technology Review helps break down how this moment is changing science and technology—and how we can make it through. We’re thrilled to present The New Conspiracy Age, a new series digging into how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology. 

To kick us off, check out Dorian Lynskey’s fascinating piece explaining why it’s never been easier to be a conspiracy theorist. And stay tuned—we’ll be showcasing a different story from the package each day in the next few editions of The Download!

Four thoughts from Bill Gates on climate tech

Bill Gates doesn’t shy away or pretend modesty when it comes to his stature in the climate world today. “Well, who’s the biggest funder of climate innovation companies?” he asked a handful of journalists at a media roundtable event last week. “If there’s someone else, I’ve never met them.”

The former Microsoft CEO has spent the last decade investing in climate technology through Breakthrough Energy, which he founded in 2015. Ahead of the UN climate meetings kicking off next week, Gates published a memo outlining what he thinks activists and negotiators should focus on and how he’s thinking about the state of climate tech right now. Here’s what he had to say.

—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 US Homeland Security shared false videos of immigration operations
They claimed to show recent operations but used footage that was old, or recorded thousands of miles away. (WP $)
+ ICE is scanning pedestrians’ faces to verify their citizenship. (404 Media)

2 Character.AI is banning under-18s from talking to its virtual companions
It’s currently facing several lawsuits from families who claim its chatbots have harmed their children. (NYT $)
+ The company says it’s introducing age assurance functionality. (FT $)
+ Teenage boys are using chatbots to roleplay as girlfriends. (The Guardian)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Trump directed the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing
America hasn’t conducted such tests for more than 30 years. (BBC)
+ The US President made multiple incorrect assertions in his statement. (The Verge)
+ He doesn’t seem to even know why he wants to resume the tests himself. (The Atlantic $)

4 A Google DeepMind AI model accurately predicted Hurricane Melissa’s severity
It’s the first time the US National Hurricane Center has deployed it. (Nature $)
+ Here’s how to actually help the people affected by its extensive damage. (Vox)
+ Google DeepMind’s new AI model is the best yet at weather forecasting. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A major record label has signed a deal with AI music firm Udio
Universal Music Group had previously sued it for copyright infringement. (WSJ $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Are companies using AI as a fig leaf to lay workers off?
It’s sure starting to look that way. (NBC News)
+ Big Tech is going to keep spending billions on AI, regardless. (WP $)

7 Meta Ray-Ban users are filming themselves in massage parlors
They’re harassing workers, who appear unaware they’re being recorded. (404 Media)
+ China’s smart glasses makers are keen to capture the market. (FT $)

8 Just three countries dominate the world’s space launches
What will it take to get some other nations in the mix? (Rest of World)

9 Why you shouldn’t hire an AI agent
Their freelancing capabilities are… limited. (Wired $)
+ The people paid to train AI are outsourcing their work… to AI. (MIT Technology Review)

10 This app’s AI-generated podcasting dog videos are a big hit
But DogPack wants to make sure viewers know it’s not trying to trick them. (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“Zuck spent five years and $70 billion dollars to build a business that loses $4.4 billion/year to create only $470 million in revenue. So bad you can’t give it away, I guess.”

—Greg Linden, a former data scientist at Microsoft, pokes fun at Meta’s beleaguered Reality Labs’ earnings in a post on Bluesky.

One more thing

How scientists want to make you young again

A little over 15 years ago, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan made a remarkable discovery. When they added just four proteins to a skin cell and waited about two weeks, some of the cells underwent an unexpected and astounding transformation: they became young again. They turned into stem cells almost identical to the kind found in a days-old embryo, just beginning life’s journey.

At least in a petri dish, researchers using the procedure can take withered skin cells from a 101-year-old and rewind them so they act as if they’d never aged at all.

Now, after more than a decade of studying and tweaking so-called cellular reprogramming, a number of biotech companies and research labs say they have tantalizing hints that the process could be the gateway to an unprecedented new technology for age reversal. Read the full story. 

—Antonio Regalado

We can still have nice things

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

+ 2025’s Comedy Wildlife Award winners and finalists are classics of the genre.
+ This Instagram account shared the same video of Thomas the Tank Engine’s daring railway stunts every day, and I think that’s just beautiful.
+ How to get more of that elusive deep sleep.
+ Here’s an interesting take on why we still find dragons so fascinating

The Download: Boosting AI’s memory, and data centers’ unhappy neighbors

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.

DeepSeek may have found a new way to improve AI’s ability to remember

The news: An AI model released by Chinese AI company DeepSeek uses new techniques that could significantly improve AI’s ability to “remember.”

How it works: The optical character recognition model works by extracting text from an image and turning it into machine-readable words. This is the same technology that powers scanner apps, translation of text in photos, and many accessibility tools.

Why it matters: Researchers say the model’s main innovation lies in how it processes information—specifically, how it stores and retrieves data. Improving how AI models “remember” could reduce how much computing power they need to run, thus mitigating AI’s large (and growing) carbon footprint. Read the full story.

—Caiwei Chen

The AI Hype Index: Data centers’ neighbors are pivoting to power blackouts

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.

Roundtables: seeking climate solutions in turbulent times

Yesterday we held a subscriber-only conversation exploring how companies are pursuing climate solutions amid political shifts in the US.

Our climate reporters James Temple and Casey Crownhart sat down with our science editor Mary Beth Griggs to dig into the most promising climate technologies right now. Watch the session back here!

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Supershoes are reshaping distance running

“Supershoes” —which combine a lightweight, energy-­returning foam with a carbon-fiber plate for stiffness—have been behind every broken world record in distances from 5,000 meters to the marathon since 2020.

To some, this is a sign of progress—for both the field as a whole and for athletes’ bodies. Still, some argue that they’ve changed the sport too quickly.

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 Hurricane Melissa may be the Atlantic Ocean’s strongest on record
There’s little doubt in scientists’ minds that human-caused climate change is to blame. (New Scientist $)+ While Jamaica is largely without power, no deaths have been confirmed. (BBC)
+ The hurricane is currently sweeping across Cuba. (NYT $)
+ Here’s what we know about hurricanes and climate change. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Texas is suing Tylenol over the Trump administration’s autism claims
Even though the scientific evidence is unfounded. (NY Mag $)
+ The lawsuit claims the firm violated Texas law by claiming the drug was safe. (WP $)

3 Two US Senators want to ban AI companions for minors
They want AI companies to implement age-verification processes, too. (NBC News)
+ The looming crackdown on AI companionship. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Trump’s “golden dome” plan is seriously flawed 
It’s unlikely to offer anything like the protection he claims it will. (WP $)
+ Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The Trump administration is backing new nuclear plants
To—surprise surprise—power the AI boom. (NYT $)
+ The grid is straining to support the excessive demands for power. (Reuters)+ Can nuclear power really fuel the rise of AI? (MIT Technology Review)

5 Uber’s next fleet of autonomous cars will contain Nvidia’s new chips 
Which could eventually make it cheaper to hail a robotaxi. (Bloomberg $)
+ Nvidia is also working with a company called Lucid to bring autonomous cars to consumers. (Ars Technica)

6 Weight loss drugs are becoming more commonplace across the world
Semaglutide patents are due to expire in Brazil, China and India next year. (Economist $)+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

7 More billionaires hail from America than any other nation
The majority of them have made their fortunes working in technology. (WSJ $)
+ China is closing in on America’s global science lead. (Bloomberg $)

8 Australian police are developing an AI tool to decode Gen Z slang
It’s in a bid to combat the rising networks of young men targeting vulnerable girls online. (The Guardian)

9 This robot housekeeper is controlled remotely by a human
Nothing weird about that at all… (WSJ $)
+ The humans behind the robots. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Cameo is suing OpenAI
It’s unhappy about Sora’s new Cameo feature. (Reuters)

Quote of the day

“I don’t believe we’re in an AI bubble.”

—Jensen Haung, Nvidia’s CEO, conveniently dismisses the growing concerns around the AI hype train, Bloomberg reports.

One more thing

How to befriend a crow

Crows have become minor TikTok celebrities thanks to CrowTok, a small but extremely active niche on the social video app that has exploded in popularity over the past two years. CrowTok isn’t just about birds, though. It also often explores the relationships that corvids—a family of birds including crows, magpies, and ravens—develop with human beings.

They’re not the only intelligent birds around, but in general, corvids are smart in a way that resonates deeply with humans. But how easy is it to befriend them? And what can it teach us about attention, and patience, in a world that often seems to have little of either? Read the full story.

—Abby Ohlheiser

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.)

+ Congratulations to Flava Flav, who’s been appointed Team USA’s official hype man for the 2026 Winter Olympics!
+ Why are Spirographs so hypnotic? Answers on a postcard.
+ I love this story—and beautiful photos—celebrating 50 years of the World Gay Rodeo.
+ Axolotls really are remarkable little creatures.