The Download: Microsoft’s stance on erotic AI, and an AI hype mystery

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 will never build a sex robot,” says Mustafa Suleyman

Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, is trying to walk a fine line. On the one hand, he thinks that the industry is taking AI in a dangerous direction by building chatbots that present as human: He worries that people will be tricked into seeing life instead of lifelike behavior.

On the other hand, Suleyman runs a product shop that must compete with those peers. Last week, Microsoft announced a string of updates to its Copilot chatbot designed to make Copilot more expressive, engaging, and helpful.

Will Douglas Heaven, our senior AI editor, talked to Suleyman about the tension at play when it comes to designing our interactions with chatbots and his ultimate vision for what this new technology should be. Read the full story.

An AI adoption riddle

—James O’Donnell, senior AI reporter 

A few weeks ago, I set out on what I thought would be a straightforward reporting journey.

After years of momentum for AI, hype had been slightly punctured. First there was the underwhelming release of GPT-5 in August. Then a report released two weeks later found that 95% of generative AI pilots were failing, which caused a brief stock market panic. I wanted to know: Which companies are spooked enough to scale back their AI spending?

But if AI’s hype has indeed been punctured, I couldn’t find a company willing to talk about it. So what should we make of my failed quest?

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

The must-reads

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

1 Hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users exhibit severe mental health symptoms
That’s according to estimates from OpenAI, which says it has tweaked GPT-5 to respond more effectively to users in distress. (Wired $)
+ OpenAI won’t lock access to force users to take a break, though. (Gizmodo)
+ Why AI should be able to “hang up” on you. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Elon Musk has launched his answer to Wikipedia
Grokipedia’s right-leaning entries reflect the way the billionaire sees the world. (WP $)
+ Several pages perpetuate historical inaccuracies and conservative views. (Wired $)
+ The AI-generated encyclopedia briefly crashed shortly after it launched. (Engadget)

3 Surgeons have removed a pig kidney from a patient
It was the longest-functioning genetically engineered pig kidney so far. (Wired $)
+ “Spare” living human bodies might provide us with organs for transplantation. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Amazon is planning to cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs
Partly in response to staff’s reluctance to return to the office five days a week. (Reuters)
+ The company is planning yet another round of layoffs in January. (NYT $)

5 Older people can’t get enough of screens
Their digital habits mirror the high usage typically observed among teenagers. (Economist $)

6 A British cyclist has been given a 3D-printed face
Dave Richards received severe third-degree burns to his head after being struck by a drunk driver. (The Guardian)

7 The twitter.com domain is being shut down
Make sure you re-enroll your security and passkeys before the big switch-off. (Fast Company $)
+ It means the abandoned accounts could be sold on. (The Verge)
+ But 2FA apps should be fine—in theory. (The Register)

8 When is a moon not a moon?
Believe it or not, we don’t have an official definition. (The Atlantic $)
+ Astronomers have spotted a “quasi-moon” hovering near Earth. (BBC)
+ The moon is just the beginning for this waterless concrete. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Threads’ ghost posts will disappear after 24 hours
If anyone saw them in the first place, that is. (TechCrunch)

10 In the metaverse, anyone can be a K-pop superstar
Virtual idols are gaining huge popularity, before crossing over into real-world fame. (Rest of World)
+ Meta’s former metaverse head has been moved into its AI team. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“The impulse to control knowledge is as old as knowledge itself. Controlling what gets written is a way to gain or keep power.”

—Ryan McGrady, senior research fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, reflects on Elon Musk’s desire to create his own online encyclopedia to the New York Times.

One more thing

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

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

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

—Eileen Guo, Gabriel Geiger & Justin-Casimir Braun

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.)

+ Happy 70th birthday to Bill Gates, who is not revered enough for his chair-jumping skills.
+ Bring back Guitar Hero—the iconic game that convinced us all we were capable of knocking out Heart’s Barracuda (note: the majority of us were not.)
+ Even the swankiest parts of London aren’t immune to rumours of ghostly hauntings.
+ Justice for medieval frogs and their unfair reputation!

The Download: what to make of OpenAI’s Atlas browser, and how to make climate progress

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.

I tried OpenAI’s new Atlas browser but I still don’t know what it’s for

—Mat Honan

OpenAI rolled out a new web browser last week called Atlas. It comes with ChatGPT built in, along with an agent, so that you can browse, get answers, and have automated tasks performed on your behalf all at the same time.

I’ve spent the past several days tinkering with Atlas. I’ve used it to do all my normal web browsing, and also tried to take advantage of the ChatGPT functions—plus I threw some weird agentic tasks its way to see how it did with those.

My impression is that Atlas is…  fine? But my big takeaway is that it’s pretty pointless for anyone not employed by OpenAI. In fact, Atlas seems to be little more than cynicism masquerading as software. Read the full story.

This review first appeared in The Debrief, Mat Honan’s weekly subscriber-only newsletter.

Seeking climate solutions in turbulent times

Despite recent political shifts in the US, companies are continuing to pursue exciting new climate solutions. Tomorrow we’re holding an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable event digging into the most promising technologies of the moment drawing from our recently released 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch list.

This conversation will give subscribers insight into where tangible climate progress is happening today, and how recent political changes are reshaping the path toward a more sustainable future. Join us at 1pm ET on Tuesday October 28—register here!

The must-reads

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

1 Donald Trump says a TikTok deal could be reached this week 
Perhaps on Thursday, when he’s due to meet Xi Jinping. (CNBC)
+ US treasury secretary Scott Bessent appeared to jump the gun when he said the deal had already been done. (The Guardian)

2 Covid vaccines helped to prolong the life of cancer patients
The findings raise hopes a universal vaccine could help patients with different cancers. (WP $)
+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

3 How developing nations benefit from “AI decolonization”
Rules forcing Silicon Valley’s giants to process data locally has helped to spread the AI boom’s wealth. (WSJ $)
+ Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia wants to be known as the “AI exporter.” (NYT $)
+ Inside India’s scramble for AI independence. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Those rising electricity costs aren’t just down to AI
Costly electrical equipment and disaster prep are bigger factors pushing up prices. (WP $)
+ Amazon considered concealing its data centers’ water usage. (The Guardian)
+ AI is changing the grid. Could it help more than it harms? (MIT Technology Review)

5 California State wants to become America’s largest “AI-empowered” University
It’s teaming up with Amazon, OpenAI and Nvidia to prepare its students for increasingly AI-driven careers. (NYT $)
+ How do technologies change our abilities to learn skills? (The Atlantic $)
+ Why the ultra-wealthy are sending their kids to High Point University. (WSJ $)
+ The job market is tough right now, but we’ve weathered this kind of storm before. (Insider $)

6 This new startup sells AI bot interactions to manipulate social media
Even though it violates every major platforms’ policies. (404 Media)

7 Even real estate isn’t safe from AI slop
House hunters are being forced to wade through AI-enhanced listings. (Wired $)

8 Why we’re so obsessed with sleepmaxxing 
Yes, sleep is good for you. But does the tech that tracks it really do the job it claims to? (The Atlantic $)
+ I tried to hack my insomnia with technology. Here’s what worked. (MIT Technology Review)

9 It’s probably not worth buying an Ultra-HD TV
So feel free to ignore all that persuasive marketing jargon. (The Guardian)

10 Sneaky employees are using AI to fake their expense receipts
So expense firms are in turn deploying AI to try and detect the fakes. (FT $)

Quote of the day

“I’m skeptical of all of the hype around AI right now. This is not my first bubble.”

—Jay Goldberg, a senior analyst at Seaport Global Securities, is no stranger to the hysteria that surrounds overhyped technologies, he tells Bloomberg.

One more thing

Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport

Clear Secure is the most visible biometric identity company in the United States. Best known for its line-jumping service in airports, it’s also popping up at sports arenas and stadiums all over the country. You can also use its identity verification platform to rent tools at Home Depot, put your profile in front of recruiters on LinkedIn, and, as of this month, verify your identity as a rider on Uber.

And soon enough, if Clear has its way, it may also be in your favorite retailer, bank, and even doctor’s office—or anywhere else that you currently have to pull out a wallet (or wait in line).

While the company has been building toward this sweeping vision for years, it now seems its time has finally come. But as biometrics go mainstream, what—and who—bears the cost? Read the full story. 

—Eileen Guo

We can still have nice things

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

+ Ancient manuscripts are jam packed with weird and wonderful beasts.
+ Horror writers tell us the spooky stories that send a shiver down their respective spines.
+ Here’s why living on a red dwarf isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds.
+ Kiki the sheep may not be able to walk, but she isn’t letting it get in the way of her getting around (thanks Amy!)

The Download: carbon removal’s future, and measuring pain using an app

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 carbon removal?

After years of growth that spawned hundreds of startups, the nascent carbon removal sector appears to be facing a reckoning.

Running Tide, a promising aquaculture company, shut down its operations last summer, and a handful of other companies have shuttered, downsized, or pivoted in recent months as well. Venture investments have flagged. And the collective industry hasn’t made a whole lot more progress toward Running Tide’s ambitious plans to sequester a billion tons of carbon dioxide by this year.

The hype phase is over and the sector is sliding into the turbulent business trough that follows, experts warn. 

And the open question is: If the carbon removal sector is heading into a painful if inevitable clearing-out cycle, where will it go from there? Read the full story.

—James Temple

This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, which looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.

An AI app to measure pain is here

This week I’ve also been wondering how science and technology can help answer that question—especially when it comes to pain. 

In the latest issue of MIT Technology Review’s print magazine, Deena Mousa describes how an AI-powered smartphone app is being used to assess how much pain a person is in.

The app, and other tools like it, could help doctors and caregivers. They could be especially useful in the care of people who aren’t able to tell others how they are feeling.

But they are far from perfect. And they open up all kinds of thorny questions about how we experience, communicate, and even treat pain. 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 Meta’s lawyers advised workers to remove parts of its teen mental health research
Its counsel told researchers to block or update their work to reduce legal liability. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meta recently laid off more than 100 staff tasked with monitoring risks to user privacy. (NYT $) 

2 Donald Trump has pardoned the convicted Binance founder
Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to violating US money laundering laws in 2023. (WSJ $)
+ The move is likely to enable Binance to resume operating in the US. (CNN)
+ Trump has vowed to be more crypto-friendly than the Biden administration. (Axios)

3 Anthropic and Google Cloud have signed a major chips deal
The agreement is worth tens of billions of dollars. (FT $)

4 Microsoft doesn’t want you to talk dirty to its AI
It’ll leave that kind of thing to OpenAI, thank you very much. (CNBC)
+ Copilot now has its own version of Clippy—just don’t try to get erotic with it. (The Verge)
+ It’s pretty easy to get DeepSeek to talk dirty, however. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Big Tech is footing the bill for Trump’s White House ballroom
Stand up Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. (TechCrunch)
+ Crypto twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are also among the donors. (CNN)

6 US investigators have busted a series of high-tech gambling schemes
Involving specially-designed contact lenses and x-ray tables. (NYT $)
+ The case follows insider bets on basketball and poker games rigged by the mafia. (BBC)
+ Automatic card shufflers can be compromised, too. (Wired $)

7 Deepfake harassment tools are easily accessible on social media
And simple web searches. (404 Media)
+ Bans on deepfakes take us only so far—here’s what we really need. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How algorithms can drive up prices online
Even benign algorithms can sometimes yield bad outcomes for buyers. (Quanta Magazine)
+ When AIs bargain, a less advanced agent could cost you. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How to give an LLM brain rot
Train it on short “superficial” posts from X, for a start. (Ars Technica)
+ AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Meet the tech workers using AI as little as possible
In a bid to keep their skills sharp. (WP $)
+ This professor thinks there are other ways to teach people how to learn. (The Atlantic $)

Quote of the day

“He was convicted. He’s not innocent.”

—Republican Senator Thom Tillis criticises Donald Trump’s decision to pardon convicted cryptocurrency mogul Changpeng Zhao, Politico reports.

One more thing

We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change.

When you’re starving, hunger is like a demon. It awakens the most ancient and primitive parts of the brain, then commandeers other neural machinery to do its bidding until it gets what it wants.

Although scientists have had some success in stimulating hunger in mice, we still don’t really understand how the impulse to eat works. Now, some experts are following known parts of the neural hunger circuits into uncharted parts of the brain to try and find out.

Their work could shed new light on the factors that have caused the number of overweight adults worldwide to skyrocket in recent years. And it could also help solve the mysteries around how and why a new class of weight-loss drugs seems to work so well. Read the full story.

—Adam Piore

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.)

+  Middle aged men are getting into cliff-jumping. Should you?
+ Pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies sounds like a great idea to me.
+ Christmas Island’s crabs are on the move!
+ Watch out if you’re taking the NY subway today: you might bump into these terrifying witches.

The Download: aluminium’s potential as a zero-carbon fuel, and what’s next for energy storage

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 startup is about to conduct the biggest real-world test of aluminum as a zero-carbon fuel

Found Energy, a startup in Boston, aims to harness the energy in scraps of aluminum metal to power industrial processes without fossil fuels. Since 2022, the company has worked to develop ways to rapidly release energy from aluminum on a small scale.

Now it’s just switched on a much larger version of its aluminum-powered engine, which it claims is the largest aluminum-water reactor ever built.

Early next year, it will be installed to supply heat and hydrogen to a tool manufacturing facility in the southeastern US, using the aluminum waste produced by the plant itself as fuel.

If everything works as planned, this technology, which uses a catalyst to unlock the energy stored within aluminum metal, could transform a growing share of aluminum scrap into a zero-carbon fuel. Read the full story.

—James Dinneen

What a massive thermal battery means for energy storage

Rondo Energy just turned on what it says is the world’s largest thermal battery, an energy storage system that can take in electricity and provide a consistent source of heat.

The concept behind a thermal battery is overwhelmingly simple: Use electricity to heat up some cheap, sturdy material (like bricks) and keep it hot until you want to use that heat later, either directly in an industrial process or to produce electricity. 

Thermal batteries could be a major tool in cutting emissions: 20% of total energy demand today is used to provide heat for industrial processes, and most of that is generated by burning fossil fuels. But the company is using its battery for enhanced oil recovery—a process that critics argue keep polluting infrastructure running longer. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

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

The must-reads

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

1 ChatGPT’s suicide discussion rules were loosened twice before a teen took his own life    
The parents of Adam Raine claim the changes OpenAI made equate to a weakening in its suicide protection for users. (WSJ $)
+ It did so to increase use of the chatbot, they allege in an amended lawsuit. (FT $)
+ The family is accusing OpenAI of intentional misconduct rather than reckless indifference. (Rolling Stone $)

2 Google claims its new quantum algorithm outperforms a supercomputer
It could accelerate advances in drug discovery and new building materials. (Ars Technica)
+ Its Willow chip is at the heart of the advance. (NYT $)
+ But real-world use of quantum computing is still likely to be years away. (The Guardian)

3 Reddit is suing AI search engine Perplexity
For allegedly illegally scraping its data to train the model powering Perplexity’s engine. (FT $)
+ Reddit’s also seeking a permanent injunction on companies selling its data. (Engadget)
+ What comes next for AI copyright lawsuits? (MIT Technology Review)

4 China has a five-year plan to become technologically self-reliant
And semiconductors and AI will play key roles. (Bloomberg $)
+ China is winning the trade war with America. (Economist $)

5 DeepSeek is taking off in Africa
Its decision to make its AI cheaper and less power-intensive is paying off. (Bloomberg $)
+ How DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Elon Musk is building a robot army
He envisions his Optimus robot becoming an “incredible surgeon.” (Wired $)
+ Will we ever trust robots? (MIT Technology Review)

7 Apple has pulled a pair of controversial dating apps from the App Store
Tea and TeaOnHer fell short of its privacy and content moderation rules. (TechCrunch)

8 Tesla’s profits are massively down
Even though it sold more cars than during its previous quarter. (NYT $)
+ The company has been forced to recall tens of thousands of Cybertrucks. (Reuters)
+ What happens when your EV becomes obsolete? (The Atlantic $)

9 An unexpected victim of the AWS outage? Smart beds
Some unlucky owners’ beds blared alarms and became unbearably warm. (WP $)
+ If the internet stays the way it is, more bed outages could be on their way. (The Atlantic $)

10 The appeal of incredibly basic software
Apple’s TextEdit does exactly what it says on the tin. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“I’m very excited that nerds are having our moment.”

—Madhavi Sewak, a Google DeepMind researcher, says she’s glad that AI experts are being recognized, the Wall Street Journal reports.

One more thing

Inside the hunt for new physics at the world’s largest particle collider

In 2012, using data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, researchers discovered a particle called the Higgs boson. In the process, they answered a nagging question: Where do fundamental particles, such as the ones that make up all the protons and neutrons in our bodies, get their mass?

When the particle was finally found, scientists celebrated with champagne. A Nobel for two of the physicists who predicted the Higgs boson soon followed.

More than a decade later, there is a sense of unease. That’s because there are still so many unanswered questions about the fundamental constituents of the universe.

So researchers are trying something new. They are repurposing detectors to search for unusual-looking particles, squeezing what they can out of the data with machine learning, and planning for entirely new kinds of colliders. Read the full story.

—Dan Garisto

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.)

+ Mexico City is already getting into the Halloween spirit: its annual zombie parade took place over the weekend.
+ Everything you need to know before travelling to Japan.
+ The most stylish people alive? I’ll be the judge of that.
+ Here’s something you don’t expect archeologists to uncover: Neolithic chewing gum.

 Introducing: the body issue

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 body issue

We’re thrilled to share the latest edition of MIT Technology Review magazine, digging into the future of the human body, and how it could change in the years ahead thanks to scientific and technological tinkering.

The below stories are just a taste of what you can expect from this fascinating issue. To read the full thing, subscribe now if you haven’t already.

+ A new field of science claims to be able to predict aesthetic traits, intelligence, and even moral 

character in embryos. But is this the next step in human evolution or something more dangerous? Read the full story.

+ How aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we could ever reverse it. Read the full story.

+ Instead of relying on the same old recipe biology follows, stem-cell scientist Jacob Hanna is coaxing the beginnings of animal bodies directly from stem cells. But should he?

+ The more we move, the more our muscle cells begin to make a memory of that exercise. Bonnie Tsui’s piece digs into how our bodies learn to remember.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How Antarctica’s history of isolation is ending—thanks to Starlink

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

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

The video has racked up millions of views from all over the world. It’s also kind of a miracle: until very recently, those who lived and worked on Antarctic bases had no hope of communicating so readily with the outside world. That’s starting to change, thanks to Starlink, the satellite constellation developed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to service the world with high-speed broadband internet.

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 OpenAI has launched its own web browser  
Atlas has an Ask ChatGPT sidebar and an agent mode to complete certain tasks. (TechCrunch)
+ It runs on Chromium, the open-source engine that powers Google’s Chrome. (Axios)
+ OpenAI believes the future of web browsing will involve chatting to its interface. (Ars Technica)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)

2 China is demanding US chip firms share their sales data
It’s conducting a probe into American suppliers, and it wants answers. (Bloomberg $)

3 AI pioneers are among those calling for a ban on superintelligent systems
Including Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. (The Guardian)
+ Prominent Chinese scientists have also signed the statement. (FT $)
+ Read our interview with Hinton on why he’s now scared of AI. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Anthropic promises its AI is not woke
Despite what the Trump administration’s “AI Czar” says. (404 Media)
+ Its CEO insists the company shares the same goals as the Trump administration. (CNBC)
+ Why it’s impossible to build an unbiased AI language model. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Climate scientists expect we’ll see more solar geoengineering attempts
But it’s a risky intervention with potentially huge repercussions. (New Scientist $)
+ The hard lessons of Harvard’s failed geoengineering experiment. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Why Silicon Valley is so fixated on China
It marvels at the country’s ability to move fast and break things—but should it?(NYT $)
+ How Trump is helping China extend its massive lead in clean energy. (MIT Technology Review)

7 YouTube has launched a likeness detector to foil AI doppelgängers
But that doesn’t guarantee that the fake videos will be removed. (Ars Technica)

8 Bots are threatening Reddit’s status as an oasis of human chat
Can it keep fighting off the proliferation of AI slop? (WP $)
+ It’s not just Reddit either—employers are worried about ‘workslop’ too. (FT $)
+ AI trained on AI garbage spits out AI garbage. (MIT Technology Review)

9 This AI-powered pet toy is surprisingly cute
Moflin is a guinea pig-like creature that learns to become more expressive. (TechCrunch)
+ AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too. (MIT Technology Review)

10 You don’t need to know a lot about AI to get a job in AI
Make of that what you will. (Fast Company $)

Quote of the day

“It’s wild that Google wrote the Transformers paper (that birthed GPTs) AND open sourced Chromium, both of which will (eventually) lead to the downfall of their search monopoly. History lesson in there somewhere.”

—Investor Nikunj Kothari ponders the future of Google’s empire in the wake of the announcement of OpenAI’s new web browser in a post on X.

One more thing

The quest to protect farmworkers from extreme heat

Even as temperatures rise each summer, the people working outdoors to pick fruits, vegetables, and flowers have to keep laboring.

The consequences can be severe, leading to illnesses such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke and even acute kidney injury.

Now, researchers are developing an innovative sensor that tracks multiple vital signs with a goal of anticipating when a worker is at risk of developing heat illness and issuing an alert. If widely adopted and consistently used, it could represent a way to make workers safer on farms even without significant heat protections. Read the full story.

—Kalena Thomhave

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.)

+ Netflix is making a film based on the hit board game Catan, for some reason.
+ Why it’s time to embrace the beauty of slow running.
+ The Satellite Crayon Project takes colors from the natural world and turns them into vibrant drawing implements.
+ Mamma Mia has never sounded better.

The Download: a promising retina implant, and how climate change affects flowers

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 retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle

The news: Science Corporation—a competitor to Neuralink founded by the former president of Elon Musk’s brain-interface venture—has leapfrogged its rival after acquiring a vision implant in advanced testing for a fire-sale price. The implant produces a form of “artificial vision” that lets some patients read text and do crosswords, according to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine today.

How it works: The implant is a microelectronic chip placed under the retina. Using signals from a camera mounted on a pair of glasses, the chip emits bursts of electricity in order to bypass photoreceptor cells damaged by macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. Read the full story.

—Antonio Regalado

How will flowers respond to climate change?

Flowers play a key role in most landscapes, from urban to rural areas. Yet flowers have much more to tell in their bright blooms: The very shape they take is formed by local and global climate conditions. 

The form of a flower is a visual display of its climate, if you know what to look for. In a dry year, its petals’ pigmentation may change. In a warm year, the flower might grow bigger. The flower’s ultraviolet-absorbing pigment increases with higher ozone levels.

Now, a new artistic project sets out to answer the question: As the climate changes in the future, how might flowers change? Read the full story.

—Annelie Berner

This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land.

2025 climate tech companies to watch: Redwood Materials and its new AI microgrids

Over the past few years, Redwood Materials has become one of the top US battery recyclers, joining forces with the likes of Volkswagen, BMW, and Toyota to process old electric-vehicle batteries and recover materials that can be used to make new ones.

Now it’s moving into reuse as well. Redwood Energy, a new branch of the company, incorporates used EV batteries into microgrids to power energy-hungry AI data centers. Read the full story.

—Peter Hall

Redwood Materials is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

The must-reads

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

1 AWS is recovering from a major outage 
It’s racing to get hundreds of apps and services back online. (The Verge)
+ Snapchat, Roblox and banking services are among those affected. (The Guardian)

2 OpenAI made—then retracted—a claim it had made a major math breakthrough
After math experts and rival AI firms ridiculed its poorly-worded declaration. (TechCrunch)
+ What’s next for AI and math. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The grave costs of Trump’s war on climate science
It’s affecting the accuracy of forecasting systems globally, not just in the US. (FT $)
+ Trump himself led an effort to derail plans to tax shipping pollution. (Politico $)
+ How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states. (MIT Technology Review)

4 China claims the US is behind a cyberattack on its national time center
It says it has years’ worth of irrefutable evidence of data stealing. (Reuters)
+ US experts allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in mobile phones belonging to National Time Service Center workers. (Bloomberg $)

5 Is AI-generated art real art?
It’s a question gallery and museum curators across the world are debating. (NYT $)
+ Artisan craftmakers are happy to resist the pull of AI. (FT $)
+ This tool claims to trace how much of an AI image has been drawn from existing material. (The Guardian)
+ From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Chipmaker Nexperia has accused its ousted CEO of spreading falsehoods
Zhang Xuezheng reportedly claimed it was operating independently in China. (Bloomberg $)

7 This whistleblower raised concerns about the safety of US data under DOGE
And says the hostile reception to his complaint led to him leaving his dream job. (WP $)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Aid agencies have been criticized for using AI “poverty porn”
But the NGOs say its use protects the identities of real people in social media campaigns. (The Guardian)

9 EVs lose their value much faster than gas-powered cars
Which isn’t exactly an incentive for prospective first-time buyers. (Rest of World)

10 What happens to our brains when we dream
We’re learning more about the many liminal states they can slip through. (Quanta Magazine)

Quote of the day

“Hoisted by their own GPTards.”

—Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun pokes fun at OpenAI after the company walked back its claim it had made a major math breakthrough in a post on X.

One more thing

One option for electric vehicle fires? Let them burn.

Although there isn’t solid data on the frequency of EV battery fires, it’s no secret that these fires are happening.

Despite that, manufacturers offer no standardized steps on how to fight them or avoid them in the first place. What’s more, with EVs, it’s never entirely clear whether the fire is truly out.

Patrick Durham, the owner of one of a growing number of private companies helping first responders learn how to deal with lithium-ion battery safety, has a solution. He believes that the best way to manage EV fires right now is to let them burn. But such an approach not only goes against firefighters’ instincts—it’d require a significant cultural shift. Read the full story.

—Maya L. Kapoor

We can still have nice things

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

+ It looks as though the sumo wrestlers who visited London last week had the best time.
+ The Chicago rat hole may not have been made by a rat after all.
+ Finally, a good use for AI—to help me pick a perfectly ripe avocado
+ Keith Richards, we love you!

The Download: the rehabilitation of AI art, and the scary truth about antimicrobial resistance

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.

From slop to Sotheby’s? AI art enters a new phase

In this era of AI slop, the idea that generative AI tools like Midjourney and Runway could be used to make art can seem absurd.
 

But amid all the muck, there are people using AI tools with real consideration and intent. Some of them are finding notable success as AI artists: They are gaining huge online followings, selling their work at auction, and even having it exhibited in galleries and museums. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.

Take our quiz: How much do you know about antimicrobial resistance?

This week we had some terrifying news from the World Health Organization: Antibiotics are failing us. A growing number of bacterial infections aren’t responding to these medicines—including common ones that affect the blood, gut, and urinary tract. Get infected with one of these bugs, and there’s a fair chance antibiotics won’t help.

You’ve probably heard about antimicrobial resistance before, but how much do you know about it? Here’s our attempt to put the “fun” in “fundamental threat to modern medicine.” Test your knowledge here!

—Jessica Hamzelou

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

2025 climate tech companies to watch: Envision Energy and its “smart” wind turbines

Envision Energy, one of China’s biggest wind turbine makers, has expanded into batteries, green hydrogen, and industrial parks designed to run heavy industry on clean power.

With flagship projects in Inner Mongolia and new ventures planned abroad, the company is testing whether renewables can decarbonize sectors that electricity alone can’t reach. Read the full story.

Envision Energy is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

The must-reads

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

1 ICE is beefing up its surveillance capabilities 
It’s recently bought iris-scanning technology, spyware and location tracking software. (WP $)
+ Viral ICE videos are shaping how Americans feel about the agency. (Vox)
+ Protestors in Chicago are fighting back after mass arrests in the city. (New Yorker $)

2 OpenAI has stopped people from generating videos of MLK Jr
After some people used Sora to create “disrespectful depictions” of the civil rights activist. (TechCrunch)
+ It’s not the first time AI’s depiction of public figures has been criticized. (The Information $)

3 A teenager is suing the owners of “nudifying” app ClothOff
A classmate used an image of the New Jersey student to generate fake nudes. (WSJ $)
+ Meet the 15-year-old deepfake victim pushing Congress into action. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Amazon’s Ring camera arm is signing deals with law enforcement
It’s working with Flock Safety and Axon to share footage with criminal investigations. (CNBC)
+ A division of ICE has used Flock’s AI-powered surveillance network. (404 Media)
+ How Amazon Ring uses domestic violence to market doorbell cameras. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as diesel cars
A new report has found that pollution levels are well above official estimates. (The Guardian)
+ What to expect if you’re expecting a plug-in hybrid. (MIT Technology Review)

6 South Korea is prohibiting its citizens from travelling to Cambodia
It says hundreds of its nationals have been kidnapped and forced into scam complexes. (FT $)
+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)

7 What it’s like to be trans online in 2025
The internet once helped trans people to connect—now it’s being weaponized against them. (The Verge)

8 Generative AI will make you the star of ads
Companies have to make returns on all that AI investment somehow. (NY Mag $)

9 San Francisco’s AI companies are pushing up housing prices
Rents are rising in a city already renowned for a staggeringly high cost of living. (NYT $)

10 Samsung is making a tri-folding phone
But attendees at the event it’s being shown off at won’t be allowed to touch it. (Bloomberg $)

Quote of the day

“Grandma will be thrown off the Internet because Junior illegally downloaded a few songs on a visit.”

—US broadband provider Cox Communications details a potential scenario in a legal case filed by major record labels, which have accused Cox of failing to disconnect people who are illegally downloading music, Ars Technica reports. 

One more thing

An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary

Until now, AI-generated videos of people have tended to have some stiffness, glitchiness, or other unnatural elements that make them pretty easy to differentiate from reality.

For the past several years, AI video startup Synthesia has produced these kinds of AI-generated avatars. But back in April 2024, it launched a new generation, its first to take advantage of the latest advancements in generative AI, and they are more realistic and expressive than anything we’ve seen before. 

We tested it out by making an AI clone of Melissa Heikkilä, our former senior AI reporter. Read the full story and check out the synthetic version of Melissa.

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 support winds down for Windows 10 this week, did you know its blue Windows icon desktop image was taken from a real photograph? Take a look behind the scenes.
+ Rest in power Ace Frehley, Kiss cofounder and undisputed guitar hero.
+ A week spent eating along France’s 385-mile food trail? Yes please.
+ As we get into the Halloween spirit, dare you tour America’s spookiest cities?

The Download: creating the perfect baby, and carbon removal’s lofty promises

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 race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess

An emerging field of science is seeking to use cell analysis to predict what kind of a person an embryo might eventually become.

Some parents turn to these tests to avoid passing on devastating genetic disorders that run in their families. A much smaller group, driven by dreams of Ivy League diplomas or attractive, well-behaved offspring, are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to optimize for intelligence, appearance, and personality.

But customers of the companies emerging to provide it to the public may not be getting what they’re paying for. Read the full story.

—Julia Black

This story is from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.

The problem with Big Tech’s favorite carbon removal tech

Sucking carbon pollution out of the atmosphere is becoming a big business—companies are paying top dollar for technologies that can cancel out their own emissions.

Tech giants like Microsoft are betting big on one technology: bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). But there are a few potential problems with BECCS, as my colleague James Temple laid out in a new story. And some of the concerns echo similar problems with other climate technologies we cover, like carbon offsets and alternative jet fuels. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart

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

2025 climate tech companies to watch: Fervo Energy and its advanced geothermal power plants

Some places on Earth hit the geological jackpot for generating electricity. In those spots, three conditions naturally align: high temperatures, plentiful water, and rock that’s permeable enough for fluids to circulate through.

Enhanced geothermal systems aim to replicate those conditions in far more places—producing a steady supply of renewable energy wherever they’re deployed. Fervo Energy uses fracking techniques to create geothermal reservoirs capable of delivering enough electricity to power massive data centers and hundreds of thousands of homes. Read the full story.

—Celina Zhao

Fervo Energy is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

The must-reads

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

1 Meta removed a Facebook group that shared ICE agent sightings
It’s the latest tech company to acquiesce to US government pressure. (NYT $)
+ Meta says the group violates its policies against “coordinated harm.” (NBC News)
+ Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Loss-making AI startups are still soaring in value
If it looks like a bubble, and sounds like a bubble… (FT $)
+ AI-backed energy firms have also ballooned in value. (WSJ $)
+ Scaling isn’t always the answer, y’know. (Wired $)

3 Facial recognition is failing people with facial differences
Yet it’s being embedded in everything from phone unlocking systems to public services. (Wired $)

4 Tech billionaires are backing a startup that treats tumors with sound waves
It’s being touted as a less-invasive alternative to chemotherapy. (Bloomberg $)

5 Scam texts are a billion-dollar criminal enterprise
And we’re being inundated with more of them than ever before. (WSJ $)
+ The people using humor to troll their spam texts. (MIT Technology Review)

6 South Korea has rolled back an AI textbook program for schools
Turns out it was riddled with inaccuracies and added to teachers’ workloads. (Rest of World)
+ The country is considering allowing Google and Apple to make hi-res maps. (TechCrunch)

7 YouTube is setting its sights on sports
Which makes sense, given that it’s conquered pretty much all the other TV genres. (Hollywood Reporter $)

8 Job hunting in the age of AI is bleak
Even the best candidates are being overlooked. (The Atlantic $)
+ The job market is a mess too. (Slate $)

9 A new channel broadcasts a livestream direct from the ISS
If you’ve ever wanted to be an astronaut, watching this is the next best thing. (The Guardian)

10 The end of support for Windows 10 is an e-waste disaster
Up to 400 million machines could be heading to the scrap heap. (404 Media)
+ The US government has cut funding for a battery-metals recycler. (Bloomberg $)
+ AI will add to the e-waste problem. Here’s what we can do about it. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“We are not the elected moral police of the world.”

—OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reacts to the outcry sparked by his company’s decision to relax its rules to let adults hold erotic conversations with ChatGPT, CNBC reports.

One more thing

Inside India’s scramble for AI independence

Despite its status as a global tech hub, India lags far behind the likes of the US and China when it comes to homegrown AI.

That gap has opened largely because India has chronically underinvested in R&D, institutions, and invention. Meanwhile, since no one native language is spoken by the majority of the population, training language models is far more complicated than it is elsewhere.

So when the open-source foundation model DeepSeek-R1 suddenly outperformed many global peers, it struck a nerve. This launch by a Chinese startup prompted Indian policymakers to confront just how far behind the country was in AI infrastructure—and how urgently it needed to respond. Read the full story.

—Shadma Shaikh

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 haunting shot of a hyena is this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year award winner (thanks Laurel!)
+ Madonna sure has a lot of famous friends.
+  This little giraffe is so sleepy
+ Late ‘80s dance heads, rise up!

The Download: Big Tech’s carbon removals plans, and the next wave of nuclear reactors

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.

Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic

Microsoft, JP MorganChase, and a tech company consortium that includes Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe have all recently struck multimillion-dollar deals to pay paper mill owners to capture at least hundreds of thousands of tons of this greenhouse gas by installing carbon scrubbing equipment in their facilities.

The captured carbon dioxide will then be piped down into saline aquifers more than a mile underground, where it should be sequestered permanently.

Big Tech is suddenly betting big on this form of carbon removal, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS. But experts have raised a number of concerns. Read the full story.

—James Temple

2025 climate tech companies to watch: Kairos Power and its next-generation nuclear reactors

Like many new nuclear startups, Kairos promises a path to reliable, 24/7 decarbonized power. Unlike most, it already has prototypes under construction and permits for several reactors.

The company uses molten salt to cool its reactions and transfer heat, rather than the high-pressure water that’s used in existing fission reactors. It hopes its technology will enable commercial reactors that are cost-competitive with natural gas plants and boast safer operation than conventional reactors, even in the event of complete power loss. Read the full story.

—Mark Harris

Kairos Power is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos

Millions of embryos created through IVF sit frozen in time, stored in tanks around the world. The number is only growing thanks to advances in technology, the rising popularity of IVF, and improvements in its success rates.

At a basic level, an embryo is simply a tiny ball of a hundred or so cells. But unlike other types of body tissue, it holds the potential for life. Many argue that this endows embryos with a special moral status, one that requires special protections.

The problem is that no one can really agree on what that status is. While these embryos persist in suspended animation, patients, clinicians, embryologists, and legislators must grapple with the essential question of what we should do with them. What do these embryos mean to us? Who should be responsible for them?

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 ChatGPT will start talking dirty to verified adults 
The chatbot is getting a new erotica function as part of OpenAI’s bid to “safely relax” its restrictions. (The Verge)
+ The company has created its own wellness council to inform its decisions. (Ars Technica)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)

2 A secret surveillance empire tracked thousands of people across the world
The European-led First Wap has operated covertly for more than two decades. (Mother Jones)
+ The group ran at least 10 scam compounds across the country. (Wired $)
+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review)

3 YouTube ran Israel-funded ads claiming there was food in famine-struck Gaza
And allowed them to remain online even after complaints from multiple government authorities. (WP $)
+ Companies have denied they’re involved in rebuilding Gaza. (Wired $)

4 Instagram wants to become a more teen-friendly space
It’s bringing in new age-gating measures inspired by the PG-13 movie rating. (NBC News)
+ The policy will also extend to its chatbots. (NYT $)

5 A massive Cambodia-based pig butchering scheme has been foiled
It’s the biggest forfeiture action the US Department of Justice has ever pursued. (CNBC)

6 Waymo’s driverless taxis are coming to London
From next year, it says pedestrians will be able to hail its robotaxis. (WSJ $)

7 Black patients were failed by a race-based medical calculation
It delayed their access to life-saving kidney transplants. (The Markup)
+ A woman in the US is the third person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney. (MIT Technology Review)

8 AI flood forecasting is helping farmers across the world
Nonprofits are using it to deliver early aid. (Rest of World)

9 A man with paralysis can feel objects through another person’s hand
Thanks to a new brain implant. (New Scientist $)
+ Meet the other companies developing brain-computer interfaces. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Tech internships are alive and well 
Despite all the AI angst. (Insider $)

Quote of the day

“You made ChatGPT “pretty restrictive”? Really. Is that why it has been recommending kids harm and kill themselves?”

—Josh Hawley, US Senator for Missouri, reacts to the news OpenAI is planning to loosen its restrictions in a post on X.

One more thing

Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs

People looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction by authors like Isaac Asimov 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 with psychologists and animal researchers in the 1960s but were taken up by computer scientists who eventually provided the foundation for many of the artificial-intelligence tools from leading firms like Google and OpenAI. 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 love the sound of Grateful Fishing TV—starring two fishermen who just love hanging out and frying some fish. Truly wholesome stuff (thanks to Chino Moreno via Perfectly Imperfect for the recommendation!)
+ Rest in power D’Angelo, your timeless tunes will live on.
+ If you’re into stress-watches, this list is full of anxiety-inducing classics.
+ One of the world’s longest dinosaur superhighways has been uncovered in a sleepy part of England.

The Download: aging clocks, and repairing the internet

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 aging clocks can help us understand why we age—and if we can reverse it

Wrinkles and gray hairs aside, it can be difficult to know how well—or poorly—someone’s body is truly aging. A person who develops age-related diseases earlier in life, or has other biological changes associated with aging, might be considered “biologically older” than a similar-age person who doesn’t have those changes. Some 80-year-olds will be weak and frail, while others are fit and active.

Over the past decade, scientists have been uncovering new methods of looking at the hidden ways our bodies are aging. And what they’ve found is changing our understanding of aging itself. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Can we repair the internet?

From addictive algorithms to exploitative apps, data mining to misinformation, the internet today can be a hazardous place. New books by three influential figures—the intellect behind “net neutrality,” a former Meta executive, and the web’s own inventor—propose radical approaches to fixing it. But are these luminaries the right people for the job? Read the full story.

—Nathan Smith

Both these stories are from our forthcoming print issue, which is all about the body. If you haven’t already, subscribe now to receive future issues once they land. Plus, you’ll also receive a free digital report on nuclear power.

2025 climate tech companies to watch: Cyclic Materials and its rare earth recycling tech

Rare earth magnets are essential for clean energy, but only a tiny fraction of the metals inside them are ever recycled. Cyclic Materials aims to change that by opening one of the largest rare earth magnet recycling operations outside of China next year. 

By collecting a wide range of devices and recycling multiple metals, the company seeks to overcome the economic challenges that have long held back such efforts. Read the full story.

—Maddie Stone

Cyclic Materials is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

The must-reads

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

1 California’s AI safety bill has been signed into law   
It holds AI companies legally accountable if their chatbots fail to protect users. (TechCrunch)
+ It also requires chatbots to remind young users that they’re not human. (The Verge)
+ Gavin Newsom also green-lit measures for social media warning labels. (The Hill)

2 Satellites are leaking unencrypted data
Including civilian text messages, plus military and law enforcement communications. (Wired $)
+ It’s getting mighty crowded up there too. (Space)

3 Defense startups are reviving manufacturing in quiet US towns
The weapons of the future are being built in Delaware, Michigan and Ohio. (NYT $)
+ Phase two of military AI has arrived. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Europe is worried about becoming an AI “colony”
The bloc is too dependent on US tech, experts fear. (FT $)
+ The US is locked in a bind with China. (Rest of World)

5 Vast chunks of human knowledge are missing from the web 
And AI is poised to make the problem even worse. (Aeon)
+ How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral. (MIT Technology Review)

6 How mega batteries are unlocking an energy revolution
Vast battery units are helping to shore up grids and extend the use of clean power. (FT $)
+ This startup wants to use the Earth as a massive battery. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A new chemical detection technique reveals what’s making wildlife ill
It’s a small step toward a healthier future for all animals—including humans. (Knowable Magazine)
+ We’re inhaling, eating, and drinking toxic chemicals. Now we need to figure out how they’re affecting us. (MIT Technology Review)

8 The world is growing more food crops than ever before
But hunger still hasn’t been eradicated. (Vox)
+ Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Google is starting to hide sponsored search results
Only after you’ve seen them first. (The Verge)
+ Is Google playing catchup on search with OpenAI? (MIT Technology Review)

10 Indonesia’s film industry is embracing AI
To the detriment of artists and storyboarders. (Rest of World)

Quote of the day

“It is attempting to solve a problem that wasn’t a problem before AI showed up, or before big tech showed up.”

—Greg Loudon, a certified beer judge and brewery sales manager, tells 404 Media why he’s so unimpressed by a prominent competition using AI to judge the quality of beer.

One more thing

The lucky break behind the first CRISPR treatment

The world’s first commercial gene-editing treatment is set to start changing the lives of people with sickle-cell disease. It’s called Casgevy, and it was approved in November 2022 in the UK.

The treatment, which will be sold in the US by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, employs CRISPR, which can be easily programmed by scientists to cut DNA at precise locations they choose.

But where do you aim CRISPR, and how did the researchers know what DNA to change? That’s the lesser-known story of the sickle-cell breakthrough. Read more about it.

—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.)

+ Why you should consider adopting a “coffee name.”
+ Where does your favorite Star Wars character rank in this ultimate list? (Number one is correct.)
+ Steve McQueen, you will always be cool.
+ The compelling argument for adopting an ethical diet.