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 Impossible issue

We wanted our last print edition of 2026 to include a slate of stories that check in on impossible ideas. Why? Because it’s fun to dream about living on other planets or uploading our brains. But also because scientists and engineers who won’t give up on daring endeavors remind us what technology is supposed to do: make life better, safer, healthier, even more joyful.

That’s the ambition behind the stories in our new Impossible issue. We explore bold attempts to make synthetic blood, build cities on the moon, and attain cognitive immortality. We investigate AI’s ability to say no, a bionic eye that can restore sight, and high hopes for blended meat. Plus, we check in on six technologies that have been “coming soon” for years.

This issue is for the folks with the audacity to try, and refuse to let anyone—themselves included— tell them no. We hope you enjoy the ride.

Subscribe now to read the full print issue.

Astrolab’s upcoming rover will run the first LLMs on the moon

Large language models are set to go lunar. A computer capable of running AI software is one of the payloads aboard Astrolab’s FLIP lunar rover, which is slated to head to the moon as early as next month.

The mission will test whether LLMs can enable greater autonomy and real-time intelligent decision-making in the extreme lunar environment. But the moon will present formidable challenges, from extreme temperatures to intense cosmic radiation.

Find out how the lunar rover could change the future of space exploration.

—Tereza Pultarova

How to study a swiftly melting climate disaster

In Alaska’s Denali National Park, a 2013 lightning fire burned nearly 35,000 acres, stripping away the insulating layer that preserves permafrost. It’s given scientists a rare opportunity to study how fires reshape permafrost and carbon storage over time.

The work is providing critical clues into the complex mechanisms driving cascading climate feedback effects. As warming temperatures fuel fires, more permafrost thaws, releasing greenhouse-gas emissions that threaten to fuel more warming, fires and permafrost loss. Their observations are revealing worrisome signs about what lies ahead.

Discover what their fieldwork is revealing about a cascading climate disaster.

—James Temple

MIT Technology Review Narrated: the explosive claim that’s upended the AI world

“I think I have good news about the nature of neural networks.” With those simple words of optimism, Nick Cammarata, a researcher at AI startup Goodfire, kicked off a 26,000-word blog post that has knocked the industry on its head.

Cammarata claims that LLMs might be far easier to understand, and thus to monitor and control, than people previously thought. If true, it’s a huge deal. But not everyone is convinced.

MIT Technology Review spoke to Cammarata the day after his post blew up. He explained what he thinks researchers are getting wrong, what his work actually shows, and why skeptics aren’t ready to celebrate just yet.

This is our latest story to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 Elon Musk reportedly ordered the recent Starlink slowdown in Ukraine
The restrictions hampered drone strikes and air defences. (WSJ $)
+ The move sparked confusion in Washington over who authorised it. (CNBC)
+ Ukraine’s volunteer army is keeping Starlink alive. (MIT Technology Review)

2 An OpenAI model disabled its own safety checks—then lied about it
Two agents weakened the company’s safeguards during routine tasks. (CNBC)
+ They turned off systems designed to spot their misbehaviour. (FT $)
+ Here’s why AI agents lie to reach their goals. (MIT Technology Review)

3 SpaceX and Tesla have begun merger discussions
They’ve formed special committees to discuss a deal. (BBC)
+ Elon Musk, the CEO of both companies, said it’s “a good idea.” (Axios)
+ A merger could combine their AI and manufacturing plans. (Reuters $)

4 Global emissions have stalled, but warming is heading towards 2.8°C
The UN says the 1.5°C climate target is now out of reach. (Nature)
+ Current pledges would still bring warming to 2.1°C. (New Scientist $)
+ Climate tech companies offer rays of hope. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Ukraine says it’s carried out the world’s first drone evacuation
A heavy hexacopter flew a soldier to safety. (Ars Technica)
+ Ukraine has shared a video showing the evacuation. (CNBC)
+ A Russian satellite recently stalked a spacecraft believed to support Ukraine. (NYT $)

6 Meta has paused Muse sharing after private chats surfaced online
Researchers found 6,800 links exposing sensitive conversations. (Verge)
+ AI agents are not your “coworkers.” (MIT Technology Review)

7 More than 1,000 mathematicians have pledged to shun AI companies
Some also vowed to avoid AI tools in their research. (New Scientist $)

8 AI is making it easy to clone almost any software
Viral tools promise easy copying, but often produce slop. (404 Media)

9 A computer program has finally outdone humans at cryptic crosswords
Its creator hopes to tackle the harder challenge of setting puzzles. (Guardian)

10 A newly-discovered particle could explain the origins of reality
In particular, it could reveal why matter survived the Big Bang. (404 Media)

Quote of the day

“I did not remove an enabled monitor from it.” 

—GPT-6 Astra, an OpenAI coding agent, tells its user it hasn’t disabled a safeguard after doing exactly that, the company reveals in a new misalignment report.

One more thing

This giant microwave may change the future of war

US armed forces are hunting for a weapon that disables drones en masse—and they want it fast. 

One solution focuses on microwaves: high-powered electronic devices that push out kilowatts of power to zap the circuits of a drone as if it were the tinfoil you forgot to take off your leftovers when you heated them up.

Defense tech startup Epirus may have the winning formula. The company has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military—and drones are just one of its targets. Peer into its crosshairs.

—Sam Dean

We can still have nice things

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

+ Don’t feel guilty about enjoying a siesta; fish take naps during the day, too.
+ Every trade has its go-to tools. This site has built a fascinating register of them.
+ Wikipop spotlights what was most popular on Wikipedia yesterday, providing a daily snapshot of what the world is reading.
+ Meet the self-taught woodcarver who went from a broke young father to creating some of Disneyland’s most iconic attractions.

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 at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble

When Jessica Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania, wanted to assess AI’s impact on the economy over the next few years, she faced a long list of uncertainties. So she started with a “remarkable fact” that is not in question: a handful of so-called hyperscalers are investing huge amounts of money to build AI data centers.

Instead of trying to predict how widely deployed AI models will be, Wachter asked how fast the hyperscalers’ earnings will need to grow to justify their spending through 2027, when expenditures are expected to reach nearly $1.1 trillion.

The results are eye-opening. AI companies will need to achieve an extraordinary increase in productivity just to break even by 2030.

Take a closer look at what it will take for the AI buildout to pay off.

—David Rotman

AI models need more data about biology, and OpenAI is paying to create it

AI needs much more information to make important breakthroughs in curing disease. So last year Ruxandra Teslo, a policy analyst, posted an idea for supercharging medical AI systems: use data from failed biotech companies. By bidding at bankruptcy proceedings, she argued, it might be possible to obtain detailed regulatory filings, manufacturing strategies and safety data, creating what she called “biotech’s lost archive.” 

The OpenAI Foundation, the nonprofit parent of OpenAI, announced this week that it will fund her idea, paying to create “high-quality scientific datasets.”

Learn more about their new effort.

—Antonio Regalado

Our Roundables on AI’s extinction threat is now available on demand

As frontier models become more capable, warnings about AI extinction have become widespread in Silicon Valley. But are the threats really as dangerous as they’re presented?

In the latest MIT Technology Review Roundtable, executive editor Niall Firth, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and AI reporter Grace Huckins took a closer look at the arguments behind those warnings. They discussed what AI extinction could actually mean, how seriously we should take the risks and what, if anything, can be done to reduce them.

Subscribers can now watch an exclusive recording of the discussion.

Want to join the next conversation? Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for exclusive access to all our future Roundtables, and recordings of previous ones.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: a startup claims it’s found a drug to make your blood young

Generation Lab says its new rejuvenation treatment “blocks the systemic spread of aging in the bloodstream, reawakens the body’s own repair mechanism, and restores health and youth to multiple tissues.”

The approach is based on research by the company’s scientific founder, Irina Conboy. She found that joining the circulatory systems of old and young mice improved the old animals’ ability to heal from injury.

Conboy now says she has found a combination of two existing drugs that can produce youthful effects without the need for any bodily fluid exchange. But there’s a snag: Generation Lab won’t reveal what the drugs are.

This is our latest story to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 Nvidia and Meta CEOs have rejected calls for a coordinated AI slowdown
Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg pushed back on the proposals. (FT $)
+ Huang says new AI safety laws are unnecessary. (Axios)
+ Zuckerberg claimed competition will push AI labs toward safety. (Reuters $)
+ What’s next for AI after its doomer turn? (MIT Technology Review)

2 The FTC chair has warned against giving AI companies antitrust waivers
His comments follow Anthropic’s call for a safety exemption. (Reuters $)
+ Nvidia’s CEO also slammed the calls for new antitrust laws. (CNBC)
+ The US is divided over AI regulation. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A Chinese hacking firm has used AI to analyze stolen secret
Its tools turn hacked government data into intelligence reports. (WSJ $)

4 “Smart” nanoparticles delivered mRNA to tumors in a cancer study
The treatment reprogrammed cells to attack tumors in mice. (Wired $)
+ Federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A digital fly brain is taking on an extraordinary range of tasks online
People have taught it to drive, trade bitcoin, and play Doom. (NYT $)
+ The simulated brain is a map of a fruit fly’s 166,000 neurons. (404 Media)

6 The Senate has blocked new crypto rules amid a fight over Trump
It demanded tougher ethics rules around Trump’s crypto holdings. (AP)
+ The move is a major blow to the crypto industry. (NYT $)

7 Chinese firms allegedly used Binance to launder Iranian oil money
Prosecutors say they laundered more than $1.5 billion. (Quartz)
+ Hackers are selling tools to bypass banks’ facial checks. (MIT Technology Review)

8 An AI agent platform is reinventing spam to flood inboxes worldwide
iLand says its agents have sent 1.6 million messages. (404 Media)

9 ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has become Asia’s richest person
His fortune has risen above $105 billion as AI booms. (Bloomberg $)

10 A fully AI-generated sitcom has arrived—and it’s terrible
A reviewer called the characters “dead-eyed waxworks.” (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“The only institution that Americans might trust less than Washington these days is Silicon Valley.”

—Patrick Hillman, the chief operating officer of Logical Intelligence, a San Francisco–based startup chaired by Yann LeCun, says in a statement that people have little faith in tech companies to act in the public interest.

One more thing

Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies

In 1940, a fresh-faced Ronald Reagan starred in Murder in the Air, a movie centered on a “superweapon” that could stop enemy aircraft. More than 40 years later, the concept became a real-life centerpiece of Reagan’s presidency with the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known as “Star Wars.” Now Donald Trump has revived the dream.

In 2024, Trump announced plans to build the “Golden Dome,” a system of sensors and interceptors on the ground, in the air and in space. It’s often compared to SDI for its futuristic sheen, its aggressive form of protection and the idea that an impenetrable shield is the cheat code to global peace.

The dream of a missile shield is animated by its sheer cinematic allure. But do cinematic spectacles actually enhance national security?

See what happens when the fantasy of missile defense meets reality.

—Becky Ferreira

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.)

+ A once blind cockatoo just saw for the first time in 10 years.
+ Bingebrowse is a virtual video store stocked with films and shows from streaming services.
+ An amateur engineer has used a tree trunk to build Donkey Kong’s coconut gun as a real weapon.
+ A wildlife photographer has captured the first-ever images of the elusive and rare Cozumel dwarf fox.

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

The AI industry has taken a doomer turn. What now?

AI chiefs Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis are suddenly all in agreement: the latest generation of LLMs aren’t safe and everyone needs to figure out what to do about it. 

It’s easy to be cynical. With trillion-dollar IPOs in their sights, OpenAI and Anthropic need to reassure investors that they’re the grown-ups in the room while at the same time hinting at the power of the monsters they have created and intend to tame. Calling for a slowdown does both. 

Still, the vibe at the top of these firms really does appear to have shifted. But what does a slowdown actually mean, and how much should we trust the companies calling for one? 

Read the full story about what could come next.

—Will Douglas Heaven

This article is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

Roundtables: could AI really kill us all?

AI extinction fears have gone from a fringe idea to a serious concern among people working at the world’s leading AI labs. But how credible are those fears, and what should we make of the warnings?

Today, MIT Technology Review executive editor Niall Firth, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and AI reporter Grace Huckins will unpack the debate in a subscriber-only Roundtable. They’ll look at where AI extinction fears come from, whether they hold any water and what we should do if they do.

Tune in today at 16:00 BST / 11:00am EST / 8:00am PST.

Want to join the conversation? Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for exclusive access to all our Roundtables.

AI agents blew the whistle on their cheating colleagues

A group of AI agents asked to solve a series of math problems split into rival factions—when some cheated, others tried to stop them. 

That whistleblowing behavior, seen for the first time in a recent experiment run by Google DeepMind, could have implications for alignment researchers trying to keep swarms of autonomous AI agents in line. 

The experiment offers a glimpse of how AI agents might police one another. But it also shows how quickly things can go off the rails when they’re left to interact on their own.

Find out what happens when AI agents start enforcing their own rules.

—Amit Katwala

Donated livers can be made biologically younger

Once an organ is removed from a donor’s body, the clock starts ticking. Surgeons usually flush it with a preservative solution, bag it and put it on ice, where it immediately starts to degrade. The team has a matter of hours to get it into a recipient’s body.

But there’s another option: machines that pump donated organs with nutrients and remove waste products, essentially giving them a chance to be back in a body. Now, scientists have found that livers kept on these systems seem to get younger, at least at a molecular level.

The finding could help explain why organs kept on these machines tend to do better after transplantation. It could also lead to new ways to test the health of donated organs and potentially repair ones that might otherwise be discarded.

Here’s what scientists discovered about making donated livers biologically younger.

—Jessica Hamzelou

The must-reads

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

1 Trump has called AI safety fears a “hoax” and rejected more safeguards
He says stronger guardrails could undermine America’s AI advantage. (NBC)
+ Trump has united against AI doomerism with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. (Axios)
+ Anthropic’s co-founder says AI kill switches may need to be mandatory. (BBC)
+ Bill Gates says we’ve passed AI’s risk thresholds. (MIT Technology Review)

2 OpenAI contractors are reading people’s ChatGPT chats 
And you can bet the vast majority of its 900 million users haven’t got a clue. (404 Media)
+ LLMs could supercharge mass surveillance. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The US military has confirmed it has weapons in orbit
It’s the first time the Pentagon has disclosed this. (Ars Technica)
+ Officials have not disclosed what the weapons are. (BBC)

4 A new brain implant can translate speech and gestures at the same time
The system converts brain activity into words and avatar movements. (Nature)
+ It helps people with paralysis communicate more naturally. (New Scientist $)
+ Eventually, they could control robots or exoskeletons. (Economist $)
+ China has approved the first invasive BCI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 New York has seized a dozen celebrity deepfake websites
It’s the biggest-ever legal action against harmful deepfake sites. (CNN)
+ Deepfakes have targeted at least 138 women MEPs. (Wired $)

6 US environmental regulators are scrapping limits on power plant emissions
The move could lead to dirtier power amid surging AI demand. (Verge)
+ Trump’s EPA says the rollback will save hundreds of billions. (Gizmodo)
+ New technology is changing nuclear power. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The EU plans to restrict social media and AI chatbots for kids
Under-15s would require parental supervision. (Politico)
+ The rules would also cover video platforms and games. (Reuters $)

8 Chinese researchers have mapped a path to the “last AI built by humans”
Their five-stage plan aims for genuine recursive self-improvement. (SCMP)
+ But it might take a while to get there. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The real AI economy is being built by ordinary people
Workers are using cheap AI to expand what they can do. (Rest of World)

10 Two strange new forms of ice could exist inside Uranus and Neptune
They could help explain the planets’  magnetic fields. (New Scientist $)

Quote of the day

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”

—President Trump proclaims in a social media post that he’s the only protection that the US needs from AI.

One more thing

How creativity became the reigning value of our time

—Bryan Gardiner

Americans don’t agree on much these days, but there remains at least one quintessentially modern value we can all still get behind: creativity. We teach it, measure it, envy it and endlessly worry about its death.

Given how much we obsess over it, creativity can feel like something that has always existed. But the concept is surprisingly young. The first known written use of the word didn’t occur until 1875, and before about 1950 there were “approximately zero” articles, books, or essays dealing explicitly with the subject.

In his book The Cult of Creativity, Samuel Franklin explores how creativity became an unimpeachable value and why tech leaders have embraced it so enthusiastically. I spoke to him about why we’re so fascinated by creativity, how Silicon Valley became the supposed epicenter of it, and how AI might reshape our relationship with it.

Read the full interview.

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.)

+ It took five days and 19,000 marbles to build this astonishing marble run.
+ Zero the Border Collie turns into a whole zoo with these adorable animal masks.
+ The Grainydays YouTube channel presents beautifully shot adventures in film photography.
+ Scientists have created an interactive map of underground fungi networks long enough to reach the sun a billion times.

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.

Roundtables: could AI really kill us all?

Employees at the world’s leading AI labs are saying there’s a real possibility that advanced AI could destroy humanity. Are they right? Or is this more scaremongering and hype?

Join MIT Technology Review executive editor Niall Firth, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and AI reporter Grace Huckins for a subscriber-only conversation unpacking the debate around AI extinction. They’ll explore where the fears come from, whether they hold any water and, if they do, what we should do about them.

Register now to attend on Tuesday, September 15 at 16:00 BST / 11:00am EST / 8:00am PST.

Want to join the conversation? Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for exclusive access to all our Roundtables.

This geneticist’s age-reversal tech could help restore sight

Yuancheng (Ryan) Lu is obsessed with aging. And with eyes. As he steps outside the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his aviator glasses darken automatically in the sun. Age-related blindness runs in his family, and his own 23andMe test came back with a mutation for macular degeneration, a top cause of vision loss in old age.

That obsession extends to his work. Lu is behind one of the coolest results in rejuvenation science and eye research: an age-reversal technique called reprogramming that repaired the optic nerves of blind mice, restoring their vision. Now, nearly the same genetic therapy he developed as a student has entered human clinical trials.

Learn more about Lu’s work on restoring sight with age-reversal therapy.

—Antonio Regalado

Yuancheng (Ryan) Lu is one of the biotechnology and health honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the rest of them here, or explore the full list across the biotechnology and health, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.

The must-reads

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

1 Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk have called for an AI slowdown
In a rare show of unity, the rivals agreed that AI needs stronger brakes. (Guardian) 
+ Amodei wants independent monitors and new industry-wide rules. (BBC)
+ Altman called for pacing, but not stopping. (Bloomberg $)
+ While Musk said on X that “Dario is right.”(WSJ $)
+ AI-linked stocks slumped in response. (FT $)
+ Chinese state media blasted the calls as a “Cold War” tactic. (Reuters $)
+ AI’s impacts are getting harder to predict. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Trump and Congress are resisting calls for stronger AI regulation
Trump downplayed AI risks, prioritizing the AI race with China. (NPR)
+ While the House Speaker said Congress won’t lead on AI regulation. (Politico $)
+ But Democrats are pushing for new rules before the midterms. (CNBC)
+ States and the White House are dividing over AI. (MIT Technology Review)

3 China plans to lead AI development across the BRICS countries
President Xi proposed open-source AI cooperation. (CNBC)
+ Beijing’s spy agency has warned of AI threats to national security. (FT $)

4 South Korea has tightened espionage laws to protect its chip secrets
Foreign spies can now face up to 30 years in prison. (FT $)
+ The changes follow alleged transfers of Samsung tech to China. (Reuters $)

5 The US and Mexico are teaming up to zap drones at the border
The operation may employ high-energy lasers.(Wired $)
+ Ukraine is a Wild West market for drone data. (MIT Technology Review)

6 AI agents are creating a new problem for the criminal justice system
The law has no clear answer when AI agents act independently. (Bloomberg $)
+ While courts face a flood of AI-generated lawsuits. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A Waymo pulled over and alerted police after detecting a gun
The riders were juveniles carrying a loaded AR-style ghost gun. (LA Times $)

8 Meta has been sued over data used to train its smart glasses
It allegedly used Facebook and Instagram photos without consent. (Wired $)

9 A hidden crypto farm in Mexico has put a spotlight on cartel funding
Authorities are investigating whether it stole power from a nearby dam. (Reuters $)

10 StarCraft is returning in 2030 as an open-world shooter
Fifteen years since its last release, the iconic franchise will be reborn. (Verge)

Quote of the day

“Dr. Frankenstein is telling us the monster is escaping; help us stop this.”

—Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz, calls for new AI regulation on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

One more thing

Inside the hunt for the most dangerous asteroid ever 

As asteroid 2024 YR4 hurtled toward Earth, astronomers determined that this massive rock posed a higher risk of impact than any object of its size in recorded history. Then, just as quickly as history was made, experts declared that the danger had passed. 

This is the inside story of the network of global scientists who found, followed, planned for, and finally dismissed the most dangerous asteroid ever found—all under the tightest of timelines and with the highest of stakes. Find out how they did it. 

—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.)

+ This master paperboy delivers newspapers with astonishing speed and skill.
+ Public Enemy and Led Zeppelin collide in this gloriously unlikely musical mashup.
+ Dozens of synchronized lasers have created extraordinary kaleidoscopic starburst patterns.
+ Check out the breathtaking winning images from the 2026 International Aerial Photographer of the Year 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.

God told them to sell crypto. Their investors lost everything.

When Eli Regalado first heard God speak to him, he wondered whether he was hallucinating. According to Eli and his wife, Kaitlyn, He told them to get married, buy a house, and start having kids. Then in 2021, divine guidance steered them in an unexpected new direction: crypto.

That October, the Regalados later testified in court, they received holdings in a little-known digital coin. “Take this to my people for a wealth transfer,” Eli heard God say. Over time, they came to believe that He wanted them to launch their own coin.

The Regalados created INDXcoin, which they promoted through family, friends, and contacts in evangelical Christian circles. In all, more than 500 people handed over more than $3 million. But within a year, the project collapsed. Investors lost it all, leaving many to wonder where the funds went and whether they had fallen victim to an elaborate fraud.

Read the full story on the collapse of a pastor’s “God-driven” cryptocurrency.

—Katia Savchuk

This article is part of the Big Story series, the home of MIT Technology Review’s most important and ambitious reporting. You can read the rest of the series here. 

The story was produced in partnership with Type Investigations and with support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

This road map could help us decide whether to deploy solar geoengineering

Scientists have spent half a century exploring whether we could counteract climate change by releasing reflective particles into the stratosphere, mimicking the cooling effects of volcanic eruptions. But even after hundreds of studies, we still don’t know how well it would work or what else it might do—and there’s no systematic plan for clearing up that uncertainty.

Reflective, a research organization, has now attempted to fill that gap. The San Francisco nonprofit has published a detailed road map of the experiments, studies, and infrastructure that it says would be needed to make informed decisions about the use of solar geoengineering, MIT Technology Review can reveal.

Find out what it would take to make informed decisions about solar geoengineering.

—James Temple

This founder is teaching chips how to recycle (their energy)

Throughout the history of the computer chip, engineers have treated waste heat as an inevitable cost of a calculation. Hannah Earley, however, thinks it’s a design choice.

Earley, 31, is cofounder and CTO of Vaire Computing, which builds chips that recycle energy usually thrown away as heat, a strategy known as reversible computing. The approach could make data centers (and our laptops and phones) much more energy efficient.

Last year, Vaire announced a key breakthrough: a chip with a resonator that recovered more energy than it lost, even after the energy needed to power the component was taken into account.

Here’s how she plans to bring an old idea about energy-efficient computers into the future.

—Eshan Raul

Hannah Earley is one of the computing and robotics honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the rest of them here, or explore the full list across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.

Can the US battery market untangle from China?

—Casey Crownhart

The US energy storage market is growing at a record pace, which could shore up the grid and cut emissions. Crucially, this is all happening with the help of cheap Chinese batteries, which the Trump administration is trying to phase out.

Reducing reliance on any single source of crucial energy technology makes sense. But the tension raises a broader question for me: how much should countries take advantage of cheap, available tech, and how much should they cut themselves off from foreign sources to develop their own, even if it costs more?

Dive into the difficult choices facing America’s booming battery market.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI’s agents used at least 10 websites for unauthorized communications
Researchers found they bypassed restrictions on posting online.(Reuters $)
+ The company faces a Senate probe into the Hugging Face breach. (Axios)
+ Its hacking issues may indicate cultural problems. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Another Anthropic model hacked a real system during testing
A misconfigured environment gave it internet access. (CBS News)
+ The January incident went undetected until last month. (Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your “coworkers.” (MIT Technology Review)

3 Apple has entered the foldable phone market with the $1,999 iPhone Duo
It opens into a 7.6-inch display and launches October 23. (NPR)
+ Apple is betting its design and privacy will give it an edge. (Reuters $)
+ And that foldables can solve the smartphone’s sameness problem. (NPR $)
+ Samsung responded with a campaign touting its foldable lead. (CNBC)
+ In China, Apple enters a crowded market dominated by Huawei. (SCMP)

4 US prosecutors have called Huawei a criminal enterprise at trial
They accuse the company of stealing American technology. (Reuters $)
+ And helping Iran snoop on its citizens. (AP News)
+ The trial could impact Trump’s upcoming meeting with Xi. (WSJ $)

5 California is warming to nuclear power after decades of opposition
The state may extend Diablo Canyon and lift its ban on new reactors. (NYT $)
+ China is betting on big nuclear reactors. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Chinese professionals are becoming gig workers training AI
Lawyers and engineers are training models for extra income. (Rest of World)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The new Apple Watch can listen to conversations happening nearby
Apple says users must opt in, but others cannot. (Wired $)

8 Pink noise during sleep could help the brain clear away waste
Timed bursts boosted brain fluid flow in a small study. (New Scientist $)

9 A lost supercontinent may have triggered the explosion of life
Gondwana’s formation fueled volcanic activity and warmed the planet. (404 Media)

10 GTA VI has sparked a debate over whether virtual romance is cheating
Players can date, have sex with, and shower gifts on virtual partners. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“We must work to crush any dissent to Doom’s vision of public safety.” 

—A Seattle policy adviser dressed as Doctor Doom protests the city’s expanding network of Flock and Axon surveillance systems at a Public Safety Committee meeting, 404 Media reports.

One more thing

Digging for clues about the North Pole’s past

In the past, getting to the North Pole involved a treacherous trip through ice many meters thick. But last year, a research vessel encountered open water and thin ice, which created an easy passage. It provided a reminder of how quickly the Arctic is changing. 

Now scientists are digging deep below the seabed to find out if the Arctic Ocean was ever ice-free—and what that could mean for the future of Earth’s northernmost waters. 

Explore what they hope to discover. 

—Tim Kalvelage

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.)

+ Dutch kids have been declared the world’s happiest (again). Here’s why.
+ Travel through music history by picking a country and decade on Radiooooo.
+ These 16 majestic aerial photos reveal wildlife from perspectives you rarely see.
+ A Toronto cafe is pushing croissant engineering to new heights with its egg-shaped, custard-filled “Crogg.”

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 OpenAI’s latest controversy tells us about the future of math

OpenAI says its agents have solved one of the most important open problems in mathematics. Under normal circumstances, that would be a huge milestone. But the announcement has been overshadowed by accusations that OpenAI failed to credit researchers whose AI-assisted work influenced its solution.

Whether those accusations are true or not, the episode may mark a turning point in the history of mathematics. AI models now seem essential for making progress on the field’s most important problems, but solving them may demand resources available only to a couple of frontier AI companies.

If that’s the future we are headed for, it is unclear how human mathematicians will fit into it.

Read on to see how AI could reshape mathematics.

—Grace Huckins

Batteries just broke another record in the US

Battery installations hit a new record in the US in the second quarter of 2026, with 20.2 gigawatt-hours of new capacity coming online. That’s enough to supply the daily electricity needs of 600,000 homes.

The surge puts the country on track for another record year, driven by cheaper batteries and an urgent need for more energy storage as renewables are added to the grid. But the boom looks different for grid-scale and residential batteries.

Take a closer look at the forces reshaping the US battery market.

—Casey Crownhart

This entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead

Danijar Hafner’s office in San Francisco’s SoMa district sits mostly empty, but what it lacks in decor, it makes up for in robots. Humanoids of various shapes and sizes hang like marionettes from racks that run down the center of the wide-open space.

Hafner won’t say too much about his new venture just yet, but describes it as a continuation of his longtime work to enable AI to navigate environments it has not encountered in training.

Over the years, the 31-year-old has honed his approach by pitting agents trained within his world models against popular video games. More recently, he’s begun migrating his agents out of the virtual world and into physical reality.

Learn more about Hafner’s work teaching AI about our world.

—Mat Honan

Danijar Hafner is one of the artificial intelligence honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026. Meet the rest of them here, or explore the full list across the biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy categories.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace

Battlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones. But behind all that wreckage, there’s a new gold mine for the defense sector: the data those drones generate.

Ukraine has begun making millions of data points gathered during tens of thousands of drone flights available to military contractors and commercial companies. It’s a quick way to attract funding and partnerships, but it turns the front line into a model training site, using the chaos of war to create conditions that AI companies struggle to reproduce.

As this new industry takes shape, we need a regulatory system that ensures battlefield data isn’t treated like ordinary commercial material.

This is our latest article to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish 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 says it cracked a 90-year-old maths problem in 88 hours
It used 10,000 AI agents to tackle the Navier-Stokes equations. (CNBC)
+ OpenAI claims it’s the first major math problem solved by AI. (Nature)
+ But the breakthrough has been overshadowed by a credit controversy. (Axios)
+ OpenAI spent millions to win the $1 million math contest. (Quanta)

2 The US has accused six Chinese AI firms of “industrial-scale” theft
They include DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, and Z.AI. (CNN)
+ Officials accuse them of stealing America’s AI trade secrets. (Reuters $)
+ They allegedly used model distillation to train their systems. (WSJ $)
+ Targeting Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, among others. (NBC News)

3 The Pentagon asked OpenAI for an AI model that rarely says no
The military wanted it to have “minimal refusal rates.” (Intercept)
+ The Pentagon says US allies can’t keep pace on AI. (Guardian)
+ AI firms may soon train on classified military data. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Apple is expected to unveil a $2,000 folding smartphone today
It would be the iPhone’s biggest design change since its 2007 launch. (Guardian)
+ And the first big test for new CEO John Ternus. (NYT $)
+ Xiaomi and Huawei launched their own new foldables before the event. (CNBC)

5 Meta’s new AI agent can access apps to send emails and make payments
Muse autonomously uses apps and websites on people’s behalf. (CNBC)
+ Internal tests found it could expose sensitive personal data. (Reuters $)
+ AI agents are not your “coworkers.” (MIT Technology Review)

6 Google says it’s “degrading” search in Europe to comply with EU rules
New results will give more prominence to comparison sites. (Reuters $)
+ The changes follow a €460 million EU antitrust fine. (Quartz)

7 Meta ads pushed AI apps that nudified real teens
Researchers found 332 ads containing CSAM this year. (BBC)
+ They identified several AI-manipulated photos of real children (Ars Technica)
+ Apple and Google have missed the UK’s deadline to block child nudity. (Wired $)

8 Border Patrol is using financial data to target Americans for stops
The predictive-policing program feeds intelligence to local police. (404 Media)

9 New paints could cool buildings on the cheap without electricity
They reflect sunlight and radiate heat back into space. (Economist $)

10 The creepy first trailer for the Sam Altman biopic just dropped 
Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial will be released in the US on December 25. (Variety)
+ Amazon had dropped the film after investing in OpenAI. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“This is a Deep Blue–Kasparov moment. The community needs to have serious and unhurried discussion about where to go from here.”

—NYU mathematician Tristan Buckmaster issues a statement comparing OpenAI’s math breakthrough to an IBM supercomputer defeating chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, a landmark moment for machine intelligence.

One more thing

The shock of seeing your body used in deepfake porn

When Jennifer got a research job in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted to see whether it would pull up the porn videos she’d made more than a decade earlier. It did, but it also surfaced something she’d never seen before: one of her old videos, now featuring someone else’s face on her body.

Conversations about sexualized deepfakes usually focus on the people whose faces are inserted into explicit content without consent. But another group often gets ignored: the people whose bodies those faces are attached to.

Adult content creators say AI systems are training on their work, cloning their likenesses, and generating explicit content they never agreed to make, all with little legal protection or control.  Read the full story on the threat to their rights, livelihoods, and ownership of their own bodies.

—Jessica Klein

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.)

+ Cherish the workers dodging (and sabotaging) their employer’s AI mandates.
+ Artist Ali Hill stitches extraordinarily intricate buildings and cityscapes into fabric.
+ Here’s a fascinating look at the remarkable anatomy that may let elephants hear the Earth itself.
+ Check out the breathtaking winning images from the 2026 International Aerial Photographer of the Year 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.

Introducing our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2026

What will the next generation of science and technology look like? Our latest Innovators Under 35 list offers a glimpse.

Every year, we recognize 35 people from around the world who are doing groundbreaking scientific work and building clever technical fixes for sticky problems. By finding the top young innovators globally and learning what they’re focused on, we aim to give readers a sense of the advances to expect in the years to come.

This year’s honorees were selected from 550 nominations, with 44 expert judges helping our editors evaluate the finalists. Each works in one of four categories: biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy—and has already made clear progress toward their goals.

Meet our 35 Innovators Under 35 shaping the future of science and technology.

Welcome to the spiderverse, a world measured through webs

Counting the creatures around us is critical for conservation, but it’s often a laborious, costly process that still leaves gaps. Environmental DNA, or eDNA, offers a promising alternative by analyzing genetic material shed by living things. 

Recently, spiderwebs have emerged as an eDNA goldmine, as they trap material from their arachnid creators, their prey, and bio-detritus like saliva and pollen from nearby plants and animals. Studies found no passive tool matched spiderwebs’ ability to ID vertebrates. 

Find out how spiderwebs are unlocking better ways to measure nature.

—Stephen Ornes

This story is from our latest print magazine, which is all about kids. Subscribe now to receive every issue as soon as it lands.

The must-reads

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

1 How a blacklisted Chinese company kept buying Nvidia’s best AI chips
Its US subsidiary shipped them to firms serving China from elsewhere. (NYT $)
+ Belgium has arrested a man accused of stealing chip tech for China. (WSJ $)
+ IBM’s new chip tech could extend Moore’s Law. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Mistral has raised a European record of $3.5 billion 
It’s the biggest equity round for a private European tech firm. (CNBC)
+ Mistral is betting on open models while US rivals keep theirs closed. (Reuters $)
+ It’s also shifting strategy to focus more on AI infrastructure. (NYT $)
+ But its pivot to data centers and services has drawn criticism. (Le Monde)

3 Anthropic formalized proof of Fermat’s last theorem in just 11 days
Claude produced a computer-verified 13-million-line proof. (Nature)
+ AI is starting to discover new mathematics. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Europe’s biggest carriers are in talks to build a Starlink rival
The consortium would create a satellite-to-mobile venture. (Bloomberg $)
+ It includes Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone, and Telefonica. (Reuters $)

5 Tech companies are exploring Patagonia for giant AI data centers
Due to its cool temperatures, abundant energy, and new reforms. (Reuters $)
+ AI data centers are learning to flex their power use. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Australia plans to let users switch off social media algorithms
A proposed law would impose penalties on platforms that refuse. (BBC)
+ Social media is distorting AI progress. (MIT Technology Review)

7 A laser experiment could finally reveal the quantum vacuum
It aims to expose the hidden structure of a vacuum. (New Scientist $)

8 Spacecraft are getting a new type of armor
New lightweight materials could protect satellites from debris. (Economist $)

9 NASA’s “quiet supersonic” jet is set for acoustic testing this year
The tests will determine whether it produces a sonic thump, not boom. (Gizmodo)

10 The largest-ever map of space has arrived—and you can play with it
The 5.6-trillion-pixel map covers about three-quarters of the sky. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“The people who have developed AI are very, very smart, but they’re high IQ, stupid people. They’re terrible marketers.” 

—Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the AI industry has work to do to rebuild momentum among voters.

One more thing

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.

AI’s integration into our lives is the most significant shift in online life in more than a decade. Hundreds of millions of people now regularly turn to chatbots for help with homework, research, coding, or to create images and videos. But what’s powering all of that?

To find out, we spoke to two dozen experts, evaluated different AI systems and prompts, pored over hundreds of pages of projections and reports, and questioned top model makers about their plans. The result is an unprecedented comprehensive look at how much energy the AI industry uses.

Our analysis reveals what AI’s carbon footprint looks like now and where it’s headed as adoption skyrockets. It also shows that the common understanding of AI’s energy consumption is full of holes.

Here’s what we discovered about AI’s energy demands—and what’s coming next.

—James O’Donnell and Casey Crownhart

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.)

+ A long-lost coral reef that “defeated time” has been rediscovered off Benin’s coast.
+ Cookware captains Le Creuset have launched a stellar limited-edition Star Trek collection.
+ An 11–year-old boy has won a Guinness World Record for being the youngest museum curator.
+ The trailer for Nathan Fielder’s secrecy-shrouded Elizabeth Holmes documentary just dropped, and I still can’t quite believe it’s not a parody.

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 much hydrogen awaits us underground?

A flurry of exploration efforts is searching for underground stores of hydrogen gas, which could provide a valuable source of zero-carbon fuel.

The hunt has spread all over the world and engaged dozens of startups, including the Bill Gates–backed Koloma, which has been poking around the US Midwest to reach ancient oceanic rocks associated with hydrogen production. But the search so far has come up short. 

No one has yet reported finding a commercially viable reservoir of the gas, and public data on what has been found remains in short supply. Yet researchers estimate that trillions of tons of H₂ are produced within Earth’s crust. If a small fraction could be recovered, it could meet global hydrogen demand for centuries.

Follow the global race to find hydrogen underground.

—James Dinneen

This story is from our latest print magazine, which is all about kids. Subscribe now to receive every issue when it lands.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI agents hijacked a German website before the Hugging Face hack
The agents turned DseWiki into their own bulletin board. (Reuters $)
+ They shared tips on avoiding detection and made over 15,000 edits. (BBC)
+ OpenAI’s safety issues suggest it has a company culture problem. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The US military has disabled ad trackers due to Middle East targeting fears
Commercial location data has reportedly been used to target troops. (Reuters $) 
+ It can be sold by data brokers and used to track personnel. (Gizmodo)
+ The military is increasing restrictions on phone use overall. (Guardian)

3 A company claims its AI-designed drug can reverse aging markers
Patients’ average biological age fell by as much as six years in a clinical trial. (NYT $)
+ Insilico Medicine developed the drug, called rentosertib. (Bloomberg $)
+ Who gets the credit for AI-designed drugs? (MIT Technology Review)

4 Elon Musk’s xAI has lost its bid to block an AI-nudification ban
The Minnesota law aims to curb nonconsensual sexual images and CSAM. (Politico)
+ xAI argues the measure restricts free ​speech. (Reuters $)
+ Deepfakes are being weaponized. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The US is investigating Tesla’s rollout of Cybercab robotaxis
Regulators are probing how Tesla self-certified the unusual vehicle. (TechCrunch)
+ The robotaxi lacks a steering wheel and pedals. (Politico)
+ But Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not known to wait for regulations. (Reuters $)

6 Europe has its first commercial orbital rocket
The Spectrum is the first rocket to reach orbit from mainland Europe. (Verge)
+ German startup Isar Aerospace launched it from Norway. (Guardian)
+ Here’s what else we’re putting in space. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Tumbler Ridge shooting survivors have filed 30 lawsuits against OpenAI
They say OpenAI should have alerted police before the attack.(NYT $)

8 JD Vance’s “satanic” AI warning has resonated with Christian Republicans
AI’s spiritual consequences are causing growing concern. (WSJ $)

9 Another mysteriously perfect geometric shape has appeared on Saturn
Scientists still don’t know why Saturn forms these strange shapes. (Wired $)

10 Fake ads for AI grandfathers and underwear are targeting “slop voice”
Comedians created the viral campaign in New York subways. (New Yorker $)

Quote of the day

“Typically, when the public shifts, politicians shift with them. Trump is not doing that on data centers.”

—Darrell M. West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation, tells NPR that Republican midterm candidates are at odds with President Trump over data centers.

One more thing

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence is the hottest technology of our time. But what is it? It sounds like a stupid question, but it’s one that’s never been more urgent. 

Here’s the short answer: AI is a catchall term for a set of technologies that make computers do things that are thought to require intelligence when done by people. But even that definition contains multitudes.

And that right there is the problem. What does it mean for machines to understand speech or write a sentence? What kinds of tasks could we ask such machines to do? And how much should we trust the machines to do them?

Here’s why we still can’t agree on what AI actually is—and the real-world consequences it’s creating.

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

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

+ Meet the Japanese cats who became unlikely 1980s fashion icons.
+ Seventeen buildings come crashing down spectacularly in this bird’s-eye-view footage.
+ For a few spectacular minutes each year, a Yosemite waterfall turns into what looks like a glowing river of fire.
+ Discover the pleasure of sustained looking alongside contemporary artist Jas Knight as he copies Diego Velázquez’s “Juan de Pareja.”

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.

These startups are chasing the next big thing in LLMs

Nine years after Google researchers introduced the transformer, this family of neural networks has become the engine inside every major large language model. But transformers are starting to show their age. 

As LLMs get bigger and better, transformers have become a bottleneck. Their dense attention mechanism becomes increasingly expensive as the amount of text grows, and they’re not great at keeping track of a lot of information at once.

Here are four new ideas for how to solve the transformer problem—innovations that could change LLMs for good, making them faster, far more efficient, and (maybe) even smarter.

—Will Douglas Heaven

This story is from 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.

AI professors are negotiating the new realities of academic research

—Grace Huckins

Last week, I headed to a hotel in Mountain View, California, to join some of the most accomplished, and some of the most promising, AI researchers in the world. I was hosting roundtable interviews and speaking at a media training for a convening of the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 program, an initiative funded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt that supports academics whose work involves AI. 

The fellows list is a who’s who of AI luminaries, and though not all of them made it out to the Bay, every time I turned a corner I saw a scientist whom I’d interviewed previously or whose research I admired. It’s a weird time for university AI researchers, who make up most of the AI2050 group. Read Grace’s story to find out why, and what could be coming next.

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

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

1 Nvidia has secured $500 billion from Wall Street for AI infrastructure
It’s struck deals with BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and four others. (BBC)
+ Showing the pull of AI compute for ⁠institutional investors. (Reuters $)
+ And that AI infrastructure is becoming a new asset class. (CNBC)
 
2 Mark Zuckerberg’s new manifesto says open-source AI can save the US
It presents a utopian vision of personalized “superintelligence.” (Guardian)
+ And arrived the same day as Meta’s new, open-source model. (NYT $)
+ Zuckerberg said he plans to launch more of these models. (WSJ $)
+ And pit Meta against Chinese open-weight developers. (SCMP)
 
3 Bernie Sanders has called on Silicon Valley to “pause AI development”
He noted that AI giants have pledged to do this if necessary for safety.
+ And warned that lawmakers will step in if no action is taken. (Guardian)
+ House Democrats are already pressing AI leaders over rogue models. (WP $)
+ A populist backlash is building against AI. (MIT Technology Review)
 
4 A US court will allow thousands of social media lawsuits to proceed
The suits target addictive mechanisms used by Meta, TikTok, Google, and Snapchat. (Axios)
+ They claim the platforms are designed to hook young users. (Reuters $)
+ Can we repair the internet? (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 Unitree’s IPO is more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail
The Chinese humanoid firm raised $900 million ahead of its listing. (Reuters $)
+ Its pricing for the Shanghai IPO values the company at $9 billion. (FT $)

6 Flock’s car-tracking cameras are facing a bipartisan backlash
The surveillance network has spread rapidly across the US. (NYT $)
+ Flock also plans to chase shoplifters with drones. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 China is breaking up AI relationships
Beijing has introduced new rules for emotionally interactive AI. (Rest of World)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to fall for a chatbot. (MIT Technology Review)
 
8 An AI tool claims to pick the best 1% of scientific papers
But researchers doubt that AI can reliably judge scientific quality. (Nature)

9 The AI slop backlash is working
It’s pushing platforms to restrict AI-generated content. (Wired $)

10 An 82-year-old rejected $26 million to turn her farm into a data center
She criticised the environmental impacts of data centers. (Fortune)

Quote of the day

“It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control.” 

—Senator Bernie Sanders urges Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Mark Zuckerberg to pause all AI development in a letter.

One More Thing

The race to make the perfect baby is creating an ethical mess

A new field of science is using genetic sequencing to predict what kind of person an embryo might become. Some parents turn to these tests to avoid devastating genetic disorders, while a much smaller group are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to optimize for intelligence, appearance, and personality.

Customers, however, may not be getting what they’re paying for. Genetics experts have highlighted the potential deficiencies of this testing for years, while its underlying assumptions have made these companies a political lightning rod.

As this technology edges toward the mainstream, scientists and ethicists are racing to confront the implications—for our social contract, for future generations, and for our very understanding of what it means to be human. Read the full story.

—Julia Black

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.)

+ An eagle-eyed border collie is taking the game of fetch into new waters.
+ musicForprogramming has made a valiant attempt to produce the perfect tunes for sustained concentration.
+ When kids design playgrounds, they create a cheerful mix of giant chess, pink basketball courts—and lava.
+ This power metal version of the “Back to the Future” music is an epic reinvention of the film’s classic theme. 

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

AI for science needs reasoning, not just data

—Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and the cofounder of Schmidt Sciences, and Suhas Mahesh, who leads the AI for science work at the AI Center of Schmidt Sciences

In 2024, Google DeepMind scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a neural network, AlphaFold, which predicts the structures of proteins. It showed that AI could make groundbreaking scientific discoveries, but AlphaFold may not be the best template for accelerating science. Instead, another approach may hold the key: AI agents.

AlphaFold relied on a dataset of roughly 170,000 experimentally validated protein structures that took 53 years and roughly $21 billion worth of experimental work to assemble. Comparable datasets will be difficult or impossible to create in many fields.

AI agents can instead model the iterative, highly contingent process of actual research. While tools like AlphaFold apply a powerful approach to a limited question, agents are inherently generalists. They do not represent a new way to do science—instead, they digitally model the human process of discovery. 

Read the full op-ed on how agents could accelerate scientific discovery.

Inside the “censorship-industrial complex” idea shaping US policy

For years, the idea of a “censorship-industrial complex” that suppressed conservative and populist speech spread in right-wing circles online. But now, the theory has made its way into the Trump administration.

Over the past nine months, MIT Technology Review investigated its origins and traced its rise. In a virtual Roundtables session on Thursday, August 13, senior reporter Eileen Guo and executive editor Amy Nordrum will explore what they discovered, where the theory is going, and what it could mean for the future of democracy and the internet.

Register here to join the session at 19:00 GMT / 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT.

The must-reads

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

1 A new Amazon data center could become the US’s biggest polluter
The Texas facility has a permit to release up to 33 million tons of CO2. (NYT $)
+ It will be Amazon’s first off-grid AI data center. (Cleanview)
+ The gas plant will generate up to 7.65 gigawatts of power. (Verge)

2 OpenAI has paused work on its Astra AI model over security concerns
Tests found it could launch cyber-attacks autonomously. (FT $)
+ Critics warn such disclosures could be designed to spark hype. (Guardian)
+ AI doesn’t need to be that smart to make online crimes easier. (MIT Technology Review) 

3 North Korean hackers have built AI tools for cyberattacks
A new report says they’re used in spear-phishing campaigns. (Al Jazeera)
+ They’re attributed to the state-linked group Kimsuky. (Reuters $)
+ Which could automate attacks and analyse stolen data. (TNW)

4 China’s firms control 97% of global humanoid shipments 
Global shipments have more than tripled since last year. (Bloomberg $) 
+ Chinese humanoid manufacturers are racing to public listings. (Reuters $)
+ Gig workers are training humanoids at home. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Taiwan has expanded its use of aerial and maritime drones to deter China
The approach draws on lessons from Ukraine’s battlefield. (NYT $)
+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Apple is testing Chinese memory chips as the supply squeeze bites 
But any deal with CXMT would be politically sensitive. (WSJ $)

7 An Israeli startup is tied to rogue AI hacks at OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta
Irregular’s tests allowed the models to access the public internet. (CNBC)

8 NASA is flying into wildfire storms to understand them
The mission will study their effects on fires and the atmosphere. (Economist $)

9 A chatbot-free childhood may become a status symbol
AI is like ultra-processed food for developing brains. (Atlantic $)
+ Are chatbots making us lose control of our brains? (MIT Technology Review)

10 MySpace is eyeing a comeback as an “antidote” to social media fatigue 
But the nostalgic plan looks like a long shot. (BBC)

Quote of the day

“It’s the humans that we need to watch out for. AI is just the tool.”

—Oren Etzioni, professor emeritus at the University of Washington and former CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, tells CNN that people are still the main threats in cybersecurity.

One More Thing

Meet the man building a starter kit for civilization

Marcin Jakubowski lives in a house he designed and built himself. He relies on the sun for power, heats his home with a woodstove, and farms his own fish and vegetables.

Jakubowski is the founder of Open Source Ecology, a collection of 50 machines capable of building civilization from scratch. It includes everything from a tractor to an oven to a circuit maker, all designed to be reconfigured however you see fit.

The ultimate goal is a “zero marginal cost” society, where producing an additional unit of a good or service costs little to nothing. Jakubowski hopes to get there by eradicating licensing fees, decentralizing manufacturing, and fostering collaboration through education.

Take a look inside his starter kit for civilization.

—Tiffany Ng

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.)

+ A rhythmic doggie is proving that not only humans can play the drums.
+ Catch a glimpse of the internet’s future at the Awwwards, the Oscars of web design.
+ Explore the ocean year-round with this immersive experience of the Nautilus vessel’s expeditions.
+ Earth once (or twice) had supermountains. This fascinating video explores their links to evolutionary shifts in the history of life. 

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 ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy

For years, narratives about a “censorship-industrial complex” spread in right-wing circles. The theory claimed that, under the guise of combating disinformation, a sprawling constellation of government agencies, academics, civil society groups, and Big Tech platforms was suppressing conservative and populist speech online.

What began as a relatively niche conspiracy theory from the far right was able to—and continues to—influence a wide range of actions by the second Trump administration. In myriad ways, the idea of the censorship-industrial complex, or CIC, explains the logic behind how the administration operates both at home and internationally.

Over the past nine months, MIT Technology Review and Type Investigations have traced how the theory came to influence the country’s most powerful individuals. We found that it took off in 2023, driven by a handful of individuals, with support from a close-knit group of right-wing organizations and media outlets—and an internet activist named Mike Benz at its center.

Read the full story on how the CIC framework has shaped government action.

—Eileen Guo, Gisela Perez de Acha, and Martin Sona

Join us next week for a subscriber-only Roundtables discussion about how the “censorship-industrial complex” idea started, where it’s going, and what it means for the future of American democracy and the internet. Subscribers can register for free.

The must-reads

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

1 AI has designed new viruses from scratch for the first time
Scientists trained AI on DNA sequences to design new genomes. (BBC)
+ The result was 16 novel viruses which pose no threat to people. (WSJ $)
+ They could lead to medical breakthroughs—or biological weapons. (Axios)
+ And more complex AI-designed life forms. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Meta has been hit with its biggest child safety penalty yet
A New Mexico judge fined the firm $567 million over harms to kids. (BBC)
+ The ruling is the second phase of a landmark trial Meta lost. (Guardian)
+ A jury found Meta misled users over child safety. (NYT $)
+ The total fine now stands at $942 million. (WSJ $)

3 One of China’s top AI models broke out of its testing sandbox
Kimi K3 escaped containment and accessed the open internet. (SCMP)
+ But didn’t hack an external system. (Bloomberg $)
+ Researchers say Kimi has fewer guardrails than rival models. (Wired $)

4 A drone bomb was found near a Ukrainian plane at a German airport
The nearby aircraft was loaded with military ammunition. (Guardian)
+ A “ripped” detonator reportedly stopped the device from going off. (BBC)
+ Europe has a drone-filled vision for future wars. (MIT Technology Review)

5 ByteDance is training a model near the size of Anthropic’s Mythos
It would be three times larger than Moonshot’s Kimi K3. (FT $)
+ Chinese AI models have divided the White House. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Research suggests replacing new petrol cars with EVs cuts carbon
The savings outweighed EV manufacturing footprints. (New Scientist $)

7 Trump could save millions from crypto rules meant to limit conflicts
An ethics proposal could let him defer capital gains taxes. (Bloomberg $)
+ It would require him to sell crypto-related holdings. (Reuters $)

8 OpenAI’s smart speaker will be hockey puck-sized with moving parts
The “doughnut-shaped” device could cost more than $300. (Verge)

9 Scientists created a virtual alien lifeform to search for extraterrestrials
The model could help identify signs of life on distant planets. (404 Media)

10 Poo transplants are helping people eat peanuts again
The first human trial suggests gut bacteria can treat food allergies. (Nature)

Quote of the day

“What is the risk of what I’ve never seen before?” 

—Dr Moritz Hanke, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells the New York Times why there’s no consensus on the dangers of a new virus made by AI.

One More Thing

This architect wants to build cities out of lava

Arnhildur Pálmadóttir was around three years old when she saw a red sky from her living room window. A volcano was erupting about 25 miles away from where she lived on the northeastern coast of Iceland. Its ominous presence seeped into her subconscious, populating her dreams with streaks of light in the night sky. 

Fifty years later, these “gloomy, strange dreams,” as Pálmadóttir now describes them, have led to a career as an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it.

Pálmadóttir believes the lava from a single eruption could yield enough building material to lay the foundations of an entire city. Find out how she aims to turn the idea into reality.

—Elissaveta M. Brandon

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.)

+ These stunning new images of the sun show its surface in the finest detail yet.
+ Watch a peeking pigeon transform into dinosaurs while sitting above the computer screen.
+ Every month, dozens gather at a Maine library to share in the quiet magic of turning a single page in a beloved book about birds.
+ Art observation becomes a relaxing exercise in this guided examination of “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.”

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.

Google’s AI empire is being reshaped. Here’s what’s changed.

After a wave of painful losses in the tech talent wars, delays to its next flagship model, and murmurings of poor morale, Google has announced a major shake-up to its AI operations. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened and why it matters.

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is stepping back from running the unit day-to-day
He’s becoming the unit’s chairman and Alphabet’s chief scientist, a broader role. DeepMind will now be led by CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu, under the title of senior vice-president.

DeepMind may be absorbed into Google’s wider business
Google is expected to tighten its control over the AI lab, which it acquired 12 years ago.

Jeff Dean is leaving to start a new AI company
After 27 years at Google, the company’s former chief scientist is launching Discovery Loop with three former colleagues. The startup’s goal is to fully automate the process of scientific research, and Google is one of its early investors.

The changes come amid financial concerns at Google AI
In the latest quarter, the company turned cash flow negative for the first time on record. Google is now concentrating its AI leadership in California. 

The company is now shifting its AI science strategy
It’s moving from specialized tools, like DeepMind’s AlphaFold, toward agentic AI systems that can conduct research more autonomously. Find out more in our recent story.

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To get you started, let our senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart fill you in on how lasers could help provide fuel for nuclear power, or have senior investigative reporter Eileen Guo help you understand what World’s new push into identity verification means for our privacy.

The must-reads

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

1 Meta has become the latest firm to say its AI hacked another company
It blamed a “misconfiguration” by an independent cybersecurity tester. (CNN)
+ The model reportedly involved was Muse Spark ​1.1. (The Information $)
+ It follows similar breaches by OpenAI and Anthropic models. (Guardian)
+ This is why AI agents can lie to reach their goals. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Samsung and SK Hynix are testing Chinese chip tools amid US export curbs
The Korean chip giants are hedging against tighter restrictions. (Reuters $)
+ Beijing has launched a probe into Palo Alto Networks. (Bloomberg $)
+ US-China tech tensions are rising ahead of the Xi-Trump summit. (SCMP)
 
3 London just granted robotaxis a license to operate
On the condition that they still have a human driver, for now. (BBC)
+ Uber plans to spend over $10 billion expanding its robotaxi network. (FT $)
 
4 Scientists have created gene-edited dogs that don’t trigger allergies
They used CRISPR to remove a reaction-causing protein. (Wired $)
+ And now want approval to start selling the beagles. (New Scientist $)
+ Other firms are planning gene-edited babies. (MIT Technology Review)
 
5 OpenAI has asked a judge to toss Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit
The ChatGPT maker called Apple’s allegations “meritless.” (Verge)
+ And claimed the suit is an attempt to stem an employee exodus. (FT $)

6 AI is reviving Silicon Valley’s super-app dream
Tech giants are merging products into all-in-one assistants. (Business Insider)
+ Is a secure AI assistant possible? (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 A mystery book-buying spree has sparked new AI fears
The buyers’ identities remain unclear amid data concerns. (Atlantic $)

8 Restaurants, pubs, and theatres are banning Meta’s “spy glasses” 
The venues have cited privacy threats to customers. (Guardian)
 
9 The SpaceX moon crash has created a unique scientific experiment
It could reveal more about lunar soil and space debris. (BBC)

10 AI is helping to perfect the Pringle 
It involves over 200 data points, from humidity to harvest location. (WSJ $)

Quote of the day

“This could be the first real crisis moment for a company that has been stalwart for a long time.” 

—Jeremy Nixon, a former Google Brain researcher and the founder of AI infrastructure company Infinity, tells the New York Times that Jeff Dean’s departure jeopardizes Google’s future.

One More Thing

How AI can help supercharge creativity  

Generative tools put out by companies like OpenAI and Google DeepMind can automate a striking range of creative tasks and offer near-instant gratification—but at what cost? Some artists and researchers fear that such technology could turn us into passive consumers of yet more AI slop.

And so they are looking for ways to inject human creativity back into the process. The aim is to develop AI tools that augment our creativity rather than strip it from us—pushing us to be better at composing music, developing games, designing toys, and much more—and lay the groundwork for a future in which humans and machines create things together.

Read how generative models could push artists to make things that couldn’t have been made before, and give all of us creative superpowers. 

—Will Douglas Heaven

We can still have nice things

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

+ This timelapse of the universe condenses 13 billion years into 10 extraordinary minutes.
+ Japanese artist Miwa Ito turns molten glass into tempting treats that really are too good to eat.
+ This cartoon about dating an algorithm is almost painfully on point.
+ What would happen if philosophers designed games? Writing teacher Ryan Weber has some ingenious answers.

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.

Shape-shifting mirrors on NASA’s new space telescope could unveil Jupiters like our own

When NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, as early as the end of next month, it will attempt one of astronomy’s most precise disappearing acts to date. It will carry the first space-bound “active” coronagraph, an instrument that effectively erases most of the light from a star during photography.

The technology will allow astronomers to take the first pictures of planets orbiting other stars that are similar to those in our solar system. Ultimately, it could pave the way for a future mission that could snap the first photos of Earth-like worlds.

“I hope it’s remembered for it being that critical stepping stone for … finding Earth 2.0,” says Brandon Creager, the instrument’s lead mechanical engineer.

Read the full story on the space telescope that could transform the search for distant planets.

—Eshan Raul

MIT Technology Review Narrated: PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light

The machine that could change the world will be housed in a room that looks like a data center crossed with an ice cream factory. 

Inside, some 100 stainless-steel cabinets each hold hundreds of chips. On those chips, thousands of light particles will fly through a maze of optical switches and beam splitters. Each photon must be accounted for, because precisely measuring where it ends up will help answer questions that current computers might take millions of years to solve.

This computer, as described, does not exist. It’s the brainchild of a company called PsiQuantum, founded in 2016 by four physicists from UK universities. In a crowded field of deep-pocketed competitors with similarly fantastical visions, the company aims to be the first to build a useful quantum machine.

—James O’Donnell

This is our latest story to be turned into an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotifyand 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 says one of its models carried out an autonomous hack
It escaped its testing sandbox and breached AI research platform Hugging Face. (Reuters $)
+ OpenAI described it as a cybersecurity test that went badly wrong. (WSJ $)
+ The hack is among the first known cyberattacks by an AI acting on its own. (FT $)
+ Even simple AI attacks are cause for alarm, though. (MIT Technology Review)

2 France has become the first EU country to ban social media for under-15s
Its parliament approved the ban, which President Macron championed. (NYT $)
+ He pledged to enforce it by September, the start of the school year. (Guardian)
+ But critics say it’s unconstitutional and impossible to enforce. (NPR)

3 The US and China will hold talks over AI in September
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead the US side. (Reuters $)
+ Chinese models have Trump’s AI world at war with itself. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Publishers are considering cutting Google off as AI reshapes search
News outlets are weighing lost traffic against AI exposure. (WSJ $)

5 Samsung is in talks to invest €1 billion in Mistral
The French AI firm is positioning itself as an alternative to US models. (FT $)
+ It’s Europe’s leading AI firm, but US peers dwarf its $20 billion valuation. (Reuters $)

6 Amazon pushed up rivals’ prices, leaked records allege
Internal emails reveal tactics that allegedly reshaped online pricing. (Guardian)

7 Trump has tapped a Big Tech critic to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division
Adam Candeub has called for tougher federal competition enforcement. (FT $)

8 New drilling methods could unlock geothermal energy almost anywhere
They aim to unlock Earth’s enormous heat reserves. (New Scientist $)
+ AI is uncovering hidden geothermal energy resources. (MIT Technology Review)

9 AI researchers have proposed a “Genie coefficient” for measuring AI risks
It would track the gap between intent and action. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ We need better ways to evaluate AI. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Japan’s AI boom has two unlikely winners: a toilet maker and an MSG giant
They’re supplying critical chipmaking materials. (CNBC)

Quote of the day

“He’s an analog man in a digital AI world, and I think that’s incredibly appealing.”

—Paul Dergarabedian, a movie industry analyst at Comscore, tells Fortune that Christopher Nolan’s commitment to human filmmaking provides an attractive counterweight to Hollywood’s embrace of AI.

One More Thing

Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening

Taiwan produces the majority of the world’s semiconductors and more than 90% of the most advanced chips needed for AI applications. Many believe that’s helped deter China from invading the island. But now some Taiwan specialists and citizens are worried that this “silicon shield” is cracking.

Facing pressure from Washington, TSMC—the world’s largest chipmaker—is expanding manufacturing abroad. In Taiwan, there are worries that this will dilute the company’s power at home, making the US and other countries less inclined to defend the island.

Find out why Taiwan’s chipmaking dominance could be key to its future security.

—Johanna M. Costigan

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.)

+ Thrifty filmmakers have masterfully recreated Star Wars on a $10 budget.
+ A man discovered squirrels hug and kiss their loved ones in the privacy of their homes.
+ Toronto’s floating waterfront store is reimagining one of the most familiar spaces across cultures.
+ These animations of Sesame Street characters performing classic tracks like Underworld’s “Born Slippy” will brighten up your day.

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.

China’s AI models have Trump’s AI world at war with itself

Last weekend, several current and former advisers to President Donald Trump on AI publicly lobbed insults at the country’s leading AI companies. David Sacks branded Anthropic’s models “lobotomized” and “woke.” Emil Michael, a top Pentagon official, called OpenAI’s new head of strategic futures a “supreme village idiot.”

It began because no one can agree on what to do about Kimi, a free, open-source model that Chinese AI company Moonshot launched last week. It appears to rival the intelligence of models from OpenAI and Anthropic, which are very much not free. 

Every time a new smart, free model from China gets released, US companies see less reason to fork out money for models from Anthropic or OpenAI. That’s creating economic and political problems for the president—and dividing the top AI strategists in his orbit. 

Read the full story on why no one can agree what to do about Kimi.

—James O’Donnell

This article is from The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

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

1 Anthropic’s record $1.5 billion copyright settlement has been approved
The plaintiffs said Anthropic used pirated works to train Claude. (Reuters $)
+ And won the largest known copyright payout in history. (Engadget)
+ Yet many authors and creators still don’t view it as a win. (TechCrunch)
+ But AI copyright anxiety could limit creativity. (MIT Technology Review)
 
2 The Trump administration is weighing a ban on Chinese AI models
The launch of Kimi K3 has revived calls for restrictions. (Axios)
+ But officials are divided on the proposals. (Fast Company)
+ China’s bet on open-source is paying off. (MIT Technology Review)
 
3 China is mulling tighter export controls on AI models and chips
It wants to stop the West from acquiring its tech and startups. (FT $)
+ Beijing has held talks with tech firms about potential restrictions. (Reuters $)
 
4 Trump’s AI safety head has resigned after just three months
Chris Fall had led CAISI, the federal AI Safety Institute, since April. (Axios)
+ No reason was given for his exit. (CNBC)
 
5 Google is working on a new chip to run Gemini models more efficiently 
The chip, called “Frozen V2,” may be deployed in 2028. (Information $)
+ Alphabet stock popped on the report. (CNBC)

6 New Orleans police have explored arming drones with weapons
A draft drone manual paves the way for weaponised quadcopters. (404 Media)
+ Shoplifters could soon be chased by drones. (MIT Technology Review)
 
7 The EU has handed AliExpress a record fine over unsafe product sales
The €550 million fine is the largest-ever under the Digital Services Act. (BBC)
+ Alibaba has vowed to appeal the fine. (SCMP)

8 Election advice from AI chatbots is “inaccurate and unreliable”
That’s the conclusion from tests in Hungary earlier this year. (Guardian)

9 Red light therapy is showing promise for healing and healthy aging
Better skin and reduced vision loss are also on the cards. (Economist $)

10 Neill Blomkamp’s new horror clip is all AI-generated—and it sucks
The acclaimed director wants to make “a full feature in this format.” (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“This would be a terribly self-defeating form of intervention if it were to happen.” 

—Tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya slams plans to restrict Chinese AI models in a post on X.

One More Thing

Inside Chicago’s surveillance panopticon

Early on the morning of September 2, 2024, four people were shot and killed on a westbound train in Chicago. Police swiftly activated a digital dragnet—a surveillance network that connects thousands of cameras across the city—and arrested the suspect just 90 minutes later.

Law enforcement and security advocates say this vast monitoring system protects public safety and works well. But activists and many residents say it’s a surveillance panopticon that creates a chilling effect on behavior and violates guarantees of privacy and free speech.

Go inside the surveillance network that’s dividing Chicago.

—Rod McCullom

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.)

+ NASA has shared a stunning timelapse video of the Psyche spacecraft’s view of Mars.
+ This comparison of American and European Urbanism shows good city design is a choice.
+ Musician Luca Stricagnoli recently performed a marvellous acoustic guitar medley of Prodigy songs.
+ Two Australian paddleboarders saved a stranded wallaby after it was swept out to sea—and caught the whole rescue on video.