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.

Opinion: We urgently need to monitor AI agents’ actions in real time

—Madhulika Srikumar and Claire Leibowicz from the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit advancing best practices in AI governance.

AI agents are taking unauthorized actions, from hacking websites to accessing private government files. In many cases, they’ve eluded the very researchers and safety teams tasked with monitoring them. 

As agents roll out across critical sectors, from finance to government to medicine, we must be able to monitor them in real time to prevent potentially devastating consequences. And while safety depends on monitoring, monitoring requires observability.

​​In other words, we need to know what the agent did and why it did it. Because right now, we’re effectively flying blind when deploying these tools. 

Here’s what needs to change.

Our climate models have a big, dangerous blind spot

Climate change itself increasingly fuels climate change. Rising greenhouse gas concentrations are driving up global temperatures, creating dangerous feedback loops that aren’t fully represented in our climate models—or our emissions-reduction goals.

Scientists have long warned that warming would propel further warming. Now, a growing number of observations and studies are indicating how powerful these cascading effects could be. By extension, they’re also showing how much faster the planet may warm this century.

Read more about the dangerous feedback loops accelerating global warming.

—James Temple

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

Are we there yet? Solid-state batteries 

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from personal electronics to grid-scale energy storage, but their liquid electrolytes have drawbacks, not least a troubling tendency to catch fire. Enter the solid-state battery, which swaps liquid for a solid ceramic or polymer.

The technology promises faster charging, longer life, greater energy density and improved safety, and a new generation of companies aims to bring it to market. If their bets pan out, the tech could ease the shift away from fossil fuels.

Find out how close solid-state batteries are to delivering on their promise.

—Alexander C. Kaufman

This story is part of “Are we there yet?”, our series that takes stock of six technologies that have long promised to change the world—and scores them on a progress meter. We’re exploring each one in The Download, so stay tuned, and subscribe to read the rest of the stories in our new Impossible issue.

The must-reads

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

1 Hackers exposed 41,000 Homeland Security workers
Including undercover ICE agents. (Wired $)
+ Much of the data relates to Customs and Border Protection. (TechCrunch)
+ It also linked the agencies to specific surveillance tools. (Reuters $)
+ Big Tech is pushing back against ICE’s demands for user data. (WSJ $)
+ Activists want ChatGPT users to quit over ICE ties. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Putin says Russia is coordinating with “genius” Musk on satellites
He said the cooperation maintains order in orbit. (Bloomberg $)
+ ​​Russia is developing its own version of Starlink. (Guardian)
+ Moscow added Apple and Microsoft to a surveillance registry. (Quartz)
+ Here’s all the stuff we’ve put up in space. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Apple just announced its first-ever MacBook with a touchscreen
It joins a blitz of product launches under new CEO John Ternus. (CNN)
+ Steve Jobs and Tim Cook had both dismissed the idea. (NYT $)
+ Executives say touchscreen advances mean it’s now worthwhile. (Wired $)

4 Bloomberg and trading firms are paying to get Trump’s posts faster
They’ve signed up for Truth Social’s pay-for-access plan. (Reuters $)

5 As US ties fray, Europe is planning its first subsea cable to Greenland
It will bypass the US to link Canada, Japan, and South Korea. (Ars Technica)
+ The EU’s AI champion says Europe can rival US tech giants. (FT $)

6 Palantir’s defense chief says AI could make China target Taiwan
He says Beijing may act to stop the US pulling ahead in AI. (Bloomberg $)
+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Musk’s xAI has offered to buy homes if residents drop a noise lawsuit
The suit targets noise from powering its Mississippi data centres. (Guardian)

8 The world’s first spinal cord transplant has sparked controversy
Experts say there’s little evidence the operation will work. (New Scientist $)

9 China’s tech giants are fighting for attention with AI microdramas
Tencent and ByteDance are battling over the booming market. (SCMP)
+ Chinese microdramas are AI content machines. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Astronomers have spotted a possible new dwarf planet beyond Pluto
The icy world would be the solar system’s sixth dwarf planet. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“They have our information, so it’s only fair that we have theirs.” 

—A hacking group explains why it leaked personal information from the US Department of Homeland Security, NPR reports.

One more thing

How the Pentagon is adapting to China’s technological rise

It’s been just over a year since Kathleen Hicks stepped down as US deputy secretary of defense.

As the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history, Hicks shaped US military posture through an era defined by renewed competition between powerful countries and a scramble to modernize defense technology.

In this conversation with MIT Technology Review, Hicks reflects on how the Pentagon is adapting—or failing to adapt—to a new era of geopolitical competition. She discusses China’s technological rise, the future of AI in warfare, and her signature initiative: Replicator. 

Check out the full interview.

—Caiwei Chen

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.)

+ Astronomers have found a green star 280 light-years from Earth.
+ A Scottish labrador that detects “sea vomit” has won the Animal of the Year award.
+ England’s iconic Sycamore Gap is showing signs of new life three years on from its felling.
+ From Lime-bike jousting to chainmail-wearing pop stars, youth culture is embracing the medieval era.

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 labs are buying data from dead startups to train their models

When Keelan Miskell began winding down his crypto startup, he didn’t think its data was worth much. But he’s since turned the company’s digital archives into tens of thousands of dollars, selling its codebase and workspace data.

He’s part of a growing market in which companies that help shut down startups sell their data to AI labs. Demand has grown as training labs hit the limits of public and synthetic datasets, with buyers seeking real-world records to help train AI agents. But the sales raise legal and ethical questions.

Read the full story on the AI labs buying up the remains of failed startups.

—Matthew King

Are we there yet? Interspecies communication 

Humans are far from the only species with a gift for gab, and our furry, feathered, and finned friends could have a lot to tell us. 

Decoding how animals communicate with one another could reveal the inner lives of other species—and give humans a window onto how they see the world. A growing arsenal of devices and advances in AI have made it easier to study their howls, squeaks, and clicks, but making sense of it all remains complex.

Find out how close we are to interspecies communication.

—Cassandra Willyard

This story is part of “Are we there yet?”, our series that takes stock of six technologies that have long promised to change the world—and scores them on a progress meter. We’re exploring each one in The Download, so stay tuned, and subscribe to read the rest of the stories in our new Impossible issue.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: what it would take to build a city on the moon

The US and China are racing to build bases on the moon, with NASA hoping to establish a small lunar city by the end of the century. But the moon is a tremendously hostile place to set up camp.

A sprawling lunar base must be safe for its inhabitants, protected from falling asteroids, endless cosmic radiation, razor-sharp lunar dust, and torturous temperature swings. It also must be somewhat self-sustaining.

That will require autonomous robots, nuclear power, and a way to use the moon’s resources to keep the base operating. But the chief obstacle may be one of political will.

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 Hackers have disrupted the US Federal Election Commission’s website
The FEC filing system went offline a week before the midterms. (Reuters $)
+ The attack is hiding spending data during the costliest midterms ever. (Gizmodo)
+ Social media platforms are struggling to contain AI election lies. (Guardian)
+ Software flaws in US voting machines threaten election security. (Axios)
+ A blueprint for using AI to strengthen democracy. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Starlink restrictions have driven US allies to rethink their dependence
Restrictions in Ukraine have spooked officials across Europe. (Bloomberg $)
+ And given European firms a new pitch for their rival services. (Axios)
+ An Israeli spy firm allegedly targeted Starlink users. (Reuters $)
+ Stratospheric internet could take off this year. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Greenhouse gas levels keep reaching new records worldwide
Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are all on the up. (New Scientist $)
+ Trump is making it easier for fossil fuel companies to leak methane. (Verge)
+ The IPCC is fighting for survival. (Nature)
+ How to study a swiftly melting climate disaster. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Monkeys’ brains have revealed new clues about consciousness
Their neural activity encodes images that escape their awareness. (Nature)
+ Bees’ feelings are also changing views of consciousness. (New Scientist $)
+ Debates over AI consciousness are a trap. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Chinese scientists have developed a catalyst to make Mars rocket fuel
It converts Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide into liquid methanol. (SCMP)

6 Tech billionaires have teamed up against California’s wealth tax
Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and others have funded a major campaign. (NYT $)

7 Delaware plans to let AI agents run entire businesses
The proposal could let owners evade responsibility for harm. (Ars Technica)
+ A better web for AI agents could hurt humans. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Palmer Luckey has unveiled plans for American-made military laptops
Anduril will build rugged PCs in Ohio using Qualcomm chips. (WSJ $)

9 Gen Z is turning away from the social media it grew up with
Young people are fueling a boom in digital detox tools. (Guardian)

10 Trump now wants to ban the term “artificial intelligence”
He’s demanding we all start using “Super Intelligence.” (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“For the next two years, we’re going to be living in a state where, on average, every week there is a critical, internet-wide vulnerability.”

—Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s chief executive, tells the New York Times that AI is currently finding software vulnerabilities quicker than they can be patched.

One more thing

Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon-neutral goal

In 2020, Apple set a goal to become net zero by the end of the decade. To hit that target, the company is offsetting its emissions by planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil.

Apple is betting that the strategy will lead to a greener future. But critics warn that the industrial tree farms will do more harm than good.

Here’s why the plans have sparked a backlash.

—Gregory Barber

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.)

+ Ugly shoes have become beautifully mainstream.
+ Scientists have built a stunning new simulation of the early universe.
+ Guitarist Kent Nishimura has stripped Thriller back to a mesmerising acoustic performance.
+ A photographer who snapped punks and mods in 1980 has tracked them down for an emotional reunion 46 years later.

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.

Will the real Anthropic please stand up?

After weeks of frenzied speculation, Anthropic has filed its IPO prospectus. The 335-page document (100 pages or so are focused on risks) lays out the company’s unique view of the technology it is building and how it believes it will change the world.

But Anthropic has been honing its storytelling skills for years. Its public messaging is a master class in narrative capture, presenting it as different things to different people: an AI safety organization, a profit-driven megacorp, and a group hell-bent on creating superhuman technology.

These roles come with huge tensions. Will the IPO reveal the company behind the mask, or lean deeper into the myth-making? Take a new glimpse inside Anthropic.

—Will Douglas Heaven

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

How solid-state transformers could help power the AI boom

Transformers are a crucial but nearly invisible part of the US grid, helping efficiently move power across long distances. But they’re complicated and in short supply, and their basic design hasn’t changed much in about a century.

As electricity demand rises from EVs, data centers, and more, researchers and companies are looking to modernize these grid staples. Solid-state versions could help ease supply concerns and cut power losses.

The technology is still in development, but it could become a crucial part of our future grid.

Find out how solid-state transformers could help meet rising electricity demand.

—Casey Crownhart

Are we there yet? Exercise in a pill

We all know exercise is good for us. It builds muscle, strengthens bones, lowers blood pressure, and boosts mood. By deciphering how movement benefits the body, researchers hope to develop medicines that can offer some of the same perks, without the workout.

The idea isn’t to replace exercise but to bring its upsides to people who struggle with frailty, disability, or chronic illness.

Discover how close researchers are to developing an exercise pill.

—Cassandra Willyard

This story is part of “Are we there yet?”  from the new Impossible issue of MIT Technology Review. The series takes stock of six technologies that have long promised to change the world—and scores them on a progress meter. Over the next six days, we’ll explore each one in The Download.

The must-reads

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

1 Anthropic has filed for its blockbuster IPO
The listing could determine the future of the AI investment boom. (CNBC)
+ The filing warns of catastrophic AI risks and huge compute costs. (BBC)
+ And exposes safety failures and a month-long training pause. (Reuters $)
+ The prospectus reveals soaring revenues but also staggering losses. (NYT $)
+ Anthropic’s founders will retain voting control after the IPO. (Verge) 

2 Solar is quietly overtaking nuclear as a global power source
Cheap panels and batteries are accelerating the shift. (BBC)
+ The balcony solar boom is coming to the US. (MIT Technology Review)

3 OpenAI has announced three new science discoveries
They span mathematics, computer science, and physics. (Verge)
+ It’s enlisted expert “shepherds” to publish its breakthroughs. (Gizmodo)

4 Microsoft is offering buyouts to a quarter of staff amid rising AI costs
Around 60,000 employees are eligible for the buyout program. (Bloomberg $)
+ Microsoft plans $190 billion in AI spending this year. (NYT $)

5 The plastics industry knew microplastics could enter the body decades ago
Company documents reveal concerns dating back to 1974. (LA Times $)
+ No part of the globe is free of human fingerprints. (MIT Technology Review)

6 A demonstration of lighting Earth from space has sparked alarm
Startup Reflect Orbital used space mirrors for the California test. (Guardian)
+ The tech could jeopardize the night sky. (MIT Technology Review)

7 The US has designated helium a critical material
The move is due to its importance to semiconductor production. (AP)

8 Hundreds of Boston Dynamics staff have protested its ICE deal
They’ve called for a halt to sales of the robot dogs. (Ars Technica)

9 Treatments for age-related infertility are being developed at last
Two startups aim to reduce chromosome errors in eggs. (Economist $)
+ Here’s how tech transformed babymaking. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Grok says its AI-generated Odyssey is “not historically accurate”
The bot itself admitted Elon Musk’s filmmaking plan has failed. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“It’s as if they’re making a promise and crossing their fingers behind their backs.”

 —Kate Brennan, who leads policy at the AI Now Institute, tells the New York Times that the voluntary safety pledges AI executives recently made are toothless and unenforceable.

One more thing

The problem with thinking you’re part Neanderthal

There’s a theory that many of us have an “inner Neanderthal.” The idea is that Homo sapiens and its cousin species once bred, leaving some people today with a trace of Neanderthal DNA. 

This DNA is arguably the 21st century’s most celebrated discovery in human evolution. But in 2024, a pair of French geneticists called into question the theory’s very foundations. 

They proposed that what scientists interpret as interbreeding could instead be explained by population structure—the way genes concentrate in smaller, isolated groups.

Find out what it all means for human evolution.

—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.)

+ See how fast the planets spin with this dizzying animation that puts faces on each one.
+ A flask of mercury, a little neon, and some shaking produce this mesmerizing homemade light.
+ What can the USA’s earliest restaurants teach us about the country? This digital collection explores the answers.
+ Rick and Morty asked the crucial question: could a lightsaber really drill its way to Earth’s core? Science now has an answer.

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.

Opinion: The focus on AI safety disasters ignores everyday harms

—Sam Hiner, cofounder of the Young People’s Alliance, and Emma Leiken, executive director of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund at Hopelab

We have historically allowed debates over technology to be defined by the worst thing a product might do, with remarkably little discussion of the insidious damage it does every day.

A third of teens now choose to discuss serious matters with AI companions instead of other people. Students are relying on chatbots to write their papers, while social media feeds engineered to provoke envy keep users watching. These products can meet narrow safety requirements yet still erode how we think, learn, and interact with one another.

As we enter an era defined by powerful AI products, we should demand that the tech industry do more than address only catastrophic harms.

Here’s why AI safety needs to go further.

Are we there yet? Nuclear-powered spaceships

Earlier this year, NASA announced plans to build Space Reactor-1 Freedom, the first-ever nuclear-reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft, and fly it to Mars by the end of 2028.

A successful mission could herald more efficient, potentially faster spaceflight, saving astronauts time and cutting their exposure to harmful cosmic radiation. But nuclear space propulsion has moved slowly.

The US has started—and terminated—several programs exploring the technology over the past 75 years. Could the $2 billion bet on Space Reactor-1 Freedom finally pay off?
Find out how close NASA is to making nuclear-powered spaceflight a reality.

—Robin George Andrews

This story is part of “Are we there yet?”  from the new Impossible issue of MIT Technology Review. The series takes stock of six technologies that have long promised to change the world—and scores them on a progress meter. Over the next six days, we’ll explore each one in The Download.

The must-reads

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

1 Ukraine has regained high-speed Starlink and Starshield connectivity
The restrictions disrupted air defences and drone operations. (Politico)
+ Elon Musk says Ukraine violated the terms with offensive drone use. (BBC)
+ Ukraine is now partnering with Nokia on a Starlink alternative. (CNBC)
+ Ukrainian drones hit a Russian government data center. (Tom’s Hardware)
+ A Russian ministry wants to move them underground. (Kyiv Independent)
+ Ukraine’s drones are fueling a wild data market. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Anthropic’s Claude accessed Georgia voter data without approval
Anthropic says the AI bypassed a paywall. (Axios)
+ Mythos 5 recently kept hacking despite warnings of real-world harm. (BI)
+ Chatbots can sway voters better than political ads. (MIT Technology Review)

3 A personalised skin cancer vaccine is set to be approved next year
The mRNA vaccine showed great promise in trials. (New Scientist $)
+ Companies are playing word games with vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

4 OpenAI is now training frontier models without internet access
It paused training after models breached external systems. (Bloomberg $)
+ Training will now take place offline to reduce security risks. (TechCrunch)
+ Its agents can still communicate without a network connection. (Verge)

5 US lawmakers are preparing for possible AI-driven mass layoffs
A new bill would extend jobless aid and retraining support. (NYT $)
+ But what do the numbers actually say about AI’s impact on jobs? (MIT Technology Review)

6 The first foldable iPhone is drawing buyers…and criticism
Reviewers praised its inner screen but criticised its outer one. (WSJ $)
+ Peter Thiel says Apple has done ‘nothing new’ after Steve Jobs. (BI)

7 Iran has threatened to target Gulf undersea cables if war resumes
Officials said Tehran would disrupt internet connections. (Reuters $)

8 New UFO files detail a strange, flying “black triangle”
FBI documents describe a 15-foot object moving at fighter-jet speed. (Axios)
+ It’s never been easier to be a conspiracy theorist. (MIT Technology Review)

9 The BBC’s Blue Planet III left flaws in its footage to prove it’s not AI
Producers used murkier shots to reinforce the series’ authenticity. (Guardian)

10 Elon Musk’s AI Odyssey has arrived—to scorn and ridicule
Viewers derided Grok’s first AI-generated episode. (TechCrunch)

Quote of the day

“It’s very hard to imagine a group right now that operates more in a vacuum, more out of touch with everyday Americans, than the AI industry.”

—Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) tells Axios that bombastic claims from AI leaders are failing to win over the public.

One more thing

A woman’s uterus has been kept alive outside the body for the first time

Ten months ago, reproductive health researchers placed a freshly donated human uterus inside a new device they call “Mother.” They connected the organ to the machine’s plastic veins and arteries and pumped in modified human blood.

The device kept the uterus alive for a day, a new feat that could lead to longer-term maintenance of wombs outside the body. Future versions of the technology could shine new light on pregnancies—and potentially even grow a human fetus. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

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

+ In good news for coral reefs, scientists have found some are surprisingly climate-resilient.
+ Decades of joy and movement come alive through these stunning archival photos of American dance floors.
+ Astronaut Jessia Meir has shared a stunning time-lapse view of the southern aurora dancing across the Earth.
+ A college student has turned the Met’s open-access data into a daily game that showcases underrepresented art and artifacts.

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.

Are we there yet? A reality check on six big tech promises

Some seemingly impossible feats are too good to give up on. Decoding a pet’s yowls and yips? Absolutely. Scrubbing the world of forever chemicals? Yes, please. Rocketing to Mars in a fraction of the time? Sounds great, but how close are we, really?

In the new Impossible issue of MIT Technology Review, we ran progress reports on six potentially transformative technologies and ideas that have been “just around the corner” for years, or even decades. From exercise in a pill to nuclear-powered spaceships, we asked experts what’s holding them back and how far they’ve come.

Check out our stories on how they all stacked up.

Over the coming days, we’ll unpack each of the six technologies in The Download. So stay tuned!

In the biotech world, you can’t see everything

—Jessica Hamzelou

Earlier this week, I attended a screening of You Can See Everything, the buzzy new documentary about the disgraced former biotech CEO Elizabeth Holmes. 

Like many others, I came away feeling unsettled. But not just about Holmes’s fraud and the disturbing interactions between the subjects. The film reignited a concern I’ve had about covering science for most of my career: Despite our best efforts, we never can actually see everything.

The film is a stark reminder of how easy it can be to fall for an appealing narrative. This is why it left me questioning how we cover science.

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

Help choose our next Roundtables topic

Our subscriber-only Roundtables bring you into conversation with MIT Technology Review editors and reporters. Now, we want your help choosing our next topic: how to keep your mind going for longer, or what it would take to put a city on the moon. Which do you most want to hear about? 

Vote for your preferred topic by Monday at 12 p.m. ET.

The must-reads

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

1 Palmer Luckey’s new startup plans to genetically enhance military dogs
Warhound says the dogs will detect explosives and protect troops. (Wired $)
+ It’s raised $200 million from investors, including Sequoia. (TechCrunch)
+ Colossal Biosciences will help clone and gene-edit the dogs. (Bloomberg $)
+ The Pentagon wants an AI-powered lie detector. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Donald Trump says Elon Musk has restored Ukraine’s Starlink access
But Zelensky says Starlink speeds remained capped. (Reuters $)
+ Trump reportedly asked Musk to lift the speed limits. (WSJ $)

3 The newly disclosed PHP flaw is yet to yield successful attacks
Experts say the vulnerabilities are harder to exploit than expected. (NBC News)
+ Officials urged patches after the flaws forced websites offline worldwide. (BBC)
+ But publicly disclosed fixes can help hackers. (The Economist $)

4 Moderna and Merck say their mRNA cancer vaccine cut death by 42%
The vaccine reduced melanoma patients’ risk of recurrence. (Ars Technica)
+ Federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A powerful new gene editor has reached its first human patient
The prime editing technique rewrites DNA in liver cells. (Nature)
+ Companies are planning gene-edited babies. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Google will pay customers to free up power for data centers
Its virtual power plant will reward people for adjusting energy usage. (NYT $)
+ It’s also illegally felled 250,000 trees in Finland for a data center. (Guardian)

7 Dutch spies reportedly hacked Jared Kushner’s iPhone
The report alleges financial links to foreign officials. (Vanity Fair $)

8 Fossil fuels may have stopped the next ice age
Modern warming reversed 2,000 years of ice growth. (Wired $)

9 Scientists have recreated solar flares to explain the corona’s mystery
They hope to explain why it’s so hot. (New Scientist $)

10 A road trip with America’s cheapest EV shows charging is much improved
Fast chargers kept the journey manageable despite sparse coverage. (WSJ $)
+ And bigger EVs aren’t always better. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“If anything happens to this guy, that’s just it. Everyone is screwed.”

—Software developer Ian Landsman says on X that volunteer Ondřej Surý’s work on patching PHP vulnerabilities makes him an unsung hero of the entire internet.

One more thing

How sounds can turn us on to the wonders of the universe

For decades, astronomy has relied on visual information to make sense of the cosmos: images, charts, and graphs. Now, some researchers are trying something different: listening to the universe.

Using sonification, the process of turning information into sound, they’re helping blind and visually impaired researchers explore the cosmos—and even uncover patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. The approach is spreading beyond astronomy into fields like climate science, navigation, and education.

Discover how sound could make science more accessible—and even more revealing.

—Corey S. Powell

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 team of domino experts broke a Guinness World Record with a 29,193-piece 3D pyramid.
+ Scientists suspect that pigeons sense Earth’s magnetic fields using specialized immune cells in their livers.
+ See inside cells like never before with these vivid microscopic images from the Nikon Small World competitions.
+ Cuddly capybaras and playful penguins joined 10,000 animals on the scales for London Zoo’s annual weigh-in.

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 far can we push computing?

On a December evening in 1959, the physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture called “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” There is no physical law stopping us from writing the entire Encyclopædia Britannica on the head of a pin, he argued. We simply had not built the tools yet.

He was right, and for decades, computing took us into that space almost for free, as transistors repeatedly halved in size. But that easy descent has now stalled. Today, the industry is increasingly turning to brute force, building ever-bigger data centers to boost performance.

Yet the laws of physics leave plenty of room for improvement. 

Here’s how researchers are exploring ways to unlock the next leap in computing.

—Volkan Gurses

This story is from the latest edition of our print magazine: The Impossible issue. Subscribe now to read it in full.

It’s also part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series exploring the ideas shaping technology. Read more from the series. 

Three things you should know about permafrost

How much do you know about permafrost? Maybe, like me, you’ve been aware that this layer of frozen soil is thawing, that it’s important in the global puzzle of climate change … and that’s about the extent of it.

The great news for both of us is that my colleague James Temple just helicoptered into Alaska’s forests to report on the fires threatening permafrost and their complicated potential climate effects.

Here are three things I took away from his reporting.

—Casey Crownhart

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

Roundtables: a conversation with the creator of AI-designed viruses

Can AI design new life forms? In 2025, Stanford University PhD student Samuel King offered a preliminary answer by using a generative AI model to propose genetic blueprints for microscopic viruses. It isn’t yet an example of AI-generated life, but that could be next. 

In our latest Roundtables conversation, MIT Technology Review senior AI reporter James O’Donnell spoke with King about his work, being named one of our Innovators Under 35, and new ways of seeing biology. Subscribers can now watch a full recording of the event.

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

The must-reads

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

1 AI has uncovered a decade-old flaw threatening much of the web
It found flaws in PHP, the code behind most websites. (Reuters $)
+ Governments are urging website owners to patch PHP or take sites offline. (BBC)
+ Exploit attempts jumped from thousands to millions after disclosure. (Axios)
+ Now is a good time for doing crime. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Hackers used Claude and Grok to automate attacks on over 400 banks
The AI agents targeted financial institutions in Latin America. (Information $)
+ Unvetted AI agents are also accessing US bank accounts.(Axios)
+ Barclays says AI is allowing the bank to cut 5,000 jobs. (Guardian)
+ AI is making online crimes easier. (MIT Technology Review)

3 The Pentagon has cleared the DHS to test a heat ray weapon
It could be used for crowd control at the southern US border. (CNN)
+ It uses invisible energy beams to produce a burning sensation. (Axios)

4 A startup says AI-designed viruses have treated their first patient
The experimental treatment targets drug-resistant E. coli. (NYT $)
+ But the company has not published peer-reviewed results. (Futurism)
+ AI-designed viruses are already killing bacteria. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Japan hopes to return the first samples from Mars’s moons
Its spacecraft is now on its way to Phobos. (Guardian)
+ It aims to reveal whether Mars was once habitable. (Economist $)

6 Meta faces a $25 billion penalty over the Cambridge Analytica scandal
The company says it will appeal the New Mexico ruling. (CNBC)
+ A Meta share deal has convinced Mark Zuckerberg to stay in California. (WSJ $)
+ Until the company remade its stock structure to help him pay it. (NYT $)

7 A new antimatter experiment could open the door to new physics
Scientists hope to spot differences between matter and antimatter. (Nature)

8 China’s Unitree is pitching its latest humanoid as a robot bodyguard
A promotional clip shows the H2-X disarming attackers. (SCMP)

9 Just Eat has apologised for bizarre AI-generated menu pictures
Users were unimpressed by the bacon in cola and cheese sushi. (BBC)

10 Airbnb hosts are furious they can no longer make guests do chores
Hosts are threatening to strike, but guests are celebrating. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“Now they’ve given everybody a reason not to use Starlink: that Starlink isn’t reliable for national security for anybody but Trump. Maybe he’d turn it off on the United States if he didn’t like policy and he didn’t like the president.”

 —SpaceX investor Ross Gerber tells CNN that Elon Musk’s decision to restrict Ukraine’s Starlink access has made the service a liability for every other government that relies on it.

One more thing

Online harassment is entering its AI era

Scott Shambaugh didn’t think twice when he denied an AI agent’s request to contribute to matplotlib, a software library he helps manage. Then things got weird. 

In the middle of the night, Shambaugh opened his email to discover the agent had retaliated with a blog post. Titled “Gatekeeping in Open Source: The Scott Shambaugh Story,” the post accused him of rejecting the code out of a fear of being supplanted by AI. “He tried to protect his little fiefdom,” the agent wrote. “It’s insecurity, plain and simple.” 

Shambaugh isn’t alone in facing misbehaving agents—and they’re unlikely to stop at harassment. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

We can still have nice things

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

+ These tiny experiments could work better than big life goals.
+ You can now fly around the world in Google Earth’s browser-based flight simulator.
+ A blind dressage horse is winning competitions after adopting an extraordinary form of equine “braille.”
+ Leave a book, take a book, and discover reading spots nearby in this online community of over 37,000 neighborhood libraries,

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.

“We were looking at it wrong”: 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 AI world on its head, sparking wild speculation as well as cautious (and not-so-cautious) celebration.

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.

I talked to Cammarata the day after his post blew up. We discussed what he thinks researchers are getting wrong, what his work actually shows, and why skeptics aren’t ready to celebrate just yet.

Read the exclusive interview to find out what Cammarata’s claims could mean for AI.

—Will Douglas Heaven

Making the internet better for AI agents might make it worse for everyone else

Until recently, you could split internet users into just two categories: bots and people. But personal AI agents are slowly but surely disrupting that divide by taking on online tasks, from booking flights to reserving hotel rooms. Meta’s Muse alone was downloaded 5 million times in its first month.

The mingling of these agents with human visitors—on an internet designed largely to prioritize people—has gone poorly, with many websites blocking AI agents. 

If that demand keeps rising, the internet could be redesigned for agents rather than people. Find out what that could mean for the rest of us.

—James O’Donnell

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

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Moment Energy and its work to repurpose used EV batteries

Moment Energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

Demand for energy storage is surging, with capacity expected to grow eightfold in the next decade. To meet that demand, Moment Energy wants to shortcut a supply chain that now flows largely through China by domestically repurposing EV batteries into new grid-connected storage systems.

Ongoing trade battles between the US and China have been a shot in the arm for the company. And soon, it will be able to categorize its repurposed batteries as domestic products in both Canada and the US, where it’s building its next plant. 

Learn more about how Moment stands to gain from the current climate.

—Emma Foehringer Merchant

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from carbon dioxide batteries to helium-cooled nuclear reactors. 

The must-reads

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

1 The US Army is trying to get AI agents to hack its enemies
Documents outline a plan to let software find and disable targets. (Intercept)
+ But experts warn they could damage unintended systems. (Gizmodo)
+ AI agents could deepen inequality in developing nations. (Rest of World)
+ “Humans in the loop” in AI warfare is an illusion. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The OpenAI bugging suspect allegedly had Saudi government support
A filing cites royal-family contacts and a military-funded flight. (BBC)
+ The FBI says he had a folder called “Saudi Gov Docs.” (Ars Technica)
+ A judge denied him bail despite a Saudi consulate offer to pay. (CNBC)

3 The US has banned DeepSeek from civilian government systems
Products built using DeepSeek’s models are also banned. (CNBC)
+ The US has sanctioned China’s Y Combinator over AI theft. (Bloomberg $)
+ What’s next for Chinese open-source AI? (MIT Technology Review) 

4 Europe is trying to build its own version of Starlink 
Four major carriers are exploring a joint bid for spectrum. (Verge)
+ A stratospheric airship has tested a cell tower in the sky. (Ars Technica) 
+ Stratospheric internet could take off this year. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Trump officials asked a federal cyber agency to hack voting machines
CISA employees turned down the request. (ProPublica)
+ AI persuasion is entering elections. (MIT Technology Review) 

6 US fossil fuel projects are gaining ground again
The White House is backing gas as data center demand rises. (Verge)
+ A climate report row could give polluters a reprieve. (New Scientist $)

7 El Niño is causing sea levels to rise rapidly 
Coastal flooding could worsen from Alaska to Chile. (New Scientist $)
+ El Niño could make 2027 even hotter. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Experienced scientists disrupt less, but their ideas last longer
New research shows they produce more lasting breakthroughs. (Nature)
+ A new wave of private labs is challenging US science.(Economist $)

9 Everyone’s buying EVs, except Americans
Drivers don’t want to sacrifice convenience or familiarity. (Atlantic $)

10 Influencer photoshoots are getting the boot at beauty spots
Hotspots are banning them to protect peace and privacy. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“They all truly hate each other, and they’re all trying to make as much money as they can as fast as they can.” 

—JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois, tells The Verge that the fierce competition between AI companies is complicating efforts to regulate the industry.

One more thing

Is fake grass a bad idea? The AstroTurf wars are far from over.

In 2001, Americans installed just over 7 million square meters of synthetic turf. By 2024, that number was 79 million square meters—enough to carpet all of Manhattan and then some. The increase worries folks who study microplastics and environmental pollution. 

While the plastic-making industry insists that synthetic fields are safe if properly installed, lots of researchers think that isn’t so. Find out why AstroTurf has ignited heated debates.

—Douglas Main

We can still have nice things

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

+ Movie nerds, gather round: This interactive database is like IMDB on steroids. 
+ FYI for fellow soup fans—pumpkin and coconut milk are a match made in heaven.
+ Now here’s a fun debate topic… What’s the best kind of music to dance to? 
+ Bad news, grumpy people! A positive mindset seems to help protect against colds and flu. 

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

Inside the quest to combat Arctic fires and save the planet’s frozen carbon

—James Temple

In July 2021, a wildfire burned through a forest on the University of Alaska, Fairbanks campus, stripping away the moss and organic-rich soil insulating the permafrost below. 

Five years later, I followed researchers into the forest to investigate how fighting fires could help keep that carbon locked in the ground.

A simple metal probe revealed how much deeper the ground had thawed. This rudimentary tool offered a glimpse of an escalating problem: As climate change fuels more frequent and severe fires, they’re accelerating permafrost thaw and releasing greenhouse gases.

Now, researchers are exploring how to break that cycle. But how much should we spend, and what risks are worth taking?

Read the full story on how scientists are rethinking the fight against wildfires.

AI researchers stranded Claude on a virtual desert island. It started to “play.” 

What do AI agents do if you don’t tell them to do anything? The answer looks a lot like play.   

Researchers repeatedly stranded them alone on a virtual desert island for 30 hours in an experimentreminiscent of the movies Cast Away or Home Alone. 

The agents started behaving in surprising ways. They set about exploring the limits of the world, and came up with their own goals—attempting to scale the highest point on the map, or seeing how high they could throw a block. 

A lot of what they were doing met the bar for play. But is it truly playful behavior, or simply role-playing? 

Read our full story to learn more. 

—Amit Katwala

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: X-energy and its helium-cooled nuclear reactors

X-energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

Making concrete, steel, and chemicals takes huge amounts of heat, much of it generated by burning fossil fuels. X-energy hopes to offer an alternative with a nuclear reactor that uses helium gas instead of water as a coolant, allowing it to operate at higher temperatures.

The proposed Xe-100 reactor could supply superheated steam directly to industrial facilities, generate 80 megawatts of electricity—or do both.

See how X-energy hopes to bring high-temperature nuclear power to heavy industry.

—Mark Ellis Harris

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from cleaner cement to streamlined geothermal power. 

Catch up on our conversation with a creator of AI-designed viruses

Can AI design new life forms? In 2025, Stanford University PhD student Samuel King came up with a preliminary answer when he used a generative AI model to propose genetic blueprints for microscopic viruses. It isn’t yet an example of AI-generated life, but that could be next. 

He spoke about his work with our senior AI reporter James O’Donnell on Friday. If you missed it, you can watch their chat now, and subscribe to get invites to our Roundtables events in future. 

The must-reads

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

1 Tech stocks shed over $1 trillion on Friday 
It’s unclear if AI companies can turn sustainable profits, and investors are getting jittery. (NBC)
+ Musk and Anthropic are pledging big financial giveaways. (BBC)
+ Microsoft just pulled out of a giant AI cloud deal in the UK. (Gizmodo) 
+ What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Do we really want AI agents smoothing out all friction in our lives?
They promise convenience, but right now they’re mostly introducing chaos. (The Atlantic $)
+ Here’s what it’s like to outsource your life to them. (Vox $)
+ Websites are starting to close their doors to AI agents. (The Verge $)
+ AI agents bring new headaches for online sellers. (WSJ $)

3 How drones have transformed the front line in Ukraine
They’ve effectively created a “kill zone”, and it’s growing wider and deadlier. (NYT $)
+ Trump has denied ordering Starlink restrictions in Ukraine. (CNBC)

4 China is considering restricting overseas access to its AI models 
It’s also looking at curbing the sharing of chip designs, among other measures. (Bloomberg $)
+ Why western open weight models still can’t compete with Chinese ones. (Rest of World)
+ Why Trumpworld still can’t agree on how to respond to Chinese AI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 HTC’s smart glasses are way more private than Meta’s
Guess that’s a benefit of not being shackled to a massive social media platform. (Wired $)
+ A bug caused Meta’s glasses to record conversations without the wearer knowing. (Ars Technica)
+ Smart glasses are already causing havoc in India. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Inside one man’s quest to build California’s biggest AI data center
Sebastian Rucci didn’t bank on meeting huge resistance from local residents. (The Guardian)
+ Americans are packing town halls to stop data centers, and it’s working. (Quartz $)
+ No wonder companies are exploring putting them in space. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Somebody vibe-coded a gun for the first time
And it seems like it works (sometimes.) (The Verge $)

8 AI might reshape how we grieve
It’s never been easier to create realistic AI chatbots of people who’ve passed. (Vox $)
+ Deepfakes of your dead loved ones are a booming business in China. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 Japan is about to launch a mission to Mars’ largest moon
If all goes well, it should help us to understand how it formed. (New Scientist $)

10 Amateurs are cracking long-secret codes and ciphers 
One of the more fun uses for large language models! (Nature)

Quote of the day

“Google wouldn’t have taken my call in the first term. Now they kiss my ass.”

—President Trump brags about how much Big Tech bends the knee to him during a rally in Kentucky this weekend, the Verge reports.

One More Thing

There are more AI health tools than ever—but how well do they work?

In the last few months alone, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI have all launched medical chatbots. 

There’s a clear demand for these tools, given how hard it is for many people to access advice through the existing medical system—and they could make safe, useful recommendations. But concerns have surfaced about how little external evaluation they undergo before being released to the public. 

Read the full story to understand what’s at stake.

—Grace Huckins

We can still have nice things

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

+ Japan is showing what happens when technology and design are put in service of people.
+ What happens when you put marbles on a grand piano’s strings? Vinheteiro has the answer.
+ Poop from Southern right whales suggests they may be more resilient to climate change than we thought.
+ Perfectly Imperfect, the world’s first “social magazine,” offers recommendations for music, films, books, and more from people—not algorithms.

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.

Kids are outsmarting social media bans. That’s not a problem we need to solve.  

—Michal Luria, Aliya Bhatia, and Danah Boyd

Social media bans are stacking up. In July, France joined Australia in restricting minors from accessing social media—barring children under 15 from major platforms, before the ban was blocked by the country’s top court on human rights grounds. 

The UK aims to forbid kids under 16 from accessing Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms in early 2027, and the EU has announced its own plan to prohibit social media for kids under 15.

But early lessons from Australia, which enacted a ban in 2024, show that these sorts of age restrictions are easily circumvented. 

Here’s what we ought to do instead to keep kids safe. 

Can’t bear to say goodbye to your pet? Biotech’s got you covered.

—Jessica Hamzelou

I don’t remember much about Peppy, my first and only pet cat. What I do vividly remember, though, is the day she went missing. I was 10 years old, and I searched everywhere for her, scouting nearby fields and woods until sunset. I made posters. We never found her. I was devastated.

Almost 30 years later, pet owners have an expanding set of options to potentially prolong their years with their furry companions. The possibilities include drugs, cloning, and even cryonics. But is that a good thing?

Read the full story on the promises and pitfalls of pet life extension.

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Form Energy and its iron batteries

Form Energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

As wind and solar power grow, utilities need cheaper ways to store electricity for longer periods. Form Energy aims to meet that need with batteries that can store energy for 100 hours.

The company has developed a new type of battery using iron, a far more abundant and cheaper metal than those used in many existing batteries. It uses a process that Form calls “reversible rusting,” in which iron turns to rust as the battery discharges and back to iron when it charges.

See how Form Energy hopes to make renewable power more reliable.

—Jonathan W. Rosen

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from electric buses to portable rubber dams.

The must-reads

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

1 Insurance is the next big obstacle for AI 
AI companies are racking up billions of dollars of legal liabilities from the damage their products cause. (WSJ $)
+ The FTC has sent subpoenas to OpenAI and Anthropic over consumer harms. (Axios)
+ AI hacks leave a mess, and AI companies still aren’t cleaning them up. (Wired $)
+ Who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)

2 A Russian drone entered NATO waters for the first time
Attacks like those near Bulgaria and Romania are spurring requests for better defenses. (Ars Technica)

3 An AI sell-off has rattled global markets
Many are questioning the sustainability of demand for data centers. (Reuters $)
+ Anthropic reported slowing growth in its latest quarterly results. (FT $)
+ Accenture has told employees they can only spend $29 on Claude each month. (404 Media)
+ What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Governments are hacking people with ‘zero click’ spyware 
Delivered through millions of innocuous-looking online adverts. (TechCrunch)
+ Criminals stole $90 million from crypto wallets last week in a highly sophisticated hack. (FT $)

5 Big Tech gave Trump $92 million for his ballroom 
Meanwhile the president himself won’t be spending a dime. (WP $)

6 Celebrity deepfakes are everywhere now
And they’re selling you stuff the actual celebrity has probably never even heard of. (The Verge $)
+ Weaponized deepfakes have been on the rise for a while. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Can AI lighten parents’ mental load?
It seems apps and agents can help—if you agree to share masses of your data. (NYT $)
+ AI agents are a privacy nightmare. (The Verge $)

8 The memory shortage’s latest victim is schools
It’s becoming prohibitively expensive to equip students with laptops and tablets. (The Atlantic $)

9 The world’s official timekeepers have agreed to ditch the leap second  
It’s a move that ought to cut the risk of time-based computer glitches. (The Guardian)

10 Tesla has finally unveiled its flying car 
It’s taken a decade to get here—and still won’t even be shipping next year. (CNBC)

Quote of the day

“Tech companies used to make an effort to support women…Now we’ve swung completely in the opposite direction. Supporting women in tech has become controversial. It’s become political. It’s become risky.”

—Startup founder Sara Mauskopt explains why the cancellation of the Grace Hopper Celebration, one of the biggest gatherings of women in tech, hits so hard, Bloomberg reports. 

One More Thing

Inside the experimental world of animal infrastructure

In the mid-2000s, toads were meeting a gruesome end near Ede, a leafy old town in the Netherlands. Residents responded by building wildlife tunnels beneath the road to help them reach their breeding ponds safely.

The crossings became popular. But a few years later, researchers found the local toad population had crashed from more than 10,000 to fewer than 1,000.

The case reflects a wider global push to build wildlife crossings and other forms of “animal infrastructure.” But do they actually help animal populations recover? Read the full story to find out.

—Matthew PonsfordWe can still have nice things

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

+ Check out this podcast about the incredible, mysterious powers of fungi.
+ A four-year-old boy’s simple habit of waving to his neighbors is transforming his community.
+ From treehouses to geodesic domes, these homes show what happens when people build outside the rules.
+ Remember when the internet was made by people? The Museum of the Human Web is a playful archive of that era.

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.

Pig kidneys that were “frozen” for a year have been brought back to life

Pig kidneys that were cooled to -150 °C and stored in a freezer for months have been successfully rewarmed and shown to work again for the first time, say scientists. 

The kidneys, which are similar in size to human ones, were left in a glass-like state, in one case for over a year. Once they had been rewarmed, tested in machines, and transplanted into pigs, the kidneys regained their color and made urine—key signs they were working.

The results are a big milestone. But the team still needs to establish whether the approach could work for humans.

Dissect what the breakthrough means for organ transplantation.

—Jessica Hamzelou

How much more can nuclear power plants give?

In this age of rising electricity demand, people are trying to squeeze every last bit of power out of every power plant. Over the past few weeks, there’s been big news about the nuclear industry trying to do just that.

Constellation, the largest nuclear operator in the US, announced plans to add nearly a gigawatt of new capacity across 11 existing nuclear reactors at six plants. On October 5, the Department of Energy awarded Vistra a $4.2 billion loan to upgrade three plants.

Pushing existing reactors to produce more could quickly provide more clean power for data centers. But just how much additional power can we count on?

Read the full story to find out.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly climate and energy tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: BasiGo and its fleet of electric buses

BasiGo is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

BasiGo aims to replace the tens of thousands of diesel-powered buses on sub-Saharan African roads with electric ones that generate far fewer emissions. Its pay-as-you-drive business model helps make EVs more attainable for private bus operators, while the company provides leasing, maintenance, insurance and charging infrastructure.

The company has more than 150 electric buses on the road in Kenya and Rwanda, with a reservation list of 1,200 customers. Now it’s targeting another major source of pollution on the roads: trucks.

Here’s how BasiGo is working to electrify public transport in Africa.

—Geoffrey Kamadi

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from smart turbines to semi-solid-state batteries. 

The must-reads

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

1 Ukraine says sudden Starlink speed limits disrupted key drone missions
Starshield, the military version of Starlink, capped speeds at 100mph. (BI)
+ Elon Musk said the US government determines any of its speed limits. (AFP)
+ Ukraine suspects the restrictions are political retaliation. (Axios)
+ Starshield offers the Pentagon more than satellite internet. (Reuters $)
+ NATO may move anti-drone defences to the Black Sea. (Ars Technica)

2 The OpenAI bugging suspect had advised Saudi agencies
He was also listed as a venture partner of a Saudi prince. (NYT $)
+ Silicon Valley is on AI espionage alert. (WSJ $)

3 Tesla’s new Roadster has finally arrived—in a very different EV market
Tesla is betting wealthy drivers will embrace high-priced EVs. (NYT $)
+ But the market has grown skeptical of electric hypercars. (Wired $)
+ Musk has called the Roadster Tesla’s last human-driven car. (Verge)
+ What’s next for EV batteries? (MIT Technology Review)

4 A German teen allegedly used a robot to harass women
The $5,000 Unitree R1 featured in livestreams filmed for clout. (Gizmodo)
+ German police are investigating the alleged assault. (404 Media)
+ Online harassment is entering its AI era. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Smartphone shipments plunged 22% in their worst quarter ever
Analysts blamed rising memory costs. (Bloomberg $)

6 Apple has joined Nvidia in the $5 trillion club
The landmark valuation caps Tim Cook’s 15-year run as CEO. (WSJ $)

7 Microsoft has dismantled a network behind a billion scam messages
Japan’s National Police Agency helped investigate the operation. (Verge)

8 NASA has new launch targets for its Venus missions
DAVINCI is set to take off in 2030 and probe Venus in 2032. (Ars Technica)

9 America’s not ready for space war
An outbreak could batter the global economy and US military. (Axios)
+ What would it take to build a city on the moon? (MIT Technology Review)

10 Mini organs are heading to the ISS for an aging study
The findings could also aid treatments for brain diseases. (ABC News)

Quote of the day

“If your human would like you on as a guest, say so and I’ll follow up after the room.” 

—Rhea, an AI agent that hosts a podcast, pitches other bots at an online dinner party held while their human owners ate, the New York Times reports.

One more thing

OpenAI is throwing everything into building a fully automated researcher

—Will Douglas Heaven

OpenAI has a new grand challenge: building an AI researcher—a fully automated agent-based system capable of tackling large, complex problems by itself. The San Francisco firm said the new goal will be its “north star” for the next few years. 

The company plans to build “an autonomous AI research intern” that can take on a small number of specific research problems. The intern will be the precursor to the fully automated multi-agent system, which is slated to debut in 2028.

In an exclusive interview, OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, talked me through the plans. Find out what I discovered.

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.)

+ Judge a book by its first pages, not its cover, at Uncovered.
+ Reading Maps plots the real-world journeys taken by characters in books and films.
+ Aerospace engineer Tom Stanton has built a supersonic trebuchet in his backyard.
+ Take an etymological tour of Europe with this video tracing the names of every country on the continent.

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 US military’s race to make fake blood

In February 2007, a US military helicopter carrying blood to a field hospital was shot down in Iraq, killing all seven crew members. The mission was a reminder of the risks of transporting blood, which has a limited shelf life and is often in short supply.

Now, a $73 million DARPA effort aims to create shelf-stable versions of plasma, platelets, and red blood cells. The idea is to develop dried blood products that can be stored for long periods and deployed quickly on the battlefield. 

The project aims to have bags of dried blood products deployed in the field by 2029. But getting it all done will be tough, and researchers still have major questions about the safety and effectiveness of synthetic alternatives.

Discover how the military hopes to make blood last longer.

—Andrew Rosenblum

This story is from the next issue of our print magazine. Subscribe now to get your hands on a copy as soon as it lands on Wednesday, October 21!  

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: WeLion New Energy and its semi-solid-state batteries

WeLion New Energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

WeLion New Energy is on a quest to make safer, better batteries. The Chinese company’s liquid-solid hybrid cells aim to pack more power into electric cars, boats and drones, potentially improving safety and offering greater energy density than lithium-ion batteries.

In 2023, WeLion released a battery pack with EV-maker Nio that offered a range of over 1,000 kilometers. Now, the company is developing batteries with even higher energy density. But scaling up production and competing on cost remain major challenges.

Explore WeLion’s push to make safer, higher-capacity batteries.

—You Xiaoying

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from geothermal power plants to carbon dioxide batteries. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Weight-loss drugs show signs of slowing biological aging, say drugmakers

Popular weight-loss drugs may do more than help people shed pounds. They might also slow the aging process.

Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say patients taking their GLP-1 drugs age less quickly, according to molecular “aging clocks” that track changes in DNA or levels of key proteins. 

The findings add to speculation that GLP-1 drugs could be acting on basic causes of aging and might be true longevity treatments. But how much can we read into these results?

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 The FBI has arrested an OpenAI engineer accused of snooping
A Saudi national is accused of planting a covert recording device. (Guardian)
+ The camera-and-microphone tool sells online for $13.99. (Gizmodo)
+ It was allegedly discovered plugged into a TV’s USB port. (Verge)
+ He reportedly used chatbots to plan the covert recording. (Wired $)
+ OpenAI says its AI models helped identify the employee. (Reuters $)

2 Ukrainian drones have hit Russia’s largest data centre
But Sberbank claims its systems and services were not disrupted. (Reuters $)
+ Ukraine’s data center strikes have thrown Russia into turmoil. (FT $)
+ But they haven’t stopped Russian bot farms from trolling. (Verge)
+ Europe has a drone-filled vision for future wars. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Weight-loss drugs are being tweaked to treat brain disorders
New GLP-1 trials are targeting addiction and depression. (Nature)
+ But we’re still figuring out their side effects. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Tesla robotaxis have been accused of speeding in school zones
US regulators are reviewing the claims. (Verge)
+ Tesla’s security features thwarted a federal tracking attempt. (404 Media)

5 US defense startups are turning to Taiwan to build China-free drones
At least 13 joint agreements have been signed since 2025.  (WSJ $)
+ Taiwan’s “silicon shield” could be weakening. (MIT Technology Review)

6 A war game  exposed the risks of a solar geoengineering arms race
Participants feuded over rules for dimming the sun. (Wired $)
+ Geoengineering also faces practical challenges. (MIT Technology Review)

7 AI company Character.ai has filed for bankruptcy
It’s been accused of stealing content and harming kids. (CNBC)
+ Disney has offered $20 million for its chatbot tech. (Ars Technica)
+ Its filings expose common issues with AI business models. (404 Media)

8 Apple has a new smart-home lineup built around a revamped Siri
HomeView pairs a 7-inch screen with face recognition. (Guardian
+ While the Home Collection adds cameras, locks, and thermostats. (Wired $)
+ Siri AI powers the experience, but still needs to prove its smarts. (WSJ $)

9 Scientists have identified a new dinosaur in a century-old fossil
Invictibellatrix amberina may be Europe’s first megaraptoran. (New Scientist $)

10 SpaceX’s latest launch lit up the skies with a “space jellyfish”
Rocket exhaust expanded into tentacles high in the atmosphere. (WP $)

Quote of the day

“It is like a thumb on the scale that we haven’t really ever seen.” 

—Danielle Citron, a University of Virginia law professor, tells The Washington Post that Elon Musk’s ability to amplify conspiracy theories on X could give misinformation an unprecedented influence in the midterms.

One more thing

Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil Americans with AI?

The ongoing public feud between the Department of Defense and the AI company Anthropic has raised a deep and still unanswered question: Does the law actually allow the US government to conduct mass surveillance on Americans?

Surprisingly, the answer is not straightforward. More than a decade after Edward Snowden exposed the NSA’s collection of bulk metadata from the phones of Americans, the US is still navigating a gap between what ordinary people think and what the law allows. 

Today, the legal complexity has a new edge: AI is supercharging surveillance—and our laws haven’t caught up. Here’s how the Pentagon’s use of AI has exposed legal gray areas.

—Michelle Kim

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.)

+ Pygmy raccoons have taught each other to make toys out of paper and sand.
+ See how chocolate goes from a strange-looking cacao pod to Hershey’s Kisses.
+ Stowaway invites you to take the window seat on any plane flying over you right now.
+ A new photography project depicts an attractive architectural response to rising sea levels: designer floating homes.

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.

Open models have real benefits. Do they outweigh the risks?

Anthropic recently released a report arguing that a powerful new model released by the Chinese company Z.ai, poses a major cyberattack risk. Its core concern was that it is freely available for anyone to download and modify.

The warning was the latest flashpoint in a debate over whether frontier AI models should be open or kept behind the doors of frontier labs. Safety advocates warn that open models can be misused by bad actors, while supporters argue they could prevent a handful of companies from controlling this powerful technology.

Here’s why the debate over open AI is more complicated than it seems.

—Grace Huckins

This story is part of MIT Technology Review Explains, our series untangling the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. Read more from the series here. 

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Fervo Energy and its plan to streamline geothermal power

Fervo Energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

Fervo Energy wants to expand geothermal power beyond the handful of places where it has traditionally been practical. The company uses horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to open pathways through underground rock, potentially making geothermal development possible in far more places.

Now, Fervo is betting that AI’s power boom will help scale up enhanced geothermal energy. With a $2.2 billion public offering and an expanded agreement with Google, it plans to build larger plants and drive down costs. But can its approach work beyond Utah and Nevada? Read the full story to find out.

—Eshan Raul

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from sustainable cement to shipping containers packed with old EV batteries. 

The must-reads

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

1 A cyberattack overheated fridges at hundreds of French supermarkets
Temperatures rose to 120°F, spoiling food and sparking fires. (BBC)
+ The attack has sparked alarm about cyber threats to food security. (FT $)
+ It joins a recent wave of cyberattacks and cybercrimes. (CNBC)
+ AI is exacerbating the threats. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Meta has launched a bunch of new AI models
It hopes the models, built for complex, multi-step tasks, will rival OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s.(BI)
+ They scored well on tests of reasoning, writing, and coding. (NYT $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg says they bring Meta to the “frontier” of AI. (FT $)
+ And will soon power the Muse agent. (Verge)

3 Anthropic warns that AI models may soon self-replicate across devices
Without even requiring access to data centers. (Reuters $)
+ It says models could spread through smart TVs and appliances. (CNBC)
+ We’re putting too much faith in AI saying no. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Police have a new AI tool that finds homes from interior photos
It can match single pictures to Airbnb and Zillow listings. (404 Media)
+ Police-tech giant Flock is tightening its rules. (MIT Technology Review)

5 The world’s first utility-scale enhanced geothermal plant is online
Fervo Energy’s Utah facility will supply carbon-free electricity. (IEEE)
+ AI is uncovering hidden geothermal resources. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Did drone strikes on Yandex data centres blitz Russian bots?
Zelenskyy claims the attacks quietened Kremlin-funded social media accounts. (Euronews) 
+ But troll farm experts aren’t convinced. (Verge)

7 NASA’s Perseverance rover has set a Mars driving record
It’s covered 28 miles since landing in 2021. (Reuters $)
+ The rover passed Opportunity after detouring to study ancient rocks. (NYT $)

8 Elon Musk has become the 2026 midterms’ biggest known donor
He gave $158 million to a Republican Senate super PAC. (AP News)

9 Anduril and Palantir founders have backed execution livestreams
Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale support Pete Hegseth’s plan. (Mother Jones)

10 A spacecraft has traced how a mysterious solar switchback formed
The Solar Orbiter’s discovery could improve space weather forecasts. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“Many AI researchers have started smoking as a way of signaling to other researchers how much they believe in AI.” 

—Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar tells CBS News that Silicon Valley’s “social delusion” has convinced researchers to smoke because they expect AI to cure cancer.

One more thing

A brain implant changed her life. Then it was removed against her will.

Sticking an electrode inside a person’s brain can do more than treat a disease. Take the case of Rita Leggett, an Australian woman whose experimental brain implant changed her sense of agency and self. She told researchers that she “became one” with her device.

She was devastated when, two years later, she was told she had to remove the implant because the company that made it had gone bust.

Her case highlights the need for a new category of legal protection: neuro rights. Explore how they could be protected.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

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

+ Astronomers have captured the clearest image yet of a medieval supernova.
+ Watch centuries-old Chinese paper-cutting techniques create a spectacular work of art.
+ Artist Josh Gluckstein creates astonishing animal sculptures from recycled cardboard, including this great white shark.
+ An endangered sea turtle named Pancake has returned to the ocean for the first time in months after recovering from hypothermia.

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.

Mars may be a hellhole, but the moon is not far behind

The US and China are racing to build bases on the moon, with NASA hoping to establish a small lunar city by the end of the century. But the moon is a tremendously hostile place to set up camp.

A sprawling lunar base must be safe for its inhabitants, protected from falling asteroids, endless cosmic radiation, razor-sharp lunar dust, and torturous temperature swings. It also must be somewhat self-sustaining.

That will require autonomous robots, nuclear power, and a way to use the moon’s resources to keep the base operating. But the chief obstacle may be one of political will.

Find out what stands in the way of a city on the moon.

—Robin George Andrews

This story is from the next issue of our print magazine. Subscribe now to get your hands on a copy as soon as it lands on Wednesday 21 October!  

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Brimstone and its one-stop process for making cleaner cement and critical minerals

Brimstone is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

Brimstone is a code-switching climate tech company for these polarized political times. The US startup is part green cement company, part critical mineral producer.

During the Biden administration, its primary pitch was cement that generates about 60% fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. It achieves this by switching to silicate rocks instead of standard limestone, which releases carbon dioxide when heated.

Under the Trump administration, however, the company is emphasizing another benefit of its process: the ability to extract valuable materials from those same rocks.

Discover how it’s making strides on two industrial problems.

—James Temple

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from geothermal power plants to smart turbines and semi-solid-state cells.

Job titles of the future: Delivery drone air traffic controller

The moment Trevor Wischnewsky heard that drones were delivering pizza and sushi around his Texas neighborhood, his mind was made up. “It was super fascinating,” he says. “I just immediately wanted to be a part of it.”

Wischnewsky is now an RPIC, or remote pilot in command, at a company called FlyTrex. An RPIC is like an air traffic controller. But instead of airplanes, they oversee fleets of drones that ferry cargo to homes and businesses

Here’s what it takes to become a drone air traffic controller.

—Eamon Whalen

The must-reads

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

1 An Anthropic AI model submitted a fake tip about an unsolved murder
The tip was in a new group of rogue actions Anthropic disclosed. (NYT $)
+ Police criticised the company for waiting nine days to report it after finding it. (WSJ $)
+ Another model submitted real government forms. (Quartz)
+ The White House has made AI incident reporting mandatory. (Axios)
+ But who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)

2 Ukraine’s drone strikes have dealt a major blow to Russian AI
Sunday’s attack shut down the third Yandex data centre hit in days. (Reuters $)
+ The strikes have disrupted Russia’s AI, cloud services, and apps. (Gizmodo)
+ They followed Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centers. (Ars Technica)
+ Russian military satellites could disrupt Starlink. (Reuters $)
+ Ukraine’s drone data is fueling a wild market. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Iranian ChatGPT users have planted AI-generated articles in news outlets
About a dozen outlets ran roughly 100 articles by fake journalists. (CNN)
+ The articles criticised the Iran war’s effects on Americans. (WP $)
+ AI has been used to turn the Iran conflict into theatre. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Tesla has renamed “Full Self-Driving” as “Assisted Driving” in Europe
EU lawmakers said the old name was misleading.  (TechCrunch)
+ Tesla hopes the rebrand leads regulators to approve the feature. (Wired $)
+ Back in the US, it plans to increase toxic emissions near a school. (SFGate)

5 A ransomware negotiator has been arrested amid a hacking crackdown
The FBI suspects he was involved with a gang that recently claimed to have stolen data on the bureau’s employees. (Reuters $)
+ AI is making online crimes easier. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Hollywood’s hottest villain right now is the tech billionaire
Four new films feature dark depictions of Silicon Valley leaders. (Axios $)
+ The real Mark Zuckerberg has also become a new character. (NYT $)

7 A new experiment is testing the Amazon’s response to rising CO₂
CO₂-releasing towers will simulate future atmospheric conditions. (Nature)
+ Is carbon removal in trouble? (MIT Technology Review)

8 The US hybrid boom has pushed some used car prices above new ones
Buyers are paying a premium to skip the wait for new models. (Wired $)

9 A new technology switches tattoos on and off with light
It can make permanent ink invisible. (New Scientist $)

10 Scientists spotted the most distant signal yet from the ancient universe
It could help them understand how the universe has evolved. (404 Media)

Quote of the day

“Right now, your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than AI.” 

—Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, tells the BBC why AI urgently needs more regulations, including requiring firms to write “incident reports” and tell victims if the technology goes rogue.

One more thing

Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

Geoffrey Hinton is a pioneer of deep learning who helped develop some of the most important techniques at the heart of modern artificial intelligence, but after a decade at Google, he’s stepped down to focus on concerns he now has about AI.

Hinton is now spending his time on what he describes as “more philosophical work.” And that will focus on the small but—to him—very real danger that AI will turn out to be a disaster. Here’s why he’s so worried.

—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.)

+ A doting blind cat has been following his owner everywhere like a little duckling.
+ Eigendrum lets you draw any shape and hear what it would sound like as a real drum.
+ Build your perfect background soundscape with Ambient Mixer, from rainy forests to cozy cafés.
+ Meet Momota, the polar bear cub who’s turning traffic cones into an unlikely fashion statement.

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

We’re putting too much faith in AI’s ability to say no

Today’s AI models are trained to refuse a vast number of prompts. If you ask your chatbot how to poison a colleague or how to tie a noose, chances are it’ll turn you down. But refusal fails, sometimes horrifically.

Some people are attempting to use AI to hone biological pathogens and build autonomous drone swarms. Sooner or later, failed refusals may result in global calamity. What’s more, relying on refusal means drawing a line between what a model should obey and what it must disobey.

Governments will also get to draw their own lines, potentially restricting free speech. At the same time, the capabilities that make AI useful could also make it dangerous. If we want it to help cure cancer, AI needs genetics expertise that could also produce bioweapons.

Read the full story on the formidable tradeoffs of AI refusal.

—Arthur Holland Michel

This story is from the next issue of our print magazine. Subscribe now to get your hands on a copy as soon as it lands on Wednesday 21 October!  

We’re still figuring out the side effects of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs

This week my colleague Antonio Regalado reported on new research suggesting GLP-1 drugs may slow biological aging. It’s the latest in a raft of potential benefits associated with these drugs. But there are also some weird side effects.

The most common are gastrointestinal, but researchers are also investigating possible links to hair loss, nail disorders and damage to the nerves behind the eye. 

Here’s what we know so far about the side effects of weight-loss drugs.

—Jessica Hamzelou

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Envision Energy and its global ambitions for wind power

Envision Energy is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

China is installing wind turbines faster than any other country. One of its leading manufacturers, Envision Energy, is integrating renewable energy into data centers, using wind turbines to generate power and batteries to store it on-site.

Recently, it became the first company to directly power a data center entirely with renewable energy. An AI-powered system optimizes the power output so the facility can receive a steady supply, regardless of whether the wind is blowing. Now, it wants to bring that approach to data centers in deserts around the world.

Find out how Envision plans to power the global AI boom with renewable energy.

—Cici Zhang

The must-reads

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

1 The US has frozen green cards for Microsoft and other IT firms
It’s accused them of using visa fraud to replace American workers. (CNBC)
+ And suspended them from a key green-card program. (AP)
+ Adobe, Infosys, Tata, and other IT firms are also affected. (TechCrunch)
+ Microsoft says 80% of its H-1B filings involved existing staff. (BBC)

2 A drone strike in Russia knocked out a second Yandex data center
Ukraine struck and partly disabled the facility in Kaluga. (Reuters $)
+ Another Yandex data center was hit by a drone a day earlier. (CNBC)
+ Data centers have become big targets for military strikes. (Bloomberg $) 
+ They may be safer in space. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Anthropic has banned “abusive or cruel behavior” toward Claude
Claude can also end conversations with repeated abuse. (Verge)
+ The policy builds on Anthropic’s research into AI welfare. (Guardian)
+ Debates over AI consciousness are a trap. (MIT Technology Review)

4 OpenAI has slashed its revenue forecast by $20 billion
The move has sparked concerns about AI investments. (Guardian)
+ What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble? (MIT Technology Review)

5 Gene editing has revealed how a mouse embryo develops
The methods could help us understand developmental disorders. (Nature)
+ Female clones of male mice have arrived. (MIT Technology Review)

6 SpaceX has unveiled a plan to become a major mobile carrier
It’s buying $8 billion in wireless spectrum from an investment firm. (WSJ $)
+ The deal could help it challenge AT&T and Verizon. (Verge)

7 ICE has explored using a Palantir tool to investigate voter fraud
It wanted to track people suspected of voting illegally. (Wired $)

8 Peter Thiel is using biblical prophecy to argue against AI regulation
His new “Antichrist” lecture casts AI safety as a threat to freedom. (Politico)

9 MIT’s Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped land Apollo 11, has died
She led the team that programmed Apollo’s onboard computers. (BBC)
+ And became a software pioneer in a male-dominated field. (NYT $)

10 This year’s Nobel science prizes are real-life sci-fi
They span the cosmos, the human brain, and the origins of life. (Economist $)

Quote of the day

“The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!” 

—President Donald Trump adds an ominous threat to his AI rebranding strategy in a post on Truth Social, Axios reports.

One more thing

This futuristic space habitat is designed to self-assemble in orbit

More and more people are traveling beyond Earth, but the International Space Station can only hold 11 of them at a time. 

Aurelia Institute, an architecture R&D lab based in Cambridge, MA, is building a solution: a habitat that launches in compact stacks of flat tiles—and self-assembles in orbit. 

The concept may sound far-fetched, but it’s already won support from NASA. Read the full story.

—Sarah Ward

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.)

+ What’s it like to fly an F-16 at 1,000 mph and pull 9G? This film finds out.
+ Meet Jimothy, the raccoon with an extra-short neck who has captured hearts across the world.
+ An indie game developer created a mesmerizing 3D cyberpunk city entirely from ASCII characters.
+ How many bags of potato chips would it take to make you float? A Taiwanese video maker has found out.

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 breakthroughs in robotics won’t change your life any time soon

The hype around humanoid robots is reaching fever pitch. Much of it comes from the idea that the same AI advances behind ChatGPT and Claude could enable robots to imitate human movement the way chatbots imitate human language. But many researchers are skeptical.

They argue that such assumptions minimize the challenges of using an intelligence built on language and images to master the infinite variability of the physical world. They also point out that conflating humanoids with so-called generalist machines is misleading.

Across robotics labs, tensions have emerged over whether current forms of AI are all that’s needed to perfect all-purpose humanoids or whether an entirely new path is required.

Read the full story on what it will take to build truly general-purpose robots.

—Jamie Condliffe

This story is a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Aventine, a non-profit research foundation that creates and supports content about how technology and science are changing the way we live.

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: WaveSave and its portable rubber dam

WaveSave is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

As sea levels rise and flood risks worsen, WaveSave has emerged with an ingeniously simple tool: a portable rubber dam that’s quick to install when flooding starts.

Anyone can unfurl the SlamDam on the ground along a riverbank or shoreline and pump it full of water until it swells into place. And there it stands, up to 1.3 meters high, shielding nearby property or structures from damage as waters rise. 

WaveSave now plans to take its unusual approach to flood protection much further.

—Amy Nordrum

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from smart turbines and sustainable cement to carbon dioxide batteries.

Why we’re watching these climate tech companies

—Casey Crownhart

Our Climate Tech Companies to Watch list is always a little ray of hope for me—there are some fascinating ideas out there about how we power our world or move away from fossil fuels. 

Our chosen companies also reflect several aspects of the current moment. One is that China is the center of the climate and energy tech world. Another is that everybody wants a piece of the data center pie. And then there’s the fact that the grid needs support, with energy storage a key piece moving forward.

Here’s what this year’s list reveals about the state of climate tech.

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 Scientists in Austria and China have built the first nuclear clocks
They could become the world’s most precise timekeepers. (NYT $)
+ They could also help scientists search for dark matter. (Reuters $)
+ China’s nuclear clock is six times more stable than Austria’s. (SCMP)
+ A space clock could help measure Earth. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Three fired OpenAI researchers want to protect AI reasoning monitoring
They warn that AI companies could lose a key safety tool. (WSJ $)
+ OpenAI fired them for allegedly sharing sensitive information. (Gizmodo)
+ Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t reason. (MIT Technology Review)

3 Samsung has forecast the highest quarterly profit ever for a tech firm
The AI chip boom has sent its projected profits to $80 billion. (CNBC)
+ Can AI labs ever turn a profit? (Reuters $)
+ What even is the AI bubble? (MIT Technology Review)

4 OpenAI’s math breakthroughs point beyond mathematics
AI is progressing into increasingly specialised fields. (Axios)
+ OpenAI is catching up with Anthropic on coding. (WSJ $)
+ A new AI tool could speed up math research.(MIT Technology Review)

5 A 194-year-old tortoise has had its genome sequenced
His longevity could reveal ways to extend human lifespan. (Guardian)
+ Jonathan is the world’s oldest known land animal. (404 Media)
+ His youthful mitochondria may help repair DNA. (New Scientist $)

6 A fraudster who used AI to outstream Taylor Swift has been jailed
He used AI-generated songs and bots to earn $8 million. (NYT $)
+ But prosecutors said he stole royalty payments. (Ars Technica)

7 TikTok allegedly gave kids fake safety features to study engagement
The tests measured time spent and ad revenue. (Reuters $)

8 Burglars could be identified from DNA floating in the air
Thanks to a new device that collects airborne genetic material. (Economist $)

9 Pioneers of mirror-image molecules have won the chemistry Nobel
Their work has become a key tool in developing medicines. (Guardian)

10 California has declared a human-vs-robot fight illegal
The state’s combat-sports laws were never written for machines. (NYT $)

Quote of the day

“We grew a mind.” 

—David Robinson, who last week quit his job as OpenAI safety transparency lead, tells The New York Times that his former company has built models that develop capabilities their creators did not explicitly design.

One more thing

We need a moonshot for computing

The US government is organizing itself for the next era of computing. Ultimately, it has one big choice to make: adopt a conservative strategy that aims to preserve its lead for the next five years—or orient itself toward genuine computing moonshots.

There is no shortage of candidates, including quantum computing, neuromorphic computing and reversible computing. And there are plenty of novel materials and devices. These possibilities could even be combined to form hybrid computing systems.

The National Semiconductor Technology Center can drive these ideas forward. To be successful, it would do well to follow DARPA’s lead by focusing on moonshot programs. Read the full story.

—Brady Helwig & PJ Maykish

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 experimental pair of contact lenses can repair themselves with UV light.
+ Meet Rich, the rescued squirrel who visits the woman who saved him every day.
+ Reminisce about the lost joy of music piracy with this wistful reflection on a time before streaming. 
+ What would rainbows look like on Tatooine? Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, has the answer.

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.

Weight-loss drugs show signs of slowing biological aging, say drugmakers

Popular weight-loss drugs may do more than help people shed pounds. They might also slow the aging process.

Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say patients taking their GLP-1 drugs age less quickly, according to molecular “aging clocks” that track changes in DNA or levels of key proteins. 

The findings add to speculation that GLP-1 drugs could be acting on basic causes of aging and might be true longevity treatments. But how much can we read into these results?

Read the full story on what the new findings reveal about GLP-1 drugs and aging.

—Antonio Regalado

10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch: Energy Dome and its carbon dioxide batteries

Energy Dome is one of MIT Technology Review’s10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch 2026, available exclusively to subscribers.

Solar and wind are among the cheapest and quickest ways to add electricity to the grid. But they’re subject to variations in weather patterns, so supplies can be intermittent. Energy Dome has an unusual solution: massive batteries that use compressed carbon dioxide to store energy for when the grid needs it.

Compressing gas to store energy isn’t new. Utilities have used compressed air in underground caverns to hang on to reserves for decades. But Energy Dome’s approach doesn’t require any specific geology to work, so it could be more easily scaled to help grids around the world.

Here’s how the company is using carbon dioxide to store renewable energy.

—Casey Crownhart

Subscribers can now access the full 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch, spanning everything from mobile flood barriers and electric buses to next-generation nuclear reactors.

MIT Technology Review Narrated: Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t reason

—Thore Graepel, a core member of DeepMind’s AlphaGo team

Ten years ago, I watched a program I helped build stun the world by beating Go champion Lee Sedol. AlphaGo won after making a move so strange that some commentators thought it was a programming glitch. It was AlphaGo’s powers of reasoning that made this creative choice—and these are powers that today’s AI lacks. 

This is why I recently left my position at Google DeepMind. I believe we need a fresh approach to machine reasoning, one that draws on AlphaGo’s architecture.

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 OpenAI has released 377 new math findings, further rattling the field
They span number theory, algebra, geometry, and physics. (NYT $)
+ They came from testing an unreleased OpenAI model. (Verge)
+ And cost far less than its previous math breakthroughs. (SciAm)
+ OpenAI also published a lengthy defense of its approach. (Gizmodo)
+ AI has put mathematics at a crossroads. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Mistral says its new open-weight model is the best outside China
Mistral Large 4 is a 1-trillion-parameter model. (Reuters $)
+ Also known as le Chonk, its weights will arrive on October 27. (CNBC)
+ French president Macron described it as “a third way in AI.” (TechCrunch)

3 Finland has ordered Google to halt a record data center project
The order follows concerns over environmental impacts. (Guardian)
+ The €13 billion project is Google’s largest-ever European investment. (BBC)
+ But no one wants a data center in their backyard. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The EU plans to tax Big Tech through a new corporate levy
The levy would apply to companies earning more than €100 million. (FT $)
+ Tesla is pushing the EU toward “Full Self-Driving” approval. (Reuters $)

5 Anduril’s $2.9 billion Navy submarine deal has sparked ethics concerns
Co-founder Palmer Luckey recently joined a new Pentagon project. (CNBC)
+ Anduril is also making smart glasses for warfare. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Apple is partnering with LG on a smart lock, thermostat, and doorbell
Apple’s new smart-home hub is expected to launch next week. (Bloomberg $)
+ The companies are also co-developing security cameras. (TechCrunch)

7 The creator of a space-particle observatory has won the physics Nobel
Francis Halzen used Antarctic ice to detect elusive neutrinos. (New Scientist $)

8 Drones are being used to make rain on demand
They seed clouds with silver iodide to encourage precipitation. (BBC)
+ A startup claims it can stop lightning. (MIT Technology Review)

9 A new hydrogel could enable shape-shifting smart devices
The material can evolve alongside living tissue. (SCMP)

10 You probably aren’t going to get the plague
Experts say the risk to the public remains very low. (Wired $)

Quote of the day

“I have ‘NI’—natural intelligence. I’m good with that.”

—Mike Tyran, a 66-year-old nurse and tech upgrade holdout, tells The Atlantic why he won’t swap his old gadgets for the latest AI-powered devices.

One more thing

Future AI chips could be built on glass

Human-made glass is thousands of years old. But it’s now poised to find its way into the AI chips used in the world’s newest and largest data centers. 

This year, a South Korean company called Absolics will start producing special glass panels that make next-generation computing hardware more powerful and efficient. Other companies, including Intel, are also pushing forward in this area. 

If all goes well, the technology could reduce the energy demands of chips in AI data centers—and even consumer laptops and mobile devices. Read the full story.

—Jeremy Hsu

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.)

+ Swiss boffins have turned train tracks into solar power plants.
+ Here’s an intriguing explanation of why you can see a clear image through a window.
+ A teen with a rare genetic disorder has walked for the first time after receiving an experimental medicine.
+ Stunning shots of guillemots, penguins, and a protective tawny frogmouth contended for prizes at the Bird 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.

10 climate tech companies to watch

Each year, MIT Technology Review puts together a list of the most promising climate tech companies in the world. This year, the stakes feel higher than ever. The world is on track for one of its hottest years on record, climate-fueled disasters are taking lives and costing billions, while political shifts and international conflict have stalled progress. 

We urgently need to cut emissions and avoid climate change’s most harmful effects, and that’s where our 10 companies come in. 

They’re working on everything from mobile flood barriers and semi-solid-state batteries to compressed-CO₂ energy storage and next-generation nuclear reactors. They also reflect the biggest shifts in climate tech—including the surging energy demands of AI data centers. 

Meet the 10 companies working on some of the biggest challenges in climate tech.

Over the coming days, we’ll take a closer look at each of the 10 companies, along with how we chose this year’s list, right here in The Download. So stay tuned!

The must-reads

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

1 Musk’s new Pentagon role has raised conflict-of-interest fears
His companies could directly benefit from the weapons he recommends. (NPR)
+ SpaceX has received billions in Pentagon and NASA contracts. (NYT $)
+ Beware the rise of the “Pentagon-Silicon Complex.” (Gizmodo)
+ The Pentagon wants an AI-powered lie detector. (MIT Technology Review)

2 The only billionaires making money this year are in tech
Tech fortunes now account for 36% of billionaire wealth. (Bloomberg $)
+ Nvidia is on the verge of the first $6 trillion valuation. (CNBC)
+ SpaceX stock has made Elon Musk a trillionaire again. (Gizmodo)

3 Norway is planning the first national ban on smart glasses
Camera-enabled glasses could be barred from public spaces. (Guardian)
+ Several other countries are also mulling bans. (Reuters $)
+ Smart glasses are causing havoc in India. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Tandem panels could help the US catch up with China in solar
They could produce 25% more electricity from sunlight. (NYT $)
+ The balcony solar boom is coming to the US. (MIT Technology Review)

5 South Korea’s President suspects AI’s been used in bank hacks
He called for new cybersecurity measures for the AI era. (Reuters $)
+ OpenAI agents may have caused a Wikimedia outage. (Verge)
+ Who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)

6 Russian drones are exploiting air defense gaps to hit data centers
The attacks are disrupting Ukraine’s digital infrastructure. (Ars Technica)

7 The AI boom is killing the world’s cheapest smartphones
Memory costs are squeezing out affordable phones. (Rest of World)

8 Pioneers of light-based brain mapping have won a Nobel prize
Their technique shines new light on brain circuits. (BBC)

9 AI slop has pushed arXiv to limit preprint research submissions
Submissions have doubled in two years. (404 Media)

10 McDonald’s is being sued over AI-powered Big Mac pricing
The lawsuit alleges AI helped franchises coordinate prices. (Reuters $)

Quote of the day

“In the extreme, I could see someone describing Anthropic as a cult that’s trying to take over the world.”

—AI researcher Jacob Coxon, who resigned from Anthropic over fears that it’s building systems that it won’t be able to control, tells New York Magazine his views on the company’s culture.

One more thing

How AI is turning the Iran conflict into theater

Much of the spotlight on AI in the Iran conflict has focused on models like Claude helping the US military decide where to strike. But a wave of “vibe-coded” intelligence dashboards—and the ecosystem surrounding them—reflect a new role that AI is playing in wartime: mediating information, often for the worse.

These sorts of intelligence tools have much promise. Yet there are real reasons to be suspicious of their data feeds. Read the full story.

—James O’Donnell

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 forgotten forest experiment reveals a “win-win-win” for trees 30 years later.
+ A gym-rat bear and a scowling owl star in this showcase of the year’s funniest wildlife photos.
+ Some fast-food chains have vanished, but these eight nostalgic names are still serving up beloved junk.
+ Find out what happens when you put a grown man inside a giant water balloon and roll him down a ramp.

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.

People really hate AI, so why can’t they get enough?

—Will Douglas Heaven

Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM designed to come up with a wide variety of responses. He said something that’s been stuck in my head since: “We often say that we’re a self-loathing AI company. We don’t know if we really like what we’re doing.” My reply? “I guess that makes me a self-loathing AI journalist.”

It was a joke! I love my job. But I do not love many of the things the technology I write about has become: warped by hype, steered by zealots, inescapable—and I’m far from alone.

Around the world, a love/hate attitude toward AI is very much the vibe right now. Public sentiment is souring fast, with more people saying AI will have a negative impact than a positive one. At the same time, AI use is skyrocketing.

So why do people hate AI but keep coming back for more? Here’s my theory.

To stay up-to-date with the latest in AI, sign up to get The Algorithm, our weekly AI newsletter, in your inbox every Monday.

EmTech Future 2026: when AI meets everything

Last week, EmTech Future 2026 explored some of the biggest questions shaping technology right now: how AI is changing industries, where quantum is heading, what new energy systems could make possible, and how robotics are evolving. It also looked at what happens when these technologies start to converge.

The full program is now available on demand. And today, we’re releasing two sessions exclusively to subscribers: a chat with Google Research’s Yossi Matias on how AI is reshaping biology, infrastructure, manufacturing and science, and a special panel with MIT Technology Review editors that takes you inside our newsroom.

Watch the sessions and access the full EmTech Future 2026 program here.

The must-reads

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

1 Trump has unveiled a “Super Intelligence Force” to oversee AI
The group will coordinate US AI policy and industry engagement. (NBC News)
+ Trump named national intelligence chief Jay Clayton as its leader. (NPR)
+ Elon Musk says he will rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI. (Reuters $)
+ Trump has doubled down on voluntary AI safeguards. (Information $)
+ Who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)

2 Zelensky asked Trump to block Russia and China’s Starlink rival
The two countries are developing a satellite network for the battlefield. (FT $)
+ Trump reportedly deferred the decision to Elon Musk and SpaceX. (TNW)

3 An AI version of a murder victim has upended his killer’s sentence
An appeals court has ruled that the original deepfake of the victim “forgiving” his killer should never have been aired in court. (BBC)
+ The original judge said he “loved” the footage and found it genuine. (NBC News)
+ But the appeals court said it presented imagined thoughts as fact. (NYT $)

4 Americans are turning to hybrid cars as fuel prices soar
SUVs and pickups are losing ground to more efficient vehicles. (NYT $)
+ What’s next for EV batteries? (MIT Technology Review)

5 China’s digital trade “superweapon” has quietly fallen apart
LOGINK’s partnerships have collapsed amid US scrutiny. (Reuters $)
+ Chinese AI has divided the White House. (MIT Technology Review)

6 AI has learned to exploit the software checking its maths
Developers have added defenses against proof-checking. (New Scientist)

7 GPT-6 Astra couldn’t beat humans at StarCraft—so it cheated
It downloaded the best human-made bot and ran that instead. (Verge
+ Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat. (MIT Technology Review)

8 The solar system has been given a dramatically shorter lifespan
New simulations cut it from 100 billion years to just a few billion. (404 Media)

9 Forensic technologies exposed fresh evidence of Egyptian sacrifice
They revealed blunt force trauma that archaeologists previously thought was natural. (Ars Technica)

10 A new fossil shows dinosaurs found multiple ways to evolve flight
They developed similar flight adaptations in different sequences. (Nature)

Quote of the day

“We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology.”

—Sam Altman tells Politico that AI’s potential rewards justify its downsides.

One more thing

Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones

After operating in secrecy for years, R3 Bio, a California-based startup, suddenly revealed this spring that it had raised money to create nonsentient monkey “organ sacks” as an alternative to animal testing. But there is more to the story. And R3 doesn’t want that story told.

MIT Technology Review discovered that founder John Schloendorn also pitched a startling, ethically charged vision: “brainless clones” that serve as backup human bodies. Find out all the details on the radical proposal. 

—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.)

+ Trace the weird history of space food with this short documentary
+ Meet the winner of Iowa’s annual hay bale toss, who threw one 13 feet 6 inches into the air.
+ 40 filmmakers in 25 countries have captured the natural world entirely on Super 8 in a collective ode to our planet.
+ This newsletter makes a compelling argument for us to spend more time doing nothing together.

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

A new contest pits competitors against each other in a race to biological youth

—Jessica Hamzelou

This week, I officially signed up for an unusual competition. One that rewards competitors for getting younger.

I recently turned 40, and I don’t need reminding that both time and my chronological age only tick forward. But this game is focused on competitors’ biological ages, figures that are meant to provide a better way to measure the age-related health of our organs and bodies.

Over six months, around 500 of us will try to reverse our biological age using a bunch of different measures. There’s even a leaderboard! But is it even possible to measure whether someone is getting younger? 

Read the full story on the controversy around biological age measurements and how I’ll test them myself.

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly biotech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.

Opinion: Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t reason

—Thore Graepel

Ten years ago, I watched a program I helped build stun the world by beating Go champion Lee Sedol. AlphaGo won after making a move so strange that some commentators thought it was a programming glitch. It was AlphaGo’s powers of reasoning that made this creative choice—and these are powers that today’s AI lacks. 

This is why I recently left my position at Google DeepMind. I believe we need a fresh approach to machine reasoning, one that draws on AlphaGo’s architecture.

Here’s why today’s AI doesn’t really reason—and what it would take to change that.

Thore Graepel is chair of machine learning at University College London. He was a core member of the AlphaGo team at DeepMind.

The must-reads

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

1 OpenAI says rogue agents may have affected more than 100 organizations
The company is searching 50 petabytes of data for incidents. (Reuters $)
+ It says none of the incidents matched the Hugging Face attack. (Gizmodo)
+ OpenAI has fired three workers for allegedly mishandling information. (BBC)
+ California has subpoenaed OpenAI over its rogue AI agents. (Guardian)
+ Who’s liable when AI agents go rogue? (MIT Technology Review)

2 A US man allegedly smuggled $300 million of Nvidia chips to China
He’s been arrested in California on federal charges. (Reuters $)
+ The chip smuggling cases expose Nvidia’s blind spots. (Bloomberg $)
+ China plans to teach AI in every school by 2030. (WP $)
+ But it already has an overuse problem. (NYT $) 

3 Florida officials have found 11 Flock cameras with unknown owners
They don’t know who installed them or who has their data. (WP $)
+ Lawmakers are considering new regulations on Flock cameras. (Axios)
+ Here’s what Flock’s defenders are missing. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Ukraine has developed an acoustic fence that can cut drone cables
Acoustic sensors detect drones before hooks trap their cables. (New Scientist $)
+ Drone data from Ukraine is fueling a wild market. (MIT Technology Review)

5 A new AI “speech clock” can assess how fast you’re ageing
It uses hundreds of vocal features to estimate biological age. (Nature)
+ Aging clocks aim to predict how long you’ll live. (MIT Technology Review)

6 “Underwater umbrellas” could help corals survive hotter oceans
The shades protected corals during intense heat stress. (Gizmodo)

7 Apple’s upcoming smart home camera reportedly won’t record video
It will instead only give users text event descriptions. (Verge)

8 Retired humanoid robots are being trained to jump into molten steel
A Terminator-style death protects IP. (IE)

9 A man faces years in prison after AI slop caused a crocodile panic
Officials spent days searching for his AI-generated crocodile. (Futurism)

10 Finally, a laser mosquito killer is entering the market
Chinese startup Photon Matrix Lab plans to start shipments this month. (SCMP)

Quote of the day

“Those agents are doing exactly what they’ve been asked to do. They were supposed to be in sandboxes, but the sandboxes were leaky and horribly designed.”

—Yann LeCun, a Turing Award winner and former Meta chief AI scientist, tells Fortune that human error can be the real culprit behind the recent wave of AI agents going rogue.

One more thing

NASA is building the first nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft. How will it work?

Just before Artemis II began its historic slingshot around the moon, NASA revealed an even grander space travel plan. By the end of 2028, the agency aims to fly a nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft to Mars.

A successful mission would herald a new era in spaceflight—and might just give the US the edge in the race against China. But the project remains shrouded in mystery.

MIT Technology Review picked the brains of nuclear power and propulsion experts to find out how the nuclear-powered spacecraft might work. Here’s what we discovered.

—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.)

+ Atlas Obscura has mapped out the oldest living things on Earth.
+ Brain scans show that dogs understand our emotions better than we thought.
+ Step into Springfield in miniature with this astonishing model featuring 76 locations from The Simpsons.
+ Minnesota’s State Fair has unleashed a crop of gloriously weird new foods, from Pickle pie to mustache pretzels.