AI chatbots are giving out people’s real phone numbers

The Download: making drugs in orbit and NASA’s nuclear-powered spacecraft

The Download: making drugs in orbit and NASA’s nuclear-powered spacecraft Plus: Sam Altman claims Elon Musk tried to seize control of OpenAI. 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 plan to make drugs in orbit is going commercial A startup called Varda Space Industries is betting that the future of pharmaceuticals lies in orbit. The company has signed a deal with United Therapeutics to test whether drugs crystallize differently in microgravity, potentially creating improved versions with new properties. The idea sounds futuristic, but falling launch costs and reusable rockets are making space-based manufacturing seem increasingly plausible. Varda says the partnership could mark an important step toward building products in orbit for use back on Earth. Discover how space could become the next…

A plan to make drugs in orbit is going commercial

A plan to make drugs in orbit is going commercial United Therapeutics is collaborating with Varda Space Industries to test pharmaceuticals in outer space. Varda Space Industries, a startup that’s been pitching its ability to perform drug experiments in space, says it has signed up the pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics in what may be remembered as a notable step toward in-orbit manufacturing. The idea of building things in outer space for use on Earth has so far been explored mostly on board the International Space Station, and only in small-scale experiments backed by governments. But Varda, based in El Segundo, California, is now telling drug companies it has a practical, and repeatable, way to produce novel molecules in microgravity. “This is the first commercial path to products made in space,” says Michael Reilly, Varda’s chief strategy officer. The scientific idea…

World Models: 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now

World Models: 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now Join a subscriber-only discussion live on Thursday, May 21. World models recently made our list of 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now. Watch executive editor Niall Firth explain why this emerging area of AI is gaining so much attention. Join MIT Technology Review editors and reporters for a subscriber-only Roundtables discussion, "Can AI Learn to Understand the World?" exploring how AI may evolve to better reason about the real world and what this could mean for the future of AI systems. Related Stories: - How Pokémon Go is giving delivery robots an inch-perfect view of the world - 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now: World Models - Yann LeCun has a bold new vision for the future of AI Speakers: Keep Reading Most Popular OpenAI is…

The Download: a Nobel winner on AI, and the case for fixing everything

The Download: a Nobel winner on AI, and the case for fixing everything Plus: the first zero-day exploit built by AI has been discovered. This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Three things in AI to watch, according to a Nobel-winning economist A few months before he won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2024, Daron Acemoglu published a paper that earned him few fans in Silicon Valley. He argued that AI would give only a small boost to US productivity and would not eliminate the need for human work. Two years later, Acemoglu’s measured take has not caught on. The technology has advanced quite a bit since his cautious predictions, but the data is still largely on his side. MIT Technology Review…

Implementing advanced AI technologies in finance

Sponsored Implementing advanced AI technologies in finance Successful AI implementation requires shifts in workplace culture as well as use cases that can scale across the enterprise. In partnership withOracle NetSuite In finance departments that have long been defined by precision and control, AI has arrived less as a neatly managed upgrade than as a quiet insurgency. Employees are already using it while leadership races to impose structure, governance, and strategy after the fact. The result is a paradox: one of the most tightly regulated functions in the enterprise is now among the most experimentally transformed. What’s emerging is a layered shift in how work gets done. From variance commentary and fraud detection to contract review and close narrative drafting, AI is embedding itself across workflows, particularly where unstructured data once slowed down everything. Yet, as Glenn Hopper, head of AI…

Innovation abounds in device charging

Sponsored Innovation abounds in device charging No longer peripheral accessories, chargers today are more powerful, portable, and proactive. Consumers can look forward to rapid innovations in the coming years. In partnership withAnker The changes may be less perceptible than in smartphones, tablets, or wearables, but chargers have also been quietly reinvented over the last decade. At one time a bulky mix of tangled cables and connectors, slow to perform and prone to overheating, they’re now smaller, safer, and faster, thanks to a slew of technological advances. These advances include a switch to gallium nitride (GaN), which has now usurped silicon as the preferred semiconductor, capable of handling higher voltages, faster switches, and more efficient conduction. Multi-port chargers, coupled with an industry-wide shift toward USB-C standardization, mean a single charger can handle multiple devices. And early smart chargers are also trickling…

Fostering breakthrough AI innovation through customer-back engineering

Sponsored Fostering breakthrough AI innovation through customer-back engineering Agentic AI is helping organizations completely reimagine core banking processes and operations from the customer perspective, rather than simply making incremental improvements. In partnership withCapital One Despite years of digitization, organizations capture less than one-third of the value expected from digital investments, according to McKinsey research. That’s because most big companies begin with technological capabilities and bolt applications onto them, rather than starting with customer needs and working backward to technology solutions. Not prioritizing the customer can create fragmented solutions; disjointed customer experiences; and ultimately, failed transformations. Organizations that achieve outsized results from AI flip the script. They adopt a “customer-back engineering” mindset, putting customers at the heart of technology transformation. It’s a strategy in which products and services are developed with the customer experience first in mind, including the customers’ challenges,…

Three things in AI to watch, according to a Nobel-winning economist

Three things in AI to watch, according to a Nobel-winning economist Daron Acemoglu is more cautious than most about predictions of a jobs apocalypse. Here’s what’s worrying him instead. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. A few months before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 2024, Daron Acemoglu published a paper that earned him few fans in Silicon Valley. Contrary to what Big Tech CEOs had been promising—an overhaul of all white-collar work—Acemoglu estimated that AI would give only a small boost to US productivity and would not obviate the need for human work. It’s okay at automating certain tasks, he wrote, but some jobs will be perfectly fine. Two years later, Acemoglu’s measured take has not caught on.…

The Download: the hantavirus outbreak and Musk v. Altman week 2

The Download: the hantavirus outbreak and Musk v. Altman week 2 Plus: Meta’s embrace of AI is making employees miserable. This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Here’s what you need to know about the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak Last week, eight passengers aboard a Dutch-flagged cruise ship contracted a type of hantavirus transmitted by rats. Three have since died. But health experts stress that this situation is nothing like the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. The Andes virus is known to spread between people, and there are no specific antiviral treatments or vaccines. Yet transmission appears to require a specific form of contact that the cruise ship fostered. Here’s what you need to know about the outbreak—and why experts believe it can be…

Here’s what you need to know about the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak

Here’s what you need to know about the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak And why health experts believe it can be contained. MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. Eight passengers aboard a Dutch-flagged cruise ship have contracted a type of hantavirus, a rare virus transmitted by rats. Three of them have died. As the ship prepares to dock in the Canary Islands, plans are being finalized to let the remaining passengers and crew disembark safely. The virus in question appears to have a high fatality rate. Read on for answers to the big questions surrounding the outbreak—and to hear why health experts don’t expect a rerun of the covid-19 pandemic. What is hantavirus? Hantaviruses are a group of…

The Download: AI malaise and babymaking tech

The Download: AI malaise and babymaking tech Plus: ICE plans to develop its own smart glasses. 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’ve entered the era of AI malaise AI is spreading everywhere, and it is not going away. But what will it do? What effect will it have on our society? Will it make life better, or worse? How will we know? What’s the plan? This technology may very well take our jobs—or just crash the economy instead. Our apps are all getting injections of AI, like it or not. And it is increasingly impossible to tell whether we are relying too much on AI or not using it enough. We’re all sitting uncomfortably with AI right now. Read our essay…

Here’s how technology transformed babymaking

Here’s how technology transformed babymaking Tech advances not only made IVF safer and more effective; they fundamentally changed the way we think about our reproduction. Technology is changing the way we make babies. The pioneering work of the scientists who invented IVF led to the birth of the first “test tube baby” in 1978. We’ve come a long, long way since then. This week, I’ve been working on a piece about the cutting edge of IVF technologies and what’s coming next. Think AI and robots and, potentially, gene-edited embryos. My reporting has also made me think about just how much progress has been made in the last five decades. Clinicians have improved hormonal treatments. Embryologists have devised ways to culture embryos in the lab for longer. IVF clinics today offer multiple genetic tests for embryos. In recent years, we’ve had…

Musk v. Altman week 2: OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman

Musk v. Altman week 2: OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman OpenAI president Greg Brockman said Elon Musk wanted the company to create a for-profit entity—and endured a public peek into his diary. In the second week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk’s motivations for bringing the suit were under scrutiny. Last week, Musk took the stand, alleging that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into donating $38 million to the company. He claimed that they’d promised to maintain it as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the benefit of humanity, only to later accept billions of dollars of investment from Microsoft and restructure the company to operate a for-profit subsidiary. This week, Brockman fired back with his side of the story,…

What’s next for IVF

What’s next for IVF Automation, AI, and screening technologies are already transforming reproductive medicine. MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series looks across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here. Forty-eight years ago this July, Louise Joy Brown became the world’s first person born with the help of in vitro fertilization. Millions more IVF babies have entered the world since then. And that’s partly thanks to advances in technology that have made IVF safer and more effective. But it’s still not perfect. The process can be slow, painful, and expensive—and that’s for the lucky people who are able to access it in the first place. And by at least one measure, IVF success rates have been declining in recent years. Reproduction is complex, and there’s a lot…

The balcony solar boom is coming to the US

The balcony solar boom is coming to the US Plug-in panels are getting popular—how do we make sure they’re safe? Dozens of US states are considering legislation to allow people to install plug-in solar systems, often called balcony solar. These small arrays require little to no setup and could help cut emissions and power bills. Balcony solar is already popular in Europe, and proponents say that the systems could make solar power more accessible for more people in the US, including renters. As popularity rises, though, some experts caution that there are safety concerns with how balcony solar would work with existing electrical equipment in homes. Let’s talk about what balcony solar is, why it’s unique, and how new testing requirements could affect our progress toward deploying the technology in the US. Plug-in solar systems are designed to be simple…

The Download: the tech reshaping IVF and the rise of balcony solar

The Download: the tech reshaping IVF and the rise of balcony solar Plus: After years of insults, Anthropic and SpaceX have teamed up. This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. What’s next for IVF IVF has brought millions of babies into the world over the last four decades. But the process can still be slow, painful, and expensive—and far from guaranteed to work. Now, a wave of new technologies aims to change that. Researchers are using AI to identify promising sperm and embryos, developing robotic systems that could automate parts of the IVF process, and even exploring controversial genetic editing techniques designed to prevent inherited disease. The technologies could make IVF more effective and accessible. But they’re also raising difficult ethical questions about…

The Download: seafloor science and military chatbots

The Download: seafloor science and military chatbots Plus: Elon Musk pushed OpenAI to go commercial, its president has testified. 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. Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining Last week, two oblong neon submersibles started to descend nearly 6,000 meters into the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the rest of May, they will map the seafloor in search of critical mineral deposits. If all goes well, the vehicles, built by Orpheus Ocean, could help scientists probe the vastly understudied deep sea—and the resources it holds—at a fraction of the cost of existing systems. But the same submersibles are also attracting deep-sea mining companies, raising concerns about environmental impacts. Find out why they’re drawing so much attention. —Hannah Richter The…

A blueprint for using AI to strengthen democracy

A blueprint for using AI to strengthen democracy AI is changing what it means to be a democratic citizen. Here’s how we can harness it for good. Every few centuries, changes in how information moves reshape how societies govern themselves. The printing press spread vernacular literacy, helping give rise to the Reformation and, eventually, representative government. The telegraph made it possible to administer vast nations like the US, accelerating the growth of the modern bureaucratic state. Broadcast media created shared national audiences, which in turn fueled mass democracy. We are now in the early stages of another such shift. Faster than many realize, AI is becoming the primary interface through which we form beliefs and participate in democratic self-governance. If left unchecked, this shift could further strain America’s already fragile institutions. But it could also help address long-standing problems, like…

The Download: inside the Musk v. Altman trial, and AI for democracy

The Download: inside the Musk v. Altman trial, and AI for democracy Plus: The Pentagon has struck sweeping AI deals for classified work. 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. Week one of the Musk v. Altman trial: what it was like in the room Two of the most powerful figures in AI—Sam Altman and Elon Musk—are in the middle of a landmark legal showdown, with Musk alleging he was misled about OpenAI becoming a for-profit company. Our reporter Michelle Kim, who also happens to be a lawyer, has been in court each day, and has broken down the first week’s key moments in her latest report. In a new Q&A, she also reveals what it was like in the room, the new…

Tailoring AI solutions for health care needs

Sponsored Tailoring AI solutions for health care needs By tapping into sector-specific data and expertise, developers can build AI applications that address some of health care’s biggest challenges. In partnership withMayo Clinic Platform The AI market is full of big promises of grand transformation. Health care is a prime target for those promises, beset as it is by financial pressures, labor shortages, and the growing burden of caring for an aging population. AI developers are targeting functions that vary widely, from curing cancer and performing surgery to streamlining routine administrative tasks. The opportunity is genuine, but execution can be difficult. Numerous software vendors have tried to “fix” health care challenges but failed because they misunderstood the environment. “Health care is very complex,” says Steve Bethke, vice president of the solution developer market for Mayo Clinic Platform, which supports the buildout…

Week one of the Musk v. Altman trial: What it was like in the room

Week one of the Musk v. Altman trial: What it was like in the room Here’s what we learned from Elon Musk’s testimony, and what to expect this week. This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Two of the most powerful people in AI—Sam Altman and Elon Musk—began their face-off in court in Oakland, California, last week. Musk is suing OpenAI, alleging that the millions he spent to fund it around a decade ago were meant for a nonprofit, not a corporation, and that the company has reneged on that mission since. The stakes are high—even a partial win for Musk could set OpenAI back as it reportedly plans to go public this year. But most of the attention comes from the spectacle…

Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining

Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining A company called Orpheus Ocean wants to go “deep for cheap.” Smack dab between Australia and South America, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research vessel Rainier is currently on a mission to map more than 8,000 square nautical miles of the Pacific seafloor in search of critical mineral deposits. But it isn’t doing it alone; for a month starting this week, it will deploy two oblong neon submersibles as the project’s special agents, sending them nearly 6,000 meters down to hop along the seafloor. The submersibles, built by the young company Orpheus Ocean, are designed to explore just this environment: a squelchy substrate that teems with life of all kinds, from tiny microbes to worms and snails, along with egg-size “nodules” of metals—such as copper, cobalt, nickel, and manganese—that…

A new US phone network for Christians aims to block porn and gender-related content

A new US phone network for Christians aims to block porn and gender-related content Launching next week on T-Mobile's network, the cell plan takes a nuclear approach to online safety. A new US-wide cell phone network marketed to Christians is set to launch next week. It blocks porn, which experts in network security say marks the first time a US cell plan has used network-level blocking for such content that can’t be turned off even by adult account owners. It’s also rolling out a filter on sexual content aimed at blocking material related to gender and trans issues, which will be optional but turned on by default across all plans. The network, which is currently being tested ahead of its May 5 launch date, will be run by Radiant Mobile, a newly launched mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). These operators…

Trump’s mass firing just dealt another blow to American science

Trump’s mass firing just dealt another blow to American science Ambitious research is on the chopping block following yet more cuts at the National Science Foundation. This past week delivered another gut punch for science in the US. This time, the target was the National Science Foundation—a federal agency that funds major research projects to the tune of around $9 billion. The foundation’s efforts were overseen by a board of 22 prominent scientists. On Friday last week, they were all fired. The NSF has been without a director since April 2025, when former director Sethuraman Panchanathan stepped down in the wake of DOGE-led funding cuts and mass firings. Trump’s nominee for the role is Jim O’Neill, an investor and longevity enthusiast who does not have a science background. It’s hard to predict exactly how things will shake out for science.…

The Download: a new Christian phone network, and debugging LLMs

The Download: a new Christian phone network, and debugging LLMs Plus: Elon Musk has admitted that xAI trained Grok on OpenAI models. 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 US phone network for Christians aims to block porn and gender-related content A new US-wide cell phone network marketed to Christians is set to launch next week. It blocks porn using network-level controls that can’t be turned off—even by adult account owners. It’s also rolling out a filter on sexual content aimed at blocking material related to gender and trans issues, optional but turned on by default across all plans. The trouble is, many websites don’t fit neatly into one category. That leaves its maverick founder with broad, subjective control over what…

Operationalizing AI for Scale and Sovereignty

Sponsored Operationalizing AI for Scale and Sovereignty Companies are taking control of their own data to tailor AI for their needs. The challenge lies in balancing ownership with the safe, trusted flow of high‑quality data needed to power reliable insights. This conversation from MIT Technology Review's EmTech AI conference examines how AI factories unlock new levels of scale, sustainability, and governance—positioning data control as a strategic imperative for governments and enterprises. About the speakers Chris Davidson, Vice President, HPC & AI Customer Solutions, HPE Chris Davidson is Vice President of HPC & AI Customer Solutions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He leads HPE’s global strategy for AI Factory solutions and Sovereign AI, working with governments, enterprises, and research institutions to build secure, scalable national- and enterprise-grade AI capabilities. He also directs Product Management and Performance Engineering across HPE’s HPC and AI…

Cyber-Insecurity in the AI Era

Sponsored Cyber-Insecurity in the AI Era Presented byGC Cybersecurity Cybersecurity was already under strain before AI entered the stack. Now, as AI expands the attack surface and adds new complexity, the limits of legacy approaches are becoming harder to ignore. This session from MIT Technology Review's EmTech AI conference explores why security must be rethought with AI at its core, not layered on after the fact. About the speaker Tarique Mustafa, Cofounder, CEO, and CTO, GC Cybersecurity Tarique Mustafa is Cofounder and CEO/CTO of two AI-powered cybersecurity companies: GCCybersecurity, Inc. and its data compliance spinout, Chorology, Inc. A prolific inventor and internationally recognized authority in knowledge representation, inference calculus, and AI planning, Tarique has spent his career applying autonomously collaborative AI to solve complex, ultra-high-scale challenges across cybersecurity, data security, and compliance — with deep expertise spanning Data Classification, DLP,…

Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models

Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models Musk kept his cool, and OpenAI’s lawyer bulldozed him with piercing questions about his motivations for suing the company. In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned that AI could destroy us all and sat through revelations that he had poached OpenAI employees for his own companies. He even confessed, to some audible gasps in the courtroom, that his own AI company, xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, uses OpenAI’s models to train its own. The federal…

The Download: the North Pole’s future and humanoid data

The Download: the North Pole’s future and humanoid data Plus: Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have all set AI spending records. 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. Digging for clues about the North Pole’s past In the past, getting to the North Pole involved a treacherous trip through ice many meters thick. But last year, a research vessel encountered open water and thin ice, which created an easy passage. It provided a reminder of how quickly the Arctic is changing. Now scientists are digging deep below the seabed to find out if the Arctic Ocean was ever ice-free—and what that could mean for the future of Earth’s northernmost waters. Here’s what they hope to discover. —Tim Kalvelage This story is from the…

This startup’s new mechanistic interpretability tool lets you debug LLMs

This startup’s new mechanistic interpretability tool lets you debug LLMs Goodfire wants to make training AI models more like good old-fashioned software engineering. The San Francisco–based startup Goodfire just released a new tool, called Silico, that lets researchers and engineers peer inside an AI model and adjust its parameters—the settings that determine a model’s behavior—during training. This could give model makers more fine-grained control over how this technology is built than was once thought possible. Goodfire claims Silico is the first off-the-shelf tool of its kind that can help developers debug all stages of the development process, from building a data set to training a model. The company says its mission is to make building AI models less like alchemy and more like a science. Sure, LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini can do amazing things. But nobody knows exactly how…

Exclusive eBook: Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones

Exclusive eBook: Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones Access a subscriber-only eBook on a startling and fairly graphic pursuit of human longevity that poses concerns about the ethics of cloning. This ebook is available only for subscribers. The ultimate plan to live forever is a brand new body. This subscriber-only eBook explores R3 Bio, a small startup that has pitched a startling and ethically charged vision for "brainless clones" to serve the role of backup human bodies. by Antonio Regalado March 20, 2026 Related Stories: - Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones - This researcher wants to replace your brain, little by little - Stem-cell therapies that work: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2025 Access all subscriber-only eBooks: Keep Reading Most Popular OpenAI is throwing everything into building a fully automated researcher An exclusive conversation with…

It’s time to make a plan for nuclear waste

It’s time to make a plan for nuclear waste With growing interest in nuclear power, handling waste should be part of the deal. Today, nuclear energy enjoys a rare moment of support across the political spectrum in the US. Interest from tech companies that are scrambling to meet demand for massive data centers has sparked a resurgence of money and attention in the industry. That newfound interest is exactly why it’s time to talk about an old problem: nuclear waste. In the US alone, nuclear reactors produce about 2,000 metric tons of high-level waste each year. And there’s nowhere to put it. Though newly popular, the nuclear program in the US is nothing new. The US hosts more reactors and production capacity than any other country in the world. And yet nearly seven decades after the first permanent nuclear facility…

The Download: storing nuclear waste and orchestrating agents

The Download: storing nuclear waste and orchestrating agents Plus: Elon Musk says Sam Altman “stole a charity” at the OpenAI trial. 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. It’s time to make a plan for nuclear waste Today, nuclear energy enjoys rare support across the political spectrum. Public approval has spiked, and Big Tech is throwing money around to meet rising electricity demand. That newfound interest is exactly why it’s time to talk about an old problem: nuclear waste. In the US, nuclear reactors produce about 2,000 metric tons of high-level waste each year—and there’s nowhere to put it. Now, the need for a permanent storage solution is becoming urgent. Here’s what’s at stake. —Casey Crownhart This article is from The Spark, MIT…

The Download: Musk and Altman’s legal showdown, and AI’s profit problem

The Download: Musk and Altman’s legal showdown, and AI’s profit problem Plus: OpenAI has ended its exclusive partnership with Microsoft. 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. Elon Musk and Sam Altman are going to court over OpenAI’s future Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman head to trial this week in a case with sweeping consequences. Ahead of OpenAI’s IPO, the court could rule on whether the company can exist as a for-profit enterprise. It could even oust its leadership. Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, claims he was deceived into bankrolling the firm under false pretenses. He’s seeking $134 billion in damages, the removal of Altman and president Greg Brockman, and the company’s restoration to a non-profit. Find out how the trial could…

Rebuilding the data stack for AI

Sponsored Rebuilding the data stack for AI Enterprise AI hinges on high-accuracy outputs, requiring better data context, unified architectures, and rigorous measurement frameworks, says Bavesh Patel, senior vice president at Databricks, and Rajan Padmanabhan, unit technology officer at Infosys. In partnership withInfosys Topaz Artificial intelligence may be dominating boardroom agendas, but many enterprises are discovering that the biggest obstacle to meaningful adoption is the state of their data. While consumer-facing AI tools have dazzled users with speed and ease, enterprise leaders are discovering that deploying AI at scale requires something far less glamorous but far more consequential: data infrastructure that is unified, governed, and fit for purpose. That gap between AI ambition and enterprise readiness is becoming one of the defining challenges of this next phase of digital transformation. As Bavesh Patel, senior vice president of Databricks, puts it, “the…

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are going to court over OpenAI’s future

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are going to court over OpenAI’s future Elon Musk says he’s suing to save the company’s mission. The case could have huge consequences for OpenAI and the AI race. After a yearslong legal feud, Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are heading to trial this week in Northern California in a case that could have sweeping consequences. Ahead of OpenAI’s highly anticipated IPO, the court could rule on whether the company is allowed to exist as a for-profit enterprise and might even oust its current executive leadership, including Altman. Musk is suing OpenAI, alleging that Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman deceived him into bankrolling the company in its early days by promising to maintain it as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI that benefits humanity, only to later restructure the company to operate…

The missing step between hype and profit

The missing step between hype and profit Coding aside, even the best AI systems struggle to be economically viable in the workplace. What happens then? This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. In February, I picked up a flyer at an anti-AI march in London. I can’t say for sure whether or not its writers meant to riff on South Park’s underpants gnomes. But if they did, they nailed it: “Step 1: Grow a digital super mind,” it read. “Step 2: ? Step 3: ?” Produced by Pause AI, an international activist group that co-organized the protest, it ended with this plea to the reader: “Pause AI until we know what the hell Step 2 is.” In the South Park episode “Gnomes,” which…

The Download: DeepSeek’s latest AI breakthrough, and the race to build world models

The Download: DeepSeek’s latest AI breakthrough, and the race to build world models Plus: China has blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of AI startup Manus. This is today's edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Three reasons why DeepSeek’s new model matters On Friday, Chinese AI firm DeepSeek released a preview of V4, its long-awaited new flagship model. Notably, the model can process much longer prompts than its last generation, thanks to a new design that handles large amounts of text more efficiently. While the model remains open source, its performance matches leading closed-source rivals from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. It is also DeepSeek’s first release optimized Huawei’s Ascend chips—a key test of China’s dependence on Nvidia. Here are three ways V4 could shake up AI.…

Three reasons why DeepSeek’s new model matters

Three reasons why DeepSeek’s new model matters The long-awaited V4 is more efficient and a win for Chinese chipmakers. On Friday, Chinese AI firm DeepSeek released a preview of V4, its long-awaited new flagship model. Notably, the model can process much longer prompts than its last generation, thanks to a new design that helps it handle large amounts of text more efficiently. Like DeepSeek’s previous models, V4 is open source, meaning it is available for anyone to download, use, and modify. V4 marks DeepSeek’s most significant release since R1, the reasoning model it launched in January 2025. R1, which was trained on limited computing resources, stunned the global AI industry with its strong performance and efficiency, turning DeepSeek from a little-known research team into China’s best-known AI company almost overnight. It also helped set off a wave of open-weight model…

Health-care AI is here. We don’t know if it actually helps patients.

Health-care AI is here. We don’t know if it actually helps patients. The tools may be accurate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll improve health outcomes. I don’t need to tell you that AI is everywhere. Or that it is being used, increasingly, in hospitals. Doctors are using AI to help them with notetaking. AI-based tools are trawling through patient records, flagging people who may require certain support or treatments. They are also used to interpret medical exam results and X-rays. A growing number of studies suggest that many of these tools can deliver accurate results. But there’s a bigger question here: Does using them actually translate into better health outcomes for patients? We don’t yet have a good answer. That’s what Jenna Wiens, a computer scientist at the University of Michigan, and Anna Goldenberg of the University of Toronto,…

The Download: supercharged scams and studying AI healthcare

The Download: supercharged scams and studying AI healthcare Plus: DeepSeek has unveiled its long-awaited new AI model. 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 in a new era of AI-driven scams When ChatGPT was released in late 2022, it showed how easily generative AI could create human-like text. This quickly caught the eye of cybercriminals, who began using LLMs to compose malicious emails. Since then, they’ve adopted AI for everything from turbocharged phishing and hyperrealistic deepfakes to automated vulnerability scans. Many organizations are now struggling to cope with the sheer volume of cyberattacks. AI is making them faster, cheaper, and easier to carry out, a problem set to worsen as more cybercriminals adopt these tools—and their capabilities improve. Read the full story…

Will fusion power get cheap? Don’t count on it.

Will fusion power get cheap? Don’t count on it. New research suggests that cost declines could be slow for the technology. Fusion power could provide a steady, zero-emissions source of electricity in the future—if companies can get plants built and running. But a new study suggests that even if that future arrives, it might not come cheap. Technologies tend to get less expensive over time. Lithium-ion batteries are now about 90% cheaper than they were in 2013. But historically, different technologies tend to go through this curve at different rates. And the cost of fusion might not sink as quickly as the prices of batteries or solar. It’s tricky to make any predictions about the cost of a technology that doesn’t exist yet. But when there’s billions of dollars of public and private funding on the line, it’s worth considering…

The Download: introducing the Nature issue

The Download: introducing the Nature issue Plus: Trump signaled he’s open to reversing the Anthropic ban. 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 Nature issue When we talk about “nature,” we usually mean something untouched by humans. But little of that world exists today. From microplastics in rainforest wildlife to artificial light in the Arctic Ocean, human influence now reaches every corner of Earth. In this context, what even is nature? And should we employ technology to try to make the world more “natural”? In our new Nature issue, MIT Technology Review grapples with these questions. We investigate birds that can’t sing, wolves that aren’t wolves, and grass that isn’t grass. We look for the meaning of life under Arctic ice,…

There is no nature anymore

There is no nature anymore No part of the globe is free of human fingerprints. Should we deploy technology to change it back? When people talk about “nature,” they’re generally talking about things that aren’t made by human beings. Rocks. Reefs. Red wolves. But while there is plenty of God’s creation to go around, it is hard to think of anything on Earth that human hands haven’t affected. In the Brazilian rainforest, scientists have found microplastics in the bellies of animals ranging from red howler monkeys to manatees. In remotest Yakutia, where much of the earth remains untrodden by human feet, the carbon in the sky above melts the permafrost below. In the Arctic Ocean, artificial light from ship traffic—on the rise as the polar ice cap melts away—now disrupts the nightly journey of zooplankton to the ocean surface, one…

One town’s scheme to get rid of its geese

One town’s scheme to get rid of its geese Public officials in one California burgh spent nearly $400,000 on tech to flush out waterfowl. “Pull over!” I order my brother one sunny February afternoon. Our target is in sight: a gaggle of Canada geese, pecking at grass near the dog park. As I approach, tiptoeing over their grayish-white poop, I notice that one bird wears a white cuff around its slender black neck. It’s a GPS tracker—part of a new tech-centered campaign to drive the geese out of my hometown of Foster City, California. About 300 geese live in this sleepy Bay Area suburb, equal to nearly 1% of our human population—and some say this town isn’t big enough for the both of us. Goose poop notoriously blanketed our middle school’s lawn, and the birds have hassled residents for generations.…

3 things Michelle Kim is into right now

3 things Michelle Kim is into right now MIT Technology Review’s editorial fellow shares what she’s been thinking about lately. Isegye Idol If you thought K-pop was weird, virtual idols—humans who perform as anime-style digital characters via motion capture—will blow your mind. My favorite is a girl group called Isegye Idol, created by Woowakgood, a Korean VTuber (a streamer who likewise performs as a digital persona). Isegye Idol’s six members are anonymous, which seems to let them deploy a rare breed of honesty and humor. They play games (League of Legends, Go, Minecraft), chitchat, and perform kitschy music that’s somewhere between anime soundtrack and video-game score. It’s very DIY—and very intimate. And the group’s wild popularity speaks to the mood of Gen Z South Koreans, famously lonely and culturally adrift—struggling to find work, giving up on dating, trying to find…

AI needs a strong data fabric to deliver business value

Sponsored AI needs a strong data fabric to deliver business value A modern data fabric makes it possible to turn existing enterprise knowledge into a trusted foundation for AI. In partnership withSAP Artificial intelligence is moving quickly in the enterprise, from experimentation to everyday use. Organizations are deploying copilots, agents, and predictive systems across finance, supply chains, human resources, and customer operations. By the end of 2025, half of companies used AI in at least three business functions, according to a recent survey. But as AI becomes embedded in core workflows, business leaders are discovering that the biggest obstacle is not model performance or computing power but the quality and the context of the data on which those systems rely. AI essentially introduces a new requirement: Systems must not only access data — they must understand the business context behind…

The Download: introducing the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now

The Download: introducing the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now Plus: An unauthorized group has reportedly accessed Anthropic’s Mythos. 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: 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now What actually matters in AI right now? It’s getting harder to tell amid the constant launches, hype, and warnings. To cut through the noise, MIT Technology Review’s reporters and editors have distilled years of analysis into a new essential guide: the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now. The list builds on our annual 10 Breakthrough Technologies, but takes a wider view of the ideas, topics, and research shaping AI, spotlighting the trends and breakthroughs shaping the world. We’ll be unpacking one item from the…