MIT Technology Review

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 a new extraction process could unlock the world's lithium A new method for extracting lithium could cut costs and emissions from one of the world's most important materials for EVs...

The alert was raised on May 5. Four health-care workers in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had died from an unknown illness within four days. Rapid response teams were sent to investigate, and tests at a research center in Kinshasa revealed the culprit: the Bundibugyo virus, one of the viruses...

Pope Leo XIV's new encyclical on artificial intelligence includes a statement that warrants serious attention from technologists and policymakers: Technology is never neutral." Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity") is a clarion call to all people to act with courage and solidarity as we enter an age already being transformed by artificial intelligence, the greatest change in...

Researchers say they've found a new way to extract lithium, a crucial metal used in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and energy storage arrays. This new technique could be more environmentally friendly and cheaper than existing ones. The research was published today in Science, and a startup called Rock Zero is working to...

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. Climate tech companies are going public. What's next? Solar and battery company Solv Energy went public in February, hitting a $6 billion valuation. X-energy, which builds small modular nuclear reactors, followed...

This year, there's been a wave of notable energy companies going public via IPO in the US. The solar and battery company Solv Energy went public in February, to the tune of $6 billion. X-energy, which is building small modular nuclear reactors, did the same in April, and its stocks surged on its first day...

It is one thing to say AI will change the world. It is another to expect the class of 2026 to applaud it. In fact, when former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told University of Arizona graduates that their task is to help shape AI, he was met with a resounding chorus of boos. I can...

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. Stay on top of what's going on in AI this summer Here at MIT Technology Review, we understand exactly how relentless the pace of news from the world of artificial intelligence...

Amid rapidly growing adoption of enterprise-level AI agents, there's a disconnect emerging between ambition and execution. Although 85% of organizations say they want to be agentic within the next three years, 76% say their current operations and infrastructure can't support that change. They cite a lack of readiness across people, processes, and workflows. The sticky...

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 reality check on the AI jobs hysteria Despite the growing hysteria over AI's threat to white-collar jobs, there's still scant evidence that the technology has had a large-scale impact on...

Haven't you heard? White-collar jobs are going away, decimated by AI. Waves of layoffs in the tech sector (most recently at Coinbase and Meta and Cisco) are said to presage what will soon come for all of us knowledge workers. But before you quit your job as a software developer or financial analyst-or tech journalist-and...

Artificial intelligence has not so far produced a clean story of mass unemployment. Aggregate employment in developed countries remains broadly stable, and recent assessments have found limited evidence that AI has shifted the headline numbers. But a troubling change may be hiding beneath the surface: the quiet weakening of the first rung of the career...

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. Anthropic's Code with Claude showed off coding's future-whether you like it or not At Anthropic's developer event in London this week, Code with Claude, attendees were asked if they'd shipped code...

During Tuesday's Google I/O keynote, Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, proclaimed that we are currently standing in the foothills of the singularity." It was a striking statement-the singularity is the theoretical future moment when AI rapidly exceeds human intelligence and dramatically transforms the world. But what struck me as I listened in the...

This Sunday, a group of 42 athletes will gather in Las Vegas to compete in a somewhat unusual sporting competition. Participants in the inaugural Enhanced Games are being encouraged to take performance-enhancing drugs. Thegoal is to push the boundaries of human performance." The games' organizers have said that competitors will only be taking substances that...

Listen to the session or watch below AI companies want to build systems that understand the external world and overcome the limitations of LLMs. Recent developments have brought world models to the forefront of the AI discussion. Watch a conversation with editor in chief Mat Honan, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and AI reporter...

Storytelling is core to humanity's DNA, stemming from our impulse to express ideals, warnings, hopes, and experiences. Technology has always been woven through the medium and the distribution: from early humans' innovation of natural pigments and charcoals for cave paintings to literal representation by the camera. The landscape of storytelling continues to shift under our...

The vibes were strong at Code with Claude, Anthropic's two-day event for software developers in London that kicked off on May 19, the same day as Google's I/O in Palo Alto. (A coincidence, not a flex, Anthropic staffers assured me.) Who here has shipped a pull request in the last week that was completely written...

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. Tech researchers are suing the Trump administration over the future of online safety For months, the Trump administration has been going after researchers who study and try to counter hate speech,...

We're over a year into the second Trump administration here in the US, and support for climate causes is weak. But climate tech companies are finding ways to survive and even thrive in this new environment, including by focusing on potential benefits outside decarbonization. Suddenly, it feels like every climate tech company has a story...

Since its earliest days back in office, the Trump administration has been going after researchers who study and try to counter hate speech, harassment, propaganda, and disinformation online. Now, some of those researchers are fighting back. Last week their lawsuit-which could have global repercussions for online safety and free speech-made its first appearance in court....

The startup Boston Metal has raised a $75 million funding round to produce critical metals, MIT Technology Review can exclusively report. The company has been known largely for its efforts to clean up steel production, an industry that's responsible for about 8% of global greenhouse emissions today. With the additional money, the new focus could...

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. Colossal Biosciences is growing chickens in a 3D-printed artificial eggshell The baby chicks were shifting and starting to pip-or trying to hatch. But not from an egg. Instead, these chickens were...

Listen to the session or watch below Elon Musk lost his suit against OpenAI, in which he alleged CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman had deceived him over the company's non-profit status. Watch as AI reporter and attorney Michelle Kim, who covered the trial for MIT Technology Review, joins in conversation with editor in...

Throughout 2025, HPE observed significant changes in how cybercriminals operate. Analyzing real-world threats, our HPE Threat Labs highlighted an industrialization of the cyber criminals' methods in its new In the Wild Report, enabling greater scale, speed and structure in their campaigns. They typically use automation and AI to exploit longstanding vulnerabilities, and many have adopted...

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 why Elon Musk lost his suit against OpenAI Elon Musk has lost his lawsuit against OpenAI, which centered on whether the company breached its founding contract as a nonprofit. A...

The baby chicks were shifting and starting to pip-or trying to hatch. But not from an egg. Instead, these chickens were growing inside transparent 3D-printed plastic cups at the Dallas headquarters of Colossal Biosciences. The biotech company today claimed it has developed a fully artificial egg" as part of its effort to resurrect extinct avian...

On Monday, the jury in Musk v. Altman dealt Elon Musk a major blow-reaching a unanimous advisory verdict that he had sued OpenAI too late and, as a result, his claims are barred by the applicable statutes of limitations. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers immediately accepted it. Musk announced on X that he will...

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first,sign up here. When Google opens its doors tomorrow for its annual developer conference, I/O, it will do so as a clear third place in the foundation model race. A year ago, at Google I/O...

The defense-tech company Anduril has shared new details about the augmented-reality headset for the military it's prototyping with Meta, including a vision for ordering drone strikes via eye-tracking and voice commands. Quay Barnett, who leads the efforts as a vice president at Anduril following a career in the Army's Special Operations Command, says his fundamental...

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. Musk v. Altman week 3: Musk and Altman traded blows over each other's credibility. Now the jury will pick a side. In the final week of the Musk v. Altman trial,...

Update: On Monday May 18, the jury sided with OpenAI, delivering an advisory verdict finding that Musk's claims are barred by the statute of limitations. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accepted the verdict. In the final week of the Musk v. Altman trial, lawyers traded blows over Elon Musk's and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's...

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 Chinese short dramas became AI content machines China's short drama industry is fueled by bite-sized, melodramatic, and smutty shows built for smartphone scrolling. Now, many are being made entirely with...

Every year the World Health Organization publishes a global health statistics report. It features the numbers behind world health trends and, importantly, assesses whether we're on track to reach ambitious goals set in 2015. It's a bit like a health grade. The 2026 report was published on Wednesday. And the results aren't looking brilliant. While...

In a dimly lit bedroom, a frightened young woman is thrown onto a bed by a tall, muscular man. He grabs her hand, and flame-like vines crawl across her body, fusing with her flesh. She levitates, then drops. A dragon-shaped tattoo appears across her chest. Two months," the man says. Give me an heir, or...

Financial services companies have unique needs when it comes to business AI. They operate in one of the most highly regulated sectors while responding to external events that are updated by the second. As a result, the success of agentic AI in financial services depends less on the sophistication of the system and more on...

When generative AI first moved from research labs into real-world business applications, enterprises made a tacit bargain: Capability now, control later." Feed your proprietary data into third-party AI models, and you will get powerful results. But your data passes through systems you do not own, under governance you do not set. The protections you rely...

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 shock of seeing your body used in deepfake porn When Jennifer got a research job in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted...

The Tesla Semi has officially arrived. The company recently released a photo of the first vehicle rolling off its new full-scale production line. This moment has been nearly a decade in the making: The company first announced the truck in late 2017. And now we've got final battery specs, official prices, and big news about...

When Jennifer got a job doing research for a nonprofit in 2023, she ran her new professional headshot through a facial recognition program. She wanted to see if the tech would pull up the porn videos she'd made more than 10 years before, when she was in her early 20s. It did in fact return...

A Redditor recently wrote that he was desperate for help": for about a month, he said, his phone had been inundated by calls from strangers" who were looking for a lawyer, a product designer, a locksmith." Callers were apparently misdirected by Google's generative AI. In March, a software developer in Israel was contacted on WhatsApp...

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...

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...

World models recently made our list of10 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 reportersfor a subscriber-only Roundtables discussion, Can AI Learn to Understand the World?" exploring how AI may evolve to...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...