June 24, 2025

The Download: Namibia’s hydrogen hopes, and fixing AI evaluation

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. Namibia wants to build the world’s first hydrogen economy Factories have used fossil fuels to process iron ore for three centuries, and the climate has paid a heavy price: According to the International…

The Anthropocene illusion

June 24, 2025
Over six years and across four continents, the London-based documentary photographer Zed Nelson has examined how humans have immersed themselves in increasingly simulated environments to mask their destructive divorce from the natural world. Featuring everything from theme parks and zoos to national parks and African safaris, his images reveal not only a desperate craving for…

Namibia wants to build the world’s first hydrogen economy

June 24, 2025
On an afternoon in March in the middle of the world’s oldest desert, Johannes Michels looks out at an array of solar panels, the size of 40 football fields, that stretches toward a ridge of jagged peaks between the ochre-colored sand and a cloudless blue sky. Inside a building to Michels’s left sits a 12-megawatt…

Can we fix AI’s evaluation crisis?

June 24, 2025
As a tech reporter I often get asked questions like “Is DeepSeek actually better than ChatGPT?” or “Is the Anthropic model any good?” If I don’t feel like turning it into an hour-long seminar, I’ll usually give the diplomatic answer: “They’re both solid in different ways.” Most people asking aren’t defining “good” in any precise…

Google introduces AI mode to users in India

June 24, 2025
Google introduced its AI mode, a Q&A-style search tool, to users in India today. The company said that this tool is still in the experimental stage and users will need to opt in to it through Search Labs. Once a user has opted in, they can ask queries in English. Google didn’t specify whether it […]

Court filings reveal OpenAI and io’s early work on an AI device

June 23, 2025
Legal filings submitted earlier this month from lawyers representing OpenAI and Jony Ive’s io reveal new details about the companies’ efforts to build a mass-market AI hardware device. The filings are part of a trademark dispute lawsuit filed this month by iyO, a Google-backed hardware startup developing custom-molded earpieces that connect to other devices. Over […]