January 14, 2026

The Download: next-gen nuclear, and the data center backlash

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 next-generation nuclear reactors break out of the 20th-century blueprint   The popularity of commercial nuclear reactors has surged in recent years as worries about climate change and energy independence drowned out concerns about…

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Deploying a hybrid approach to Web3 in the AI era

January 7, 2026
When the concept of “Web 3.0” first emerged about a decade ago the idea was clear: Create a more user-controlled internet that lets you do everything you can now, except without servers or intermediaries to manage the flow of information. Where Web2, which emerged in the early 2000s, relies on centralized systems to store data…

The Download: war in Europe, and the company that wants to cool the planet

January 7, 2026
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. Europe’s drone-filled vision for the future of war Last spring, 3,000 British soldiers deployed an invisible automated intelligence network, known as a “digital targeting web,” as part of a NATO exercise called Hedgehog…

LLMs contain a LOT of parameters. But what’s a parameter?

January 7, 2026
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. I am writing this because one of my editors woke up in the middle of the night and scribbled on a bedside notepad: “What is a…

The man who made India digital isn’t done yet

January 7, 2026
Nandan Nilekani can’t stop trying to push India into the future. He started nearly 30 years ago, masterminding an ongoing experiment in technological state capacity that started with Aadhaar—the world’s largest digital identity system. Aadhaar means “foundation” in Hindi, and on that bedrock Nilekani and people working with him went on to build a sprawling…