Technology

How ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy

August 7, 2026
This article was produced in partnership with Type Investigations, with support from the Wayne Barrett Project. One morning in April 2025, employees of a small office in the US State Department got the email many of them had been dreading.  For months, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had been cutting a wide swath through…

The Download: Google’s AI shake-up and Meta’s rogue model

August 6, 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. Google’s AI empire is being reshaped. Here’s what’s changed. After a wave of painful losses in the tech talent wars, delays to its next flagship model, and murmurings of poor morale,…

Puzzle Corner

August 5, 2026
Ready for a fresh set of puzzles? Click here for the September/October 2026 Puzzle Corner, brought to you by Michael S. Branicky, ScD ’95, of the Puzzle Corner Puzzle Crew (aka PC2), which also includes Edward Faulkner ’03, MEng ’04, and Abe Kunin ’03. This column includes solutions to the May/June issue. Send problems, solutions (by October…

Anthropic is hiring an AI chip design team

August 5, 2026
Anthropic is building a team for designing its own custom AI chips. The Claude-maker said it would co-design hardware and models to help its technology run faster and more efficiently.

The Download: NASA’s new telescope and Chinese tech import curbs

August 5, 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. NASA’s new dark energy space telescope can also detect killer asteroids   At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space…

NASA’s new dark energy space telescope can also detect killer asteroids

August 5, 2026
At the end of August, NASA is set to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its quest is to help us better understand how the universe works, from the glue-like dark matter that keeps galaxies together to the elusive dark energy that drives the expansion of the cosmos.…

The Download: US robot restrictions, and ICE’s DNA grab

August 4, 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. Trump’s AI protectionism has come for robotics   —James O’Donnell  Humanoid robots usually elicit more cringe than awe: They stumble, kick children, and despite advances are still worse at using their hands than my toddler. It’s…