Technology

Montana’s plan to become an experimental medical hub just pushed forward

July 30, 2026
As of this week in Montana, any biotech company with an experimental drug has a clear path to selling it to consumers. Companies whose drugs have been through preliminary testing—sometimes in as few as 10 healthy people—can pay $12,500 to apply to a newly established review board for approval. Once its treatment is rubber-stamped, the…

The Download: tricking LLMs, and reviving geothermal plants

July 30, 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. A fundamental flaw leaves LLMs strikingly vulnerable to attack  It is impossible to make large language models fully secure against hacks because of a fundamental flaw in how they work, a…

A fundamental flaw leaves LLMs strikingly vulnerable to attack

July 30, 2026
It is impossible to make large language models fully secure against hacks because of a fundamental flaw in how they work, a team of researchers argue in a paper presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning, a top AI conference, this month. The claim has huge implications for the safety of this technology, which…

How an overlooked geothermal plant got a second chance

July 29, 2026
In June 2024, a small company called Zanskar purchased a geothermal power plant in New Mexico that was failing fast. The water coming from the underground reservoir was getting colder by the day, making the plant uneconomical to run. Now, two years later, that plant is running at full capacity again, thanks to a new…

The Download: a chip talent battle, and deflating AI hype

July 29, 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. Samsung’s chip workers are jumping ship to rival SK Hynix   Lee, an engineer at Samsung’s semiconductor division, used to work late. But lately, he’s been clocking out on time and heading…

The AI Hype Index: Unsexy AI

July 29, 2026
It feels bad enough when an open letter signed by leading economists warns that AI might steal your job. The fact it may soon be better than you at making dinner? Insult to injury. But that’s exactly what the company 1X promised when it showed off a pair of new, impressively dexterous (and, to some,…

The Download: OpenAI’s predictable hack, and an AI stock sell-off

July 28, 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. OpenAI called the Hugging Face attack unprecedented. But we’ve been here before.  —Will Douglas Heaven, senior AI editor Reading OpenAI’s account last week of how some of its models broke their…