Technology

The Download: churches in the age of AI, and how to run an LLM at home

August 20, 2025
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 churches use data and AI as engines of surveillance On a Sunday morning in a Midwestern megachurch, worshippers step through sliding glass doors into a bustling lobby—unaware they’ve just passed through a…

Material Cultures looks to the past to build the future

August 20, 2025
Despite decades of green certifications, better material sourcing, and the use of more sustainable materials such as mass timber, the built environment is still responsible for a third of global emissions worldwide. According to a 2024 UN report, the building sector has fallen “significantly behind on progress” toward becoming more sustainable. Changing the way we…

The Download: clean energy progress, and OpenAI’s trilemma

August 19, 2025
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 to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states—blue and red alike —Joshua A. Basseches is the David and Jane Flowerree Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Public Policy at Tulane…

Apple AirPods : a gateway hearing aid

August 19, 2025
When the US Food and Drug Administration approved over-the-counter hearing-aid software for Apple’s AirPods Pro in September 2024, with a device price point right around $200, I was excited. I have mild to medium hearing loss and tinnitus, and my everyday programmed hearing aids cost just over $2,000—a lower-cost option I chose after my audiologist…

How churches use data and AI as engines of surveillance

August 19, 2025
On a Sunday morning in a Midwestern megachurch, worshippers step through sliding glass doors into a bustling lobby—unaware they’ve just passed through a gauntlet of biometric surveillance. High-speed cameras snap multiple face “probes” per second, isolating eyes, noses, and mouths before passing the results to a local neural network that distills these images into digital…

Should AI flatter us, fix us, or just inform us?

August 19, 2025
How do you want your AI to treat you?  It’s a serious question, and it’s one that Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has clearly been chewing on since GPT-5’s bumpy launch at the start of the month.  He faces a trilemma. Should ChatGPT flatter us, at the risk of fueling delusions that can spiral out of…

How to make clean energy progress under Trump in the states—blue and red alike

August 19, 2025
The second Trump administration is proving to be more disastrous for the climate and the clean energy economy than many had feared.  Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act repealed most of the clean energy incentives in former president Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Meanwhile, his EPA administrator moved to revoke the endangerment finding, the…

The Download: pigeons’ role in developing AI, and Native artists’ tech interpretations

August 18, 2025
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. Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs People looking for precursors to artificial intelligence often point to science fiction by authors like Isaac Asimov or thought experiments like the Turing test.…