October 30, 2025

The Download: Introducing: the new conspiracy age

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. Introducing: the new conspiracy age Everything is a conspiracy theory now. Conspiracists are all over the White House, turning fringe ideas into dangerous policy. America’s institutions are crumbling under the weight of deep…

Technology

Therapists are secretly using ChatGPT. Clients are triggered.

September 2, 2025
Declan would never have found out his therapist was using ChatGPT had it not been for a technical mishap. The connection was patchy during one of their online sessions, so Declan suggested they turn off their video feeds. Instead, his therapist began inadvertently sharing his screen. “Suddenly, I was watching him use ChatGPT,” says Declan,…

The Download: AI doppelgängers in the workplace, and using lidar to measure climate disasters

September 1, 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.  Can an AI doppelgänger help me do my job? —James O’Donnell Digital clones—AI models that replicate a specific person—package together a few technologies that have been around for a while now: hyperrealistic video…

Here’s how we picked this year’s Innovators Under 35

September 1, 2025
Next week, we’ll publish our 2025 list of Innovators Under 35, highlighting smart and talented people who are working in many areas of emerging technology. This new class features 35 accomplished founders, hardware engineers, roboticists, materials scientists, and others who are already tackling tough problems and making big moves in their careers. All are under…

The Download: humans in space, and India’s thorium ambitions

August 29, 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. The case against humans in space Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are bitter rivals in the commercial space race, but they agree on one thing: Settling space is an existential imperative. Space is…

This American nuclear company could help India’s thorium dream

August 29, 2025
For just the second time in nearly two decades, the United States has granted an export license to an American company planning to sell nuclear technology to India, MIT Technology Review has learned. The decision to greenlight Clean Core Thorium Energy’s license is a major step toward closer cooperation between the two countries on atomic…

RFK Jr’s plan to improve America’s diet is missing the point

August 29, 2025
A lot of Americans don’t eat well. And they’re paying for it with their health. A diet high in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat can increase the risk of problems like diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease, to name a few. And those are among the leading causes of death in the US. This is hardly…

The Download: Google’s AI energy use, and the AI Hype Index

August 28, 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. Google’s still not giving us the full picture on AI energy use  —Casey Crownhart Google just announced that a typical query to its Gemini app uses about 0.24 watt-hours of electricity. That’s about…

From pilot to scale: Making agentic AI work in health care

August 28, 2025
Over the past 20 years building advanced AI systems—from academic labs to enterprise deployments—I’ve witnessed AI’s waves of success rise and fall. My journey began during the “AI Winter,” when billions were invested in expert systems that ultimately underdelivered. Flash forward to today: large language models (LLMs) represent a quantum leap forward, but their prompt-based…