August 7, 2026

The Download: a censorship conspiracy theory and the first virus created by AI

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 ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy For years, narratives about a “censorship-industrial complex” spread in right-wing circles. The theory claimed that, under…

Technology

Trump’s AI protectionism has come for robotics

August 3, 2026
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. 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 a nascent industry, and such robots…

The Download: reward hacking explained, and suspected Iranian cyberattacks

August 3, 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. Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals When two OpenAI models hacked into Hugging Face last month, they weren’t trying to make money or commit sabotage—they were…

Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals

August 3, 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. When two OpenAI models hacked into the website Hugging Face in July, they weren’t trying to make money or commit sabotage—they were just looking for answers…

The Download: Montana’s new experimental drug rules

July 31, 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. Montana’s plan to become an experimental medical hub just pushed forward  As of this week in Montana, biotech companies whose drugs have been through preliminary testing—sometimes in as few as 10…

Montana’s new “right to try” law can’t come soon enough for some

July 31, 2026
Kris DeVault is desperate. His son, Brody, was born in March 2023. It wasn’t long before he started to show signs of developmental delay, says DeVault. As time went on, Brody started missing key milestones in speech, movement, and coordination, he says. When Brody was around two and a half years old, a genetic test…

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…