OpenAI acquires Promptfoo to secure its AI agents
This deal underscores how frontier labs are scrambling to prove their technology can be used safely in critical business operations.
Technology
The Download: The startup that says it can stop lightning, and inside OpenAI’s Pentagon deal
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. This startup claims it can stop lightning and prevent catastrophic wildfires Startup Skyward Wildfire says it can prevent catastrophic fires by stopping the lightning strikes that ignite them. So far, it hasn’t publicly…
This startup claims it can stop lightning and prevent catastrophic wildfires
On June 1, 2023, as a sweltering heat wave baked Quebec, thousands of lightning strikes flashed across the province, setting off more than 120 wildfires. The blazes ripped through parched forests and withered grasslands, burned for weeks, and compounded what was rapidly turning into Canada’s worst fire year on record. In the end, nearly 7,000…
OpenAI’s “compromise” with the Pentagon is what Anthropic feared
On February 28, OpenAI announced it had reached a deal that will allow the US military to use its technologies in classified settings. CEO Sam Altman said the negotiations, which the company began pursuing only after the Pentagon’s public reprimand of Anthropic, were “definitely rushed.” In its announcements, OpenAI took great pains to say that…
The Download: protesting AI, and what’s floating in space
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. I checked out one of the biggest anti-AI protests ever Pull the plug! Pull the plug! Stop the slop! Stop the slop! For a few hours this Saturday, February 28, I watched as…
I checked out one of the biggest anti-AI protests ever
Pull the plug! Pull the plug! Stop the slop! Stop the slop! For a few hours this Saturday, February 28, I watched as a couple hundred anti-AI protesters marched through London’s King’s Cross tech hub, home to the UK headquarters of OpenAI, Meta and Google DeepMind, chanting slogans and waving signs. The march was organized…
MIT Technology Review is a 2026 ASME finalist in reporting
The American Society of Magazine Editors has named MIT Technology Review as a finalist for a 2026 National Magazine Award in the reporting category. The shortlisted story—“We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard”—is part of the publication’s Power Hungry package on AI’s energy burden. AI is often described…
Employees at Google and OpenAI support Anthropic’s Pentagon stand in open letter
While Anthropic has an existing partnership with the Pentagon, the AI company has remained firm that its technology not be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weaponry.
Fast Food Giant Is Using AI to Make Sure Human Employees Say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’
Burger King is rolling out new technology to track employee politeness.
The Download: how AI is shaking up Go, and a cybersecurity mystery
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. AI is rewiring how the world’s best Go players think Ten years ago AlphaGo, Google DeepMind’s AI program, stunned the world by defeating the South Korean Go player Lee Sedol. And in the…