July 3, 2025

The Download: AI agents hype, and Google’s electricity plans

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. Don’t let hype about AI agents get ahead of reality —Yoav Shoham is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and cofounder of AI21 Labs. At Google’s I/O 2025 event in May, the company…

Technology

The Download: thermal energy networks, and AI propaganda

October 4, 2023
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. Underground thermal energy networks are becoming crucial to the US’s energy future The news: Thirteen US states are now implementing underground thermal energy networks to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions as part of a…

Will These 3 Tech Stocks Be Wins in October?

October 4, 2023
The technology hardware industry is well-poised for significant growth and expansion, driven by growing digitalization across multiple sectors and the rapid adoption of emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and more….

E-sports are more popular than traditional sports in Asia

October 4, 2023
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. It was probably the highest-stakes mobile game match that’s ever been played. On the evening of September 26, 10 men from China and Malaysia sat on a stage in Hangzhou, China, each…

Underground thermal energy networks are becoming crucial to the US’s energy future

October 4, 2023
Thirteen US states are now implementing underground thermal energy networks to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions as part of a nationwide push to adopt cleaner energy sources. Thermal energy networks use pipe loops that connect multiple buildings and provide heating and cooling through water-source heat pumps. Geothermal heat is commonly used in these networks, but it…

How generative AI is boosting the spread of disinformation and propaganda

October 4, 2023
Artificial intelligence has turbocharged state efforts to crack down on internet freedoms over the past year.  Governments and political actors around the world, in both democracies and autocracies, are using AI to generate texts, images, and video to manipulate public opinion in their favor and to automatically censor critical online content. In a new report…

How an AI deepfake ad of MrBeast ended up on TikTok

October 3, 2023
AI deepfakes are getting so good that a fraudulent MrBeast ad slipped past TikTok’s ad moderation technology to end up on the platform. In the ad, the massively influential creator appeared to be offering 10,000 viewers an iPhone 15 Pro for just $2. In most cases, this would be a clear indication of a scam, […]

Turning medical data into actionable knowledge

October 3, 2023
Advances in imaging technologies are giving physicians unprecedented insights into disease states, but fragmented and siloed information technology systems make it difficult to provide the personalized, coordinated care that patients expect. In the field of medical imaging, health care providers began replacing radiographic films with digital images stored in a picture and archiving communication system…

The Download: Big Tech’s big AI bet, and crypto’s day in court

October 3, 2023
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 Big Tech’s bet on AI assistants is so risky Since the beginning of the generative AI boom, tech companies have been feverishly trying to come up with the killer app for the…

Why Big Tech’s bet on AI assistants is so risky

October 3, 2023
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Since the beginning of the generative AI boom, tech companies have been feverishly trying to come up with the killer app for the technology. First it was online search, with mixed results. Now…