October 15, 2025

The Download: Big Tech’s carbon removals plans, and the next wave of nuclear reactors

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. Big Tech’s big bet on a controversial carbon removal tactic Microsoft, JP MorganChase, and a tech company consortium that includes Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe have all recently struck multimillion-dollar deals to pay…

Technology

A pivotal meeting on vaccine guidance is underway—and former CDC leaders are alarmed

September 18, 2025
This week has been an eventful one for America’s public health agency. Two former leaders of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained the reasons for their sudden departures from the agency in a Senate hearing. And they described how CDC employees are being instructed to turn their backs on scientific evidence. The…

The Download: AI-designed viruses, and bad news for the hydrogen industry

September 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. AI-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria Artificial intelligence can draw cat pictures and write emails. Now the same technology can compose a working genome. A research team in California says it…

Clean hydrogen is facing a big reality check

September 18, 2025
Hydrogen is sometimes held up as a master key for the energy transition. It can be made using several low-emissions methods and could play a role in cleaning up industries ranging from agriculture and chemicals to aviation and long-distance shipping. This moment is a complicated one for the green fuel, though, as a new report…

AI-designed viruses are here and already killing bacteria

September 17, 2025
Artificial intelligence can draw cat pictures and write emails. Now, the same technology can compose a working genome. A research team in California says it used AI to propose new genetic codes for viruses—and managed to get several of these to replicate and kill bacteria. The scientists, based at Stanford University and the non-profit Arc…

The Download: measuring returns on R&D, and AI’s creative potential

September 17, 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 measure the returns on R&D spending Given the draconian cuts to US federal funding for science, it’s worth asking some hard-nosed money questions: How much should we be spending on R&D?…

How to measure the returns to R&D spending

September 17, 2025
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. Given the draconian cuts to US federal funding for science, including the administration’s proposal to reduce the 2026 budgets of the National Institutes of Health by…

De-risking investment in AI agents

September 16, 2025
Automation has become a defining force in the customer experience. Between the chatbots that answer our questions and the recommendation systems that shape our choices, AI-driven tools are now embedded in nearly every interaction. But the latest wave of so-called “agentic AI”—systems that can plan, act, and adapt toward a defined goal—promises to push automation…

The Download: regulators are coming for AI companions, and meet our Innovator of 2025

September 16, 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 looming crackdown on AI companionship As long as there has been AI, there have been people sounding alarms about what it might do to us: rogue superintelligence, mass unemployment, or environmental ruin.…

The looming crackdown on AI companionship

September 16, 2025
As long as there has been AI, there have been people sounding alarms about what it might do to us: rogue superintelligence, mass unemployment, or environmental ruin from data center sprawl. But this week showed that another threat entirely—that of kids forming unhealthy bonds with AI—is the one pulling AI safety out of the academic…