May 6, 2025

The Download: a longevity influencer’s new religion, and humanoid robots’ shortcomings

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. Bryan Johnson wants to start a new religion in which “the body is God” Bryan Johnson is on a mission to not die. The 47-year-old multimillionaire has already applied his slogan “Don’t Die”…

Intel reportedly plans to lay off over 21,000 employees

April 23, 2025
Intel is set to cut over 21,000 people, or roughly 20% of its workforce, with an announcement due this week, according to a Bloomberg report.  The news comes ahead of Intel’s Q1 earnings call helmed by recently appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who replaced longtime chief Pat Gelsinger last year.  With the layoffs, Tan aims to […]

Meta’s Oversight Board seeks details on the company’s new hate speech policies

April 23, 2025
Meta’s Oversight Board, the independent group created to help Meta with content moderation decisions, on Tuesday issued its response to the social media company’s new hate speech policies announced in January. The Board says that Meta’s new policies were “announced hastily, in a departure from regular procedure,” and called on the company to provide more […]

Why OpenAI wanted to buy Cursor but opted for the fast-growing Windsurf

April 22, 2025
Anysphere, maker of AI coding assistant Cursor, is growing so quickly, it’s not in the market to be sold, even to OpenAI, a source close to the company tells TechCrunch. It’s been a hot target. Cursor is one of the most popular AI-powered coding tools and its revenue has been growing astronomically – doubling on […]

ChatGPT’s responses will now include Washington Post articles

April 22, 2025
OpenAI and The Washington Post just announced a new content partnership which will see ChatGPT summarize and link to the Post’s original reporting in its answers. This is OpenAI’s latest media partnership, with the AI giant inking deals with over 20 news publishers so far, including outlets like The Guardian and Axios. The Washington Post […]

Building better cities

April 22, 2025
Clara Brenner, MBA ’12, arrived in Cambridge on the lookout for a business partner. She wanted to start her own ­company—and never have to deal with a boss again. She would go it alone if she had to, but she hoped to find someone whose skills would complement her own. It’s a common MBA tale.…

Inside-out learning

April 22, 2025
When the prison doors first closed behind him more than 50 years ago, Lee Perlman, PhD ’89, felt decidedly unsettled.   In his first job out of college, as a researcher for a consulting company working on a project for the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, he had been tasked with interviewing incarcerated participants in…

Unleashing the potential of qubits, one molecule at a time

April 22, 2025
It all began with a simple origami model.  As an undergrad at Harvard, Danna Freedman went to a professor’s office hours for her general chemistry class and came across an elegant paper model that depicted the fullerene molecule. The intricately folded representation of chemical bonds and atomic arrangements sparked her interest, igniting a profound curiosity…