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 chatbots can sway voters better than political advertisements

The news: Chatting with a politically biased AI model is more effective than political ads at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party, new research shows.

The catch: The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things. The findings are the latest in an emerging body of research demonstrating the persuasive power of LLMs. They raise profound questions about how generative AI could reshape elections.  Read the full story.

—Michelle Kim 

The era of AI persuasion in elections is about to begin 

—Tal Feldman is a JD candidate at Yale Law School who focuses on technology and national security. Aneesh Pappu is a PhD student and Knight-Hennessy scholar at Stanford University who focuses on agentic AI and technology policy. 

The fear that elections could be overwhelmed by AI-generated realistic fake media has gone mainstream—and for good reason.

But that’s only half the story. The deeper threat isn’t that AI can just imitate people—it’s that it can actively persuade people. And new research published this week shows just how powerful that persuasion can be. AI chatbots can shift voters’ views by a substantial margin, far more than traditional political advertising tends to do.

In the coming years, we will see the rise of AI that can personalize arguments, test what works, and quietly reshape political views at scale. That shift—from imitation to active persuasion—should worry us deeply. Read the full story. 

The ads that sell the sizzle of genetic trait discrimination

—Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine

One day this fall, I watched an electronic sign outside the Broadway-Lafayette subway station in Manhattan switch seamlessly between an ad for makeup and one promoting the website Pickyourbaby.com, which promises a way for potential parents to use genetic tests to influence their baby’s traits, including eye color, hair color, and IQ.

Inside the station, every surface was wrapped with more of its ads—babies on turnstiles, on staircases, on banners overhead. “Think about it. Makeup and then genetic optimization,” exulted Kian Sadeghi, the 26-year-old founder of Nucleus Genomics, the startup running the ads. 

The day after the campaign launched, Sadeghi and I had briefly sparred online. He’d been on X showing off a phone app where parents can click through traits like eye color and hair color. I snapped back that all this sounded a lot like Uber Eats—another crappy, frictionless future invented by entrepreneurs, but this time you’d click for a baby.

That night, I agreed to meet Sadeghi in the station under a banner that read, “IQ is 50% genetic.” Read on to see how Antonio’s conversation with Sadeghi went. 

This story first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The metaverse’s future looks murkier than ever
OG believer Mark Zuckerberg is planning deep cuts to the division’s budget. (Bloomberg $)
+ However some of that money will be diverted toward smart glasses and wearables. (NYT $)
+ Meta just managed to poach one of Apple’s top design chiefs. (Bloomberg $)

2 Kids are effectively AI’s guinea pigs
And regulators are slowly starting to take note of the risks. (The Economist $)
+ You need to talk to your kid about AI. Here are 6 things you should say. (MIT Technology Review)

3 How a group of women changed UK law on non-consensual deepfakes
It’s a big victory, and they managed to secure it with stunning speed. (The Guardian)
+ But bans on deepfakes take us only so far—here’s what else we need. (MIT Technology Review)
+ An AI image generator startup just leaked a huge trove of nude images. (Wired $) 

4 OpenAI is acquiring an AI model training startup
Its researchers have been impressed by the monitoring and de-bugging tools built by Neptune. (NBC)
+ It’s not just you: the speed of AI deal-making really is accelerating. (NYT $)

5 Russia has blocked Apple’s FaceTime video calling feature
It seems the Kremlin views any platform it doesn’t control as dangerous. (Reuters $)
+ How Russia killed its tech industry. (MIT Technology Review)

6 The trouble with AI browsers
This reviewer tested five of them and found them to be far more effort than they’re worth. (The Verge $)
+ AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it. (MIT Technology Review)

7 An anti-AI activist has disappeared 
Sam Kirchner went AWOL after failing to show up at a scheduled court hearing, and friends are worried. (The Atlantic$)

8 Taiwanese chip workers are creating a community in the Arizona desert
A TSMC project to build chip factories is rapidly transforming this corner of the US. (NYT $)

9 This hearing aid has become a status symbol 
Rich people with hearing issues swear by a product made by startup Fortell. (Wired $)
+ Apple AirPods can be a gateway hearing aid. (MIT Technology Review) 

10 A plane crashed after one of its 3D-printed parts melted 
Just because you can do something, that doesn’t mean you should. (BBC)

Quote of the day

“Some people claim we can scale up current technology and get to general intelligence…I think that’s bullshit, if you’ll pardon my French.”

—AI researcher Yann LeCun explains why he’s leaving Meta to set up a world-model startup, Sifted reports. 

One more thing

What to expect when you’re expecting an extra X or Y chromosome

Sex chromosome variations, in which people have a surplus or missing X or Y, occur in as many as one in 400 births. Yet the majority of people affected don’t even know they have them, because these conditions can fly under the radar.

As more expectant parents opt for noninvasive prenatal testing in hopes of ruling out serious conditions, many of them are surprised to discover instead that their fetus has a far less severe—but far less well-known—condition.

And because so many sex chromosome variations have historically gone undiagnosed, many ob-gyns are not familiar with these conditions, leaving families to navigate the unexpected news on their own. Read the full story.

—Bonnie Rochman

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ It’s never too early to start practicing your bûche de Noëlskills for the holidays.
+ Brandi Carlile, you will always be famous.
+ What do bartenders get up to after finishing their Thanksgiving shift? It’s time to find out.
+ Pitchfork’s controversial list of the best albums of the year is here!

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.

An Earthling’s guide to planet hunting

The pendant on Rebecca Jensen-Clem’s necklace is composed of 36 silver hexagons entwined in a honeycomb mosaic. At the Keck Observatory, in Hawaii, just as many segments make up a mirror that spans 33 feet, reflecting images of uncharted worlds for her to study.

Jensen-Clem, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, works with the Keck Observatory to try to detect new planets without leaving our own. It’s a pursuit that faces a vast array of obstacles, for example wind, and fluctuations in atmospheric density and temperature. 

At her lab among the redwoods, Jensen-Clem and her students experiment with new technologies and software to help overcome the challenges, and see into space more clearly. Read more about her and her work. 

—Jenna Ahart

This story is from the forthcoming print issue of MIT Technology Review, which is all about the body. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up now to receive issues as soon as they land.

2025 climate tech companies to watch: Ather Energy and its premium e-scooters

While sales of Tesla or BYD cars drove electric vehicle adoption elsewhere in the world, two-wheelers have led the green energy transition in India.

As one of the earliest “pure play” e-scooter makers, Ather Energy has helped drive micromobility EV penetration throughout India and boosted the shift away from carbon-emitting vehicles. Read the full story.

—Nilesh Christopher

Ather Energy is one of our 10 climate tech companies to watch—our annual list of some of the most promising climate tech firms on the planet. Check out the rest of the list here.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The Trump administration has laid off thousands of federal health workers
It’s blaming the government shutdown—but labor unions are suing. (Reuters $)
+ The firings will decimate parts of the CDC that work on disease surveillance. (STAT)

2 AI videos of dead celebrities are upsetting their families
OpenAI is coming under mounting pressure to restrict what its video generator Sora 2 can create. (WP $)
+ Sora was downloaded over a million times in less than five days—a rate even faster than ChatGPT. (BBC)

3 The Dutch government has taken control of a Chinese-owned chipmaker
The move comes after Beijing tightened restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, which could hurt Europe’s car industry. (CNBC)

4 Why some developers reject AI coding tools
Even at their best, they introduce bugs into the code base that can be tricky to spot. (The Information $)
+ The second wave of AI coding is here. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Police are begging teens to stop pulling the AI homeless man prank
Kids are using AI to create images of a disheveled person in their home, then sending that to their parents. (The Verge)

6 How Elon Musk’s embrace of Trump continues to hurt Tesla
The result is that his cars are now more expensive and less desirable. (The Atlantic $)
+ China might force Tesla to redesign its door handles. (Wired $)
+ How did China come to dominate the world of electric cars? (MIT Technology Review) 

7 What happened after schools in Australia banned phones?
Both students and staff say the impact has been overwhelmingly positive. (The Guardian)

8 AI is fantastic at detecting small earthquakes 
But the really big prize is seeing if it can help with predicting them, too. (Ars Technica)
+ What we can learn from Japan’s “megaquake” preparations. (MIT Technology Review)

9 Climate change is creating new hybrid species
The “grue jay” is half-blue jay, half-green jay. It’s also a sign of the times we live in. (Nautilus)
+ How a breakthrough gene-editing tool will help the world cope with climate change. (MIT Technology Review)

10 How people gamify Hinge to get the dates they want 
It puts people’s most promising matches behind a paywall—but they’re finding workarounds. (The Cut $)
+ There’s now a term for daters who use AI to boost their appeal : chatfishers. (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“It’s as emotionally devastating as it is dangerous to the American public.”

—An employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells STAT about the impact of the Trump administration’s decision to carry out mass layoffs at the agency. 

One more thing

How the federal government is tracking changes in the supply of street drugs

In 2021, the Maryland Department of Health and the state police were confronting a crisis: Fatal drug overdoses in the state were at an all-time high, and authorities didn’t know why.

Seeking answers, Maryland officials turned to scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the national metrology institute for the United States, which defines and maintains standards of measurement essential to a wide range of industrial sectors and health and security applications.

There, a research chemist named Ed Sisco and his team had developed methods for detecting trace amounts of drugs, explosives, and other dangerous materials—techniques that could protect law enforcement officials and others who had to collect these samples. And a pilot uncovered new, critical information almost immediately. Read the full story.

—Adam Bluestein

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ This spicy tea is exactly what you need when you’re under the weather. 
+ Just a man, jamming with his cat. 
+ Empathy is not a fixed trait—you can grow it. Here’s how.
+ There’s something very soothing about João Bernardino’s photos of Portugal. 

Shoplifters in the US could soon be chased down by drones

The news: Flock Safety, whose drones were once reserved for police departments, is now offering them for private-sector security, the company has announced. Potential customers include businesses trying to curb shoplifting. 

How it works: If the security team at a store sees shoplifters leave, they can activate a camera-equipped drone. “The drone follows the people. The people get in a car. You click a button and you track the vehicle with the drone, and the drone just follows the car,” says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock’s drone program. The video feed of that drone might go to the company’s security team, but it could also be automatically transmitted directly to police departments. 

The response: Flock’s expansion into private-sector security is “a logical step, but in the wrong direction,” says Rebecca Williams, senior strategist for the ACLU’s privacy and data governance unit. Read the full story. 

—James O’Donnell 

Read more of our stories about the latest in drone tech:

+ Why you’re about to see a lot more drones over America’s skies.

+ Meet Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, the radio-obsessed civilian shaping Ukraine’s drone defense. His work could help to determine the future of Ukraine, and wars far beyond it.

+ We examined four big trends that show what’s next for drone technology.

+ The defense tech startup Epirus has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military. Read our story about how it could change the future of war.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 TikTok US is being valued at $14 billion by Trump’s deal
That’s shockingly low for a fast-growing social media company. (FT $) 
+ The deal is basically just Trump giving TikTok to his friends. (Vox $)
+ Here’s what the sale means for you. (WP $)

2 Microsoft has stopped letting Israel use its technology for surveillance
The system was used to collect millions of Palestinian civilians’ phone calls every day. (The Guardian)

3 There are more robots working in China than the rest of the world combined
It’s a trend that’ll further cement its status as the world’s leading manufacturer. (NYT $)
+ China’s EV giants are betting big on humanoid robots. (MIT Technology Review)

4 The inside story of what happened when DOGE came to town
If anything, this is even more grim and chaotic than you might imagine. (Wired $)

5 Instagram’s teen safety features are flawed
Researchers tested 47 of these features, and found that only 8 were fully effective. (Reuters $)
+ There’s growing concern among lawmakers about the risks of kids forming bonds with chatbots. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Brazil’s judicial system is adopting AI with gusto
The trouble is that rather than reducing the amount of work for judges and lawyers, AI seems to be increasing it. (Rest of World)
+ Meet the early-adopter judges using AI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Amazon is refunding $1.5 billion to Prime subscribers
The deal with the FTC lets it avoid a trial over claims it tricked consumers into signing up. (WP $)

8 These women are in love with AI 
Like it or not, these sorts of romances are becoming more common. (Slate $)
+ It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot. (MIT Technology Review) 

9 Scientists are improving how we measure nothing
Researchers are developing a vacuum-measurement tool that could unlock exciting new possibilities for science. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ This quantum radar could image buried objects. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Why does everything online feel so icky? 
Most of us will go to extreme lengths to avoid awkwardness IRL. On social media, it’s another matter entirely… (Vox $)
+ China’s government has had enough of everyone being negative on its internet. (BBC)

Quote of the day

“AI machines—in quite a literal sense—appear to be saving the US economy right now. In the absence of tech-related spending, the US would be close to, or in, recession this year.”

—George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank, warns that the AI boom is unsustainable in a note to clients, Fortune reports.

One more thing

The two people shaping the future of OpenAI’s research

—Will Douglas Heaven

For the past couple of years, OpenAI has felt like a one-man brand. With his showbiz style and fundraising glitz, CEO Sam Altman overshadows all other big names on the firm’s roster.

But Altman is not the one building the technology on which its reputation rests. That responsibility falls to OpenAI’s twin heads of research—chief research officer Mark Chen and chief scientist Jakub Pachocki. Between them, they share the role of making sure OpenAI stays one step ahead of powerhouse rivals like Google.

I recently sat down with Chen and Pachocki for an exclusive conversation which covered everything from how they manage the inherent tension between research and product, to what they really mean when they talk about AGI, and what happened to OpenAI’s superalignment team. Read the full story.

We can still have nice things

+ Wherever you are, this website helps you discover the most interesting bars nearby. 
+ Take a tour of Norway’s lighthouses.
+ Inside London’s flourishing underground rave scene.
+ Meaningful changes rarely occur instantly. Here’s how they do happen.

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 AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral

Wikipedia is the most ambitious multilingual project after the Bible: There are editions in over 340 languages, and a further 400 even more obscure ones are being developed. But many of these smaller editions are being swamped with AI-translated content. Volunteers working on four African languages, for instance, estimated to MIT Technology Review that between 40% and 60% of articles in their Wikipedia editions were uncorrected machine translations.

This is beginning to cause a wicked problem. AI systems learn new languages by scraping huge quantities of text from the internet. Wikipedia is sometimes the largest source of online linguistic data for languages with few speakers—so any errors on those pages can poison the wells that AI is expected to draw from. Volunteers are being forced to go to extreme lengths to fix the issue, even deleting certain languages from Wikipedia entirely. Read the full story. 

—Jacob Judah 

This story is part of our Big Story series: MIT Technology Review’s most important, ambitious reporting. These stories take a deep look at the technologies that are coming next and what they will mean for us and the world we live in. Check out the rest of the series here.

Trump is pushing leucovorin as a new treatment for autism. What is it? 

On Monday, President Trump claimed that childhood vaccines and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, are to blame for the increasing prevalence of autism. He advised pregnant women against taking the medicine. 

The administration also announced that the FDA would work to make a medication called leucovorin available as a treatment for children with autism. The president’s assertions left many dismayed. “The data cited do not support the claim that Tylenol causes autism and leucovorin is a cure, and only stoke fear and falsely suggest hope when there is no simple answer,” said the Coalition for Autism Researchers, a group of more than 250 scientists, in a statement. So what does the evidence say? Read our story to find out. 

—Cassandra Willyard 

This is part of our MIT Technology Review Explains series, where 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.

Fusion power plants don’t exist yet, but they’re making money anyway

This week, Commonwealth Fusion Systems announced it has another customer for its first commercial fusion power plant, in Virginia. Eni, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, signed a billion-dollar deal to buy electricity from the facility.

One small detail? That reactor doesn’t exist yet. This is a weird moment in fusion. Investors are pouring billions into the field to build power plants, and companies are even signing huge agreements to purchase power from those still-nonexistent plants. 

But all this comes before companies have actually completed a working reactor that can produce electricity. It takes money to develop a new technology, but all this funding could lead to some twisted expectations. Read the full story.

—Casey Crownhart 

This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter all about the latest in climate change and clean tech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The AI Hype Index: Cracking the chatbot code

Millions of us use chatbots every day, even though we don’t really know how they work or how using them affects us. In a bid to address this, the FTC recently launched an inquiry into how chatbots affect children and teenagers. Elsewhere, OpenAI has started to shed more light on what people are actually using ChatGPT for, and why it thinks its LLMs are so prone to making stuff up.

There’s still plenty we don’t know—but that isn’t stopping governments from forging ahead with AI projects. In the US, RFK Jr. is pushing his staffers to use ChatGPT, while Albania is using a chatbot for public contract procurement. Check out the latest edition of our AI Hype Index to help you sort AI reality from hyped-up fiction. 

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Huntington’s disease has been treated successfully for the first time
Gene therapy managed to slow progress of the disease in patients by 75%. (The Economist $) 
+ Here’s how the gene editing tool CRISPR is changing lives. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Google says 90% of tech workers are using AI
But most of them also say they don’t trust AI models’ outputs. (CNN)
+ Why does AI hallucinate? (MIT Technology Review)

3 A MAGA TikTok takeover is coming
Just as free speech protections in the US start to look worryingly fragile. (The Atlantic $)

4 Chinese tech workers are returning from the US
There’s a whole bunch of complex factors both driving them to leave, and luring them back. (Rest of World)
+ But it’s hard to say what the impact of the new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas will be on India’s tech sector. (WP $)
+ Europe is hoping to nab more tech talent too. (The Verge)

5 If AI can diagnose us, what are doctors for?
They need to prepare for the fact chatbot use is becoming more and more widespread among patients. (New Yorker $)
+ This medical startup uses LLMs to run appointments and make diagnoses. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Drones have been spotted at four more airports in Denmark
It looks like a coordinated attack, but officials still haven’t worked out who is behind it. (FT $)

7 TSMC has unveiled AI-designed chips that use less energy
The AI software found better solutions than TSMC’s own human engineers—and did so much faster. (South China Morning Post)
+ These four charts sum up the state of AI and energy. (MIT Technology Review)

8 How to find love on dating apps 
It’s not easy, but it is possible. (The Guardian)

9 AI models can’t cope with Persian social etiquette
It involves a lot of saying ‘no’ when you mean ‘yes’, which simply doesn’t wash with computers. (Ars Technica)

10 VR headsets are better than ever, but no one seems to care
The tech industry keeps overestimating how willing people are to strap computers to their faces. (Gizmodo)

Quote of the day

“We are living through the most destructive arms race in human history.”

—Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells world leaders gathered at the UN that they need to intervene to stop the escalating development of drone technology and AI, The Guardian reports.

One more thing

The great AI consciousness conundrum

AI consciousness isn’t just a tricky intellectual puzzle; it’s a morally weighty problem. Fail to identify a conscious AI, and you might unintentionally subjugate a being whose interests ought to matter. Mistake an unconscious AI for a conscious one, and you risk compromising human safety and happiness for the sake of an unthinking, unfeeling hunk of silicon and code.

Over the past few decades, a small research community has doggedly attacked the question of what consciousness is and how it works. The effort has yielded real progress. And now, with the rapid advance of AI technology, these insights could offer our only guide to the untested, morally fraught waters of artificial consciousness. Read the full story.

—Grace Huckins

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ It’s Fat Bear Week! Who gets your vote this year?
+ Learn about Lord Woodbine, the forgotten sixth Beatle. 
+ There are some truly wild and wacky recipes in this Medieval Cookery collection. Venison porridge, anyone? 
+ Pessimism about technology is as old as technology itself, as this archive shows.

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.

It’s surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot

The news: The first large-scale computational analysis of the Reddit community r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, which is dedicated to discussing AI relationships, found that many people formed those relationships unintentionally while using AI for other purposes. In fact, only 6.5% of them said they’d deliberately sought out an AI companion. 

Why it matters: The study found that AI companionship provides vital support for some but exacerbates underlying problems for others. This means it’s hard to take a one-size-fits-all approach to user safety. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

Join us at 1.30pm ET today to learn about the future of birth control 

Conversations around birth control usually focus on women, but Kevin Eisenfrats, one of the MIT Technology Review 2025 Innovators Under 35, is working to change that. His company, Contraline, is working toward testing new birth control options for men. Join us for an exclusive subscribers-only Roundtable interview to hear Kevin in conversation with our executive editor Amy Nordrum at 1.30 ET today. 

MIT Technology Review Narrated: What’s next for AI and math

The last year has seen rapid progress in the ability of large language models to tackle math at high school level and beyond. Is AI closing in on human mathematicians? 

This story is the latest to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish every week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to listen to all our new episodes as they’re released.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 Secret Service agents dismantled a giant operation to cripple cell networks
They say it’s likely it was intended to be used for scams. (Wired $)

2 Welcome to the new era of fragmented US vaccine policies
The federal government is abdicating responsibility for public health. Who will fill the void? (New Yorker $)
+ Why US federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)

3 European defense leaders are discussing building a ‘drone wall’ 
They’re scrambling to catch up as Russian incursions into their territory increase. (ABC)

4 How will we know if we’ve reached artificial general intelligence?
That’s the multi-billion dollar question—but there’s no clear answer. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Experts don’t even agree on what AI is to begin with, never mind AGI. (MIT Technology Review)

5 Robot umpires are coming to baseball’s major leagues next year 
Humans will still be in charge of calling balls and strikes, but tech will help to judge appealed decisions. (AP)

6 AI’s energy needs are being overstated
And that could lock us into unnecessary, costly fossil fuel projects. (The Verge)
+ Four reasons to be optimistic about AI’s energy usage. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Extreme drought is set to become a lot more commonplace
Governments need to do a lot more to prepare. (Gizmodo) 

8 AI is coming for subtitle writers’ jobs 
But their work is harder to replace than you might think. (The Guardian)
+ ‘Workslop’ is slowing everything down. (Harvard Business Review)
+ And, to add to the problem, AI systems may never be secure. (The Economist $)

9 How epigenetics could help save wildlife from extinction
It could allow scientists to detect accelerated aging before an animal population starts to visibly collapse. (Knowable)
+ Aging clocks aim to predict how long you’ll live. (MIT Technology Review)

10 TikTok is getting introduced to the concept of the rapture 
Which is due today, according to some. If so, it’s been great knowing you. Good luck! (The Guardian)

Quote of the day

“Everybody has a backup.”

—Stella Li, executive vice president at BYD, tells CNBC the company has contingency plans in case Beijing orders it to stop using Nvidia chips.

One more thing

This app is helping workers reclaim millions in lost wages

Reclamo, a new web app, helps immigrant workers who have experienced wage theft. It guides them through assembling case details, and ultimately produces finished legal claims that can be filed instantly. A process that would otherwise take multiple meetings with an attorney can now be done within an hour.

A significant amount of wage theft targets immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in part because of communication barriers and their perceived lack of power or legal recourse. But the app is already making a difference—helping workers to reclaim $1 million in lost wages since it started beta testing in October 2022. Read the full story.

—Patrick Sisson

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ It’s Fat Bear Week! Who gets your vote this year?
+ Learn about Lord Woodbine, the forgotten sixth Beatle. 
+ There are some truly wild and wacky recipes in this Medieval Cookery collection. Venison porridge, anyone? 
+ Pessimism about technology is as old as technology itself, as this archive shows.

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 models are using material from retracted scientific papers

The news: Some AI chatbots rely on flawed research from retracted scientific papers to answer questions, according to recent studies. In one such study, researchers asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT questions based on information from 21 retracted papers on medical imaging. The chatbot’s answers referenced retracted papers in five cases but advised caution in only three. 

The bigger picture: The findings raise serious questions about how reliable AI tools are at evaluating scientific research, or answering people’s health queries. They could also complicate efforts to invest in AI tools for scientists. And it’s not an easy problem to fix. Read the full story.

—Ananya

Join us at 1pm ET today to meet our Innovator of the Year

Every year, MIT Technology Review awards Innovator of the Year to someone whose work we admire. This year we selected Sneha Goenka, who designed the computations behind the world’s fastest whole-genome sequencing method.

Her work could transform medical care by allowing physicians to sequence a patient’s genome and diagnose genetic conditions in less than eight hours.

Register here to join an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation with Goenka, Leilani Battle, assistant professor at the University of Washington, and our editor in chief Mat Honan at 1pm ET today. 

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 There’s scant evidence tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism
The biggest cause of autism is genetic—that’s why it often runs in families. (Scientific American $)
+ Anti-vaxxers are furious the White House didn’t link autism to vaccines. (Ars Technica)
+ The company that sells Tylenol is being forced to defend the medicine’s safety. (Axios)

2 Nvidia is investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI
OpenAI is already a major customer, but this will bind the two even more closely together. (Reuters $)
+ America’s top companies keep talking about AI—but they can’t explain its upsides. (FT $)

3 Denmark’s biggest airport was shut down by drones
Its prime minister refused to rule out Russian involvement. (FT $)
+ Poland and Estonia have been speaking up at the UN about Russian incursions into their airspace. (The Guardian)

4 Google is facing another antitrust trial in the US
This one will focus on remedies to its dominance of the advertising tech market. (Ars Technica)
+ The FTC is also taking Amazon to court over accusations the company tricks people into paying for Prime. (NPR)
+ The Supreme Court has ruled to allow Trump’s firing of a Democrat FTC commissioner. (NYT $)

5 Here’s the potential impact of Trump’s H-1B crackdown on tech
It’s likely to push a lot of skilled workers elsewhere. (Rest of World)

6 How TikTok’s deal to stay in the US will work
Oracle will manage its algorithm for US users and oversee security operations. (ABC)
+ It’s a giant prize for Trump’s friend Larry Ellison, Oracle’s cofounder. (NYT $)
+ Trump and his allies are now likely to exert a lot of political influence over TikTok. (WP $)

7 Record labels are escalating their lawsuit against an AI music startup
They claim it knowingly pirated songs from YouTube to train its generative AI models. (The Verge $)
+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review) 

8 There’s a big fight in the US over who pays for weight loss drugs
Although they’ll save insurers money long-term, they cost a lot upfront. (WP $)
+ We’re learning more about what weight-loss drugs do to the body. (MIT Technology Review)

9 How a lone vigilante ended up blowing up 5G towers
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. (Wired $)

10 The moon is rusting 
And it’s our fault. Awkward! (Nature)

Quote of the day

“At the heart of this is people trying to look for simple answers to complex problems.”

—James Cusack, chief executive of an autism charity called Autistica, tells Nature what he thinks is driving Trump and others to incorrectly link the condition with Tylenol use during pregnancy. 

One more thing

Maybe you will be able to live past 122

How long can humans live? This is a good time to ask the question. The longevity scene is having a moment, and a few key areas of research suggest that we might be able to push human life spans further, and potentially reverse at least some signs of aging.

Researchers can’t even agree on what the exact mechanisms of aging are and which they should be targeting. Debates continue to rage over how long it’s possible for humans to live—and whether there is a limit at all.

But it looks likely that something will be developed in the coming decades that will help us live longer, in better health. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)

+ This website lets you send a letter to your future self. 
+ Here’s what Brian Eno has to say about art.
+ This photographer takes stunning pictures of Greenland. 
+ The Hungarian dish Rakott krumpli isn’t going to win any health plaudits, but it looks very comforting all the same.