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.
What’s at stake in AI’s trillion-dollar gamble
When Jessica Wachter, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania, wanted to assess AI’s impact on the economy over the next few years, she faced a long list of uncertainties. So she started with a “remarkable fact” that is not in question: a handful of so-called hyperscalers are investing huge amounts of money to build AI data centers.
Instead of trying to predict how widely deployed AI models will be, Wachter asked how fast the hyperscalers’ earnings will need to grow to justify their spending through 2027, when expenditures are expected to reach nearly $1.1 trillion.
The results are eye-opening. AI companies will need to achieve an extraordinary increase in productivity just to break even by 2030.
Take a closer look at what it will take for the AI buildout to pay off.
—David Rotman
AI models need more data about biology, and OpenAI is paying to create it
AI needs much more information to make important breakthroughs in curing disease. So last year Ruxandra Teslo, a policy analyst, posted an idea for supercharging medical AI systems: use data from failed biotech companies. By bidding at bankruptcy proceedings, she argued, it might be possible to obtain detailed regulatory filings, manufacturing strategies and safety data, creating what she called “biotech’s lost archive.”
The OpenAI Foundation, the nonprofit parent of OpenAI, announced this week that it will fund her idea, paying to create “high-quality scientific datasets.”
Learn more about their new effort.
—Antonio Regalado
Our Roundables on AI’s extinction threat is now available on demand
As frontier models become more capable, warnings about AI extinction have become widespread in Silicon Valley. But are the threats really as dangerous as they’re presented?
In the latest MIT Technology Review Roundtable, executive editor Niall Firth, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and AI reporter Grace Huckins took a closer look at the arguments behind those warnings. They discussed what AI extinction could actually mean, how seriously we should take the risks and what, if anything, can be done to reduce them.
Subscribers can now watch an exclusive recording of the discussion.
Want to join the next conversation? Subscribe to MIT Technology Review for exclusive access to all our future Roundtables, and recordings of previous ones.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: a startup claims it’s found a drug to make your blood young
Generation Lab says its new rejuvenation treatment “blocks the systemic spread of aging in the bloodstream, reawakens the body’s own repair mechanism, and restores health and youth to multiple tissues.”
The approach is based on research by the company’s scientific founder, Irina Conboy. She found that joining the circulatory systems of old and young mice improved the old animals’ ability to heal from injury.
Conboy now says she has found a combination of two existing drugs that can produce youthful effects without the need for any bodily fluid exchange. But there’s a snag: Generation Lab won’t reveal what the drugs are.
This is our latest story to become an MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we publish each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Nvidia and Meta CEOs have rejected calls for a coordinated AI slowdown
Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg pushed back on the proposals. (FT $)
+ Huang says new AI safety laws are unnecessary. (Axios)
+ Zuckerberg claimed competition will push AI labs toward safety. (Reuters $)
+ What’s next for AI after its doomer turn? (MIT Technology Review)
2 The FTC chair has warned against giving AI companies antitrust waivers
His comments follow Anthropic’s call for a safety exemption. (Reuters $)
+ Nvidia’s CEO also slammed the calls for new antitrust laws. (CNBC)
+ The US is divided over AI regulation. (MIT Technology Review)
3 A Chinese hacking firm has used AI to analyze stolen secret
Its tools turn hacked government data into intelligence reports. (WSJ $)
4 “Smart” nanoparticles delivered mRNA to tumors in a cancer study
The treatment reprogrammed cells to attack tumors in mice. (Wired $)
+ Federal health agencies are abandoning mRNA. (MIT Technology Review)
5 A digital fly brain is taking on an extraordinary range of tasks online
People have taught it to drive, trade bitcoin, and play Doom. (NYT $)
+ The simulated brain is a map of a fruit fly’s 166,000 neurons. (404 Media)
6 The Senate has blocked new crypto rules amid a fight over Trump
It demanded tougher ethics rules around Trump’s crypto holdings. (AP)
+ The move is a major blow to the crypto industry. (NYT $)
7 Chinese firms allegedly used Binance to launder Iranian oil money
Prosecutors say they laundered more than $1.5 billion. (Quartz)
+ Hackers are selling tools to bypass banks’ facial checks. (MIT Technology Review)
8 An AI agent platform is reinventing spam to flood inboxes worldwide
iLand says its agents have sent 1.6 million messages. (404 Media)
9 ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has become Asia’s richest person
His fortune has risen above $105 billion as AI booms. (Bloomberg $)
10 A fully AI-generated sitcom has arrived—and it’s terrible
A reviewer called the characters “dead-eyed waxworks.” (Guardian)
Quote of the day
“The only institution that Americans might trust less than Washington these days is Silicon Valley.”
—Patrick Hillman, the chief operating officer of Logical Intelligence, a San Francisco–based startup chaired by Yann LeCun, says in a statement that people have little faith in tech companies to act in the public interest.
One more thing
Why Trump’s “golden dome” missile defense idea is another ripped straight from the movies
In 1940, a fresh-faced Ronald Reagan starred in Murder in the Air, a movie centered on a “superweapon” that could stop enemy aircraft. More than 40 years later, the concept became a real-life centerpiece of Reagan’s presidency with the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known as “Star Wars.” Now Donald Trump has revived the dream.
In 2024, Trump announced plans to build the “Golden Dome,” a system of sensors and interceptors on the ground, in the air and in space. It’s often compared to SDI for its futuristic sheen, its aggressive form of protection and the idea that an impenetrable shield is the cheat code to global peace.
The dream of a missile shield is animated by its sheer cinematic allure. But do cinematic spectacles actually enhance national security?
See what happens when the fantasy of missile defense meets reality.
—Becky Ferreira
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.)
+ A once blind cockatoo just saw for the first time in 10 years.
+ Bingebrowse is a virtual video store stocked with films and shows from streaming services.
+ An amateur engineer has used a tree trunk to build Donkey Kong’s coconut gun as a real weapon.
+ A wildlife photographer has captured the first-ever images of the elusive and rare Cozumel dwarf fox.
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