The Download: Trump at Davos, and AI scientists
The Download: Trump at Davos, and AI scientists

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. All anyone wants to talk about at Davos is AI and Donald Trump —Mat Honan, MIT Technology Review’s editor in chief  At Davos this year Trump is dominating all the side conversations. There…

The Download: digitizing India, and scoring embryos
The Download: digitizing India, and scoring embryos

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 man who made India digital isn’t done yet Nandan Nilekani can’t stop trying to push India into the future. He started nearly 30 years ago, masterminding an ongoing experiment in technological state…

The Download: the US digital rights crackdown, and AI companionship
The Download: the US digital rights crackdown, and AI companionship

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 it’s like to be banned from the US for fighting online hate   Just before Christmas the Trump administration dramatically escalated its war on digital rights by banning five people from entering the…

The Download: cut through AI coding hype, and biotech trends to watch
The Download: cut through AI coding hype, and biotech trends to watch

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 coding is now everywhere. But not everyone is convinced.   Depending who you ask, AI-powered coding is either giving software developers an unprecedented productivity boost or churning out masses of poorly designed code…

The Download: spying on the spies, and promising climate tech
The Download: spying on the spies, and promising climate tech

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. Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone In April 2025, Ronald Deibert left all electronic devices at home in Toronto and boarded a plane. When he landed in Illinois, he bought…

The Download: next-gen nuclear, and the data center backlash
The Download: next-gen nuclear, and the data center backlash

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 next-generation nuclear reactors break out of the 20th-century blueprint   The popularity of commercial nuclear reactors has surged in recent years as worries about climate change and energy independence drowned out concerns about…

The Download: sodium-ion batteries and China’s bright tech future
The Download: sodium-ion batteries and China’s bright tech future

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. Sodium-ion batteries are making their way into cars—and the grid For decades, lithium-ion batteries have powered our phones, laptops, and electric vehicles. But lithium’s limited supply and volatile price have led the industry…

The Download: introducing this year’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies
The Download: introducing this year’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies

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. Introducing this year’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies  It’s easy to be cynical about technology these days. Many of the “disruptions” of the last 15 years were more about coddling a certain set of young,…

The Download: the case for AI slop, and helping CRISPR fulfill its promise
The Download: the case for AI slop, and helping CRISPR fulfill its promise

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 I learned to stop worrying and love AI slop —Caiwei Chen If I were to locate the moment AI slop broke through into popular consciousness, I’d pick the video of rabbits bouncing…

The Download: mimicking pregnancy’s first moments in a lab, and AI parameters explained
The Download: mimicking pregnancy’s first moments in a lab, and AI parameters explained

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. Researchers are getting organoids pregnant with human embryos At first glance, it looks like the start of a human pregnancy: A ball-shaped embryo presses into the lining of the uterus then grips tight,…