Asset Entities shares rose over 50% after-hours as its shareholders approved a merger with Strive to build a $1.5 billion Bitcoin treasury.
XRP price depends on pending ETF approval odds, but XRPL adoption and tokenization metrics still remain weak, raising concerns about the longevity of any rally.
The two-year-old startup has been in discussions with investors for a Series C round.
Read more Each Side Event can unlock new opportunities for the hosts: investor deal flow, talent connections, and brand exposure with the startup community.
Read more Apple’s sleek iPhone Air has a powerful processor and large display, but its battery life and camera might be a problem.
Read more The deal is the most aggressive signal yet that SpaceX wants to rule the satellite-to-phone market.
Read more I was within a heartbeat of preordering the new iPhone Air. But a closer looks at the specs changed my mind.
Read more In July 2024, a botched update to the software defenses managed by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused more than 8 million Windows systems to fail. From hospitals to manufacturers, stock markets to retail stores, the outage caused parts of the global economy to grind to a halt. Payment systems were disrupted, broadcasters went off the air, and flights were canceled. In all, the outage is estimated to have caused direct losses of more than $5 billion to Fortune 500 companies. For US air carrier Delta Air Lines, the error exposed the brittleness of its systems. The airline suffered weeks of disruptions, leading to $500 million in losses and 7,000 canceled flights.
The magnitude of the CrowdStrike incident revealed just how interconnected digital systems are, and the extensive vulnerabilities in some companies when confronted with an unexpected occurrence. “On any given day, there could be a major weather event or some event like what happened…with CrowdStrike,” said then-US secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg on announcing an investigation into how Delta Air Lines handled the incident. “The question is, is your airline prepared to absorb something like that and get back on its feet and take care of customers?”
Unplanned downtime poses a major challenge for organizations, and is estimated to cost Global 2000 companies on average $200 million per year. Beyond the financial impact, it can also erode customer trust and loyalty, decrease productivity, and even result in legal or privacy issues.
A 2024 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, the medical-billing subsidiary of industry giant UnitedHealth Group—the biggest health and medical data breach in US history—exposed the data of around 190 million people and led to weeks of outages for medical groups. Another ransomware attack in 2024, this time on CDK Global, a software firm that works with nearly 15,000 auto dealerships in North America, led to around $1 billion worth of losses for car dealers as a result of the three-week disruption.
Managing risk and mitigating downtime is a growing challenge for businesses. As organizations become ever more interconnected, the expanding surface of networks and the rapid adoption of technologies like AI are exposing new vulnerabilities—and more opportunities for threat actors. Cyberattacks are also becoming increasingly sophisticated and damaging as AI-driven malware and malware-as-a-service platforms turbocharge attacks.
To prepare for these challenges head on, companies must take a more proactive approach to security and resilience. “We’ve had a traditional way of doing things that’s actually worked pretty well for maybe 15 to 20 years, but it’s been based on detecting an incident after the event,” says Chris Millington, global cyber resilience technical expert at Hitachi Vantara. “Now, we’ve got to be more preventative and use intelligence to focus on making the systems and business more resilient.”
This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. It was researched, designed, and written entirely by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.
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 AI honorees on our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2025
Each year, we select 35 outstanding individuals under the age of 35 who are using technology to tackle tough problems in their respective fields.
Our AI honorees include people who steer model development at Silicon Valley’s biggest tech firms and academic researchers who develop new techniques to improve AI’s performance.
Check out all of our AI innovators here, and the full list—including our innovator of the year—here.
How Yichao “Peak” Ji became a global AI app hitmaker
When Yichao Ji—also known as “Peak”—appeared in a launch video for Manus in March, he didn’t expect it to go viral. Speaking in fluent English, the 32-year-old introduced the AI agent built by Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, where he serves as chief scientist.
The video was not an elaborate production but something about Ji’s delivery, and the vision behind the product, cut through the noise. The product, then still an early preview available only through invite codes, spread across the Chinese internet to the world in a matter of days. Within a week of its debut, Manus had attracted a waiting list of around 2 million people.
Despite his relative youth, Ji has over a decade of experience building products that merge technical complexity with real-world usability. That earned him credibility—and put him at the forefront of a rising class of Chinese technologists with global ambitions. Read the full story.
—Caiwei Chen
Help! My therapist is secretly using ChatGPT
In Silicon Valley’s imagined future, AI models are so empathetic that we’ll use them as therapists. They’ll provide mental-health care for millions, unimpeded by the pesky requirements for human counselors, like the need for graduate degrees, malpractice insurance, and sleep. Down here on Earth, something very different has been happening.
Last week, we published a story about people finding out that their therapists were secretly using ChatGPT during sessions. In some cases it wasn’t subtle; one therapist accidentally shared his screen during a virtual appointment, allowing the patient to see his own private thoughts being typed into ChatGPT in real time.
As the writer of the story, Laurie Clarke, points out, it’s not a total pipe dream that AI could be therapeutically useful. But the secretive use by therapists of AI models that are not vetted for mental health is something very different. James O’Donnell, our senior AI reporter, had a conversation with Clarke to hear more about what she found.
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.
What’s next in tech: the breakthroughs that matter
Some technologies reshape industries, whether we’re ready or not.
Join us for our next LinkedIn Live event on September 10 as our editorial team explores the breakthroughs defining this moment and the ones on the horizon that demand our attention.
From quantum computing to humanoid robotics, AI agents to climate tech, we’ll explore the innovations that excite us, the challenges they may bring, and why they’re worth watching now. It kicks off at 12.30pm ET tomorrow—register here to join us.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The US is abandoning its international push against disinformation
The State Department will no longer collaborate with Europe to combat malicious information spread by foreign governments. (FT $)
+ It comes as Russia is increasing its efforts to interfere overseas. (NYT $)
2 The judge overseeing Anthropic’s copyright case isn’t happy
Judge William Alsup says a $1.5 billion out-of-court settlement may not be in the authors’ best interests. (Bloomberg $)
3 WhatsApp’s former head of security is suing Meta
Attaullah Baig is accusing the company of failing to protect user data. (WP $)
+ He claims he uncovered systemic security failures, but was ignored. (Bloomberg $)
+ Meta maintains that Baig was dismissed for poor performance, not whistleblowing. (NYT $)
4 DOGE’s acting head is urging the US government to start hiring again
Following months of widespread firings and resignations. (Fast Company $)
+ How DOGE wreaked havoc in Social Security. (ProPublica)
+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review)
5 OpenAI is weighing up leaving California
It’s worried that state regulators could derail its efforts to convert to a for-profit entity. (WSJ $)
+ Rival Anthropic is backing California governor Gavin Newsom’s AI bill. (Politico)
6 ICE spends millions on facial recognition tech
In an effort to pinpoint people it suspects have assaulted officers. (404 Media)
+ The Supreme Court has given ICE the go-ahead to target people based on race. (Vox)
+ ICE directors were told to triple their daily arrests for undocumented immigrants. (NY Mag $)
7 AI researchers are training AI to replace them
They’re recording every detail of their working days to help AI grasp their jobs. (The Information $)
+ People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before. (MIT Technology Review)
8 What comes after the smartphone?
The rise of AI agents means we may not be staring at glass slabs forever. (NYT $)
+ What’s next for smart glasses. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Social media’s obsession with ‘locking in’ needs to die
Hustle culture and maximizing productivity at all costs are the aims of the game. (Insider $)
10 What it’s like to receive a massage from a robot
While it may not be quite as relaxing, it’s relatively cheap. (The Guardian)
+ Will we ever trust robots? (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“It was hell on Earth.”
—Duncan Okindo, who was enslaved in a Myanmar cyberscam compound and beaten for missing his targets, tells the Guardian about his harrowing experience.
One more thing
AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it
We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few words in a search box and in return get a list of blue links to the most relevant results. Fundamentally, it’s just fetching information that’s already out there on the internet and showing it to you, in a structured way.
But all that is up for grabs. We are at a new inflection point. The biggest change to the way search engines deliver information to us since the 1990s is happening right now, thanks to generative AI.
Not everyone is excited for the change. Publishers are completely freaked out. And people are also worried about what these new LLM-powered results will mean for our fundamental shared reality. Read the full story.
—Mat Honan
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.)
+ Stephen King’s list of favorite movies doesn’t feature a whole lot of horror.
+ Tune into a breathtaking livestream of Earth, beamed live from the International Space Station.
+ Rodent thumbnails are way more important than I gave them credit for 
+ Mark our words, actor Wagner Moura is going to be the next big thing.
In Silicon Valley’s imagined future, AI models are so empathetic that we’ll use them as therapists. They’ll provide mental-health care for millions, unimpeded by the pesky requirements for human counselors, like the need for graduate degrees, malpractice insurance, and sleep. Down here on Earth, something very different has been happening.
Last week, we published a story about people finding out that their therapists were secretly using ChatGPT during sessions. In some cases it wasn’t subtle; one therapist accidentally shared his screen during a virtual appointment, allowing the patient to see his own private thoughts being typed into ChatGPT in real time. The model then suggested responses that his therapist parroted.
It’s my favorite AI story as of late, probably because it captures so well the chaos that can unfold when people actually use AI the way tech companies have all but told them to.
As the writer of the story, Laurie Clarke, points out, it’s not a total pipe dream that AI could be therapeutically useful. Early this year, I wrote about the first clinical trial of an AI bot built specifically for therapy. The results were promising! But the secretive use by therapists of AI models that are not vetted for mental health is something very different. I had a conversation with Clarke to hear more about what she found.
I have to say, I was really fascinated that people called out their therapists after finding out they were covertly using AI. How did you interpret the reactions of these therapists? Were they trying to hide it?
In all the cases mentioned in the piece, the therapist hadn’t provided prior disclosure of how they were using AI to their patients. So whether or not they were explicitly trying to conceal it, that’s how it ended up looking when it was discovered. I think for this reason, one of my main takeaways from writing the piece was that therapists should absolutely disclose when they’re going to use AI and how (if they plan to use it). If they don’t, it raises all these really uncomfortable questions for patients when it’s uncovered and risks irrevocably damaging the trust that’s been built.
In the examples you’ve come across, are therapists turning to AI simply as a time-saver? Or do they think AI models can genuinely give them a new perspective on what’s bothering someone?
Some see AI as a potential time-saver. I heard from a few therapists that notes are the bane of their lives. So I think there is some interest in AI-powered tools that can support this. Most I spoke to were very skeptical about using AI for advice on how to treat a patient. They said it would be better to consult supervisors or colleagues, or case studies in the literature. They were also understandably very wary of inputting sensitive data into these tools.
There is some evidence AI can deliver more standardized, “manualized” therapies like CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy] reasonably effectively. So it’s possible it could be more useful for that. But that is AI specifically designed for that purpose, not general-purpose tools like ChatGPT.
What happens if this goes awry? What attention is this getting from ethics groups and lawmakers?
At present, professional bodies like the American Counseling Association advise against using AI tools to diagnose patients. There could also be more stringent regulations preventing this in future. Nevada and Illinois, for example, have recently passed laws prohibiting the use of AI in therapeutic decision-making. More states could follow.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman said last month that “a lot of people effectively use ChatGPT as a sort of therapist,” and that to him, that’s a good thing. Do you think tech companies are overpromising on AI’s ability to help us?
I think that tech companies are subtly encouraging this use of AI because clearly it’s a route through which some people are forming an attachment to their products. I think the main issue is that what people are getting from these tools isn’t really “therapy” by any stretch. Good therapy goes far beyond being soothing and validating everything someone says. I’ve never in my life looked forward to a (real, in-person) therapy session. They’re often highly uncomfortable, and even distressing. But that’s part of the point. The therapist should be challenging you and drawing you out and seeking to understand you. ChatGPT doesn’t do any of these things.
Read the full story from Laurie Clarke.
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.